Passing as Elias - By Kate Bloomfield Page 0,34

voice. A man at an adjacent stool looked up from his pint and stared.

Elizabeth cleared her throat, ‘Um, a … quart please?’

The barmaid raised an eyebrow, ‘Mind your P’s and Q’s dear. A little thing like you would not handle much!’ She gave a laugh and bustled off.

Elizabeth worried, and looked around. Well, everyone else was drinking beer by the looks of it. She listened to the conversations that were being held in the bar. The tongue was common, and the speech was slurred. Men chortled, woman cackled. Elizabeth stared at a middle-aged woman who seemed quite drunk. She had let a nipple slip, but did not seem to have noticed. Elizabeth accidentally caught her eye and looked away hurriedly, but too late. The woman swaggered over and leaned upon the bar for support.

‘All right, my love?’ She said loudly. Elizabeth tried very hard not to look at the nipple that poked out of her low cut dress.

Elizabeth nodded for fear that her voice would give her away.

‘Saw you lookin’ at me.’ She grinned. She was missing a front tooth.

‘Sorry.’ Elizabeth muttered.

‘You lookin’ for a good time, my sweet?’ She leaned closer.

‘N-no thank you.’ Elizabeth stammered. She stared determinedly at her tankard.

‘I can give ya a gobby round the back. Special price for a gen’leman like you.’

‘Perhaps another time.’ Elizabeth forced her face into what she hoped was an apologetic expression. She vaguely wondered how many times Captain Greenwood had been propositioned here. She shuddered to think the kinds of diseases these mangy dogs carried. She felt instantly guilty after thinking these thoughts though. She did not wish to stereotype, for if they knew who Elizabeth really was, they would most certainly judge her the same way.

‘Good lad.’ Said the man adjacent to Elizabeth at the bar, ‘Keep away from that one. She’ll rob yeh the moment yer out o’ sight.’

‘Oi, you watch your mouth. You bin ruinin’ business all night.’ Said the woman, but she stalked away haughtily.

‘Thank you.’ Elizabeth muttered, without taking her eyes off the tankard.

‘Never seen yeh round ‘ere before.’ Said the man.

He was extremely fat, and wore a shirt that probably used to be white. It was so grotty and stained, however, that it appeared brown. His large protruding belly meant he had to sit quite a distance away from the bar.

‘New in town.’ Elizabeth said, trying her hardest to maintain an octave lower than she was used to.

He grunted, ‘What yeh do fer a livin’?’

Elizabeth cleared her throat. This might be a good opportunity to spread the word that a man was now running the apothecary.

‘I just bought the apothecary around the corner.’ Elizabeth said, raising her chin.

‘Medicine man, eh? We need one o’ them ‘round here.’ He said gruffly.

‘Indeed. Well, do stop by if you ever need-’

‘Wot happened to tha’ girl, then?’

‘The girl?’ Elizabeth repeated cautiously.

‘Yeh, the lil red head thing.’ He waved a hand around his head to indicate long, curly hair.

‘She … she got married.’ Elizabeth said hoarsely. It was, after all, the truth.

The man grunted, and turned away, far too absorbed in his mead to say any more on the subject. Elizabeth was shaky, and decided that she did not like this Inn one bit. She left, with her quart almost untouched.

~

The wig was itchy. Elizabeth avoided scratching it while customers were around, in case they thought she had head lice, and would not return. She had succeeded in passing as Elias for three days in a row, and no one seemed any the wiser. Elizabeth felt free for the first time in her life. No one questioned her intelligence or capabilities. Men did not dispute the prices that Elizabeth asked for, and many came back to the shops to give their compliments. The same woman came to the apothecary every day, but never bought anything.

Business boomed over the coming weeks. Often, the shop was filled with so many customers, that people had to edge around each other. The customers found Elizabeth pleasant, and charming. She seemed to confuse the gentlemen because she made quite a pretty man, and the women smiled and laughed when Elizabeth flirted unashamedly. She found that she was using her power as a man to influence the buyer’s decisions. If she appeared extremely confident, then the customers had more confidence in her abilities. She enjoyed being Elias very much, and patrons had remembered her name very quickly. No one remembered Elizabeth’s name when Professor de Bard had run the shop, except Captain Greenwood of course.

Things