Broken Bonds Part Two.

[Dusak]

Broken Bonds
Discoveries

My steps faltered as I had entered my brothers house, fully expecting to discover his rotting remains upon the floor. The back of my neck and spine had prickled with apprehension, my brow issued forth beads of fine sweat, my sense's were assailed with the feelings of trepidation, fear and dread. But no such vision of horror lay in wait. Even with my handkerchief clasped closely to my face, the foul taste and odour attacked my mouth and nose to the point of bringing on a near fainting. The rising suns rays began to flood the house with light, due to the fact that my brother had obviously replaced the more common smaller windows this area of England preferred with much larger ones. An alteration that I was happy to benefit from given my present circumstance. This first room was large but empty of anything but two large wooden barrels, the contents of which I was glad remained a mystery to me, given my brothers interest in all things buried. Once again I had called out my brothers name as loud as I could whilst attempting to control my gagging and feelings of nausea.

The corner of my eye caught the flies as they came and went through a doorway which was off the kitchen area. I proceeded in that direction to investigate, hoping against hope not to find the once mortal remains of my brother John. What I did discover in what was now obviously a pantry, was the rotting remains of the hind leg of a pig. Maggots infested the rancid meat, feasting and gorging themselves. The foul infestations dropped as I watched fascinated, slightly impressed by the destructive power of such a small thing as they dropped to the ground, their hold on their food lost to join the small mound of their squirming brothers that already littered the floor. They now sucking greedily at the juices that also dripped and made a sickening splattering sound as it hit both maggot and tiled floor. They bathed in death.

I very carefully approached this rotten hunk of meat, tentatively taking hold of the metal S hook that held it suspended from a rod. The hoof of the meat was attached to the hook by twine which I prayed would hold until I could cast it through the door. Luckily my prayers where answered, the meat ending up in a pile of soil near the rear pathway leaving a trail of its dropped passengers along the way which I gained a certain amount of satisfaction and pleasure from as I squashed them beneath my shoes. I left the rear door open hoping that what slight draft there was would soon empty the house of the stench. Which slowly it did, as well as the flies that went hunting for the meats new location. I again shouted my brothers name, but still received no reply. And going off the state of that meat, it had been at least a week since he had last ventured home.

It had begun to get warm in the house so I had removed my coat, draping it over one of the barrels and placed my hand luggage next to it to begin my investigation of the house. The ground floor had two further rooms, one empty except for a pile of digging implements, the other crammed tight with wooden boxes. One or two had their lids off to expose the contents which, as far as I could ascertain, contained nothing more than a pile of rocks. But probably treasure to my brothers eyes.

Upstairs was similar, nothing of interest but more boxes, even a pile of clay in one room which he had began to create a small model of a settlement of sorts with little huts with straw for the roofs. Then I came to a locked door. The key was in the lock and turned quite freely in its obviously well oiled state, but open it would not. I rapped loudly on the door in case John was within, asleep on his bed, as this must be his room as no other furniture as such was evident in these upper rooms. But my calls and banging brought no bleary eyed brother to the door.

Although I had never used a spade in my life, I decided to dig a small hole in the garden to remove the offending meat from my eyes and its smell from my nose. Perhaps John would come striding over the slight rise that fronted his home, grinning to see me handling such a confounded, to me, contraption as a spade. But come he did not. It took an hour to dig the hole in the rocky ground, my hands covered in burst blisters that stung like a mad bee as I attempted to wipe the sweat off them. I unceremoniously kicked the pigs leg into the hole and covered it over quickly. I noticed that two maggots had stuck to the toe of my shoe, which I hastily wiped onto the grass and then proceeded to pulverize them into the earth with the back of the spade. As before, this gave me another small, but sufficient amount of satisfaction towards the stench and sight for my sore eyes that they had greeted me with. As I stretched the ache from my weary back, made worse by the coach journey and now this unaccustomed hard labour, I noticed a ladder leaning against the rear wall of an out building.

As I was about to approach this other confounded contraption a call of greeting reached my ears. It had turned out to be a Mrs Gleevs, the lady that had serviced my brother with his weekly needs. She had with her a large wicker basket containing fresh bread, the smell of which made my stomach rumble and my mouth water, cold ham, which I didn't really fancy consuming considering what I had just interned within the earth, a hunk of cheese and a flask of fresh milk and six large brown eggs. I very briefly explained to her the sight that had greeted me as I had entered my brothers home and my discovery of the locked room. Mrs Gleevs had confirmed that this locked room was indeed used by my brother as his general living and sleeping area. I also had told her of my intent to scale the outside rear wall of the house in an attempt to at least see through the window to discover or not if there was any signs of my missing brother. She had agreed that this was a good idea, but first insisted to coat my blisters with balm oil and bandage them before I continued with my 'poking's about' as she had termed it. Mrs Gleevs was also good enough to offer to clear up the mess in the pantry and after this was completed make me a sandwich and a nice hot cup of tea. I had silently hoped that she would at least rinse her hands after the clean up before getting ready my food.

The ladder had proven to be a little difficult to place at the widows location, and even more difficult to ascend with my blistered hands. But, due to my single minded determination to discover the whereabouts of my brother, I persevered. The window was a sash type, open at the bottom some four inches. It took a great measure of both balance and strength to lift it higher to allow me to gain entry, my legs shaking uncontrollably with this new to me dangerous exploit as I tentatively lifted my right leg over the rim of the windows frame. I had thudded onto the floor as I had slipped getting my left leg through. Mrs Gleevs, upon hearing this thud had called up to inquire as to my condition, I lying saying I had displaced a box that had fallen to the floor to hide my embarrassment.

I had taken quick stock of the room and its contents. Seeing immediately why the door would not open as three lengths of timber had been nailed across its frame. The room was quite large having a bed to one end, a large table near to the window that I had entered by. Another long table lay to the other end of the room which had a small wooden box on top. A chair with a small side table that had a bottle of brandy and a glass on it. The floor was littered with countless written notes that could have been blown from the table considering its closeness to the partially open sash. There was a hammer next to the door which I used to remove the timber which allowed the door, once the handle was turned, to swing freely open. I nearly jumped out of my skin as the smiling face of Mrs Gleevs greeted me to not only congratulate me in regards to gaining entry into the room and freeing the door, but to place a tray containing my food and a steaming cup of tea into my hands. She had cleaned up the mess and was leaving to return to the village. I had thanked her for her kind help and insisted that she kept the change from the five shillings that she had held towards me with open palm. She had offered to change the bedding, but upon inspection it looked like the bed had not been slept in since it was last changed so declined her kind offer.

Some minutes later I stood in the centre of the room, deciding which pathway of possible discovery into my brothers disappearance I should take. This room of my brothers was a total mystery. He had barred the doorway from inside, so the only way he could of left the room was by the sash window. So that would of meant that he had planed to do just that. But why? If he felt the need to leave the house, why not leave by the front entrance. Why use a ladder, then lower the window removing the ladder when reaching the ground. Was my brother attempting to keep someone or something in the room? If this was so, why not fully close the window. Why not seal the door from the other side. It was imposable to formulate any answers. I was exhausted and weary.

I came to the conclusion that it would perhaps be beneficial to get together my brothers papers in some kind of order tomorrow when I had rested which hopefully would give some sort of history or clue towards his last few days at his home. My eyes rested upon the small wooden box that lay atop the other table. My curiosity got the better of me as I approached it and lifted the lid. I had dropped my tea as the skeletal remains of a young child were exposed. A child that's skull had the unmistakably small round hole to the cranium that indicated that it had died due to being shot.

To be continued tomorrow.