Young Sherlock Holmes_ Death Cloud - Andrew Lane [8]
‘School?’ the boy said. ‘They teach boxing at school?’
‘They do at my school. They say it toughens us up.’
The boy sat himself down beside Sherlock. ‘It’s life that toughens you up,’ he muttered, then added: ‘My name’s Matty. Matty Arnatt.’
‘Matty as in Matthew?’
‘I suppose so. You live up at the big house down the road, don’t you?’
Sherlock nodded. ‘Just moved in for the summer. With my aunt and uncle. My name’s Sherlock – Sherlock Holmes.’
Matty glanced critically at Sherlock. ‘That’s not a proper name.’
‘What, Sherlock?’ He thought for a moment. ‘What’s wrong with it?’
‘Do you know any other Sherlocks?’
Sherlock shrugged. ‘No.’
‘What’s your dad’s name, then?’
Sherlock frowned. ‘Siger.’
‘And your uncle? The one you’re staying with?’
‘Sherrinford.’
‘Got any brothers?’
‘Yes, one.’
‘What’s his name?’
‘Mycroft.’
Matty shook his head in exasperation. ‘Sherlock, Siger, Sherrinford and Mycroft. What a bunch! Why not go for something traditional, like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John?’
‘They’re family names,’ Sherlock explained. ‘And they are traditional. All the males in our family have names like that.’ He paused. ‘My father told me once that one branch of the family originally came to England from Scandinavia, and that’s where those names come from. Or something like that. “Siger” could be Scandinavian, I suppose, but the others actually sound to me more like place names in old English. Although where “Sherlock” comes from is a complete mystery. Maybe there’s a Sher Lock or a Sheer Lock on a canal somewhere.’
‘You know a lot of stuff,’ Matty said, ‘but you don’t know much about canals. There’s no Sher Lock or Sheer Lock that I’ve ever come across. So what about sisters? Any silly names there?’
Sherlock winced, and looked away. ‘So, do you live around here?’
Matty glanced at him for a moment, then seemed to accept the fact that Sherlock wanted to change the subject. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘for the moment. I’m kind of travelling.’
Sherlock’s interest perked up. ‘Travelling? You mean you’re a Gypsy? Or you’re with a circus?’
Matty sniffed derisively. ‘If anybody calls me a ’Gyp-tian I usually punch them. And I don’t belong to no circus, either. I’m honest.’
Sherlock’s brain suddenly flashed on something that Matty had said a few moments earlier. ‘You mentioned that you didn’t know any Sher Lock or Sheer Lock. Do you live on the canals? Does your family have a barge?’
‘I’ve got a narrowboat, but I ain’t got a family. It’s just me. Me and Albert.’
‘Grandfather?’ Sherlock guessed.
‘Horse,’ Matty corrected. ‘Albert pulls the boat.’
Sherlock waited for a moment to see whether Matty would go on. When he didn’t, Sherlock asked: ‘What about your family? What happened to them?’
‘You ask a lot of questions, don’t you?’
‘It’s one way to find things out.’
Matty shrugged. ‘My dad was in the Navy. Went off on a ship and never came back. I don’t know if he sank, or stayed in a port somewhere around the world, or returned to England and didn’t bother with the final few miles. My mum died a few years back. Consumption, it was.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘They wouldn’t let me see her,’ Matty went on as if he hadn’t heard, staring ahead into the distance. ‘She just wasted away. Got thinner and paler, like she was dying by inches. Coughing up blood every night. I knew they’d be coming to put me in the poorhouse when she died, so I ran away. No way I’d go into the Spike. Most people who go in there don’t come out again, or if they do they don’t come out right in the body or in the head. I took to the canals rather than walk cos I could get further away in a shorter time.’
‘Where did you get the boat from?’ Sherlock asked. ‘Was it something that belonged to the family?’
‘Hardly,’ Matty said, snorting. ‘Let’s just say I found it and leave it at that.’
‘So how do you get by? What do you do for food?’
Matty shrugged. ‘I work in the fields over the summer, picking fruit