I'm going to Underwood and Flinch, a novel written and read for podcast by Mike Bennett.

This podcast is intended for an adult audience.

Episode 32. too.

Hello listeners and welcome again to Underwood and flinch.

Last time you may remember, we went up onto the roof of Casa Underwood.

Here, over Brandy and cigars, Underwood began telling David the story of how he came to be the gentleman that he is today.

He explained how he started life as John William Brooks, how he went from childhood poverty to apprentice carpenter, and then from

soldier to highwayman, how he met Martha, the girl he fell in love with, how he came to be sentenced to a year in Newgate jail, and how, while

he was doing time there, his gang came to be found by thief-takers.

Martha and her father were sentenced to deportation to Virginia

where they would work as convict labor for 14 years.

On his release from jail, Underwood, or should I say Brooks,

decided to pursue them, and using his and Martha's st booty he bought himself passage aboard a ship bound

for the new world.

As we rejoin Underwood and David now, let's roll back the action for a few moments into episode 31,

so we can settle into the groove exactly where we left it last time.

So I bought passage board a vessel bound for the same destination.

I calculated that I had plenty of money left over to set myself up as a carpenter in Virginia and to be able to find and buy back Martha and her father from whatever plantation owner had bought them. Then we would all live happily ever after in the new world. But, needless to say, things didn't go quite according to plan.

David took a cigarette from his packet and reached for the lighter.

Underwood frowned.

You're going to have a cigarette when you've got a perfectly good cigar on the go?

David looked at his cigar in the ashtray.

...