The Aylesford Skull (27 page)

She realized that she was still carrying the truncheon. She wasn’t constituted to beat anyone with such a thing. Her wrist pained her now, as if she had sprained it flailing away like that. But there was no saying what troubles would appear before they were through, and so she held onto it, seeing that the two ahead of her had stopped. The boy in the balaclava seemed to be studying the nearby rooftop now, both hands on the heavy line that served as a rail of sorts. He bounced on his toes, perhaps taking the measure of the gap that separated the bridge from the roof tiles. She had seen him fly in through the window. He didn’t want for courage.

The bridge began to sway even more perilously on its ropes, then, and the boards rose and fell sickeningly beneath her feet. She looked behind her, seeing that George was coming along briskly. The bridge ended some distance farther on. She could make out a door there, a door that was swinging open. Two men appeared and headed toward them from that direction, slow but determined, wary of the swaying bridge, which sagged now as their combined weight bore them downward. In a matter of moments she and the boy and Eddie would simply be rounded up. Mother Laswell waded forward again, calling out to the boy, who picked Eddie up and hefted him. It occurred to her abruptly that the boy meant to pitch Eddie across the void and onto the roof of the nearer building. The stones of the courtyard lay far below: a fall would kill him.

“You dasn’t!” Mother Laswell shouted out. “Leave him. I’ll do what I can for him.” She staggered up to him and put her hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “Killing the boy wouldn’t serve.”

She spoke the evident truth, and the boy saw it. “I’ll find you,” he said, his voice muffled. He pushed Eddie into Mother Laswell’s arms and looked into her face for a moment as if to make certain that he would know her again. He took one last look at the two men – ten feet away now – and then vaulted up onto the taut rope, dipped his weight twice, and launched himself upward and forward, latching onto an iron vent pipe protruding through the roof and scrabbling for a moment against the tiles with his feet. The bridge reeled backward despite the stays, swinging like a hammock, and Mother Laswell fell to her knees, clutching Eddie with one arm, holding onto the line with her free hand. The boy was up and moving, over the peak of the roof and disappearing down the other side.

The men closed in on her, in no hurry now. The bridge steadied itself. They couldn’t follow the marvelous boy. He was safe, at least for the moment. She had an ally in London, and that was worth something. Eddie, alas, was not safe, nor was she, although she cared little for herself at this juncture. George bowed to her, betraying no emotion at all, certainly not anger. With a backhanded fling she sent his truncheon cartwheeling away across the rooftops.

“We’ll need to make haste, Mother,” he said. The blood had dried on his face now, one of his eyes blackened. “There’s been a mort of gunfire, and there’s no telling what might come of it if we linger. Down through the passage now, lads, we’re finished here.” His two silent cohorts, one of them handsome enough to be on the stage if it weren’t for a shockingly disfigured face, turned and set out toward the door that yawned open fifty feet away. The other man was pear-shaped and appeared to be dim-witted.

Mother Laswell looked back toward the penthouse above the arch, but the lamps had been put out, all but one. Two shadows passed behind the broken window, carrying what appeared to be crates. A night breeze had sprung up out of the east, and the fog had cleared away, the stars shining overhead, roundabout the tired moon. She considered screaming at the top of her lungs as she shepherded Eddie along before her, just in case George’s fears were correct, and her screaming would fetch the police. But George might be compelled to silence her – surely he wouldn’t hesitate to do so – and there was Eddie to think of, along with everything else. Alive and healthy she might yet do some good.

An oil lamp, emitting greasy smoke, lit the stairs spiraling downward, the stairwell so narrow that her shoulders nearly brushed the walls and she was compelled to let Eddie go on ahead of her, although he clutched her hand fiercely. She was happy for the solid footing. They came out into the courtyard, which was filling with people again, bending out from within their homes, such as they were, now that the mayhem was apparently over.

A small, weasel-faced man, flashily dressed, walked up to them, bent over, and chucked Eddie under the chin. “What have we here?” he asked, grinning falsely. Eddie trod backward, pressing into Mother Laswell.

“Bugger off, Crumpet,” George said to the man. “It’s like you to show up when the jollification’s over.”

