Plague- Outbreak in London (1665-1666) by Tony Bradman

Plague- Outbreak in London (1665-1666) by Tony Bradman

Author:Tony Bradman [Bradman, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781407184173
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2017-03-15T00:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER

7

When I came round, my hands were tied behind my back and I was being dragged down the street. My legs and feet bumped over the cobbles, Bad Barnaby’s boots striding ahead of me. After a while we stopped, a door was opened and I was taken into a small, evil-smelling room and dumped on the floor.

I lay there for a moment trying to pull myself together. Then someone emptied a bucket of cold water on my face and I sat up sharply, coughing and spluttering. I shook my head, wiped my eyes and looked around. Bad Barnaby was looking down on me with a horrible smirk on his face. Behind him were the other two watchmen who had chased me on the night I had escaped from Bear Alley. My heart was thudding and I wondered why they hadn’t killed me already.

“Well, this is a strange encounter and no mistake,” said Bad Barnaby. “I’d have thought you’d be dead and buried in a plague pit by now. The rest of your family probably ended up that way. But here you are, large as life, breathing like the rest of us. Although I’ll wager you’ve been spreading the pestilence to all and sundry. Not that it needs much help, does it lads? Welcome to Armageddon!”

The three of them laughed, but my attention had been caught by a small part of what Bad Barnaby had said – “your family probably ended up that way”. Those few words opened up all sorts of possibilities – perhaps Mother was alive after all!

“Don’t you know for sure what happened to my mother, then?” I said. “You were our watchman. I thought you were supposed to stay right until the end, until everyone was dead.”

Bad Barnaby stopped laughing and his smile vanished. He bent down to look in my eyes, his nose almost touching mine, his breath foul. I turned my face to the side.

“You put an end to that, you little swine,” he hissed, spit from his mouth spraying onto my cheek. “I lost my position that night because you escaped, so I have no idea what happened to your mother. I know what’s going to happen to you, though.”

“Wh-what do you mean?” I said. I had been shaking with fear, but now I went still. There was no longer a part of me that wanted to die. I badly wanted to live.

“You’re going to be our little helper,” he said, smiling once more. “I lost a lot of money because of you, so you owe me. I should think you could pay off your debt to me in, oh, a couple of years. So long as you don’t catch the plague and die, and you might where you’re going…”

All three of them laughed, slapping each other on the back as if that was the funniest thing they had ever heard in their lives. I sat on the floor watching them and wondered what new world of madness I had fallen into. They stopped laughing after a while and Bad Barnaby turned to me again.



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