Interesting. I’m intrigued that the morgue is in a “Rose Cottage.” Malthus is also a fascinating character. He may not be a real person, but is he serving some sort of penance, perhaps?

It looks like your ficlies have posted correctly now, is it possible to delete the duplicates for the sake of neatness?

Indeed, the Rose Cottage is a morgue, and he is borrowing the space, and he is not real.. perhaps a ghost keeping watch?