F.E. Higgins

The Black Book of Secrets

Chapter 1

Fragment from the memoirs of Ludlow Fitch

When I opened my eyes I knew that nothing in my miserable life prior to that moment could possibly be as bad as what was about to happen. I was lying on the cold earthen floor of a basement room lit by a single candle, no more than an hour’s burning left. Instruments of a medical nature hung from hooks in the beams. Dark stains on the floor suggested blood. But it was the chair against the opposite wall that fully confirmed my suspicions. Thick leather straps attached to the arms and legs were there for one purpose only: to hold down an unwilling patient. Ma and Pa were standing over me.
  'E’s awake,’ crowed Ma excitedly.
  Pa dragged me to my feet. He had me in an iron grip, my arm wrenched up behind my back. Ma held me by the hair. I looked from one to the other. Their grinning faces were only inches away from mine. I knew I should not look to them to save me.
  Another man, concealed until now in the shadows, stepped forward and took me by the chin. He forced open my mouth and ran a blackened foul-tasting finger around my gums.
  ‘How much?’ asked Pa, drooling with anticipation.
  ‘Not bad,’ said the man. ‘Thrupence apiece. Maybe twelve in all.’
  ‘It’s a deal,’ said Pa. ‘Who needs teeth anyway?’
  ‘Someone, I hope,’ replied the man dryly. ‘I sell ‘em for a living.’
  And they laughed all three, Ma and Pa and Barton Gumbroot, the notorious tooth surgeon of Old Goat’s Alley.
  Once the money for my teeth was agreed with Barton they moved quickly. Together they dragged me over to the surgeon’s chair. I kicked and shouted and spat and bit; I wasn’t going to make it easy for them. I knew how Barton Grumbroot made his living, preying on the poor, pulling their teeth, paying them pennies and selling them on for ten times as much. I was racked with fear. I had no protection. I was going to feel it all. Every single nerve stabbing twinge.
  They came close to succeeding in their evil quest. Ma was struggling with a buckle around my ankle, her hands shaking from the previous day’s drinking, while Pa was trying to hold me down. Barton Grumbroot, that loathsome monster, was just hovering with his gleaming tooth-pull, snapping it open and shut, open and shut, tittering and salivating. I believe to this day his greatest pleasure in life was inflicting pain on others. So much so that he couldn’t wait any longer and before I knew it I could feel the cold metal of his instrument of torture clamped around a front tooth. He braced himself with his leg on my chest and began to pull. I cannot describe to you the pain that shot through my skull, my brain and every nerve end in my body. It felt as if my whole head was being wrenched off. The tooth moved slightly in my jaw and another white-hot shooting pain exploded behind my eyes. All the while Ma and Pa laughed like maniacs.
  Rage swelled in me like a mountainous wave. I heard a roar worthy of a jungle beast and I was taken over by seething fury. With my free leg I kicked Pa hard and sharp in the stomach and he collapsed on the floor. Barton, caught by surprise, let go of the tooth-pull and I grabbed it and walloped him around the side of the head. I unstrapped my other leg and jumped down. Pa was groaning on the floor. Barton was leaning against a wall holding his head. Ma cowered in the corner.
  ‘Don’t hit me,’ she begged. ‘Don’t hit me.’
  I will not deny I was tempted, but this was my one chance to escape. Pa was almost on his feet again. I dropped the tooth-pull and in a matter of seconds I was out of the door, up the steps and running down the alley. I could hear Ma screaming and Pa shouting and cursing. Every time I looked back all I could see was Pa’s snarling face and Barton’s hooked tooth-pull glinting in the yellow gaslight.
  As I ran I tried to think where to go. They knew so many of my hiding places. I decided on Mr Jellico’s, but when I reached his shop the place was in darkness and the blind was down. I hammered on the window and shouted his name but there was no reply. I cursed my bad luck. I knew if Mr Jellico was gone at this time of night he might not be back for days. But knowing this was little help in my current predicament.
  So where to now? The bridge over the River Foedus and the Nimble Finger Inn. Betty Peggotty, the landlady, might help me. I ran out of the alley and onto the street, but they were already waiting for me.
  ‘There ‘e is,’ screeched Ma and the chase was on again.
They surprised me, Pa especially, with their stamina. I had not thought they would last so long. For at least a half-mile they chased me down the uncobbled narrow alleys and the filthy streets, tripping over bodies and avoiding snatching hands, all the way to the river. Every time I looked back they seemed to be closer. I knew what would happen if they caught me again. The ache in my bleeding jaw was all the proof I needed.
  By the time I staggered on to the bridge I was barely able to hold myself upright. Halfway across I saw a carriage outside the Nimble Finger. Just as its wheels began to turn, I clambered on the back, hanging on for my life. As the carriage pulled away the last thing I remember is the sight of Ma sinking to her knees. She was screaming at me from the river bank and the monster, Barton Gumbroot, was shaking his fist in rage.

~ ~ ~

My name is Ludlow Fitch. Along with countless others, I had the great misfortune to be born in the City, a stinking place undeserving of a name. And I would have died there if it had not been for Ma and Pa. They saved me, though it was not their intention, when they delivered me, their only son, into the hands of Barton Grumbroot. This act of betrayal was possibly the greatest single piece of luck I ever had. Ma and Pa’s diabolic plan brought about the end of one existence and the beginning of another: my life with Joe Zabbidou.

The Black Book Of Secrets © F. E. Higgins, 2007. Published by Macmillan.