AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOST PITEOUS AND BRUTAL MURDER COMMITTED LATELY IN THE BOROUGH OF SPITALFIELDS "Then kill me if you must, for I don't wish to be without you..." Nancy Porter is an extended extract from the novel Oliver Twist, and a supplementary novella based upon the character of Bill Sikes' girlfriend, Nancy. The novella expands upon the character of Nancy (it also gives her a surname, something she does not have in the original novel) while remaining faithful to the original story. It concentrates on the time that Nancy Porter knew Oliver Twist, of how she was murdered by Bill Sikes for offering the help she wished to give so the boy would not have to live as she had had to, it follows the the pursuit and death of Bill Sikes and the trial and execution of Nat Fagin, the leader of the band of child thieves. Revised, edited and expanded by Belle Ellis. - 'Bill Sikes put the flat of his hand upon her face and casually pushed her battered form over while he held the gloves - those she had been given by Rose Maylie - in his other hand and examined them momentarily; he shrugged and threw them to the floor. Nancy used what little strength she had remaining to slump upon her elbows and reach across the floor to take them back into her hands. She held the soft leather to her cheek, and was outraged to see the blood - her own blood - smeared across them. She clasped the bloodied gloves in her bloodied hands and turned her bloodied head towards the heavens, as much as her feeble strength would allow her to hold herself up. She breathed a prayer for mercy; it was a long forgotten prayer, from her brief attendance at a Sunday School when aged five or six years of age, but now, suddenly, she remembered it...' - 'Everyone who attended the execution, that riotous throng, seemed to tell of life and animation, but not everyone; among all who were gathered there, some were family or associates of those who were to be hung; they stood silently, sombrely, dreading what was to come. But they were few in so large a crowd. Not every thing spoke of the same life and animation. The purpose for which they were gathered was told in the cluster of objects in the centre of the yard. They told it all - the platform, the five steps up to that platform, the cross-beam, the rope with it's ominous noose, the masked hangman, the stack of roughly made coffins. It was the black and drear stage upon which is played out all the hideous spectacle and gross drama of lawful execution.Fagin quailed and sought to back away. The escorting guards held firmly onto his arms and guided him up the steps...' - Published by new ventures in recycled fiction & FICTIONFaction, through The Gutter Press. Series Editor, James Scobie. - Belle Ellis also has another title available, Eternal Beloved.
