MALACHI GRUBB: OR, THE APPRENTICE OF BROOM LANE
Inspired by Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
MALACHI GRUBB: OR, THE APPRENTICE OF BROOM LANE
A Tale of Smoke, Soup, and Slight Rebellions
BOOK ONE: ASHES AND APRONS
CHAPTER I. In Which We Are Introduced to an Orphan Without Permission
Malachi Grubb entered the world in the back pantry of Broom Lane Foundling Asylum, beneath a shelf of cracked teacups and a loose sack of flour. The matron, Miss Clacket, remarked that he had arrived with more noise than most and considerably less skin. She named him after the smudged page of an almanac and wrapped him in an old clerical robe that once belonged to a preacher with a weakness for potatoes.
"He's got the lungs of a debt collector," muttered the surgeon, wiping his hands on a curtain. "He'll either preach or perish."
From his first breath, Malachi was tagged as a burden: a creature to be maintained at minimal expense until he could be exchanged for coin, labour, or silence.
CHAPTER II. Malachi is Raised, Which Is to Say, Prevented from Falling Further
Life at Broom Lane was a masterclass in abstinence. The orphans dined upon soup that resembled regret and were lectured daily on the virtues of being grateful for the Lord's invisible blessings. Miss Clacket's nightly prayer was for fewer mouths and more donations.
Malachi survived by learning to speak only when unnoticed and to steal only when unsupervised. He developed a fondness for the attic, where he discovered a cache of old sermons, broken spectacles, and a taxidermy otter named Admiral Spindle.
He read by moonlight and coughed discreetly in rhythm with the matron's snores.
CHAPTER III. Our Hero is Purchased Like a Saucer
On his twelfth birthday, Malachi was summoned with the ringing of the iron bell reserved for undesirables. Mr. Phineas Slabb, a merchant of pickled goods and industrial mud, had offered to take one orphan off Miss Clacket's hands in exchange for a weekly deduction in his poor rates.
"A wiry one," he said, lifting Malachi by the ear. "I can use him for jar washing and ledger pressing."
"He reads, too," said Miss Clacket, as if confessing an embarrassment.
"Then he can count brine barrels."
And so, Malachi Grubb was sent off in a cart full of onions and vinegar to the murky shopfront at Number Twelve, Vinegar Crescent.
BOOK TWO: SMOKE AND SONG
CHAPTER IV. Wherein Pickling Proves a Slippery Business
Mr. Slabb's establishment was a factory of fermentation. Pickled cabbage, soot, and sour puddings were packed with the precision of an undertaker. Malachi slept on a shelf between barrels and was permitted to eat anything too moldy for commerce.
By week three, he had reorganized the brine ledgers alphabetically and re-written Mr. Slabb's trade slogans in iambic pentameter. Mr. Slabb was confused but impressed.
"Your pen's sharper than your elbows," he muttered. "Don't sharpen it on my customers."
CHAPTER V. A Chimney Sweep and a Secret Society
It was during one of his errands to deliver vinegar to the Fishwives' Guild that Malachi first met Jenny "Knuckles" Fen, a chimney sweep with a wild grin and two bruised knuckles perpetually healing.
"You read?" she asked, spitting soot.
"I write."
"Then you'll do."
Jenny introduced him to the Cinder Circle: a fellowship of orphaned, beaten, and half-employed children who conducted raids on cruel masters and swapped food beneath the city’s chimneys.
They communicated by coded soot symbols. Malachi invented several.
CHAPTER VI. The Ballad of the Broom Lane Banquet
Malachi’s first act of rebellion involved sneaking into the Broom Lane donor banquet with a forged invitation and delivering a speech from "Bishop Grubb," decrying the virtues of child-sized gruel portions.
Lady Spindlethorpe fainted. Miss Clacket wept. Malachi escaped through a servant’s window with Jenny and a sack of ornamental biscuits.
BOOK THREE: STREETS AND SALVATION
CHAPTER VII. The Inspector and the Ink
Inspector Gowl, a man who believed joy was a punishable offence, began investigating the Circle. Malachi, using poetry and public chalk walls, exposed Gowl’s secret trade in child labour fines.
Gowl arrested a black cat by mistake. Public sentiment turned.
CHAPTER VIII. A Ship, a Sermon, a Surrender
Malachi was sentenced to reform aboard the S.S. Discipline, a converted workhouse ship captained by an ex-choirmaster with a hook for a hand. He wrote sermons for the crew and coded messages in hymnals.
Jenny led a rescue disguised as chimney inspectors. The ship was set adrift—its captain still preaching to seagulls.
CHAPTER IX. The Boy Who Would Not Starve
Malachi stood before the magistrate who once condemned him to servitude.
"Have you anything to say for yourself?"
"Only this: there are more of us now. And we can read."
EPILOGUE: Of Ashes Grown Roses
The Broom Lane Asylum was turned into a free school. Mr. Slabb went into jam. Miss Clacket was last seen in France, confusing nuns.
