The Parliament of Blood by Justin Richards

‘Go on, get along with you.’ He cuffed Jack across the ears.
    â€˜Want a use for your belt?’ Eddie said defiantly. ‘I’ll give you one. Belt up!’
    Remick’s eyes were blazing as he walked slowly towards Eddie. Eddie stood his ground, hands bunched into hard fists at his sides.
    â€˜Eddie!’ Eve warned.
    â€˜It’s all right,’ Eddie assured her as he squared up to Remick. ‘You get off to church, all of you. Pray for Charlie. And pray for this lout too.’
    Remick launched himself at Eddie. But Eddie wasn’t there. He stepped neatly out of the way and the larger boy’s fists pummelled the air.
    As he moved, Eddie’s hand brushed against Remick. Just lightly, just a little. Just enough. ‘What have we got here, then?’ Eddie wondered as he held up the things he’d so easily and gracefully lifted from Remick’s pocket.
    â€˜How did you …? Give that back!’
    â€˜Ooh look – hanky.’ Eddie waved the grubby handkerchief. ‘Bit snotty, but then that’s one heck of a hooter you’ve got.’ He tossed the handkerchief at Remick as the boy advanced.
    â€˜What else?’ Eddie wondered, sidestepping another punch. As well as the hanky, Eddie had pulled out a faded piece of paper. ‘What’s this?’
    â€˜Give that back.’ Remick snatched at it – and missed.
    â€˜Now now, easy does it, mate,’ Eddie chided. He unfolded the paper.
    And Remick hurled himself at Eddie with a shout of rage, grasping desperately for the paper.
    Eddie held it away from the clutching fingers and tried to push Remick away. ‘Keep your hair on,’ he shouted above Remick’s angry cries. ‘It’s just a letter.’ He got only a glimpse before Remick managed to snatch it away. He saw only a few words, a signature. But it was enough. There was one word there that Eddie could read easily.
    â€˜Miss your mummy, do you?’ Eddie asked. ‘Keep her letter in your pocket all the time?’
    Remick stared at him, lip quivering. ‘You …’ He seemed to struggling to speak. ‘You shut up.’
    â€˜Think she’d be proud of you?’ Eddie said quietly. ‘Proud of the way you beat up the smaller kids? What about when you belt ’em – she proud of that?’
    â€˜It’s time for church.’ Remick’s voice was shaking, and so were the hands clenched at his sides. ‘Get along – all of you.’
    â€˜See you, Eddie,’ Jack said quietly. Mikey was already running. Eve glared at Remick for a moment, then followed.
    Remick was still staring at Eddie. ‘If I see you round here again … If I see you
anywhere
again,’ he said, ‘then I’ll kill you.’
    And there was something in the way he said it, something deep in John Remick’s eyes that made Eddie shiver.

    Sir William had listened patiently to Eddie’s brief description of how Charlie had gone missing and turned up dead.
    They were in the workroom at the end of the corridor that led past Sir William’s and George’s offices. The room was lined with cabinets and cupboards, and dominated by a heavy wooden table. Eddie hadn’t been surprised to find Sir William at work, even though it was Sunday. He knew George was showing photographs to some old bloke in his own office a short distance away.
    Sir William paused to dip what seemed to be a piece ofdirty glass into what appeared to be a dish of water. The water began to steam and bubble and Sir William watched intently.
    â€˜He was a mudlark for a time,’ Eddie said. ‘Up to his knees pulling bits of coal out of the river bank, was Charlie. Rags, shards of metal, copper nails too, he said, if they were repairing a big ship down the docks.’
    Sir William lifted the glass that wasn’t glass from the water that wasn’t water. The liquid stopped steaming and bubbling at once. He