The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein (23 page)

AS SOON AS I HAD LEFT
Clerkenwell I made my way to Bartholomew Close, where my lawyer kept his chambers. Mr. Garnett had assisted me over the purchase of the workshop in Lambeth, but I knew from his own account that he also dealt in criminal matters. He was a man of sanguine complexion, full of pleasantries, and he listened attentively as I laid out the facts of the matter.

“Your friend,” he said, “is in a deal of trouble. I have read of the case, Mr. Frankenstein, in the
Chronicle.”

“Is opinion against him?”

“Decidedly. But that is no bar to justice.”

He possessed a reassuring manner, which I caught at eagerly. “Can Daniel be saved then?”

“If it is within the bounds of possibility, then it will be done. Where are the husband and child of the unfortunate lady?”

“The child is with her sisters in Whitechapel. The husband-has retired to the country for some rest.”

“He is the son of a baronet, is he not? According to the
Chronicle.”

“That is so.”

“Your friend’s position is all the more difficult. Will you join me in a glass of sherry? Cold weather, is it not?” He rose from his desk and, after pouring out two glasses, he went over to the window. “I get a very good view of the churchyard, Mr. Frankenstein. It is an interesting speculation how many lie buried there. Over the centuries, it amounts to a fair number. If they were all to rise again, I feel sure that the neighbourhood would be crowded.”

It was not a speculation that I cared to pursue. “Is there any chance that Daniel might be released before his trial?”

He laughed, in the politest manner. “Not the slightest possibility, I am afraid. Unthinkable. If he is innocent, of course, then the murderer is still walking on the streets of London. It is to be hoped that he kills again, in exactly the same circumstances.”

“So Daniel might then be cleared?”

“A case could be made. Do you have any doubts about your friend’s innocence?”

“No. None whatever.”

“What makes you so certain?”

I hesitated for a moment. “I know him very well. Violence is utterly foreign to his nature. Especially against his beloved sister.”

“But people are not always what they seem, Mr. Frankenstein. They harbour secrets. They work in the dark.”

“Not Daniel.”

“Very well. I will visit the police office this afternoon, and acquaint myself with the evidence in this case. Do not attempt to see the prisoner, if you please. You should not be implicated in this matter. I will be your messenger. The authorities know me well enough. In the meantime I suggest that you leave London for the cleaner air. The fogs are almost upon us.”

“But Daniel—”

“Nothing can be done before the trial. Leave me an address where I can find you.”

MY EXPERIENCES OF THAT DAY
, and my encounter with Daniel in his prison cell, had left me exhausted. I returned to Jermyn Street where Fred had prepared me a dish of eggs and butter. “Have you seen the fiend in human form?” he asked me.

“What? What are you saying to me?”

I must have looked fiercely at him, because he recoiled from my glance. “The brother, sir.”

“The brother?” I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts. “Yes. I have seen him. He is not a fiend. He is as innocent of this crime as you are, Fred.” At this moment, I sank my head and wept.

Fred became agitated, hopping from one leg to the other. “Would you care for more butter, sir?” He rushed out of the
room, and came back with a handkerchief that he placed delicately beside my chair. I cried for myself—I cried for Daniel—I cried for Harriet—the whole storm of tears all the darker for the absence of any possible relief. Mr. Garnett had advised me to leave London, and for an instant I thought of travelling to Marlow to be with Bysshe, but a moment’s consideration dissuaded me. I still wished to encounter the creature: if I could not placate him, or persuade him to retire to some solitary place, I would somehow have to end the life that I had created. There was no other course. He had overturned my electrical machines in the Limehouse workshop, but might there be some way of harnessing the batteries and of destroying him?

IN MY EAGERNESS
to hear news of Daniel I went back to Bartholomew Close the next day, where Mr. Garnett welcomed me with a grave countenance. “I can offer you very little hope,” he said. “The evidence is very powerful. It seems that your friend—that Mr. Westbrook—has almost confessed to the crime.”

“How could he confess to that which he did not commit?”

“When he was apprehended at the Serpentine, he was confused and scarcely intelligible.”

“He had just been rudely awaken from sleep.”

“He muttered that something dreadful had happened to his sister.”

“A premonition. A vision.”