Malachi Grubb opened a printshop beneath the old vinegar sign. Above the door: Truth in Ink. Tea at Four.
He never did find out who his parents were. But he gave every orphan he met a name with at least three syllables and a story to go with it.
End of Volume One.
MALACHI GRUBB AND THE PARLIAMENT OF RATS
Volume Two of the Grubb Chronicles
BOOK FOUR: WHISPERS AND WHISKERS
CHAPTER I. In Which A Letter Arrives, Unexpected and Slightly Damp
Malachi Grubb, now proprietor of a modest printshop, is startled when a letter bearing no postage appears beneath his door. Written in scratchy ink and bearing a seal shaped like a rat, it reads: "We require your services. The city grows ill, and truth grows teeth."
Attached is a small pawprint and a dried sardine.
Jenny Fen appears moments later, breathless and soot-smudged. "You're summoned," she says. "And this time, it’s not just orphans."
CHAPTER II. A Meeting in the Mold Cellar
Malachi is led to a hidden cellar beneath the Old Cheese Market, where the so-called "Parliament of Rats" convenes: a council of children, beggars, pickpockets, and underground pressmen. They are plotting to expose the new Factory Education Act—an act that funds literacy while simultaneously selling pupils into factory contracts.
Presiding over the parliament is Lord Parsnip, a blind former librarian turned revolutionary.
"The pen is sharper than the law," he says. "But only if dipped in someone else’s ink."
CHAPTER III. The New Adversary
Enter Mr. Vellum Scant, Minister of Factories, known for his starched collars and starched morals. Vellum seeks to crush the Parliament and silence the press. His spies wear children's faces and write in invisible ink.
Malachi must create a new underground paper: The Squeak, to circulate truths where law dares not tread.
Jenny returns to the rooftops. Malachi prints in basements, broom closets, and once inside a bathhouse.
BOOK FIVE: FIRE AND FOOTSTEPS
CHAPTER IV. A Rat in the Ranks
A betrayal within the Parliament threatens to reveal their printing sites. Suspicion falls on young Tipp, a runaway with a stammer and a fascination for buttons.
Malachi chooses trust over punishment and uncovers the true traitor: a well-dressed chimney sweep who’s never once smelled of ash.
CHAPTER V. The March of the Ink-Stained
The city erupts. Children from schools, sweeps, and stitch-houses begin chalking The Squeak’s slogans on walls:
"Read or bleed."
"Truth won’t clock in."
"We are the footnotes of history."
Inspector Gowl returns—demoted, but still eager to strike—and declares a curfew for all citizens under five feet tall.
CHAPTER VI. The Siege of Spindle Court
Vellum Scant’s enforcers raid Spindle Court, where the largest underground press is hidden beneath a boarding school. Jenny leads a defense with flour bombs and soot curtains.
Malachi distracts the invaders with a forged law document declaring the children's protection under "Act of Ratification 1841."
It works. Barely.
BOOK SIX: THE INK THRONE
CHAPTER VII. The Trial of the Tiny Press
Malachi is arrested and tried for sedition in a courtroom where only adults may speak—unless called as a witness. Jenny volunteers.
She tells of chimney wounds, soot-coded letters, and lessons taught in attics.
The judge rules: "His crime is literacy. His punishment is employment."
Malachi responds, "That’s what I’ve been offering."
CHAPTER VIII. A Whisper Becomes a Roar
The Parliament goes public. Lady Spindlethorpe, now reformed and slightly deaf, donates a hall. The Queen receives The Squeak and (allegedly) chuckles.
Mr. Vellum Scant is reassigned to Inventory of Tinned Goods.
CHAPTER IX. The Return to Vinegar Crescent
Malachi returns to his shop, tired but undefeated. Tipp is his apprentice. Jenny leaves a soot mark on the door: a rat wearing a crown.
Above the door now reads: Truth in Ink. Tea at Four. All Rats Welcome.
End of Volume Two.
MALACHI GRUBB AND THE INKSTORM REVOLT
Volume Three of the Grubb Chronicles
BOOK SEVEN: CLOUDS OF BLACK AND BRASS
CHAPTER I. A Storm Rises in the Papers
The city sleeps uneasily. Rain falls in chemical droplets from the newly erected Industrial Sky Funnels, products of a new alliance between the Ministry of Progress and the Brass Syndicate.
Malachi Grubb reads the morning gazette. Every paper but The Squeak now carries stories of miraculous machines and patriotic productivity.
But Malachi has seen the cost: child machinists disappearing from schools, soot masking famine, and readers taught not to question—but to parrot.
CHAPTER II. The Mechanist's Ball
Lady Spindlethorpe invites Malachi to a gala hosted by the Syndicate. Disguised as a publisher, he infiltrates the Mechanist’s Ball and uncovers plans for the “Inkwell Act”—a regulation to license all publications and silence unregistered presses.
Jenny Fen dances with a Syndicate officer while lifting his blueprints.
They escape in a laundry cart.
