The Jade Boy (15 page)

Scritch, scratch…

The noise came from over to the left. At first Jem ignored it. There were always mice or rats scuttling around in the eaves and behind the walls of an old building like Ludlow House. But the noise came again, and this time it sounded more like tapping on the window. He sat up and was surprised and delighted to see the tiny black and white form of Cleo huddled against the panes.

Jem weakly pushed back the bedcovers and walked over to open the window – although it was hot outside, the window was closed in an attempt to keep out the evil miasma of the streets. Everyone knew that plague was carried on the air.

Cleo chattered softly as she leapt into the room. Jumping onto his shoulder, she stroked his ear and nuzzled his neck for a moment before feeling into her little red jerkin. A roll of paper fell to the floor and the monkey dropped lightly from his shoulder to stand beside it. She looked up at him and nudged the roll across the boards in Jem’s direction.

As she did so, Jem noticed that her right paw was oddly clenched and seemed to twist inwards. He bent to collect the paper and stroked her.

“How could Cazalon do that to you, Cleo?” he whispered angrily as he unrolled the paper.

The message was brief.

Jem’s heart leapt.

He read the message again. Ann and Tolly were here in London after all – but why hadn’t he heard from them until now?

He looked down at the monkey, who was staring back up at him intently. Her task completed, Cleo gave one more brief, soft, friendly chirp and jumped back onto the windowledge. With a flick of her tail she was gone, and Jem leaned out to watch as she expertly negotiated the brick ledges and foliage all the way back down to ground level. When she reached a clump of nettle bushes at the bottom, she disappeared from view.

As instructed, just as the city church bells sounded the fourth hour after noon, Jem was waiting at the back gate to Ludlow House. It had been easy to persuade his mother that he was still too weak for kitchen work, and he had been granted leave to rest in the attic for two more days.

Just before the meeting time, Jem changed into some fresh clothes and sneaked through the maze of servants’ passages, out across the stable yard and through the gardens to the back gate, which was overgrown and seldom used. He felt a sharp jolt of happiness and something like relief mixed with gratitude when he saw Tolly and Ann waiting for him on the street.

As he slipped through the ivy-covered gate to join them, a huge grin spread across Tolly’s face, and Ann, although thinner and paler than ever, looked equally delighted.

“Jem!” she ran forward and took his hand. “We weren’t sure if you’d manage to get away. It’s so good to see you.”

“Still alive then?” said Tolly, punching Jem’s shoulder.

“I was wondering the same about you! I thought Cazalon had taken you to France.”

Ann glanced at Tolly and grinned. “He wouldn’t take the likes of us with him! He is attending the French court for the entire summer and isn’t due back in London until the end of August. We have been left in the tender care of Tapwick. I’m sure you can imagine what that’s been like…”

She arched an eyebrow before continuing, “He also placed a sealing charm about Malfurneaux Place and the streets beyond to make sure that we couldn’t go anywhere.”

“But you’re here?” Jem looked questioningly between them.

Tolly smiled even more broadly. “As you know, Ann is very resourceful.”

He spoke aloud. Today, instead of the rich and colourful clothes he usually wore, he was dressed in a loose white shirt and dark breeches. His head was bare, revealing close-cropped, wiry black hair. Cleo popped out from under the folds of Ann’s skirt and jumped up to Tolly’s shoulder.

“You should try to hide her, Tolly. You’ll both draw attention to us,” Ann said.

She turned to Jem. “It’s taken weeks, but gradually I’ve been able to stretch the spell. We’ve managed to go a little further each day, although we couldn’t
cross the river. But then last week we found a break, a sort of hole in the charm. I think I might have stretched it so far that it’s become… frayed at the edge.”

“What about Tapwick?” asked Jem.

Ann’s eyes glittered. “Oh, he’s quite easy to deal with now. He thinks he’s so clever, with his prodigiously sensitive nose and all, but, actually, I can freeze him for hours on end – or make him fall asleep. He never seems to notice. Or if he does, he won’t say anything to Cazalon because he knows he’ll be punished.”

She looked at the busy street around them. Carriages rocked by and people jostled past – some of them stared openly at Tolly, but the colour of his skin wasn’t so much of a novelty on the teeming streets of London as the monkey on his shoulder.

“These poor people have no idea what danger they are in.” She shivered.

It was as if February had suddenly returned. The warm glow of happiness Jem felt on seeing them again evaporated in an instant.

“I– I’ve got so much to tell you.” His words tumbled out in a torrent. “I’ve done something really stupid and I think that Cazalon means to experiment
on Cleo and perhaps you too, Tolly. I mean, I can’t be sure, but I saw these terrible—”

Ann stopped him with a frown as a man slowed beside them to stare at Cleo.

“We must find somewhere we can talk properly, somewhere people won’t pay attention to us,” Ann hissed.

Jem thought hard for a moment and remembered a conversation he’d once overheard between Tobias and one of the other footmen who’d committed a minor offence and wanted to lay low somewhere Wormald would be unlikely to find him.

“Best place for that, my friend, is a tavern. You’ll find all sorts in there and no one asks questions. No one cares if you’re a servant or a prentice boy. As long as you’ve coin in your breeches you can lose yourself in a London ale house for a couple of hours – and very nice it is, too.”

Feeling rather grown-up, Jem repeated Tobias’s suggestion, but he was still a bit surprised when Ann nodded enthusiastically.

