In Lonnie's Shadow Read Online Free PDF Page A

easier on me.’
    A great desire to sleep came washing over Lonnie. He handed over the two heirlooms from the Carlton house. ‘Will you hang on to these, please?’
    Pearl scrutinised the horseshoe pin, then flicked open the watch and read the inscription. She stared understandingly at Lonnie. ‘So that’s what you’ve been up to. I should have known.’
    ‘Only for a few days,’ he pressed.
    Pearl answered by slipping them down her front.
    ‘This’ll keep’em safe.’ She pulled his hand so it brushed against her bodice and winked mischievously.
    ‘No better hiding spot.’
    ‘Easy does it.’ Lonnie turned scarlet. For all that Pearl was younger by a few months, she was much too knowing for the likes of him.
    ‘You get along home,’ she said, with a swift turnaround, acting more like his mam. ‘Tuck yourself into bed and get a good night’s sleep.’
    As he left he heard her sigh. ‘Huh, all right for some.’

SHOULDER PROTECTOR

    Item No. 5111

    Padding made from hide. Used to protect a nightcart man’s shoulder from the weight of the soil can.

    Lonnie, who blotched up crimson at the drop of a hat, was still flushed as he left Pearl’s. She was a fast girl, there was no doubting it, and much too flirty. Pearl had been right about one thing, his mam would have a fit if she saw him in this state, but with a smidgeon of luck she would be fast asleep.
    As he opened his own backyard gate only two doors down, he heard the snarl of a dog. This was his only warning. A hand grabbed the back of his coat and pulled it roughly over his head. The sickening thud across his skull sent him crashing to the ground.
    And left his body lying …
    Lonnie came around panting for air, but only managed to gulp in a foul stench. He found himself lying face down by the old cesspit. The winter rains had caused it to ooze out its history, straight up his nose and into his open mouth.
    His mam spoke of the smell as a curse. When Lonnie was younger he imagined it steaming like a spectre from the cesspit, a decaying corpse floating in the air. This ghost place still gave him the shivers.
    A dark shadow loomed from above. It reached out and wrenched him to his feet. Instantly, Lonnie was a ten-year-old, circling around the edges of the old cesspit with Daisy and Pearl. He could almost hear their chanting whispers, Around the rick, around the rick, and the old bottles clinking together as they beat time. And there I found my Uncle Dick. I screwed his neck. I sucked his blood …
    They never succeeded in conjuring up the broken bodies they believed had been tossed into the cesspit. But that same feeling, those sneaking, creeping insects crawling along his spine up towards his neck were suddenly back with him all these years later.
    It took him a few moments to realise this was not one of the dead creatures rising with the foul air from his childhood memories, but the nightcart man on his nightly run up and down the lane, clanking full cans of night soil from yard to wagon.
    The broad accented voice was full of concern.
    ‘What’s ailing thee?’
    Lonnie’s jacket pockets had been turned inside out. The only money he had, tuppence, was gone from them. He said shakily, ‘I’ve been bashed and robbed.’
    The nightcart man shook his head. ‘Who’d rob thee? Everyone around here knows tha’s got nowt.’ He gave Lonnie a sly grin. ‘Tha’s not been messing with someone’s girl?’
    Lonnie rubbed the back of his head. ‘No. And I don’t reckon this bump was from anyone around here.’
    He now knew what it felt like to be belted with a pickaxe handle. Still, a battering and bruising from one of Payne’s men was luckier than a mongrel dog being set on him. He was still alive. Relieved too, that he’d left the horseshoe pin and watch in safekeeping. They were out of harm’s way and that’s what mattered most of all.

PEARL BUTTON

    Item No. 2856
     
    Decorative pearl bead used for buttoning gloves. One of six matching