Ghosts by Gaslight - Jack Dann [55]
I hesitated, and she said, “Do you imagine that you will be the first man to ravish a corpse? You go where tens of thousands have gone before you, and you will leave in your wake no bitter tears.”
God help me, sir, I did as she had suggested. When I rose, she was gone. I called out to her, but received no response.
I had promised to carry her to a place where she would soon be found; I did so and set out to avenge her. Of my desperate struggle with my master I shall say nothing. The court has recorded it, and posterity may read of it if it chooses. Suffice it to say that his shouts and the sounds of my blows roused the whole house. Those who would have rescued him arrived too late, but subdued me without the least struggle.
A fettered prisoner in a cell has no news save what his visitors bring him, and I had no visitors until my trial had begun. Conceive, then, of my amazement when I saw Miss Landon in the courtroom, seated primly beside her father. She sobbed quite audibly when the condition of my master’s body was described, and I could do nothing and say nothing.
Her father came alone the next day to hear the jury’s verdict, and to my astonishment visited me in my cell not long after I was returned to it.
“You live wretchedly here,” he said.
To which I nodded. “Wretchedly, and not long.”
“Do you smoke? I will give you a cigar.”
Shaking my head, I thanked him.
“A tot of brandy then.” He unscrewed the top of his walking stick and passed it to me. I took a good long swallow, thanked him, and returned it to him. You are not to believe from my drinking so that the thought of poison had not crossed my mind. He was a physician, after all, and might readily have introduced some devilish compound; but I had sooner died in my cell than wait there to be hanged.
He wiped the rim and drank himself, and truly drank, for I saw the movement of his throat. A handkerchief served to blot his lips. “It is my understanding,” he told me, “that prisoners in possession of funds may buy certain comforts here, things sold by the warders. Shillings might be best, I suppose. I will give you twenty if you desire them, and a one-pound note to wrap them in.”
I thanked him and accepted the money. “You wish my friendship, plainly,” I declared. “You have it. How can such a wretch as I be of service to you?”
“First, I am indebted to you. The man you slew broke my daughter’s heart. Were you aware of it?”
I confessed that it had been hinted in my hearing.
“She mourns his passing. I do not.”
“Sir, I understand.”
“She came out last season. It was thought then, by her mother, by her brothers, and by Alice herself, that she would be married in a matter of months. She rejected other suitors, thinking it cruel to encourage them.”
Waiting, I nodded.
“His ardour waned. As I speak of your master, I assume you were to some degree aware of it.”
“I asked him once,” I said, “about a report that he was to marry your daughter. He disparaged it, saying he enjoyed dancing with her, and that alone had given rise to the gossip.”
“They were quite close, not long ago. I had begun to think of him as another son.” Dr. Landon sighed. “Would you defame my daughter, Brooks, were I to put it in your power?”
“Certainly not, sir.”
He nodded, mostly, I would say, to himself. “You are a good and a decent man, though you sleep here upon straw. I would save you if I could.”
I thanked him.
“Perhaps I can do something. I doubt it, but I shall make the attempt. If ever in your life you have been honest, answer me honestly now. My daughter is ruined, Brooks. You take my meaning, I feel certain.”
“Yes, sir. I do.”
“Her child will be my grandchild. I will not neglect my duty to that child, nor to her. Tell me plainly. Was your late master my grandchild’s father?”
“I cannot answer,” I replied. “I can say only that he confided nothing of the sort to me.”
“It is not unknown for a young gentleman to pursue a young woman and, when he has had his way with her, treat her with detestation.”
“No, sir,” I said.