No Room For Regret: Cullen – Bartlett Dynasty, Book 1

He wanted two things: the fetters on his ankles and wrists gone and to kill the cheating, lying, evil old man who put him here. James Tedder trembled; the chains around his wrists rattled.

It was perishingly cold, the norm for winter in London, but even the cold, damp air couldn’t dilute the stench. It made his eyes water; he could taste it. Was it the prison hulk itself, the water it floated on, the men crowded into every available space or a combination? He vomited on his breeches and shoes.

‘Don’t matter about your breeches, convict,’ sniggered a guard. ‘You’ll be losing them soon anyway.’

James Tedder hobbled along the deck of the prison hulk Retribution with the fifty or so other men he had travelled with from Newgate Gaol. The weight of the shackles made his arms ache, and his legs longed for the ability to take powerful strides instead of degrading powerless shuffles.

The guards manhandled and pushed and shoved until satisfied that the line of bedraggled souls met requirements. One by one, their chains were unlocked. Tedder rubbed each wrist, taking it in turn to massage and soothe.

‘Strip!’ Bellowed a guard.

Confused, the convicts looked at each other for clarification. It was freezing on the deck of this old ship, and the wind mocked as it lashed at them.

The guard cracked a whip as he again bellowed the command.

‘I said strip!’

Tedder removed his once handsome jacket, the once clean shirt and his vomit-covered breeches and shoes. He stood with the other convicts, shivering, naked, waiting for his flesh to be scrubbed with a hard-bristled brush and his hair to be cut back almost to the scalp. Looking longingly towards the riverbank of the Thames and Woolwich, Tedder felt the bile again rise from his stomach; this time, it carried with it the realisation of what was to become of him.

He had one more year of his apprenticeship to go, and he planned to become a master tinsmith himself, but “justice” intervened. ‘That life belongs to another,’ he thought.