Death in the Dark Walk by Deryn Lake Read Free Book Online

to seek out Mr Fielding and tell him what he had eye-witnessed, had Samuel leaping out of bed and crossing to the window to draw back the curtains. But then, seeing the gardens below, small but elegant and presently filled with an abundance of spring flowers, a wave of nostalgia engulfed him once more and, with a sigh, he sat down on the window seat and remembered.
    He and the man who was to become his closest friend had originally been introduced as children, when Samuel Swann senior had moved into the town house next door to that of Sir Gabriel Kent. Nassau Street had been in existence only a few years then, in 1737, and was considered a good address for those of the professional class. Thus, the fathers became friendly and the sons followed suit, while Mistress Marjorie Swann, clapping her eyes on the motherless child who clung to her own boy’s hand so pitifully, had taken pity on the poor soul, all great eyes and curling hair as the imp of humanity had been. But Marjorie had died of a fever two winters later and the children had been thrown together even more, both of them brought up by a father and servants, and no other young people around for company.
    In 1741, when the boys had been ten years old, John and Samuel had been sent together to the Reverend Mr Johnson’s boarding school for twenty pupils, situated in a house on the edge of Kensington village. The Principal had promised the two widowed fathers that as well as learning arithmetic and geometry, plus trigonometry plane and spherical, as applied to navigation and astronomy, to say nothing of book-keeping after the Italian method, his scholars would dine with the Master, be kept clean, and have bedchambers, beds and bedding as fine as any gentleman could desire for his son. He also assured the enquiring parents that his charges would be instructed in Latin so well they could converse in it, and would in addition read the best authors in the English language. Furthermore, they would be taught to read and write grammatically and spell most true.
    Mr Johnson’s academy had kept John and Samuel within its learned walls for six years, when a final examination had proved to the Principal’s satisfaction that they were now qualified to go out into the world and the time for them to take indentures had come – for apprenticeship was still the best method of entry into the companies which governed the economy, and indeed the only way of obtaining the freedom of the city of London.
    In that year of 1747, when John and Samuel were both sixteen, apprentice lads and lasses came from all walks of life, for girls that did not go into service young could also expect to endure the rigours of being sent into a strange household at an early age. Indeed, the daughter of one of Sir Gabriel’s servants had been apprenticed to a milliner in the sum of twelve guineas some months previously. But where orphans and paupers could look forward to little else other than an apprenticeship to an obscure workman, the sons of gentlemen and merchants had their future guaranteed, knowing that they would become men of substance and prominent citizens when their indentures finally came to an end. Thus, his formal education over, John Rawlings had been apprenticed to Richard Purefoy, Apothecary, of Evans Row, for the sum of £200 and Samuel Swann to Edward Hall, Goldsmith, of West Cheap, for £50 less. The premiums had been high but one Master had been a member of one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies, the other the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, and could, within limits, charge what they wished.
    â€˜And now it’s over,’ Samuel thought. ‘And we can apply to be made free.’
    And with that he remembered the celebrations of the night before and their violent and terrible end.
    â€˜John!’ he exclaimed out loud. Furious with himself for lapsing into a daydream, Samuel hurled on his clothes and hurried from the house, still doing up his