Avery & Blake 02 - The Infidel Stain (45 page)

‘As far as I know, Mr Dearlove did no such thing,’ he said.

I tried in vain to think as Blake would have, but I could only think as myself. There seemed nothing for it but to go to Charles Street, though I had little idea of what I would say and little hope that it would do any good.

Even as I stood on the doorstep, I wondered whether I should be collecting witnesses for Blake, but then the footman appeared, and I presented my card and the note I had prepared. It said that I was returning to Devon, and wished to say goodbye to Matty Horner. Also that I should like to pay my respects to His Lordship before I left, and that I wished to apologize once again for Jeremiah Blake’s impoliteness.

I was told I might wait. I was shown into the usual bare drawing-room. Today’s pamphlet was entitled
And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever
.
Timothy, chapter 2, verse 4
.

Outside the door I could hear voices. I could not make out the words, but it seemed to me that one was remonstrating with another. At length, Lord Allington appeared, followed by the ubiquitous Threlfall, who closed the door behind him and remained mulishly in the corner. His Lordship took his seat behind his desk, carefully placed his wrists upon it and interlaced his long, slender fingers.

‘You are well, Your Lordship?’ I said, my head full of questions.

I fancied he winced a little. ‘Thank you, Captain Avery, I am. So, you are to leave London?’

‘My wife is with child, sir. I must be getting home. I wish to say goodbye to Miss Horner, and also to express my shock regarding the ragged-school teacher, Mr Dearlove. He was the reason, after all, that the matter of the printers came to light. I was most upset by his death. I hope the new police are able to find his murderer.’

‘I, too, am deeply troubled by it. Deeply. And he is a great loss. A great loss. I prayed for his soul when I heard. I assume this dreadful matter has once again spurred Mr Blake to action?’ Allington’s absurdly long lashes swept down. He twisted the one plain gold signet ring he wore on his left hand.

‘If you mean does he still think about the murders,’ I said, ‘I know he does. He is convinced Dearlove’s death is connected to those of the printers.’

‘I commend his persistence. As St Paul says in Corinthians, “Stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” Has he made any progress?’

‘I think he would say he has,’ I said carefully, ‘though he has come up against an obstruction.’ I could not help but wonder whether Allington knew, or had even had a hand in, Blake’s arrest.

‘I am sorry I abandoned the investigation,’ said Allington. ‘I am forced to admit the police have made little progress. I should like to hear Mr Blake’s conclusions now, though no doubt he would be reluctant to give them to me.’

‘I am surprised to hear you say that, Your Lordship,’ I said, ‘and I will happily answer that question once I have seen Matty Horner.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘This is the third attempt I have made to see her since she came here, Your Lordship. Each time I have failed. I was responsible for bringing Matty into your orbit. It is not unreasonable to ask to see her and be sure she is content with the great change in her circumstances.’

‘Captain Avery, I am sorry, I must confess to some confusion. Miss Horner is not here and has not been for some days,’ said His Lordship.

‘Then I am mystified, Your Lordship,’ I said, ‘for I have been informed that as of this morning, Matty had not arrived at the Union school in Norwood.’

Lord Allington turned his pale-blue gaze upon me. ‘Perhaps you have made inquiries at the wrong establishment.’

‘I am sure that is not the case, Your Lordship.’

‘If I may, Your Lordship,’ said Threlfall, and I started, for in all our dealings with Lord Allington, Threlfall had barely ventured a single
comment in the company of his master. ‘It transpires that Norwood did not have a place for a girl of her advanced age. Lady Agnes has, I believe, made arrangements to place Miss Horner in a respectable household as a maid.’

‘May I have the address?’ I said. ‘I should like to visit today, before I leave town.’

Lord Allington looked at Threlfall expectantly.

‘I do not know where it is,’ he said awkwardly, smoothing the sides of his moustache.

‘Well then, Threlfall, will you go and find Lady Agnes,’ Allington said, with a hint of impatience.