BOOK EIGHT: THE PRINT UPRISING
CHAPTER III. The Inkstorm Manifesto
Malachi prints The Inkstorm Manifesto, a satirical tract disguised as a children’s fable. It spreads through puppet theatres, hymnals, and barroom toasts.
Lines like "The fox with a pen may unseat a king" echo through the city.
The Brass Syndicate responds with brass-cuffed enforcers and bans on ink imports.
CHAPTER IV. The Battle for Bleach Alley
A key printing hub beneath Bleach Alley is discovered. Jenny leads a defense with soot traps, ink bombs, and ironic banners.
Tipp hacks the Syndicate’s telegraph system, broadcasting coded verses citywide.
CHAPTER V. The Night of the Cracked Press
The original Squeak press, stored beneath Vinegar Crescent, is destroyed in a raid. Malachi barely escapes with a single brass typeset clutched in his hand.
The Parliament scatters. Rumors say the revolution is over.
But children still whisper verses on chalkboards, and a single phrase spreads: "The ink still dries."
BOOK NINE: THE TYPESET REBORN
CHAPTER VI. The Queen’s Footnote
Lady Spindlethorpe delivers a message: the Queen is reading the banned fables and laughing aloud.
A court summons is issued—not for arrest, but for explanation. Malachi, Jenny, and Tipp arrive disguised as street performers.
They deliver a puppet version of the city’s story. The Queen applauds. Parliament groans.
CHAPTER VII. The Last Print
A final edition of The Squeak is printed on confiscated Syndicate paper and distributed by pigeon, chimney, and custard pie.
Inside it: the names of every child, sweep, maid, and press hand who ever helped.
Malachi signs it: For those still reading.
CHAPTER VIII. Full Circle at Vinegar Crescent
The Syndicate dissolves. The Inkwell Act is tabled indefinitely. The press is free—so long as it tells the truth.
Malachi reopens his shop, now shared by Tipp, Jenny, and a dozen new apprentices.
A sign above the door now reads: Inkstorm Press. Truth by Storm. Tea at Four.
End of Volume Three.
MALACHI GRUBB AND THE LEAGUE OF MISSING LETTERS
Volume Four of the Grubb Chronicles
BOOK TEN: THE SILENT STREETS
CHAPTER I. Vanishing Verses
A chill spreads through Vinegar Crescent as strange things begin to vanish—not objects, but words. Signs lose syllables, names dissolve, and books turn to blank parchment.
When Tipp wakes one morning unable to read the alphabet soup, he shouts for Malachi. Together, they discover the phrase “Beware the Blank” etched in disappearing ink beneath the shop’s welcome mat.
CHAPTER II. The Calligraph’s Curse
Whispers lead Malachi to a mysterious figure: the Calligraph, an exiled ink alchemist who once tried to patent the alphabet. He now dwells beneath the city in a sanctum of silence.
"The League returns," he warns. "And they want the world unwritten."
Jenny scoffs. Tipp shivers. Malachi listens.
BOOK ELEVEN: THE VOWEL THIEVES
CHAPTER III. In Search of the Forgotten
Children vanish from classrooms. Booksellers report empty volumes. Malachi receives a coded letter—missing all vowels—from an old adversary turned ally: Inspector Gowl.
Together, they uncover an old conspiracy: the League of Missing Letters, a secret society intent on controlling all language by stealing its parts.
Their base? A derelict lighthouse turned library, where every room is dedicated to a missing letter.
CHAPTER IV. The Alphabet Revolt
Malachi devises a counter-plan: a rogue alphabet printed backward, scattered through the city in leaflets and laundry tags.
The League retaliates with “linguistic purges.” Tipp forgets how to spell his own name. Jenny writes battle slogans in numbers and swears in ancient Greek.
CHAPTER V. The Librarian’s Lament
Lady Spindlethorpe recalls her childhood—when letters were hoarded like sugar. She reveals a final secret: the League’s leader is her estranged sister, Letitia Spindlethorpe, known as the Archivist.
Letitia believes words should be sacred, limited, and taxed.
BOOK TWELVE: THE RETURN OF REASON
CHAPTER VI. Duel of Dictionaries
Malachi challenges Letitia to a public “Word Duel” at the Grand Lexicon Theatre. Each must defend the future of language before an audience of scribes, children, and pigeons.
Letitia speaks in elegy and law. Malachi replies with riddles, jokes, and nursery rhymes.
The crowd sides with laughter.
CHAPTER VII. Letters Reunited
The League is disbanded. Lost letters are returned—some found carved into apple cores, others hidden in dreams.
Tipp recovers his vowels. Jenny writes a poem about punch.
Malachi publishes The Unabridged Almanac of Everything Previously Censored. It sells out in three days.
CHAPTER VIII. A Toast in Twenty-Six Letters
The team toasts their victory with ink-spattered teacups.
Above the shop door now reads: Grubb & Co. Letters Found. Truth Refined. Tea at Four.
End of Volume Four.
Comments
Post a Comment