The Curse of Salamander Street by G.P. Taylor Page A

but things change, people change, lives change and with each day in Salamander Street …’ Pallium stopped short and looked at them all through a screwed-up eye. ‘Not short of money, are you? Not here to take what I have, are you, Jacob?’
    ‘If it’s money you want I have plenty for us all,’ Crane bellowed, his temper growing shorter. ‘I may be a thief, but I have honour for my friends and from you would I take nothing. If you want me to pay for our lodging then very well, but don’t think I’m a thief.’
    Pallium shook his head, as if he tried to rouse himself from a dream only to be sucked back into his waking slumber. He stared at Crane and sniffed the dew from his nose, wiping it on his silvered sleeve that looked as though it had been garlanded with mercurial slugs.
    ‘A shilling for the lodge and find your own food?’ he offered, slobbering over the amount. ‘Each?’
    Crane looked at the dust-covered panelling and smiled. ‘It would be a pleasure, Pallium. I take it you would then burn some wood to warm this place through?’
    ‘Only enough to take the chill from your breath. Can’t have Galphus thinking I am being wasteful.’
    ‘Galphus?’ Crane asked as Pallium led them through the longhall and into the scullery. ‘I have not heard his name before.’
    ‘A fine man. And my landlord. He has a word for every season and if I’ll be blown, it is as if he knows everything. Owns the whole street and deserves every glorious brick and beam. This is the finest place to live in the whole of the city. Never been happier and it’s such a place. I’m honoured to live here, honoured, Jacob, and you will be too when you meet Galphus.’
    ‘Where do we eat?’ Kate asked, looking around with eyes that spoke of her discontent.
    ‘The Inn, of course,’ replied Pallium amazed that such a question should be asked. ‘The Salamander by Potter’s Yard. No finer place to eat in London, and Galphus dines there.’
    ‘Then that will suit us well for we could eat a whole ox,’ Crane said as he stepped into the scullery. ‘In fact you will join us and we will all eat together.’
    ‘Can’t leave Pallium’s Palace,’ Pallium sniggered as he held out his arms as if to show them the finery of the scullery. ‘Well, that’s what I like to call it … Never know when someone will come. There’s always work to do and so little time and so much to count.’
    The three looked about the room. Its cold stone floor echoed the sound of their steps. An empty fireplace stared back at them like a golem’s eye, caked in black soot. In the centre of the room was a long candle-lit table that was stacked with neat piles of gold and silver coins. The wood was worn with many times of counting and recounting. By the table was a solitary chair.
    ‘Don’t get out much,’ Pallium said wearily as he looked at the coins. ‘ They need so much work, so much consideration. Just like children, they have to be kept safe. I know each one as if it were my own. I look after them for Galphus and he would not be best pleased if I were to lose a farthing or halfpenny.’
    ‘We’ll need a bed, Pallium. Sleep has been a stranger to us these last days,’ Crane said as he eyed the sparseness of the room.
    ‘You’ll have to share,’ Pallium said briskly to Thomas and Kate as they looked nervously about them. ‘I have a room for you Jacob, all ready. Fit for a king, some would say an emperor, with a sea-hammock and not a bed. Was told you’d want it like that. Prepared it all yesterday when I knew you were coming.’ Pallium rolled the coin in his hands as he spoke.
    ‘ Knew we were coming?’ Crane asked, his sharp eyes searching Pallium’s face.
    ‘Yes, Galphus told me yesterday,’ Pallium said in a matter-of-fact way as he edged his way closer to his precious coins. ‘Came especially … Said he had heard that Jacob Crane would come and stay at Pallium’s Palace. Never thought he’d be right, but as with everything, Galphus