Read Online Only the Thunder Knows_East End Girls by Rena Mason Gord Rollo - Free Book Online

the cross on his chest and
headed for the front door. Billy just smiled and fell into step behind him.
    “You
worry too much, William. I mean…what could possibly go wrong?”

 
     
     
     
     
    Chapter
    10
     
     
     
    The Gown and
Gavel was packed to bursting tonight, filled with drunken rowdy men and a wide
assortment of lewd and lascivious women. Some of the ladies were young, some
were old, some were thin, and some were fat; some girls were blondes, some were
brunettes, a few were beautiful and most were ugly as sin but each and every
last one of them had something in common – they were all perfectly willing to
help Burke and Hare spend their secret stash of money. Despite William’s best
intentions, Billy and he never made it out of the pub and over to the Calton burial
grounds until they’d drank enough beer and whiskey to kill a horse.
    “Can’t
we just go home?” Burke said, his head buried in a bush from where he’d just
emptied his stomach. “It’s too late for shovelin’. And too cold. I hate this
time of the bloody year.”
    “Quit
your sniveling, Billy. I’m no’ asking you to help. Just stand guard while I dig
up one real quick. He’s watching us…I know he is.”
    “Who?
Black?”
    “No.
His beast.” Hare’s eyes scanned the sky above but there was nothing in sight,
not that he could see much in the foggy gloom. “He’s up there somewhere. I can
feel his muckle big eyes on me back.”
    “The
bird? You serious. You’re scared of the Albatross?”
    “It’s
an owl you stupid git. And you’re scared too. You nearly peed your pants
last time you saw it.”
    Burke’s
stomach was still in knots and he was in no mood to argue. “Whatever, William.
Just hurry it up, okay. I want to go home to bed.”
    “Aye,
me too. Just keep your eyes open and your gob shut. I can’t dig and keep watch
at the same time.”
    “Sure,
sure. No problem. Get to it.”
    Hare
put his back into his work and twenty minutes later he’d uncovered the rotted
wooden lid of an old coffin less than three feet below the surface of the
grass. A rush of excitement sobered him up even more than the hard labor had
done, and he pried open the lid hoping this would be the grave the old sculptor
was waiting for.
    It
wasn’t.
    It
was dark and hard to see clearly but by the meager light of the barely visible
moon and the soft glow of the gaslights on the nearby street, William could see
just enough to know there was nothing hidden within the hole he’d just dug
other than a broken skull and a few rags of tartan clothing clinging to the
rack of dry bones attached below it. Just another old grave; nothing unique or
special about it, and certainly nothing hidden among the bones that would
interest their white-eyed benefactor.
    “Dammit
to Hell!” Hare swore under his breath. “Another bloody waste of time.” There
was no response from his longtime friend, and William turned to see where he’d
gone. “Billy?”
    Burke
was fast asleep, his head buried in the bush he’d spilled his guts in, snoring
peacefully as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Hare laughed at his mate and
climbed out of the hole to go wake him up. “Good for nothin’ lump!”
    William
walked over and was just about to wallop his friend with the business end of
his shovel but as he was about to strike, a bright light flared off to his
right and the sound of approaching footsteps made his heart race.
    The
Police! William thought, sure their grave-robbing days were over. He fell to his knees
and quickly slithered back into the hole in the ground he’d just climbed out
of, far happier to lie with the desiccated corpse than meet whoever it was that
wandered around in the cemetery. If he could have reached Billy and pulled him
into the hole as well, he would have, but he didn’t want to risk waking him and
having him start hollering the way he probably would. It was safer to just let
him sleep and hope the strangers would walk on by without knowing