Execution Dock (38 page)

The police were busy with the arrests.

Rathbone questioned the boys gently, drawing out detail after hideous detail. He persisted, writing everything down in a little notebook from his pocket.

Meanwhile, Sutton rummaged for all the food he could find. Most of it was delicacies meant for the jaded palates of gentlemen, not the empty stomachs of children, but he made something better of it than Hester could have.

She did the best she could to treat the boys’ hurts with cold water, salt, and good shirts and underwear torn up to make bandages. For once it was a disadvantage not to have been wearing petticoats. As soon as there were boats available she would get them to the clinic in Portpool Lane and do all this better. For now just care and gentleness helped, and the knowledge that they were on the brink of freedom. She did not stop to think how much better it would be if she could tell them that Phillips was on his way to prison, and would soon be dead.

Monk climbed the steps on to the deck as the pale, cold fingers of light crept across the water. The high tide was past and beginning to drop again. The outlines of the warehouses and cranes were sharp black against the sky. Even as he watched, the darkness receded and he saw the stakes of Execution Dock tracking the shining surface of the river. It was not until he looked more closely that he realized there were bodies there, just tipping above the tide.

A string of lighters went by, their passage creating a wash, which uncovered Sullivan's dead body. His throat gaped open where he had slashed it himself in a last act of despair. Possibly it was some kind of reparation, because trapped inside the pirate gallows, eyes wide open, mouth in an eternal shriek as the water he dreaded closed over his living face, was what was left of Jericho Phillips.

There were footsteps on the wood behind him and Monk turned to see Hester. “Don't…” he began, but it was too late.

She looked across the retreating wash, her mouth pulled tight, her eyes filled with great pity “I've seen dead men before,” she told him, slipping her hand into his. “I would sooner that God had to deal with that one than we did. We'll just try to heal some of the pain.”

He put his arms around her and held her, feeling the strength in her, and the gentleness. It was all he needed to face any battle, now or ever.

ANNE PERRY is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels, including
Dark Assassin and The Shifting Tide
, and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including
Buckingham Palace Gardens
and
Long Spoon Lane.
She is also the author of the World War I novels
No Graves As Yet, Shoulder the Sky, Angels in the Gloom, At Some Disputed Barricade
, and
We Shall Not Sleep
, as well as six holiday novels, most recently
A Christmas Grace.
Anne Perry lives in Scotland.

www.anneperry.net.

Document ID: fbd-355b25-4fed-e143-7eac-adec-fa1d-4c81f0

Document version: 1

Document creation date: 20.11.2009

Created using: Fiction Book Designer software

This book was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.0.35.0.

Эта книга создана при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.0.35.0 написанного Lord KiRon