Touched by Angels by Alan Watts Read Free Book Online

clenched her arms around Robert, whispering, “Please God, forgive me for what I am about to do.”
     

Ten
    Seeing a shaft of sunlight cutting through the dusty air, she stumbled over the twitching body to close the door before anybody looked in.
    She hadn’t anticipated Robert’s reaction, until he started shaking, though at least King had stopped saying, “Gaaah!” Thank God.
    Now, the only sounds in the room were of Bob’s breathing, interrupted every so often by little burps and farts, and Robert snivelling.
    After several attempts to get his mouth working, he whispered, “I fink he’s a goner.”
    Lil watched the spreading puddle of blood and spit, as Robert wiped his streaming nose on his sleeve. A fly was crawling over one of King’s glazed eyes.
    Without saying anything, Lil knelt and felt for his pulse. There was none.
    Robert’s voice was broken and scared. “I didn’t mean to kill him, ’onest. I only meant to ’urt him, ’cos he was ’urtin’ you. Tryin’ to take all yer money, and, and…”
    His voice was rising, becoming hysterical, so she put her finger to her lips, and whispered, “Sssh! Keep your voice down.”
    She ushered him into the kitchen, and crouched before him, so they were the same height.
    “I didn’t mean…”
    “Be quiet! Only the good Lord can be your judge. Have you any idea what you’ve done?”
    He looked at her, baffled.
    “You have broken the Sixth Commandment. Thou shalt not…”
    “I didn’t mean it! It were an accident, honest !”
    He was shaking even more, his eyes darting this way and that.
    “I told you to remain silent!”
    Scared, she gripped his shoulders and stared into his eyes.
    He wiped both them and his nose, and blurted, “They’re gonna hang me, aren’t they? They’ll make me swing for it.”
    He tried to pull away, but she held him fast. Tears were pouring down his face.
    “Don’t be silly! Do you really think I would let that happen? But if you don’t keep your mouth shut, and do as I say, they will probably transport you to the colonies to slave for the rest of your life. Is that what you want?”
    His face blanched even more. “No!”
    She had meant to scare him, because right now she needed him scared, and to tell the truth, she wasn’t sure what they would do with him, at only nine years old. But that of course, was purely academic. With what she had in mind, the boy was completely innocent, and upset only at the terrible carnage.
    “Now what I want you to do,” she told him, “is this. You must run off directly and find Sergeant Sharp. This is his patch, so he will be hereabouts somewhere. I don’t want anybody else to come, only him. Understood?”
    He nodded.
    “You must tell him to come quickly, as you think your father has accidentally, remember that word whatever you do, accidentally killed the landlord, by striking him with the ball, as they quarrelled over the rent.”
    Shock and disbelief spread across the boy’s face.
    “Can’t we just bury ’im in the yard? That way…”
    She shook her head gently and looked once more into his eyes, glad to still be able to see the innocence. It hadn’t occurred to him that people may have witnessed King entering the house.
    “Just cut along and do as you’re told.”
    He backed his way to the door, his eyes not leaving the body for an instant. When he had gone, she sat down to calm herself. She knew it wouldn’t take long before he returned with the Sergeant.
    Calm and composed, she stood up and moving with swiftness and precision, went through the pockets of King’s jacket and waistcoat. She found more money in his purse than she had seen in her lifetime and pulled out the most of it, leaving a decent bundle in, to dampen any suspicion.
    The Bible might espouse goodness to others, she thought, as she counted the notes, but in all her study of it, it had never shown her how to survive.
    She turfed out his trouser pockets, her palm outstretched to catch the loose