The Last Days (42 page)

TWENTY-FIVE

‘M
y God, you look terrible, m’boy. Come in.’ Godfrey looked up and down the street outside his apartment. It seemed quiet enough. Certainly there was no sign of the men who had been stationed there but it was late, after two in the morning. Still, Pyke had taken great care to slip into the building unnoticed.

He had not been able to face the prospect of another long, cold night in the church and had walked the three miles from Holborn to his uncle’s apartment in Camden Town.

In the front room, Godfrey poured him a large brandy and threw some more coal on to the fire. The room was as untidy as Pyke remembered it: piles of books, pamphlets and papers covered every inch of floor space. It had been a while since he was last there, perhaps as much as a year. Pyke felt himself begin to relax. This had been as much a home for him as he had ever known: even the vaguely musty smell was reassuringly familiar.

‘So you gave Emily my address, then?’ Godfrey was wearing his silk dressing gown.

‘How did you know?’

‘I know because she’s here. She turned up on my door-step a few hours ago in quite a state. Told me she’d tried to find you in the church but you weren’t there. Thought you might have been arrested. Or worse.’

Pyke found Emily, half-asleep, curled up in his old bed. For a few moments, she stared at him, as though she did not know where she was, but her anxiety soon gave way to relief; she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into an embrace.

‘I thought you were dead,’ she said, wiping tears from her eyes. ‘I really thought you were dead.’

As he rubbed the tears from her cheeks, he wondered whether she could smell the pungent vermin odour on him.

‘I can’t do it any more,’ Emily said, once the relief at seeing him had worn off.

‘Can’t do what any more?’

‘It’s such a mess.’ Emily sighed. ‘The man my father expects me to marry . . .’

‘He’s dead.’

‘Dead?’ Emily stared at him, bewildered.

‘James Sloan, otherwise known as Jimmy Swift, is dead.’

Briefly, a look of relief registered on her face. Emily had identified Sloan as Swift from Pyke’s earlier description. This was the reason she had fled from his home.

‘Dead how?’ she mouthed.

‘He’s dead,’ Pyke said. ‘That’s all you need to know.’

‘When?’

Pyke stood up and looked around his old bedroom, expecting more of a reaction, but he felt neither validated nor unsettled by the feelings and memories that surfaced.

‘I presume it’s a naive question, but did you . . . kill him?’

‘No.’

She screwed up her face and gave him a quizzical stare. ‘But he’s dead,’ she repeated.

He waited for a few moments. ‘Will you marry me?’ There. He had asked the question.

‘Pardon?’ She did not seem to have understood what he had asked her.

Pyke exhaled loudly. In the silence, he could hear his own heart beating. He wanted to tell her how he felt but his willingness to do so was foundering on her apparent indifference.

‘You just asked me to marry you, didn’t you?’ she exclaimed, as though the notion were an absurd one.

‘It’s perhaps a stupid question, but do you . . .’ He couldn’t bring himself to say it.

‘Do I love you?’ Her expression softened. She even smiled a little. ‘Of course I do.’ The way she said it sounded so pained, so heartfelt, so doomed, he couldn’t help but reach out to her.

‘Perhaps I could talk to him.’ He threaded his fingers through hers.

‘Who? My father?’ She laughed in a derisive manner.

‘I can be quite persuasive.’

‘He won’t countenance it.’ She shrugged. ‘He would never relent. He detests you.’

He pretended to ponder this notion for a while. ‘But can he stop you?’

‘No, but he can disinherit me,’ she said, as though this put an end to the discussion.

Pyke nodded, as though he appreciated the problem. ‘But what if I were to confront him?’

‘For what purpose?’ Emily seemed almost irritated by such a suggestion. ‘Anyway, he’s holed up in Hambledon, protected by his own private militia. You wouldn’t get as far as the main gates.’

‘But it’s a large house. There must be other ways of getting in.’

