5/23/2023 0 Comments Deathscent by Robin Jarvis![]() ![]() The large wooden apothecary box they carried was enough to tell him that they were men of physic and, judging by their attire, prosperous ones at that.ĭeeper into that awful night they pressed and the hours curdled by. As he ferried them ever further up the Thames, his shrewd and nimble mind made many quiet guesses. Throughout this drenching journey neither of them had uttered a word, but Natty Pykes had been a waterman for eighteen years and was nobody’s fool. Must be an urgent errand to prise you good masters out of doors.” ![]() We’ll see no other on the river, not in this foulness. “’Tis enough to drown the fishes!” he cried, yearning to hear another voice besides that of the endless squall. ![]() Swinging behind, the lanthorn made sparks of the pelting waters, and the surface of the river spat and fizzed like scalding fat. Through the drenching dark the small craft laboured. The city was lost far behind them now, its mobbing crowd of chimneys and steeples obliterated by the storm. ![]() Silently he cursed those gentlemen who had engaged him. Through the driving downpour he stared at the two figures sitting in the stern of his boat and the storm stung his upturned face. His cloak afforded little protection from the relentless rain and his hat slopped sadly about his ears. The pinching cold no longer pained his fingers all feeling had long since been swept away by the deluge which hammered from the black heavens. Dredging his oars through the churning water, Natty Pykes grumbled under his breath. ![]()
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