“Yes, that would be perfect. Lots of noise, lots of people. The best place to hide is always in a crowd! As long as Cleo stays hidden they’ll be too interested in the ale to notice us.”

“But we can’t just sit there,” said Tolly. “We need money to pay for bread and ale at least. And we don’t have any.”

Ann bent down and picked up a handful of grey pebbles, slipping them into her pocket. “We do now,” she grinned broadly, showing the little gap between her front teeth.

The Jack in the Green was a tavern in a narrow lane quite close to St Paul’s and several streets away from Ludlow House.

The children liked the look of the place immediately. It was busy, but not too busy. Several travellers with trunks and bags were in the doorway, waiting for coaches, and three of the young servers who bustled between the trestles on the rush-strewn floor were about the same age as Jem.

Ann took the lead. Sweeping into the smoky tavern, she made for a partly private booth formed by two tall-backed benches at the far end of the room. She beckoned Tolly and Jem to join to her.

When the landlady, a fat, grease-spattered woman with a red face and thick meaty arms, bustled up to them with a threatening look on her face, Ann
played the lady to perfection, telling her that she was waiting for her father who was up from the country on city business. She even asked about the possibility of taking a room for the night and accommodation for her servants, airily indicating Tolly and Jem.

The woman seemed delighted to have a young lady of quality in her inn and was even happier when Ann displayed four bright coins from her pocket and ordered a jug of small beer, bread and a platter of meat.

“That was impressive,” said Jem when the woman had gone. “Although I’m not sure about the bit when you described me as your servant!”

Tolly laughed. “Me neither – but it seemed to do the trick.”

Ann sighed in exasperation, then checked the room around them before leaning forward to whisper urgently. “Tolly, please try to keep Cleo’s head down!”

Then she turned to Jem. “Right, tell us everything. Try not to leave anything out. Even small details could be important.”

Once he started, Jem found it difficult to stop. Ann and Tolly listened intently.

When he described Cazalon’s experiments on
the dog and the cat, his friends were horrified.

“The cruelty… Those poor creatures.”

Ann’s voice was a cracked whisper and her huge eyes brimmed with glassy tears. “We often hear strange noises, sometimes the most pitiful shrieks and cries, but whenever Tolly goes to find out where they are coming from it’s… it’s as if the house seems to fold in upon itself to hide its secrets.”

Tolly nodded grimly. “And from what you’ve just told us, Jem, it sounds as if it was a good thing I didn’t blunder in on one of his experiments. Did he really say that he was thinking of doing that to Cleo and me?”

Jem nodded miserably.

Tolly put a protective arm around Cleo and huddled her closer. The little group fell silent for a moment, then Ann pushed her white hair back from her face and reached across the table to squeeze Tolly’s hand.

“Go on, Jem.”

He began to describe the library, but Ann stopped him. “Yes, yes. I know all about it. I’ve been there, remember? It’s one of the only parts of Malfurneaux Place where I can move about quite freely. I think it holds so many books belonging to my family that
I am… I don’t know… protected perhaps? It’s as if the house doesn’t notice me among so many other Metcalf things.”

“But don’t you think it’s… odd? The library I mean?” asked Jem.

“Well, of course I do!” she retorted. “But this is Malfurneaux Place, remember? I would have thought that you of all people would appreciate that it’s not like Ludlow House… or anywhere else.”

She stopped and tapped the table irritably, staring at her long elegant fingers, but when she looked up again and caught sight of Jem’s face her voice softened.

“I– I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be so abrupt. I do know this must all be very strange for you.”

Tolly nodded solemnly. “It’s as I told you, Jem. We’ve lived with it for so long now that we’ve ceased to notice how very peculiar it is to someone from… outside.”

Ann smiled. “Just ignore me. Go on. Please.”

When Jem described the fresh mummia and how Cazalon obtained it, Ann gasped in shock at the news that the sarcophagus did indeed contain a mummy. She was so fascinated she took a stub of charcoal and a little notebook from the folds of her
skirt and began to scribble, stopping Jem every now and then to get him to repeat things.

He only faltered when he described the moment in the library when he had been tricked into kneeling.

“Oh Jem, you should have been on your guard.” Ann threw the little charcoal stub down in frustration. But she was absolutely furious seconds later, when he admitted that he’d eaten Cazalon’s food too, slamming the notebook down so hard that several people in the tavern turned to look at them.

“But I warned you!”

“I know. It’s just that he caught me out. Both times he managed to trick me. He cheated, he…” Jem slumped miserably into the seat.

It was probably a good thing that the proprietor reappeared at that point carrying a jug and three pewter tankards. The trio were quiet as they filled the tankards and sipped the ale. It was thin and weak, but always safer to drink than the city’s putrid water.

“I hardly dare to ask this question.” Ann’s voice was tinged with sarcasm. “But you are quite sure that you haven’t given him any of your clothing, aren’t you?”

Jem nodded glumly. “That’s the one rule left, isn’t it?”

“Rite, Jem. The word is rite.” She was still angry. “You have willingly completed four of the five rites of binding. There is just one more rite to go before he will be able to control you completely. Do you understand what this means? You will become his creature. Cazalon will be able to command everything that you say or do.”

“But why would he want that?” Jem looked into the bottom of his tankard as if he might find an answer there. “I don’t understand. Why on earth does he want power over me? What use am I? This doesn’t make any sense.”