“The law places no trust in visions, Mr. Frankenstein.” He went over to the window, and once more looked over the
churchyard of St. Bartholomew’s. “Will you be staying in London, after all?”

“I must remain for a few days.”

“Of course. The funeral of Mrs. Shelley is to be conducted on Friday. Would you wish me to accompany you?”

“No. That is kind of you. But I will go with Bysshe.”

“At the church of St. Barnabas. In Whitechapel.” He wrote down the locality, and the time, upon a card. “Please pay my compliments to Mr. Shelley.”

AS SOON AS I RETURNED
to Jermyn Street I summoned Fred, and asked him to travel with all possible speed to Marlow. “Change coaches if you must,” I told him. “Fly like the wind. Take this note with you.” I scribbled a message begging him to abandon his isolation and return for Harriet’s funeral. “Do not rest,” I said as I pressed the note into his hand.

“I am here,” he said. “But I am gone already.”

“Mr. Shelley will not be difficult to find.”

“Odd cove, I shall say. Dressed in blue. Cravat untied.”

I awaited their return with eagerness. Mr. Garnett was a good prognosticator: the fogs did arrive, early that afternoon, and I could see nothing from my window but the curling grey and green vapours stirred by a fitful wind. I could make out the figures in the street only vaguely, just as dark shapes against the shifting miasma. There were occasions when a figure taller, or faster, than others arrested my attention. Could it be the creature pacing up and down beside my door? In my restless state of mind I could almost have welcomed the confrontation—I was resolute in my intention to tame him.

On the following afternoon I heard the step of Fred upon the stairs. He came into the room alone. “Where is Mr. Shelley?”

“He sends his regrets, sir. He was ever so tearful.”

Fred then handed me a letter, addressed to me in Bysshe’s characteristic large and sprawling hand. He apologised for remaining in Marlow, but blamed his wretched and enfeebled state; he did not have the strength to attend Harriet’s funeral, which would only add another burden of woe to the sorrow he now felt. Although he bitterly remonstrated with himself for his incapacity, he knew that it would be a blow to shatter him:

I cannot as yet comprehend Harriet’s death, and to see her lowered in a few feet of churchyard earth, and to hear the nonsense of the parson, would diminish the significance of her loss to me
.

He then went on to inform me that the Godwins had taken a house at Marlow to be near him:

I have spoken before of Mr. Godwin, the social philosopher. He is a great exponent of Progress, and offers me much comfort. He is accompanied by his daughter, Mary, who is the child of the revered Mary Wollstonecraft. Mr. Godwin tells me that she has all of her mother’s fire and intelligence. I can quite believe it. Pray kiss the Westbrook sisters for me. I will be writing to them. Your ever devoted Bysshe
.

I was surprised by the brevity of the letter, and by Bysshe’s reluctance to be present at the funeral, but I ascribed both to his overwhelming grief.

I ATTENDED THE FUNERAL
on that Friday morning, in the little church of St. Barnabas just beyond the Whitechapel High Road. Harriet’s sisters were blank with grief. Emily was carrying the infant, Ianthe, who remained quite silent throughout the ceremony. Once I had looked upon Emily with affection, but the faint stirrings of that emotion had long since left me. Their father seemed more robust and, if I may say it, more cheerful than on the occasion when I had last encountered him. It was snowing thickly when we stepped into the churchyard, and the open grave was already fringed with white when poor Harriet’s coffin was laid into the soil. Just as it reached the level earth there was a sudden rustling in the bank of trees behind us, as if someone or something was thrashing in the branches. I am convinced that all of us at that moment experienced a sudden horror—for me it was evidence of the creature, as I thought, but for the others the object of some unknown fear.

“A fox,” Mr. Westbrook said in a loud voice. “The little foxes that spoil the vines.”

Emily came up to me afterwards, still holding Ianthe in her arms. “Daniel’s trial is set for Monday morning,” she said. “Will you come?”

“Of course.”

“Is there hope?”

“I cannot pretend to you, Emily, that I harbour any.”

“I thought not. But you will be there?” I promised once more to attend. “Mr. Shelley has written to us about Ianthe.”

“He told me so.”

“He strongly desires that we should continue to be her guardians. It is what we wish to do.”

“She could have no better care.”

“We will teach her to respect her father and to venerate the memory of her mother.” I was struck, as I had been on first meeting her, by Emily’s strength of purpose.