Dory's Avengers (17 page)

‘I don't have long,' said Lady Marina. ‘Thank you for being there for Theo.'

Remembering all the things Theo had asked him to tell Marina, Louis looked at her and gaped in surprise.

‘God, you look like Abi!' was all he could manage when confronted by a blue-eyed and rather more anxious version of the woman he loved.

Laughing, Marina replied, ‘I'm told I very much favour the Farrell side of the family in looks. Say hi to Abi and Cam for me, will you? Now, how is Theo?'

‘Strong,' said Louis truthfully, ‘and all the stronger for knowing you still care.'

A smile that was pure Farrell lit up Marina's hitherto anxious face. ‘That's good,' she said.

‘He also said he loves you.'

‘I know!'

‘He said don't take risks.'

‘I won't. Promise me you won't either!'

The two were silent for a minute, then Marina asked, ‘What are you going to do next?'

‘I've got to get back to Applethwaite. I heard some bad things last night, and need to pass on a warning to some very dear friends.'

Looking at Marina, Louis continued: ‘I won't give up on Theo, I promise.'

‘I know, Louis.' Then, in response to a bleep from her phone: ‘Got to go. Good luck! I'll see you again.'

Not waiting for a reply Lady Marina blew a kiss at Louis, then she was gone.

Chapter Seven

Louis remained for some time sitting on the grass in Kensington Gardens after Marina had departed, savouring the feeling of freedom after his brief experience of Theo's prison, and wondering how his friend managed not to go mad. There was so much for him to do, but still Louis gave himself time for contemplation. The things he'd heard the previous night, both from Theo himself and from the room below, gave him plenty of food for thought. What should he do first? Get back to Applethwaite as quickly as possible, that was imperative. Not only did he want to warn Dexter and Alan that they were attracting unwanted attention from the Sponsors, he also knew that his absence couldn't go unnoticed for much longer. Louis didn't like to think of the trouble it would cause if he were found to be missing from Applethwaite; or, worse still, if he were found to be in London. Slightly comforted by the fact that William St Benedict clearly didn't think him to be very bright, Louis knew he could play on that if ever brought to task by the Sponsors; but if it were discovered that his mother had lied for him the previous night, it would be all the worse for her. Still amazed that Nicola had covered for him, Louis was also anxious to get back to her. Despite all this, though, Louis continued to linger under the shade of the trees, smiling at the pleasant memories of being reunited with Theo. Louis
didn't know how long he would have stayed there had a furious park-keeper not approached.

‘Get lost, you worthless underclass. There's no place for the idle Unsponsored here!'

Startled, Louis found himself answering back without thinking. ‘How do you know I'm not just on my day off? You don't know who I am.'

‘The Sponsored have worthwhile things to do on their days off!' screamed the park-keeper, making a grab for Louis, who, being far more fit and agile, was easily able to dodge the grab and sprint off. Despite having escaped unscathed, the encounter gave Louis yet another example of the Sponsors' control, and it left him very shaken. Cap pulled low on his forehead, Louis hurried through the streets, hunching into his clothes to make himself as invisible as possible. Squinting nervously around as he approached the high-class shops of Knightsbridge, Louis made a wrong turn and headed towards the river along Sloane Street. Trying to ignore the suspicion that he'd never seen his surroundings before, Louis was pleased to find a signpost directing him to the Thames Path, but when he arrived at the river it became very apparent that his suspicion had been correct and he didn't have a clue where he was. Having bad eyesight, recognising landmarks wasn't Louis's strong point, but even he reckoned he would remember having seen the huge chimneys of Battersea Power Station before!

There was a bridge right in front of him, but Louis decided to walk along the river for a while in the hope of coming across the route back to Walworth that he knew. However, the comfort Louis gained from being close to water soon gave way to concern about still being deep in Sponsored territory. Coming across another bridge after a mile or so, Louis decided he would be a lot happier south of the river, closer to Unsponsored areas, and he crossed
without hesitation. Head still down, Louis didn't notice that the London Eye was clearly visible further along the river, or that there were signs to Elephant and Castle as soon as he'd crossed the bridge. Whether or not he would have recognised the significance of these pointers would never be known, as all Louis could see were his own feet. Finally, hopelessly lost as he'd dropped his
A to Z
at some point during his flight, Louis decided to look for a phone box and call the Lonsdales.

