Enslaved
Chapter One
"A many years ago
When I was young and charming
As some of you may know
I practiced baby-farming."
-Gilbert & Sullivan, HMS Pinafore
Roxbury House Orphanage
Kent, England, 1876
Footfalls bounded up the attic stairs. The three children tensed, breaths bated,
gazes flying to the unlatched door. As soon as the last of them, Daisy, had stolen inside,
they snuffed out the stub of candle and settled in to wait. Almost a quarter of an hour
hence, the fading sunrays admitted through the smudged glass of the one weather-beaten
window served as their sole source of light. Dust motes floated like feathers in the still,
heavy air. In the artificial hush, the slightest creak of a board or the unsanctioned crack
of knuckles or, God forbid, a sneeze seemed to ring out as loudly as the chiming of the
famed Bow Bells of which all three occupants had been born within earshot, rendering
them forever East Londoners, true-blooded cockneys.
The door opened on a screech, sending a sliver of light slicing through the
shadows. Harry Stone poked his silver-blond head inside. "All's c ... read full excerpt from Enslaved ebook