“Or just begun,” Crumpet said, looking at Eddie rather than George. He thrust his tongue out and touched the tip of his own nose, and then winked. “But as for all that, I’ve got a job of work to do in the morning. I’ve been busy with the apparatus while you’ve been brawling.”

“Then you and your apparatus can blow yourselves to damnation. You’ve got the Doctor’s sanction for the moment, slipgibbet, but your time will come, mark my words,” George said. To Mother Laswell he added, “I’ll take charge of the lad now. That way leads to Whitechapel Road ma’am. You’d best be moving along now, while it’s still early. Fred and Coker here will see you clear of the rookery. Bear south for the river and Tower Bridge. Perhaps there’s a late train to Aylesford. The Doctor made it clear that we were to bring him the boy, but he said nothing about you, ma’am, and so you’d best be away before I’m told different. There’s nought that you can do here now. For your own sake go home, and let the fates see to the future.”

“The child is innocent,” she said, looking hard into George’s face. “I charge you with keeping him safe, for the sake of your mortal soul. It’s not the fates that will see to your future.
You’ll
see to it, sir. We all of us will, if we want to save ourselves from the fires of Hell. I don’t believe it’s in you to see a child hurt. I can tell that much in your face, although not in your friend’s face.” She nodded at the small man, who stood leering, but kept George’s eye. “He’s rubbish,” she said, “but you’re a better man than you know. Think on that.”

“He’s no friend of mine, ma’am. But you’d best move along. You can’t change things here.”

George didn’t look away, but held her gaze, and she wondered if her words would have any effect. She turned abruptly and hurried off, Fred and Coker following close behind. Eddie cried out, but she was forced by circumstance to keep on, swearing to herself that she would return for him, although she had no idea what she meant or how she would do it.

Presently the broad thoroughfare of Whitechapel Road opened before her, and she found herself walking southward, as George had suggested. When she crossed Commercial Street through the traffic, she looked back. Fred and Coker had vanished, and she was alone, although not adrift. She had no notion of a late train to Aylesford. She had left Mabel to her own devices three hours ago, and would return to Lime Street now to look in on her. She wanted a friend, although she was unsure whether Mabel would especially want her back, given the trouble she had brought with her.

She hadn’t gone twenty paces, however, when she saw a man whom she recognized coming along in the opposite direction across the street, his features clearly visible in the gaslight. He looked straight ahead and walked at a steady pace, as if he would be happy to quit the neighborhood as quickly as he could, but without attracting attention. He wore the chin whiskers, the wig, and the black coat of the man who had been hidden in the room with Eddie. But there was something else about him...

And then suddenly she knew him, beneath the disguise and despite his being much older than when she had last seen him. He had visited her husband several times at Hereafter Farm, not long before Edward’s death. Now here he was closeted with Narbondo. After the scene in Narbondo’s rooms, he would of course know her identity, but had he seen her here on the street, or did he suppose that she had gone on her way after being dismissed?
In for a penny
, she thought, and took six more steps before crossing the road, turning to follow him as he rounded the corner.

* * *

Mabel Morningstar felt very nearly human again. She had awakened famished – the pain in her forehead quite disappeared – and had gone downstairs to the tavern for a bowl of barley soup and some bread and cheese, which had set her up remarkably. Over dinner her mind and heart were caught up in considerations of her friend’s sad state, the warring emotions and the maelstrom into which she was determined to fling herself. Mabel could think of nothing she could do to help; indeed, she scarcely understood Harriet Laswell’s motivations or intentions. Rarely had she sensed a mind so terribly unsure of itself and yet so utterly compelled to act.

It was late when she returned to her rooms, carrying the uneaten portion of cheese and bread for the next morning’s breakfast. Having slept away most of the day and evening, bed was out of the question, so she poured herself a glass of cognac, which, she considered, she heartily deserved, and sat down in her reading chair in the corner of the room, where there was the best light.
Northanger Abbey
lay on the table beside the chair – not her favorite of Miss Austen’s novels, but by no means to be despised. When she tried to read it, however, she found that she couldn’t attend to it.

