Day One - Afternoon

     The kids from before aren't here anymore. The boy has no clue where they went. He'd like to know. He'd like to find out. Sadly, the toff’s not going to let him go anywhere until this uncle thing is sorted out. The boy considers ditching him... but it's more trouble than it's worth. Plus, looking for this uncle he's never known is rather exciting.

     The toff yells at the boy over his shoulder. He tells him to hurry up. Again. Don't dawdle and all that. The toff’s the only person in a hurry in all of Glenholm. The boy harumphs and jogs to catch up. What's the rush anyhow? If his uncle lives in the village or anywhere nearby, then chances are he won't be leaving anytime soon. They're more likely to find him dead than out of town. Then he'll have not just a family but an inheritance as well and maybe he'll be as rich as any toff. Maybe richer still.

     The boy smirks and daydreams on. Maybe he's the long lost nephew of a lord. He could be nobility. Heck, he could have estates for leagues around. He could own Glenholm. Maybe that bit’s less likely than the rest of his hopes. Maybe. But he can dream, can't he? That's what boyhood is for: dreaming impossible dreams and hoping impossible hopes.

     A new beginning. He believes those words now, except they’re no longer just words. It's reality. It's what he's always hoped for without knowing it.

     It's home.

Day One - Midday

     The driver hoarsely half-yells they've arrived at their destination. He interrupts the toff mid-sentence. That shuts him up. Sort of. He grumbles complaints of riffraff this and that under his breath, as if the old man weren't deaf after all and was merely pretending the whole time.

     They get out, toff stumbling through the entryway first. The boy follows him and stretches the kinks from a half day’s worth of travel out of his back. He looks around and sees what a new beginning means.

     It means curious faces, smiling ones. People here are friendly. They don't have the ‘shove off’ attitude of city dwellers.

     A group of country boys crowds him. They're bigger than him, all of them, grown fat on the cream of the country as opposed to the crumbs of the city gutters. They're here to mug him for his shoes; they're the only thing of value he's got. What else could they be here for? But the big boys have no interest in what he's got on his feet. They're interested in him of all things. It's a cacophony of “Hey there!” and “Hallo!” The boy struggles to keep up with too many voices and far too many questions in too short a time.

     “What’s your name?”

     “Where'd you come from?”

     “Are you new here?”

     *Smack.*

     “Oww! What was that for?”

     “For being an idiot is what it was. Course he's new here, we never seen him before.”

     “Who’s the toff?”

Day One - Morning

     A carriage clatters onwards to ‘a new beginning’. That's what the toff calls it; he keeps saying it throughout the ride. He said it when he and his “ass-so-see-ates” came to the workhouse to sort the children out. He said it when the boys got carted off to the boy's home, Saint Markus. When the home got too full, he said it at Saint Barthelemy, and again at Saint Andrews.

     People call them “homes”, but they weren't. Not really. They were another place to stay until you got shipped off again. And some boys did get shipped off. Literally. Girls too. Off to unheard-of distant relatives. Off to the countryside. Off to the colonies. Off to places where nobody cared. Places where you were out of people's hair. Places where you were forgotten.

     Everytime the boys were dumped off at Saint this and Saint that, they numbered fewer and fewer. Some were taken away, hopefully to that promised new beginning. Others died, be it sickness, accident, or crime. A few became men during their stay. They found work and left or were kicked into the streets to bum on street corners. These are the lucky ones.

     As for this boy in the carriage with the toff intoning promises he can't possibly keep… Well, he's alive and lived this long to be sure. Now he too is being carted off to that ‘new beginning’ that keeps getting talked about.

     This is the fate of the former workhouse children.

     ‘A new beginning.'

A Teaser

Day One - A New Beginning

     A carriage clatters onwards to ‘a new beginning’. That's what the toff calls it, keeps saying it throughout the ride. He said it when he and his “ass-so-see-ates” came to the workhouse to sort the children out. He said it when the boys got carted off to the boy's home, Saint Markus. When the home got too full, he said it at Saint Barthelemy. And again at Saint Andrews.

     People call them “homes”, but they weren't. Not really. They were another place to stay until you got shipped off again.

     And some boys did get shipped off. Girls too. Off to unheard-of distant relatives. Off to the countryside. Off to the colonies. Off to places where nobody cared. Places where you were out of people's hair. Places where you were forgotten.

     Everytime the boys were dumped off at Saint this and Saint that, they numbered fewer and fewer. Some taken away, hopefully to that promised new beginning. Others died. Sickness. Accident. Crime.

     A few became men during their stay. They found work and left or were kicked into the streets to bum on street corners. These are the lucky ones.

     As for this boy in the carriage with the toff intoning promises he can't possibly keep… Well, he's alive and lived this long to be sure. Now he too is being carted off to that ‘new beginning’ that keeps getting talked about.

     This is the fate of the former workhouse children.

     ‘A new beginning.’


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