The Bone Collector's Daughter

A rag-and-bone cart by lamplight. Bundles that shift when no wind blows. Debts the dead are still owed.

In Whitethorn's back lanes, the rag-and-bone trade keeps to its quiet rounds. But when a girl inherits her father's nightly route, she finds the cart laden with more than scrap: whispers stitched into sacking, bones miscounted, and a name that should never have been taken. The townsfolk avert their eyes; the ledger will not balance; and something walks at the edge of the lamplight, keeping pace with the wheels.

As the nights grow colder, the daughter must decide what to return and what to keep - before the procession that gathers at the water's edge comes for its due.

The Bone Collector's Daughter is a Blackthorn Chapbook by Edwin Blackthorn - short, chilling Gothic tales in the spirit of the Victorian penny dreadful, meant to be read by lamplight when the house is quiet.