Knowing that his use of a telephone box would reveal him as one of the Unsponsored, the Sponsored all having mobile phones, Louis chose a quiet street from which to make his call. It had struck Louis as strange that the Sponsored allowed the Unsponsored to have telephones, but as Rick had explained the previous day it was only so that the Sponsored could make contact when they needed a menial task doing without having to set foot in the realms of the underclass. Remembering the Lonsdales' number, Louis dialled, glancing anxiously around him as he waited for his call to be answered.

‘Hello?' said Lisa's voice, causing Louis to sigh with relief.

‘Lisa? It's Louis…'

‘LOUIS!' Lisa shrieked in delight, and he could immediately hear a commotion start up behind her as the other occupants of the flat realised who was on the phone.

‘Let me,' he heard in the background, then the next voice on the line was Sarah's.

‘My darling Louis, thank God you're safe! Where are you?'

‘Hopefully not far away, Sarah. I got a bit lost, I'm afraid.'

Once more there was the murmur of voices in the background, then Rick spoke on the phone.

‘OK, Louis; do you know the name of the street you're on at the moment?' Louis read the street name out, and Rick continued after a short pause.

‘OK, I've found you on my map. Good God, Louis, you did get lost didn't you. Did you cross over Vauxhall Bridge?'

‘Umm…well it wasn't Westminster Bridge…'

‘Never mind which bridge it was for now, Louis,' said Rick, laughing. ‘If you go back to the main road, which should be Kennington Lane, keep going away from the river. Walworth will be signposted, and it will bring you back to Elephant and Castle. Can you find your way from there?'

‘I think so, Rick,' replied Louis, his stomach churning with nerves. Rick then handed the phone back to Sarah.

‘Louis darling, let's not chatter on the phone anymore. Get back to Rick and Lisa's, then we can talk in safety. Oh, and be careful when you get here; there are a lot of Sponsored hanging around for some reason. Rick's going to wait outside for you as much as he can. Be careful. I love you.'

‘Love you too, Sarah. I'll see you soon. Bye now.'

Unfortunately for Louis, a group of Sponsored teenagers strolled along his hitherto-quiet street as he ended his phone call. Looking for an opportunity for a bit of underclass bashing to brighten up their dull, stifled lives, the youths were delighted to see a lone man exiting a phone box. For the second time that morning, Louis had to sprint; but this time his pursuers were younger and fitter than the angry park-keeper had been. Once or twice, even though he ran as fast as he could, Louis felt a hand touch his collar. Using his last reserves of energy, Louis sprinted round a corner and disappeared into a yard, slamming and locking the gates behind him. One or two of the youths rattled the gates a couple of times, but soon lost interest once their companions drew their attention to a new quarry. Hoping that the Unsponsored man the youths were now very vocally pursuing would escape unharmed, Louis waited for his breathing to return to normal, then turned to look at his new surroundings.

‘Oh no,' he said.

***

Louis wasn't the only one having a bad morning; Max Barrington was furious. Still smarting from his earlier telephone conversation with Stephen Dyer, he was deaf to Abi's attempts to call him back to bed.

‘They're sending security up here! They don't think I can do the job! How was I to know the cripple was lying?'

Suddenly rounding on Abi, Max roared, ‘Did you know?'

‘No, Max, I don't know him that well…'

‘Crap! You told me not two days ago you could get information out of him.'

Max had been instructed by Dyer to go and see Louis Trevelyan. Lord William wouldn't be happy unless his watchman had actually seen Louis in person.

‘Don't trust others to do the job, Barrington,' Dyer had snapped. ‘That's not the way His Lordship expects his staff to work. I have to say we're very disappointed in you!'

‘Max,' said Abi from the bed, desperate to calm the angry man and buy Louis more time.

‘Have you any idea how I felt finding there was no sign of Trevelyan in that house? I had to try and explain that to Dyer.' Abi winced at the mention of Dyer's name, but Max either didn't notice or didn't care.

‘Now Lord William thinks I'm useless, and all because I trusted the crip. And you! I trusted you!'

‘Max – Louis may have gone into the woods; he often does…'

‘Yesterday he couldn't move from his bed,' yelled Max. ‘Today he's gadding about on a fucking mountain? Do you think I'm thick?'

