The Case of the Irregular Irregular
Chapter 2: Introducing Billy
Billy was the smallest and newest of the Irregulars. He was between eight and nine years old, but appeared no more than six, and Holmes had initially flatly refused to employ him, declaring him far too young. The child had been persistent though, pleading with him, and twisting his cap between thin little hands, a pathetically eager look upon his face, proclaiming himself to be older than he looked with a comical assumption of maturity.
The persuasion had been completed by Wiggins taking Holmes to one side and explaining that Billy was orphaned eighteen months previously and placed in the care of the parish. This modern day Oliver Twist had been apprenticed to a brute, who had subjected him to all manner of mistreatment until he ran away in fear of his life.
Charlie, one of the kindest of Holmes' young recruits, had found the child curled up in the doorway of the house where he had passed his early childhood, shivering in the January night air, half dead with cold and fatigue and sobbing for his dead mother. Many of our esteemed public figures, who publicly lecture on morality and proclaim their philanthropy, could have taken a lesson from the scruffy little redheaded Samaritan. Despite frequent exposure to the very worst of humanity at its most wretched, Charlie took pity on this scrap, taking him under his wing and bringing him to his own home, and the close knit gang of Irregulars rallied around the newest of their number.
"Fing is, Guv'nor, Charlie's family can't 'ardly feed Charlie, see, let alone anuvva mouf ter feed. An' Billy's Mum, she were a righ' uprigh' laydee, see, an' Billy sez 'e can't stay wiv Charlie's lot if 'e's not bringin' in any dough, see?" Holmes saw, and Billy was hired.
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What fool ever said Holmes was a machine without a heart? Oh, yes. I don't think he really meant it. Continued in Chapter Three.
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