Read Online Mortlock by Jon Mayhew - Free Book Online

began folding the sheet back. ‘But Wiggins offers a special service for those as want to pay.’
    Josie watched, hypnotised, as Alfie exposed a wispy mass of white hair and a pale wrinkled brow. She wanted to look away but a grim fascination made her stare.
    ‘What he does is drain all the blood from the veins,’ Alfie murmured, revealing the white face of an old woman. She looked like she was in pain. Her mouth and eyes were shut tight, making her whole face wrinkle. The jawbones protruded through stretched skin as thin as parchment. ‘Then he pumps them with arsenic. You’ve heard of arsenic, haven’t you?’
    Josie nodded, chewing her thumbnail.
    ‘It’s a deadly poison. Sometimes they sit up when he does it!’ Alfie giggled, twisting his finger in the corpse’s hair. ‘He says it’s only the fluid pumpin’ through the veins but it looks proper peculiar!’
    ‘Don’t!’ Josie protested, clenching her fists at her sides. How could she be related to this nasty little creature?
    ‘Y’see, when a body passes away, so to speak,’ Alfie’s voice became a whisper, ‘it begins to rot. Flies get in through the mouth, nose . . . and other ways.’
    ‘Stop it,’ Josie hissed.
    ‘The eggs can hatch within a day if it’s warm enough . . . All them maggots.’
    ‘That’s horrible. How can you talk this way?’ Josie looked away in disgust.
    ‘It comes to us all in the end,’ Alfie said, rolling his eyes to heaven, ‘but a bit of arsenic in the veins soon puts a stop to any of that unfortunate decay. Mark my words, folks’ll be clammerin’ for this in years to come. Embalmin’, they call it.’
    ‘Is that what you do?’ She risked a glance back at the boy.
    ‘Not exactly.’ Alfie coughed and looked crestfallen. ‘Wiggins won’t let me touch the chemicals. I’m a mute.’
    ‘A what?’
    ‘A mute. I stump along after the coffins lookin’ all mournful. Like I’m sorry that the deceased has kicked the bucket.’
    ‘And that’s it?’ Josie said. To her it sounded ridiculous. Surely he must have other duties than following a coffin?
    ‘It’s an important job. I help out carryin’ and fetchin’ stuff, too.’ Alfie sniffed and looked defensive. ‘There’s a lot to see to at a funeral.’
    ‘Sounds dull,’ Josie muttered.
    Alfie gave her a sneer and leaned forward, pressing his elbows on the body’s middle. The corpse’s chest rose and its head fell back, emitting a low groan that rattled from the dead woman’s jaws. Josie screamed and leapt back, her heart hammering. Alfie gave a howl of laughter.
    ‘That livened you up a bit, then!’ He sniggered as he released the pressure on the corpse, allowing it to settle once more. ‘Don’t worry. Nuthin’ more than a few gases lettin’ themselves out the old lady’s throat. It could be worse!’
    ‘Hideous! How can you be my brother? I hate you.’
    ‘Well, I wasn’t exactly clappin’ me hands with glee when old Wiggins told me about you,’ Alfie snarled. ‘Bad enough bein’ an orphan and never knowin’ your ma or pa, but then to get lumbered with a stupid sister, too.’
    ‘Stupid?’ Josie spat, snatching up a small, empty bottle that lay on the table nearest her. ‘Stupid?’ She sent it whirling across the room. Time slowed. She watched the blue glass catch the light as it travelled. She bit her lip as Alfie threw himself behind the table – too late. The bottle bounced off his forehead with a hollow clunk and shattered on the tiled floor. He slumped behind the table, groaning.
    Josie turned on her heel and pushed her way out through the curtain, nearly ripping it down in her anger.
    ‘I don’t care if I’ve killed him. I want to go now,’ she snapped at Wiggins and Gimlet, who stood gaping at her, wide-mouthed. ‘He can’t be my brother. He’s too odious!’

.
    .
    Her coffin, it was brought; in it she was laid,
    And took to the churchyard, this sorry young maid,
    No father, no mother, nor friend, i am told,
    Came to