She studied the ruined table map again, astonished anew at the long, straight tear in the vellum, recalling the terrible moment when her senses had been overpowered and she had lost consciousness. She mouthed a silent prayer for her friend: that Harriet come out of this with her wits about her and without regret, or at least no more regret than she could tolerate.

She heard footfalls on the stairs now – a man, from the sound of the heavy tread. She snatched up the paper knife without a thought, fear surging through her as the memory of that staring, slowly approaching face imposed itself upon her mind. At the same time she was astonished that the memory had returned with such potency. The footfalls stopped outside the door, and there was a long silence in which she composed herself, the fear having passed away as quickly as it had arrived. It came to her that this was a complete stranger, a customer, perhaps. She set down the paper knife, feeling slightly foolish. There was a hesitant knock, a shuffling of feet.

She arose and opened the door, bracing it with the toe of her shoe. A tall, lanky, haggard-looking man stood on the landing, twisting his cap in his hands. He had evidently taken two steps back from the door, so as not to impose himself upon her.

“I’m Bill Kraken, ma’am,” he said. “You don’t know the name, but I’m a friend of Mother Laswell, and I’ve come up to London to see her safe back home to Aylesford. I come here straightaway on the chance that she called upon you, you being her friend.”

There was something about his demeanor that appealed to Mabel – a natural humility, certainly, and some sort of goodness that shone in his admittedly odd features. “She did indeed,” Mabel said. “Will you come in?” She stood aside and gestured.

He entered hesitantly, as if it were beyond his station to do so. “I’m main desperate to find her,” Kraken said. “She left Hereafter Farm this morning in a thundercloud. When I found out I most despaired of finding her once I got here, London being the behemoth of old. But it come to me to search for her logbook before I left, which is what she wrote in before supper. It took me most of an hour to find it. I come across your name in it, ma’am, and a mention of the Ship Tavern, what stands below on the street and what I knew well enough of old, and here I am, a-searching for lost things, like your sign says, and I mean to find her come what may.”

“I’m very glad to meet you, Mr. Kraken,” she said, “and I’m happy to hear that she has a stalwart friend. Take a chair at the table and eat a morsel. You’ve had a long day of it.”

He stood staring, still twisting his cap, which she took from him and laid on the sideboard before gesturing at a wooden chair by the dining table. “Right there, sir. You can take five minutes to collect yourself and eat some of this cheese and bread. I can offer you a glass of this capital French brandy or a bottle of ale, or both.”

“Ale would go down most grateful, ma’am,” Kraken said.

She set the plate in front of him and fetched the ale from her small kitchen. “Eat that, sir,” she said. “Don’t stand on ceremony. I’ll tell you straightaway that Mother’s gone into Spitalfields to find...”

“I know who she means to find and what she means to do to him,” he said, talking from behind his hand as he chewed his food. “I mean to stop her, although I’m late in coming. It ain’t right that she kill her own son, and no matter the reason. It would do for her, do you see? For good and all. I’ll gladly take up the burden and...”

“Kill her son?”

“Yes, ma’am. She took her little flintlock pistol out of the case. She’ll use it, too, if I don’t find her, or else she’ll come to harm trying. Spitalfields, you say?” He rose from the chair, draining half the bottle of ale at a gulp and apparently determined to be on his way, dinner or no.

She picked up the vellum map and handed it to him. “It’s just here,” she said, pointing at the endpoint of the tear. “Do you know the area? It’s a Hell on Earth, the rookery is, so mind yourself.” She picked up a napkin and loaded the bread and cheese into it, tying it up into a bundle.

“When I was a pea-pod man I knew it well enough, although it’s nowhere for...” He shook his head darkly. “Ah, Christ,” he said. “I thank you for your kindness ma’am, but I’d best be on my way. If she should return, you’d do her a service were you to lock her in.”

With that Kraken snatched his hat from atop the sideboard, put it on, and took the bread and cheese in both hands. Mabel opened the door, and he loped away down the stairs clutching the torn map under his arm, his footfalls quickly fading. She stood for a minute looking down after him. In the many years she had known Mother Laswell, she had thought that both her sons were dead, but apparently she hadn’t known her friend well at all.
The more a secret torments us
, she thought,
the more we keep it near, as if it were a precious stone and not a fragment of Hell
.