The Lackey {Short story}

Full Story

Puddlington England 1785

The boy watched the Tom’s face as they pelted him and his blasphemer father with stones. He couldn't help but feel sorry for him.  ‘I wish Benny hadn't talked me into this, I wish I could be one of the innocents standing at the side’ ran through the boy’s head.  ‘I know Benny would blame it on us; He would never take the blame.’  The blasphemer’s head was limp, he wasn’t moving.  The boy began to worry, ‘we killed him. What if Tom told? What would happen to us? And would we be in trouble with the law for killing this disgrace of a man.’   The boy stopped for a moment to observe their handy work.  Tom had tears welling in his eyes and blood dripping from a shallow cut in his neck. Trying to get the mud covered man in the stocks to talk to him.  

The boy hesitated in throwing another stone.   Benny and the other boy were still throwing rocks.  Picking up on the hesitation of the sorry boy, Benny elbowed him,

“William, what are you doing, keep throwing!” Thinking it could do no harm he kept throwing rocks.   Tom turned to face the urchins,

“STOP!” he yelled.  The three boys laughed uneasily and Benny threw one last rock, landing at Tom’s feet.  The boys turned and walked away.  William thought to himself, ‘I’m lucky I won’t have to see Tom again, he’ll go to work in the workhouse, the chimneys if he’s lucky,’ William decided that this was the worst thing he had ever done. 

London England, April 1785...

When the William’s parents found out what the boys did to Tom’s father, they didn’t dob them in. No one came to the 3 urchins houses to collect them for the stocks. ‘I doubt Tom dobbed us in,’ Thomas thought. But his parents moved their whole family to be safe. Now living in a smaller house, with fewer rooms and in a low class area of London, the young man has to share a room with his baby brother.  

William was walking down the street when he heard a hotel carriage coming up next to him.   Stepping to the side he looked in and saw Tom in the back. ‘I don’t think he saw me’ he thought Scared, his guilt over came him and he ran after the carriage to see where they were taking Tom.  The carriage pulled up out the front of the court house. William stood, shocked.  ‘Tom was going to the workhouse.  I knew it!’ 

Walking up to the door William was grabbed by the arm.

 “Orphaned filth,” the man spat in his face.  “Trying to run from your future are you chavy? Don’t want me to call the rozzers do ya?”  An evil smirk was glued to the man’s face, as he dragged William into the court house and threw him into the line with the filthy street children and orphans.   The boy was frozen stiff, unable to move to save himself from a short life in the work house.  Death would be better than living as a lonely boy in the workhouse, or as a slave for a wealthy family.

Eventually, he gathered his courage and grabbed onto the next person that walked past and begged for their mercy.  It was a pleasant looking old lady.

 “Please ma’am, please, I don’t belong here, I was only following a carriage in the hope of finding someone I use to know. Please ma’am, help me!”

  “Poor young man,” she said, “I shall bid for you but that is all I can do here.” The woman bent to William's level, “here young man, take this.” She slipped a gold coin into his hand.

 “It will come in handy for ya.” The child looked down and stared, his mouth gaping wide.

 “A Sovereign, ma’am I can’t take this!”

  “Silly boy,” she said “If you never take what is given to you with both hands you’ll never have a life.”  The old lady paused for a minute. “May god be on your side,” she said then strolled out the doorway.