Threlfall hesitated, as if he should have liked to say something more, but instead he backed obediently out of the door.

I now felt exceedingly uneasy.

‘As I was saying,’ His Lordship continued, ‘I should be very glad if you would enlighten me regarding Mr Blake’s discoveries.’

There seemed nothing for it but to comply. ‘Well, at first Mr Blake assumed the printers’ deaths must have come about as a result of the victims’ illegal dealings, but we could find no evidence of this, and so he became convinced that they must have died for some other reason. We have since discovered that they met twenty years ago, brought together by their radical political convictions. And that the Right Honourable John Heffernan MP was also part of their circle.’

‘Heffernan?’ said Allington faintly. He ran one elegant hand through his hair. He seemed genuinely surprised.

‘Yes, sir. They were all republicans and infidels, and Heffernan toyed with political radicalism. They all eventually publicly renounced their pasts, but continued to work in secret for their cause. Recently they had been giving money from the sales of their illicit publications to the physical-force branch of the Chartists, and Heffernan has been helping them.’

‘
The Chartists
. So they were part of it.’

‘Yes. Lord Allington, you said you met Eldred Woundy some months ago. I must ask you, was it John Heffernan who introduced you?’

Allington was already pale. His skin seemed to take on an almost blue whiteness. He did not speak for some time.

‘Why yes, it was.’

‘But you did not mention it when you told us you had met Mr Woundy,’ I said, aware that I was about to trespass over the bounds of courtesy.

Lady Agnes chose this moment to sweep into the room, her thick brown hair pinned simply but perfectly to given an impression of unassuming modesty. Threlfall trotted after her like an obedient little dog.

‘Captain Avery wishes to see Miss Horner before he leaves London, Agnes.’

‘I would be most grateful if you could give me the address of her new employers,’ I added.

‘I am not sure she should be disturbed so soon after taking up her position,’ said Lady Agnes.

‘Agnes?’Allington frowned at her.

‘Madam, I believe I have a good claim upon her attention and I have important news for her regarding her brother,’ I said.

There was a short silence. ‘That is to say,’ she said awkwardly, ‘she is to be placed in a respectable household. I have selected it.’

‘Then where is she?’ I said.

Lady Agnes struggled with herself for a moment. ‘She is here, but she has not been well. Exhaustion and a malady of the stomach.’

‘My apologies, Captain Avery. I had no idea,’ said Allington.

‘Her health was perfectly good when last I saw her,’ I said. ‘I should like to see her now.’

‘Do not trespass too much upon our good faith, sir,’ said Lady Agnes.

‘I wish you had kept me abreast of this,’ said Allington. ‘Is she well enough to receive visitors? What did the doctor say?’

Lady Agnes hesitated. ‘I think she would likely be ill at ease if visited in her current state.’

‘I wish to see her now,’ I said.

Lady Agnes made a silent appeal to her brother.

‘My dear,’ he said firmly, ‘you will arrange it.’

There was a hint of mutiny in the look she gave him, but then she cast her eyes down and left the room, Threlfall in her wake.

‘Where were we?’ Allington stood and began to pace. ‘You asked about Mr Heffernan. It is true that he introduced me to Mr Woundy. No doubt I should have mentioned it but I am introduced to such men all the time, and through many different avenues. It was just as he was launching his eponymous newspaper. Heffernan described him as a respectable man of modest background with energy and ambition in the philanthropic line, and I had no reason to doubt him. Heffernan has a reputation as a rather “sociable” gentleman, but is also much engaged in social reform and philanthropy.’

‘Your Lordship, Mr Heffernan admitted to us that he made introductions between Eldred Woundy and a number of men of wealth and high station, and that Woundy found ways of playing upon either their vices or their political sympathies, and then blackmailed them.’

There was another silence, then, ‘I see.’

‘It seems that some of this money was passed to the physical-force Chartists, who have used it to fund a conspiracy to try to raise London.’

