Free Sound of the Heart by Genevieve Graham Page A

cloying tang of sickness was weighed down by the stink of rot, decaying flesh both animal and human. The city was a miasma of stink unimaginable to most, but it hardly bothered either Dougal or Aidan. They had lived among it on a smaller scale for months.
    About a mile outside the city, Aidan and Dougal dropped onto their backs in a tall field of grass, trying to prepare themselves for whatever lay ahead. They were weak and close to starving, having eaten nothing but seeds and berries they’d found along the way. There was more traffic now; horses and buggies travelled the main road, and with them came the threat of highwaymen. Worse than these were the footpads, cold-blooded and desperate criminals who would butcher a person for the sake of a couple of shillings without the slightest tweak of conscience. Dougal was well aware that if he and Aidan ran into this kind of trouble, they might not be strong enough to fight back. Not that they had anything for the creatures to steal, but they wouldn’t know that until they checked, would they?
    “I’m so hungry I dinna feel it anymore,” Aidan muttered, staring toward the city.
    His voice was sad and weak. It had sounded that way ever since they’d lost Joseph. Dougal watched the boy’s face, wishing there were something he could do. Grief was heavy in his own heart as well. He had liked Joseph. But seeing Aidan’s agony only reminded him of how lost he felt without his own brother. So many needless deaths. It was a difficult enough life without having to battle continuous loss.
    “We’ll find food soon,” Dougal assured him. “An’ ye’ll start to feel better. About everythin’. Aye,” he said, seeing the doubt pool in Aidan’s clear blue eyes. “Ye will. O’er time.”
    A bird called from far away, then another, and Dougal started to wonder if the sound was actually a bird, or rather someone screaming. London loomed before them, offering . . . what? What were they getting into? He’d visited Edinburgh a long time before, and it had been a big city with big-city troubles. But it hadn’t carried this heavy layer of foreboding over it. Or maybe it was just that Dougal now saw threat in every shadow.
    “Should we wait for dark before we go in?” Aidan asked.
    Dougal shook his head. “I reckon we should see it in daylight first. We’ll jus’ go canny. Stay quiet like. Maybe we willna stay at all, only find a meal or two.” He twisted his face in a comical expression of disgust. “I hope the food tastes better than it smells, aye?”
    Aidan smiled vaguely. “I’m hungry enough to eat it either way.”

CHAPTER 9
    London
    The cloud overhead was dark, but the city was darker. Dougal hadn’t seen any soldiers in over a day, so he made the remainder of the walk easier by following the regular road into London. It bustled with activity, jingling and banging with horses and carriages that barged through without waiting for the travellers to move aside. More than once he and Aidan were splashed by the rush of narrow metal wheels bumping through mud puddles. Houses began popping up along the sides of the road, and Dougal shoved Aidan out of the way once, in time to avoid being hit by slop as it was dumped from an upstairs window. Coming into the actual city, the cobblestone road was thick with mud, and the gutters ran with all sorts of refuse. As they walked past the first few buildings, they had to step around a woman squatting in her skirts at the side of the street, concerned neither with modesty nor with the call for a chamber pot.
    Aidan’s eyes were huge, his grimace tight with distaste. He glanced toward Dougal. “The smell,” he muttered.
    “Breathe through yer mouth. The entire place is like a chamber pot ne’er emptied.”
    “An’ it’s so . . . loud.”
    Dougal nodded and grimaced as he stepped over something he thought might once have been a cat. Flesh seemed to move under a layer of maggots, and flies buzzed past Dougal’s face, furious