Shattered Dreams (14 page)

Marcus
jiggled his shoulders in an attempt to shake off the disquiet that
settled over him as he walked deeper into the increasingly murky
corridors. He wondered just what the hell would drive anyone to
seek out such a desolate refuge, and traded a look with Harry while
they waited for the warden to reluctantly open a locked door in
front of them.

When he
moved to lock the door behind them, Harry stopped him. “Don’t. This
isn’t a prison,” he snapped and threw the door open. “These people
are residents here, not prisoners. None of them should be locked up
like this.”

“
Jesus, Harry, what the hell is going on around here?” Barnaby
growled. He eyed the large iron bolts across all of the doors, and
the heavy locks that confined each person into their cell-like
rooms. Some of the rooms were crammed with bunk-beds, four and six
apiece, which rendered the room full to capacity; uncomfortably so,
and resembled more of a prison than a refuge.

“
I don’t know, but somebody needs to get their hands on that
governor,” Harry growled, determined to do exactly that the first
chance he got.

As soon
as Tilly was safely under his protection, he was damned well going
to ensure that the governor was put behind bars, along with the
supposed Trustees, for neglecting their personal
responsibilities.

The
group spent the next several minutes going through door after door,
but all of the rooms that lined the long hallways were
empty.

“
Where is everyone?” Harry demanded as he turned to look down
the long, empty corridor behind them.

“
They are all at work,” the warden replied, clearly
uncomfortable.

They
knew that poor houses were usually run to order, and the residents
took personal responsibility for keeping their living space clean.
However, for some reason, Harry doubted that the work the residents
in this particular poor house were being forced to do, had any
connection with everyday life.

“
Take us to them,” Marcus demanded, and shoved the warden
ahead of them when he made no move to comply with the
order.

“
Wait,” Barnaby ordered. He slowly nudged a door to the right
of him open.

Inside,
a small group of young teenage girls were busy scrubbing already
clean walls. Their words were hushed, their movements furtive and
their eyes haunted as they turned to look worriedly at the
strangers.

It was a
sight that would remain with Harry, Marcus, and Barnaby, for many
months to come.

“
We aren’t here to harm you,” Harry reassured them, and
offered a smile in spite of his inner anger.

Barnaby
didn’t enter the room for fear of frightening them further, but
watched carefully while Able made a note of the names of all three
girls.

Once
that was done, Harry suggested that the girls take a
break.

“
A break, sir?” One girl asked rather timidly, as though she
had no idea what one was.

“
Yes, you don’t have to work so hard anymore. Take a break,”
Harry suggested kindly before he backed away from the
room.

They
left the girls alone and moved on to the next room, and the next,
and the next, in exactly the same way. Although the ages of the
women inside each of the rooms were different, they were all
engrossed in seemingly endless; and completely unnecessary
tasks.

Although
detailing everyone was an extremely important part of their work,
it took considerably longer than Harry would have liked. However,
the knowledge that any discrepancies they found would lead to the
arrest of the staff who ran the place, forced him to bite back on
his impatience, and ensure that a thorough job was done.

It took
them nearly an hour before they were able to move to the floor
below, where they employed several of the residents who could
write, and set them to work making lists of the people on their
floor.

“
What’s wrong?” Marcus growled when the elderly women appeared
somewhat reluctant to carry out their instructions.

Although
they had written their own names on the parchment, he wondered if
they could write at all, in spite of their claims that they
could.

To his
disgust, the answer he received brought about hardness in his eyes
that made the women step back several paces, and look at him with
considerably more wariness.

“
Who is Taylor?” He demanded. “Where do I find this
woman?”

One
elderly woman pointed down the corridor. “She rules with an iron
thumb, and isn’t one to be crossed. She will punish us if she finds
us helping you do this.”

Harry
frowned. “Punish you how, exactly?”

The
women shifted uncomfortably and fell silent.

Thankfully, one of the women finally found the courage to
answer. “We get locked in our cells, and aren’t allowed to eat.
Then, when we are let out, we have to do twice as much work as
everyone else.”

“
Does she ever beat the residents?” Harry demanded with a
frown.

The
women looked at each other hesitantly. “She doesn’t hit us. Just
makes us work twice as hard on things that don’t need doing, just
because she can. We get locked in until the job is done and, if it
isn’t done right, we are kept there until she is happy. If we miss
mealtimes, then we go hungry.”

Marcus,
Barnaby and Harry swore in disgust. It hadn’t been so severe while
they had been in the damned army; and these were effectively
everyday people, not soldiers.

“
Has a new girl arrived in the last week, about so tall?”
Harry gestured to his shoulders. “Brown hair, green eyes? About
twenty four?”

“
She arrived the other day. We told her not to keep pestering,
but she keeps asking to be let out. Taylor won’t let her go. Once
you get in here, they never let people out,” one woman replied
solemnly, only for another to cough and shift
uncomfortably.

However,
whatever she was about to say was interrupted by the arrival of the
female warden, who stomped through the door with a deep scowl on
her face.

CHAPTER
EIGHT

“
What are you lot doing away from your work?” she demanded of
the women residents before she turned toward Harry, Marcus and
Barnaby. “Who are you? What do you think you are doing here?” Mrs
Taylor boomed as she stalked toward them.

Harry
opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Taylor, who seemed
determined to assert her authority over all of them.

“
Get back to work,” she ordered the women, only for Harry to
beckon them to remain where they were.

