Jay hitched his arm around Daisy’s shoulders. ‘Look down there. Guppy’s waiting at Irongate Wharf. You’ll have to come with me whether you like it or not.’

‘I can’t, Jay. I’m on duty at the hospital in the morning. They’ll be expecting me back at the lodging house.’

‘I’m not leaving you here. The cabby was right, there’s little or no traffic and I haven’t seen another cab since we reached the end of Leman Street. We can put ashore in the morning and you can get a train to Bishopsgate Station.’

Daisy looked anxiously at the steep watermen’s stairs and the wharf that had all but disappeared beneath a thick coating of snow. The other side of the river was lost in the darkness and the increasing blizzard, and she could barely make out the shape of the rowing boat tied up alongside. It seemed that she had little choice.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Guppy brought her a cup of cocoa laced with sugar. ‘Here, drink this. It’ll warm the cockles of your heart.’

‘Thank you.’ Daisy accepted the drink with a grateful smile. She could barely speak for her teeth chattering, and she could not stop shivering. Guppy had rowed as fast as he could but it had taken the best part of an hour to reach the Lazy Jane, and the climb up the Jacob’s ladder had been difficult and dangerous. She shuddered at the memory of the nightmare moments when her feet had kept slipping from the frozen rungs, and she had found herself hanging over the churning black water. Huddled beneath a coarse blanket, she sipped the hot sweet cocoa, but the vessel yawed suddenly and she only just saved herself from falling off the chair. ‘What’s happening, Guppy?’

He bent down to pick up a tin plate that had fallen to the floor. ‘It’s all right, miss. Don’t worry, the captain knows what he’s about. Jay’s the best when it comes to navigating dangerous waters.’

‘When do you think we’ll be able to dock? I have to be at the hospital first thing in the morning.’

Guppy shrugged and turned away. ‘It depends on the conditions downriver, miss. If I was you I’d try to get some sleep.’

Daisy glanced round the tiny saloon that was functional but definitely lacked a woman’s touch. It was furnished with a table and chairs but nothing that looked remotely comfortable. ‘I don’t think that’s going to be possible.’

‘I weren’t suggesting you doss down in here, miss. The captain said you was to use his cabin because he’s going to be at the helm all night. Jay don’t trust any one of us to handle the ship in these conditions.’ He took the empty cup from her and placed it on the table. ‘If you’d come with me?’

It was a command rather than an invitation and Daisy was exhausted or she might have argued. She followed him out of the saloon and down a narrow passage to a cabin in the stern of the vessel. Guppy hung a lantern from a hook so that it swayed with every movement of the ship, sending its flickering beam to create sinister moving shadows. At any other time Daisy might have found such an environment unnerving, but she was too tired to think and when Guppy left she lay down on the bunk, still fully dressed, and was asleep in minutes.