If it were possible, Allington seemed to grow yet paler. ‘I can think of no worse destination for it,’ he said.

‘I am sure you will be relieved to know then,’ I hurried on, ‘that Mr Blake has helped in the discovery and apprehension of the plot and the perpetrators.’

‘That is some comfort.’

And so I asked the question I had been dreading. ‘Your Lordship, were you one of those whom Eldred Woundy blackmailed?’

‘I was not.’

I did not believe him. ‘I am sorry, Your Lordship, I had to ask.’

‘Did you?’ he said, considerably less amiably. ‘May I ask where Mr Blake is?’

‘He has been arrested for the murder of Eldred Woundy. It is a travesty of course. I spent the night of Woundy’s murder in his company.’ This was not strictly true.

‘Then it should be a small matter to get him released.’

‘The police seem determined to have him. I fear corruption in high places. Your Lordship, if there is anything you can remember, anything you can say to aid his release, I implore you to do it.’

‘I cannot think what you mean.’

Threlfall appeared. ‘If Captain Avery will come upstairs?’

‘Do, Captain Avery,’ said Lord Allington, ‘then take your leave. We have no more to say.’

I followed Threlfall up the elegant staircase past the first and second floors, and then continued up into the servants’ attic realm. We walked the length of the house along a dingy, low-ceilinged corridor. At the last door Threlfall stopped. Matty was lying on a small pallet bed. She wore a grey nightdress and her feet were bare. She was scrubbed and clean, and her hair shone, but her face was grey and there were beads of perspiration on her forehead though the room was chilly. She was struggling to keep her eyes open. I bent over the pillow. Her breathing seemed very laboured.

‘I thought you would never come,’ she mumbled. ‘I thought you had forgotten me.’

‘Never,’ I said, ‘I would never forget you.’

She tried to rouse herself. ‘I knew him,’ she whispered. ‘I knew him when I saw him at Coldbath Fields. I’d seen him before. At Nat’s.’ Her eyelids fluttered. She tried to speak again but she could not.

‘What have they done to you?’

There was a crack on my head and something slapped me in the face. My eyes burned, I could not breathe. Someone took hold of my arms. I could not break free and I felt myself fall into the dark.

All things were blurred. My eyes stung, my throat burned and I could not breathe through my nose. I felt slow and stone-headed. I could not move my hands.

Gradually my eyes settled.

I was in the same attic room. Threlfall was slumped on a chair by
the door, snoring quietly. Matty lay on the bed, utterly still. There was a candle on the chest of drawers. My hands were tied behind my back. For some time I shifted and tried to stand, but my legs were quite useless. Then Threlfall opened his eyes and saw I was awake. He stood, stretched, and left the room without meeting my gaze. I would have shouted but my throat was so raw I could hardly speak.

Again I tried to call out to Matty, but all that emerged was a dry croak, and my attempts to move myself across the floor were hopeless. I prayed that we might be left alone until I was more recovered.

But now Threlfall returned with Lady Agnes. He was anxious, she matter-of-fact. She glanced at me, then directed him to the far side of Matty’s bed. Neither spoke a word.

Threlfall took hold of the girl’s hands as she tried feebly to resist. Lady Agnes picked up a small glass bottle and forced open Matty’s mouth. Again Matty tried to resist. As Lady Agnes attempted to pour the contents down her throat, she choked and coughed and thrashed from side to side, and the liquid splashed across the sheets. Lady Agnes slapped her.

I, able neither to move nor speak, could only sit and watch.

Then there were footsteps on the creaking boards outside, the door handle turned, and there was Allington, or the back of him. He came slowly into the room, his hands raised. And behind him, a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other, came Blake.

Seeing me, he grinned.

Threlfall uttered a small scream. Lady Agnes cried, ‘What have you done!’ The bottle she had been feeding to Matty was nowhere to be seen. The scene was so unlikely I wondered for a moment if I were dreaming. Realizing it was real, I could not decide if I was glad of Blake’s entrance or should be fearful for what it meant.