‘There are, I suppose. But what would you say to him?’

‘I would ask him for your hand in marriage.’

That drew an incredulous laugh. ‘And you think he would readily agree to such an arrangement?’

‘Let me ask you a question. If it was not for the terms of your father’s will, would you marry me then?’

‘But that’s a hypothetical question, isn’t it?’

‘A hypothetical question?’ He tried not to appear annoyed by her answer. ‘What’s hypothetical about it?’

Emily just shrugged.

‘Then perhaps we should address the dilemma from a legal perspective.’

Emily looked at him, frowning. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Perhaps I should talk to your father’s lawyer instead.’

‘You think he’d divulge anything to you?’

‘You know him, then?’

Emily shrugged. ‘We’ve met on occasions. Gerald Atkins. He’s as mean as my father.’

Pyke wondered whether he had already said too much. Emily’s brown eyes were unreadable.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘It all seems so hopeless.’ They stared at one another for a while.

‘Hopeless,’ he repeated listlessly.

‘But you know, it means a lot to me, that you even asked,’ she said, smiling belatedly, as though the subject were no longer worth discussing. She kissed him gently on the mouth.

Pyke wanted so badly to reciprocate, to give in to the kiss, but he managed to pull back from her embrace. In the ebbing candlelight, he could tell from her puzzled reaction that she did not know what he was thinking.

‘What is it?’ Her voice was taut with expectation.

Pyke waited for a moment. Outside on the street, a man and woman were shouting at each other. ‘But if it’s all so hopeless,’ he said, no longer trying to hide his frustration, ‘I don’t understand why you came here tonight.’

It was Emily’s turn to look confused.

‘I understand that you want what is owed to you . . .’

‘What was stolen from my mother,’ Emily said, this time with real anger in her voice.

‘Not simply for yourself but perhaps for your work,’ he agreed.

She nodded gently.

‘It is certainly hard to explain our inclinations and actions in straightforward ways.’ He hesitated and took a deep breath; he knew that now was the time to tell Emily about her mother, but at the very last moment he could not bring himself to do so. It had been his plan to tell her what he had done in order to elicit some kind of favourable response. She would want him because of what he had done. Now, though, he wanted her to want him without knowing what he had done. Perhaps it was stubbornness but dangling her mother in front of Emily seemed, all of a sudden, like a cheap bribe.

‘But?’

‘In the end we all have to make choices.’ Pyke could not bring himself to look at her. ‘And with choices come consequences.’

‘You’re saying I have to make a choice between you and my rightful inheritance?’ She sounded pained.

‘No,’ he said, as softly as he could. ‘That’s what you seem to be saying.’

Emily turned away from him and stared at the wall.

‘Just now, when I said choices bring consequences . . .’

‘Yes?’ But she did not turn around.

‘One might be that when I walk out of this door, we never see one another again.’

He saw that her whole body quivered but still she did not turn to face him.

Later, when Pyke could not sleep, he returned to the living room and found Godfrey sitting up in his easy chair, a blanket wrapped around his legs. His uncle put his book down. ‘You couldn’t sleep either?’

‘Afraid not.’

Godfrey nodded. ‘She’s a lovely girl. And she seems devoted to you.’

‘You think?’ He laughed bitterly.

‘Have to be blind not to see it,’ Godfrey said, reaching for his brandy glass.

‘Perhaps I am.’

‘What? Blind?’

Pyke just shrugged. His whole body felt listless.

Godfrey laughed. ‘Since I rarely find you in such a confessional mood, can I ask you a question?’

‘So long as it has nothing to do with this damned book you want me to write.’

‘No, it’s not that,’ Godfrey said, shaking his head. ‘But don’t think I’ve forgotten about your promise.’

‘What is it, then?’

‘In all the time I’ve known you, you haven’t once asked me about your father; or, for that matter, about your mother.’

Pyke felt his chest tighten. ‘So?’

