The Wicked Trade (The Forensic Genealogist Book 7) by Nathan Dylan Goodwin

Author:Nathan Dylan Goodwin [Goodwin, Nathan Dylan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-05T08:00:00+00:00

Despite being just a stone’s throw away from Ashford’s busy main shopping thoroughfare, the museum was situated on a quiet square which bounded St Mary’s Church. The building was red brick and appeared to Morton, as he entered it, like a Victorian former school.

‘Good morning to you, sir,’ a red-faced, elderly man greeted through an open internal window. ‘Welcome to our humble museum.’

‘Good morning,’ Morton replied, taking a quick scan around the room. It was small and dominated by a model train track on the opposite wall to the counter behind which the man was sitting. Each wall was adorned with various pictures, paintings and plaques and a glass cabinet to one side appeared to contain war artefacts. Morton could not immediately see anything related to that for which he was searching and asked, ‘I’m looking for information on the Aldington smuggling gang.’

‘Upstairs. Right above where we are now,’ the man explained. ‘Go left along the corridor–’ he pointed through the open door beside him, ‘—then up the stairs. Then it’s the first door on the right.’

Morton thanked him, then followed the instructions. As he had suspected, the building was the former Ashford Grammar School and, as such, came with a veritable labyrinth of narrow corridors, winding staircases and many small interlinking rooms. Upstairs, he found the room, which might once have been a master’s bedroom, its being much too small for a classroom. On one wall was a large display cabinet, beside which stood a mannequin, dressed as a smuggler, holding a wooden bat and an oil lamp. Opposite to the cabinet were three chairs and a series of watercolour paintings depicting smuggling runs. It was the display cabinet which most interested Morton and he took his time examining and photographing the exhibition. Sitting at the bottom of the display, on a bed of purple silk, were various objects pertaining to smuggling in general: a cutlass, a pistol, a barrel of rum, a model galley, an example of smuggled lace. On the back-left side of the cabinet was pinned the Ransley family tree. It appeared that, at some point after George Ransley’s transportation, his wife and children had followed him out to Tasmania. On the right-hand side was the Quested family tree and below it, was a tiny wooden shoe, the caption reading: ‘Made by Cephas Quested. He was hanged in 1821 following a battle. While he was in prison he made this little wooden shoe for one of his children.’

Morton read the explanations on the gang, inexplicably typed in the hard-to-read Old English font. Much of it he had already learned from the internet, but then he read a list of ‘Known Aldington Smugglers & Their Associates.’ The list was unsurprisingly headed by George Ransley. Below his name was Samuel Banister, suggesting to Morton that he might have held a senior role in the gang. The names of more than a dozen men were followed by a short gap under which appeared the names of the gang’s associates: ‘Langham and Platt, Solicitors.

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