Shadows Fall Away Read Online Free PDF Page A

Agatha is ludicrous. There’s no such person in the family, certainly no one who’s gone to America.”
    “Not so fast,” the doctor said. “The boy’s brain is a touch addled from the ordeal. Perhaps she was a friend of your sister’s. Maybe he calls her Aunt Agatha as a form of respect.”
    “I suppose…”
    What the hell? This is completely crazy. This can’t be the Ian Fraser from dad’s diary.

Chapter Four
     
    Genie
     
    I fumed with frustration outside the Princess Alice public house on the corner of Wentworth and Commercial Streets. “What I’m telling you is for your own good.” I knew they weren’t listening. But I had to try.
    This was one of the better establishments in Whitechapel and I hoped the prostitutes here would be more receptive than the ones who frequented the pubs further off the main streets. Now I wondered whether anyone could be less receptive than these women.
    Even though it was ten o’clock at night and the orange-yellow illumination of the gaslights was half-smothered by the fogs, there was a lot of foot traffic outside the pub. Soldiers, men in suits, laborers, and housewives clogged the streets, the locals avoiding returning to their cramped rooms as long as possible.
    The women dressed in shabby clothes, many in their thirties and forties, most of which appeared at least ten years older. I knew many of their stories, knew they were desperate for the few coins they got from selling themselves. My heart went out, especially to those with children whose husbands had deserted them. And that was precisely why I had to continue trying to help them. If the mothers contracted syphilis and died, who would take care of the children?
    Growing up with an unaffectionate mother was horrid enough. I shuddered to think of any child growing up in an orphanage.
    For the most part, the crowd brushed past the ring of prostitutes without a second glance. But I was continually being interrupted by men singling out one of the girls and negotiating for “a bit ‘o twist.” And more than one of the men had the audacity to look at me with far too much interest before being hauled off by one of the other women.
    “Ooooh,” one of the women cooed, “for our own good, is it? You, wiv your fine manners an’ fancy clothes an’ coins jinglin’ in your purse, you know what’s best for us, do ya?”
    “The hospital will give you a free exam—”
    “Like we needs another man pokin’ at our privates,” another cut in. “We gets plenty o’ fancy gentlemen pokin’ about down there. But they pays us first, they do.”
    “Maybe she needs a ‘examination’ ‘erself,” a third joined in with a raucous laugh. “Bet you never entertained a gentl’man proper. ‘Ave ya dear?”
    I flushed clean down to my toes. I knew this one, a sad case, but one I’d thought was listening to reason. “No, Annie, I haven’t. But that doesn’t mean—”
    “Oy!” a drunken soldier shouted to me as he staggered across the street towards her. “What say I introduce me John Thomas to yer Miss Laycock?”
    “Doesn’t mean what, dear?” Annie ignored the soldier. “That ye’ve not ‘ad the old itch for it?”
    “No!” I fought to retain my composure. I turned on the soldier who was making disgusting noises. “Off with you, you swine!” The soldier acted stunned, considered the statement a moment then executed a reasonable about-face and marched off drunkenly, muttering obscenities to himself and anyone who might care to listen.
    “Ooooh, what a shame,” Annie said. “I could introduce ya to a couple blokes what’ll make ya thighs twitch fer wantin’ it,” she added with a wicked leer.
    “Give her the crawlie little beasties more like.”
    “That’s just the point,” I insisted. “The hospital will give you medication to treat—”
    “Luvvie.” Annie interrupted, giving an indulgent pat to my shoulder. “Last case o’ them I got was from a doctor.” She scratched obscenely. “Don’t