Realisation suddenly dawned on the usually quite dense Barrington.

‘You've been distracting me for Trevelyan, haven't you? You fucking bitch, where is he?'

Abi was silent.

‘Don't tell me you've got feelings for that freak?'

‘He's not a freak!' snapped Abi without thinking.

‘Looks like one to me – fucking freak.'

‘He's not a fucking freak, as you so eloquently put it; he's albino.'

‘Same thing!'

‘Completely different thing!'

Knowing it was useless to pretend any more, Abi offered a silent apology to Louis for not doing a better job, then said, ‘I've no idea where he is, and even if I did know I wouldn't tell you.' Grabbing her clothes from the floor, she started to dress herself.

‘Get out of here, you slut! I never want to see you again.'

‘Fine by me!' retorted Abi. ‘You're an arrogant shit, Barrington, and you're crap in bed.'

Max's fist connected with Abi's face, taking her totally by surprise and knocking her to the floor.

‘Get up!' Max spat. ‘Get up, and get out!'

Abi's fist, as unexpected as Max's had been, made far better contact with his face than his had with hers. As he fell to the floor, clutching his nose and crying like a baby, Abi calmly finished dressing then stood over him.

‘Regard that as a lesson learned, Barrington. Goodbye!'

Grabbing her jacket, Abi walked from the guesthouse, outwardly calm as her stomach churned with fear for Louis.

‘Stephen,' said Lord William, beckoning Stephen Dyer into his office. ‘Thank you for coming so promptly, do sit down. I hope I haven't called you away from anything urgent.'

Sitting opposite his boss, Dyer said, ‘Thank you, Lord William. No trouble at all, anything I can do to be of service…'

‘I do have a job for you, Stephen. Two actually. Ah, here's Rose.'

Dyer leapt from his seat as Lady Rosanna entered the room.

‘Morning, Father – is this important?' she said, ignoring Dyer completely and kissing Lord William lightly on the cheek.

‘It is, and I have a little something lined up I think you'll find…entertaining, my darling Rose.' Turning to Dyer, Lord William added, ‘Thankfully I have one child of whom I can be proud.'

Dyer smiled nastily, thinking of the cameras-off time he'd enjoyed that very morning with the child of whom Lord William was least proud.

‘Now then, Rose; Stephen here has discovered that the Trevelyan boy isn't ill in his bed after all. In fact, we don't currently know where he is. I believe Stephen has informed Barrington that he will be disciplined for dereliction of duty. Now, Stephen, as we discussed earlier we have the problem of The White Lion Inn to deal with. Have you decided on the men you wish to take with you to Applethwaite? Good man. While you're there, if you would be so good as to pay a visit to Nicola Trevelyan, I think maybe she needs to be made aware that it's not a good idea to lie to her husband's employer.'

‘It would be a pleasure, Your Lordship,' replied Dyer, feeling happier by the minute. Talk about job satisfaction!

Upstairs, Theo lay in his bath, attempting to cleanse away the memories of Dyer's latest abuse. Listening to the conversation from the room below, he was feeling far from comforted.

Downstairs, in response to the sound of the doorbell, Lord William said, ‘Ah, dead on time.'

A couple of minutes later, Brian Mooreland ushered Lysander Trevelyan into his boss's office.

‘Thank you, Brian. No thank you, I don't think Lysander will be needing refreshments. Now, Trevelyan,' asked Lord William without preamble, ‘where is your son?'

Listening intently, his bath cooling as he forgot about everything other than the conversation downstairs, Theo surmised that Lysander Trevelyan probably wasn't in for the best morning of his life. Unfortunately for Theo, Lysander wasn't the only one in for a bad time.

‘I promise you, Lord William, I don't have anything to do with Louis. I can only go on what Nicola tells me.'

‘She lied. She will be dealt with.'

‘Lord William, she's ill…'

‘What's with the Lord William, Lysander? I used to be WSB; anyone would think you're scared of me all of a sudden.'

‘Not at all…'

‘Well, you should be! Your son is missing. Your daughter and that housekeeper woman are missing too. I know what you think of Mortimer's prediction, but you're well aware that I prefer to be cautious. This is out of character, and I don't like out of character. I am about to demonstrate what happens to those who oppose me, and I don't care who they are!'