River

Mason

I hate knowing that I only have the one pair of eyes looking out for me today, just Stu at Gregor’s house. I would have preferred to still have David and Ben working for me, but then David had to go and get himself sick and ruin that.

I am restless in my grove, not knowing what is happening and with no way to find out for myself without actually going personally to see.

So, I decide to go ahead and do it. I edge down to the northern end of the docks first and peer down to the other side, and see that Gregor is still working there with the crew, so I know he isn’t at his house. And hold on a minute - I am pretty sure that there is Ben working alongside him. I was told that Ben had to stay with David because he was so ill. I think I was lied to. At least I don’t see David there, but that could either be because he is sick or because he is off doing something else.

I have to go see what’s happening at Gregor’s house for myself.

So I head back north, and clamber up the hill behind the town again. It’s a little easier, having done it once or twice already, knowing a little more about the best way to get up. Once I’m at the top, I skirt past the end of Gregor’s street and approach the house where Stu is hiding from the back.

He starts when I arrive, then settles when he sees it is only me.

“Seen anything?” I ask him.

“Not really. I’ve seen the servants go in and out a few times.”

“Have you seen his woman?”

“She was in the garden for a couple of minutes, otherwise no.”

“How did she look?”

He gives me a peculiar glance, then shrugs. “I don’t know. Fat.”

Fat? Well, she always was a chubby whore, meatier than I like. Makes no difference to my plans.

I lean my head around the tree, look more carefully at Gregor’s house, but don’t see anybody about. I wonder where the servants are. The street is deserted. I look up and down a couple of times. I wonder if it would actually be a better time to strike right now, rather than waiting for the evening when everyone will be returning to these houses after work. I know that Gregor is still Under-the-hill. It makes me uneasy to know that Ben is working with him rather than staying with David like I had been told. Something is going on. If I could get in and out of the house quickly and grab the whore, we could be on our way. I’m getting impatient with this scheme and want to just get it over with.

I’m about to ask Stu if he has seen any movement in the windows, that we could use to try to figure out where the people are inside the house, when I hear footsteps rapidly approaching.

I swivel around and the unlikely sight meets my eyes of some kid with a ferocious scowl on his face running straight at me, brandishing a fireplace poker like he thinks it’s a sword. What the hell?

Stu and I have a second to look at each other, totally astonished. Then the kid gets close enough to take a swing at me with the poker, which I easily duck. I reach out and grab the poker with one hand and his shoulder with the other. I have no idea who this brat is but he is about to ruin everything.

It gets worse when, as soon as I have him immobilized, he starts screaming at the top of his lungs. “Get away from here! You leave her alone!” He pulls back with his foot and manages to land a painful kick right on my shin.

“You little shit!” I yell back at him, dropping the poker and pulling my fist back, then slamming it right into his face. His head jerks backwards and he falls limp at my feet.

“What the fuck?” Stu asks.

I am spinning around to look at him, so we can talk about what to do next, when I see her storming out of her house across the street.

Samuel Duncan

I am having a surprising lull in my flow of patients. I did take care of approximately one million patients yesterday, or so it felt, so perhaps there aren’t that many people needing help today. I’ve gone down twice Under-the-hill to tend to Ben’s friend, and am thinking that this might be a good opportunity to go again to check on him. It’s been another three hours, he might need some more of the willow bark tea. And I want to make sure that his fever isn’t returning.

I turn to stock my bag, and movement out the window catches my eye. I look up, and am struck by the baffling sight of Gregor running up the street past my office, Ben right behind him, as though the devil himself is chasing them.

What on earth?

I rush to the door and dart out into the street. I look down towards the street leading to Under-the-hill but don’t see anything obviously amiss. I look back in the other direction and see Gregor and Ben reaching the end of the main street in town, moving past the club.

Obviously something is wrong. I rush back into the office to grab my bag, thinking that a doctor might be required. As I am running back out I see Thomas poking his head out the door of his office across the street.

“What’s going on?” he calls over to me.

“Trouble. Gregor.” I don’t say anything else, just start running up the street after them. I see Thomas duck inside his office like I did. Rather than a bag, I see that he has grabbed his pistol.

He is running behind me as we pass Postlethwaite’s Mercantile, where we see Henry staring out the door at the street where Gregor and Ben have run past.

Henry looks back down the street towards us, and yells “Wait! Wait!” I skid to a halt, and stand, already panting, to see what he wants. Maybe he knows what is happening.

No, he doesn’t. “What is happening?” he asks.

Thomas catches up to us. “Some kind of trouble with Gregor,” he says, not stopping as he runs by. I look back at my uncle, who just rushes out the door of his store and leaves it unattended to run along with us.

Whatever is happening, at least there will be a group of us to deal with it.

I see where Gregor is headed. He is almost to the street that he lives on.

Rosy

It isn’t until he starts yelling that I realize who he is. It is Jake, from Madam Beverly’s, the lovable little boy that reminds me so much of my brother Jack. In my mind, I have always correlated them with each other, Jack and Jake, so much that sometimes I even felt like they could be twins. The same age, probably the same size.

I haven’t got any idea what he is doing here, or why he is running with a poker.

But when I see him grappling with some man that I didn’t see before, partially concealed behind a tree across the street, I become alarmed. I am horror-stricken when I see the man lift his hand and land a mighty blow directly to Jake’s face, knocking him out, possibly killing him.

I am frozen with alarm, but only for a second. Because in the next moment, the man turns his face, and I see who it is.

It is the beast.

The man who haunts my nightmares, the man who nearly destroyed me.

And now he has tried to murder sweet little Jake.

I am filled with a righteous fury like I have never known before. I bolt upright, my embroidery falling to the floor, and rush into Gregor’s study.

I know what he keeps in his desk. And I know how to use it. It has been years, but my father taught me many things before he died. How to read, and how to shoot a gun.

I jerk open the desk drawer, and see the flintlock pistol lying within. I am ready to look for the powder I will need to load it, but checking the pistol quickly I see that it is already loaded. It saves me some time.

So I grab it, and run out the door. I am going to kill that bastard. For what he did to me, and what he has done to Jake.

I have never felt such fury, such passion, such clarity of purpose. I feel no fear, only resolve. I will end this.

Rosy’s

I have found my words, found what I need to do, what she needs. She will not hear me, does not even know of me, but I know that she can feel me.

“Yes, beloved, you can confront that man! You have the strength, the courage, the means to stop him from his foul deeds! You can protect Jake from him, protect yourself, protect everyone! He must be stopped! You are the one who can do it!”