“
They are working for us now, and have their tasks allocated
by us now,” Harry growled. He eyed the woman up and down
dismissively. “Now, I suggest you step aside and go to the main
hall to wait for the rest of the wardens to join you.”

They all
watched the woman’s face turn mottled purple as her outrage grew.
When she opened her mouth to speak, Harry shifted his weight and
stared challengingly at her. She may feel able to bully the older
and smaller people she was in charge of, but he was damned if he
was going to have this particular battle-axe tell him what to do.
He knew that if he wanted the women residents to make the lists he
needed, then he had to gain their confidence, and respect, and make
sure that all of them knew that Taylor was no longer a risk to
them.

Having
seen what he had witnessed in the cells so far, he had absolutely
no compunction against downing the odious prison guard before him
if he had to, and he called her a prison guard, not a warden,
because that was exactly what she had ensured she was.

“
Who are you?” Mrs Taylor persisted. “How dare you come in
here and order me around? This is the woman’s quarters, and no
place for men. I shall have a word with the governor about you. You
see if I don’t. I am going to ensure that you are arrested for
trespassing. Now get out of here.”

“
Good. Please do send for the governor. I want a word with him
myself. While the magistrate is here, you can explain to him why
you are imprisoning people who shouldn’t be kept behind locked
doors. You can also explain why you are acting as a prison guard
rather than a supervisor. You can tell him why you are not treating
these people with consideration and, instead, have chosen to behave
like some despotic dictator with no morals, no conscience, and no
authority to behave in such a way.” Harry realised he was shouting,
and took a deep breath to steady himself. “Now, step aside woman,
we have work to do, and you -” he poked her in the chest, “- are
not going to stop us.”

When the
woman didn’t move her ample girth from in front of the door, Harry
roughly pushed her aside and gestured for the warden, Masterson, to
unlock the door. He was about to shove the warden through it when
he turned to glare down at Taylor, who sat in an undignified heap
on the floor. He could hear the titters of the women around them,
but paid them no attention and, instead, kept his gaze firmly
locked on the recalcitrant warden.

“
You are going to come with us. I want you to explain your
disgusting behaviour as we go. I want everyone here to see you, and
know that you have been stripped of your duties and are no longer a
threat to anyone.”

Harry
watched Marcus and Barnaby use their weight to haul her ample girth
off the floor. Both men were used to pushing reluctant prisoners
around, and had no difficulty ensuring her resistant bulk went
through the door in the direction they wanted, but they huffed and
puffed doing it, and Taylor wasn’t even protesting.

To
ensure that the ladies felt confident that he meant what he said,
Harry looked Taylor straight in the eye as he approached her. Once
they were almost nose to nose, he yanked the large hoop of keys off
the chain around her waist and handed them to Marcus.

Harry
turned toward the women residents. “Keep going along this floor,
and make sure that you get everyone’s names on those lists. Someone
go downstairs please, and make sure that the same thing is done
there. I want lists of absolutely everyone in this building. Is
that clear?”

“
Yes, sir. Leave it to us,” they chorused, clearly relieved,
shocked and amazed at the latest events.

Within
seconds, the hallway was empty as everyone hurried off to do carry
out their allotted tasks.

Harry
turned back to Taylor. “Take us to Tilly,” he ordered.

“
Tilly?” Taylor repeated dully, as though she had never heard
of the name before. “There is nobody here by that name.”

Marcus
leaned forward to whisper in her ear. “I warn you now that we know
she is here. She works for us, you see, and has gathered enough
evidence by now to ensure that you are put behind bars for a very
long time indeed. Now take us to her, or I will ensure that you are
arrested for murder too.”

“
I haven’t killed her,” Taylor protested quickly. Only then
did she seem to realise that her instinctive protest proved she was
a liar. She sighed and glared at him.

“
Prove it. Take us to her. We have the residents making lists
of everyone in this building. If I find that Tilly is on that list,
and you have lied to me, I will ensure that you pay for it,” Harry
warned in a voice that was nothing short of evil.

“
Tilly?” A young woman beside him piped up. She took a
hesitant step forward, but threw a dirty look at Taylor, who
shifted her ample girth in silent warning, which the young girl
bravely ignored.

“
Don’t mind her. She is out of a job right now, and won’t be a
threat to anyone in this building again, I can assure you,” Barnaby
drawled warmly. “We are looking for Tilly.”

“
They didn’t let her out this morning,” the young girl
replied. “I am Margaret. Tilly is working on the ground floor,
scrubbing floors.”

“
Wait a minute,” Harry interrupted. “What do you mean that
they didn’t let her out this morning?”

“
They lock us into our rooms overnight, and let us out when it
is breakfast time. This morning, they didn’t let her out. When they
did, they just set her to work,” an older woman replied from the
doorway behind Margaret.

“
It’s what they do when you ask to be released from here,”
another woman called from inside one of the side rooms.

“
Released?” Marcus asked incredulously. “You are released from
prison, not a poor house. You are not criminals. You are free to go
whenever you want.”

“
No we aren’t. When we ask to go, we are punished. Tilly asked
lots of times, but Mrs Taylor refused to let her speak to the
governor. She locked her in her room without food
instead.”

Harry
felt sick to his stomach. The thought of a beautiful young woman
like Tilly being subjected to such an ordeal when all she had done
was ask to be let out, really made him want to punch
something.

The
memory of the desolation in her eyes on that fateful day, when he
had stupidly let her leave the Rectory, rose to the forefront of
his mind, but he quickly blanked it out and, with renewed
determination, turned to look at the others.