‘Don’t you want to know what kind of a man he was?’

‘Why should I?’

‘Because he was your father, for a start,’ Godfrey said, exasperated.

‘You were more of a father to me than he was.’ Pyke looked away, uncomfortable with this subject.

‘It’s kind of you, my boy, and I’m gratified to hear you say it, but your father produced you.’

‘Let me ask you a question, then. What good would it do me, to hear what a great man or, alternatively, what a fool he was?’

‘I just thought you might be interested,’ Godfrey said, sounding disappointed. ‘That’s all.’

Pyke took a piece of paper from his trouser pocket, unfolded it and handed it to his uncle. ‘I’ll be gone tomorrow by the time Emily rises. Could you possibly take her to this address for me?’

Godfrey stared at the address for a few moments and frowned. ‘Can you tell me what this is about?’

Pyke shook his head.

‘Will Emily know?’

‘She won’t at first,’ Pyke said, choosing his words carefully. ‘At first, it’ll be a terrible shock. If she can’t guess, tell her I visited an asylum in Portsmouth . . .’

‘An asylum?’ Godfrey screwed up his face. ‘Really, Pyke, what is this about?’

Pyke stared at the fire but didn’t give his uncle an answer.

 

Brownlow Vines was dining alone at Simpson’s on the Strand. He was eating boiled mutton and washing it down with a bottle of claret. Dressed in a stylish black frock-coat, fitted trousers, polished leather boots and a starched white cravat, he looked every inch the dandy. His foppish sideburns and tousled hair completed the look. Pyke waited until he had finished his meal before he appeared. He took a seat opposite him without being invited. Vines stared at him, open-mouthed.

‘Pyke, my God. This is a . . . surprise.’ Vines glanced around the crowded restaurant for assistance.

‘You have to answer for what you did,’ Pyke said, taking his time. He was not in any hurry.

Vines picked up his glass and finished what was in it. ‘Listen, man . . .’ His voice was hoarse. He took off his frock-coat, and Pyke noticed a large sweat stain underneath each armpit.

Pyke leaned forward across the small table and whispered, ‘At any moment, you will start to experience stomach cramps. These will get progressively more painful. Eventually, you will not be able to breathe. The poison you have just ingested’ - Pyke motioned at the empty plate in front of him - ‘is quite deadly but, unlike cyanide or arsenic, it is not a fast-acting agent. I’m afraid you will experience a fair amount of pain. You’ll vomit. You might lose your sight. Eventually you won’t be able to move. I’m told that’s the first indication you’re close to death. Once paralysis sets in, you might have another five or ten minutes of life.’

Vines stared at him for a while, unable to fathom what he had just been told. ‘But I didn’t kill her,’ he said, eventually, quivering with indignation. ‘It wasn’t anything to do with me.’

Pyke stood up, pulled his jacket down and shrugged. ‘I know.’ As he turned to leave, he saw Vines clutch his stomach.

 

Pyke had one final stop to make before he started out on the journey to Hambledon Hall for the last time.

Fox was a difficult man to fathom and it was hard to warm to him: he was cold, often aloof and possessed an air of his own superiority that was the product of perceived intellectual prowess rather than breeding. Perhaps it was this intellectual snobbery that drew him to Pyke, and vice versa, or perhaps Fox was frightened of him or, rather, had needed him to perform tasks that other Runners were unable or unwilling to do. Whatever it was, there was a bond between them that went beyond familiarity. Fox may have been vain and high-handed but he was also fair and scrupulous. He had risked censure and ridicule for treating those who exhibited some remorse for their crimes and whose recidivism could be explained by social circumstances with compassion. He also turned a blind eye to many of Pyke’s moral lapses, and did so without demanding any of the proceeds from his illicit activities.

‘I fancy I can guess why you’re here,’ Fox said, wearily, as though he were indifferent to the whole matter. He offered Pyke a cadaverous smile.