Free Dark Shadows by Jana Petken

always, with four fresh horses. He hitched them up to the carriage and then disappeared.
    Eddie carried two buckets of water to the rear of the carriage and set them down. Sam was already inside. He picked Mercy up from the floor and threw her untidily onto one of the benches. She moaned, and he slapped her across the head. He then did the same to the other girl who’d been on the floor with Mercy. She was now conscious and kicked out, hitting Sam’s shin. For her cheek, she was punched on the side of the head. “Try that again and I’ll fucking choke the life out of your scrawny neck. Now shut it!”
    He told all the girls, “Not one sound do I want to hear come out of your mouths. Next one will get more than these two got. You hear me?”
    Eddie handed the water buckets to Sam, stepped up, and slid inside the crowded carriage, closing the doors behind him. He carried a gas lantern and set it down.
    They shared the work. Each man untied a gag, poured water into a girl’s mouth from an iron ladle, and gagged the girl again straight after.
    Eddie pulled a face, an ugly scowl. Watering the whores got harder as the journey went on. It was so bloody tiring. Most, if not all, girls usually peed themselves a couple of times before they reached the first stop, and tonight was no exception. The carriage stunk like a cesspit with vomit included. It was common for a girl to vomit when the gag was removed. He hated the smell of vomit and how it looked. The fucking sight of it had put him off eating porridge for life. Christ, it was like working in a fucking zoo, tending to stinking animals by the time they got within striking distance of Liverpool. He went back outside for some fresh air.
    Sam was finishing off inside. He made sure every gag was tight enough and securely knotted. Then he put chloroform drops on the top part of the cloth, just under the girls’ nostrils. A sleeping captive was a good captive, as far as he was concerned. He took one last look, and right enough, they all conked out one after the other before his very eyes.
    Outside, Eddie looked at his pocket watch. It was almost ten o’clock. Nineteen hours to go, he calculated. They had about nine and a half hours of night travel in front of them. It was always as black as a bottomless pit, with only a small, dimly lit lantern on the front of the carriage to guide them along the uneven and sometimes treacherous path.
    They only ever came across one or two other carriages during this part of the journey. Highwaymen were not much of a threat nowadays. They had all but given up on that employment, what with night traffic on the road a rare sight, thanks to the railways.
    Eddie and Sam stopped periodically to water and cool down the horses. They always had two full buckets of water attached to the rear end of the coach for this very reason. When they moved on after a half hour or so, the horses were slightly fresher and just about able to reach the next stop.
    Their habit was to rest up just before dawn or thereabouts. At the inn, they went through the same routine, ate what seemed like the same watery stew, and drank another pitcher of ale. They were both convinced that the same cook travelled from inn to inn, covering the length of England.
    They changed horses again, watered the captives, and afterwards moved on to their third and final rest, which was during daylight hours.
    The day was coming, Eddie believed, when these ventures would stop altogether. Inns were closing at night for lack of traffic, and it was harder to get someone to have the horses available, even though the men who did this job for them were well paid. The railway was going to finish off the madam’s long-standing business, and that worried Eddie, for if she closed down this part of her operation, he’d be out of a job.

Chapter Nine
     
    The carriage, exhausted horses, two men, and ten abducted girls finally reached the Liverpool suburbs. It was mid-afternoon, and the weather was fair, but