The Hyde Park Headsman - Anne Griffin Perry [73]
“Yes, ma’am.” Jenkins still had difficulty in not calling her “my lady,” as he had when George had been alive and she was Lady Ashworth. He withdrew obediently about his errand.
“Probably no bacon,” Emily said with a smile. “What else?”
Jack was used to her patterns of thought. He knew she meant the newspapers again. The subject was far from exhausted.
“An eminent doctor gives his opinion as to how the crimes were committed,” he continued. “Not very helpful. One writer is convinced it is a woman—I don’t know why. Someone else has written about the phases of the moon, and predicted when the next one will occur.”
Emily shivered and pulled a face. “Poor Thomas!”
Jack looked at her gravely. “But mostly it is criticism of the police, their methods, their character, even their existence.” He let out his breath with a sigh. “Uttley has written a long article which the Times has printed, and I am afraid he is extremely hard on Thomas, although he doesn’t refer to him by name. Of course his purpose is to make political capital from his own ideas and he doesn’t care whom he hurts on the way.”
Emily reached for the paper, and had it in her hands when Jenkins returned with Jack’s kidneys and her fruit compote. The butler glanced at her and smothered his disapproval with difficulty. In his day ladies did not read anything in the newspapers but that which their husbands gave them, which would be the court circular, the marriages and obituaries, and if they were fortunate, the theater criticisms and reviews. Political opinion and commentary was not suitable for women. It excited the blood and disturbed the imagination. He had once been so bold as to remark so to Lord Ashworth when he had been alive, but unfortunately he had been disregarded.
“Thank you, Jenkins,” Jack said absently, and Emily echoed his words with even less attention. Jenkins withdrew with a sigh.
“I know it,” Emily said, ignoring her breakfast and beginning to read. “ ‘There is no question that when Her Majesty’s Government created a police force to serve the citizens of London, it made a brilliant and decisive step for the good of every person in this teeming heart of the Empire. But is this present-day force what these men had in mind?
“ ‘In the autumn of 1888 there was a series of gruesome and terrifying murders in Whitechapel which has gone down in history as among the most savage in all human experience. They have also gone down in history as unsolved. The very best our police can do, after months of investigation, is say “We do not know.”
“ ‘Is this what we deserve, is this what we are purchasing with our money?
“ ‘I think not.
“ ‘We need a more professional force, men with not only dedication but the skill and education to prevent this sort of crime from recurring.
“ ‘We have an empire which stretches round the world. We have conquered and subdued wild nations of warriors. We have settled lands in the frozen north, in the burning south, the plains of the west and the jungles and deserts of the east. We have planted the flag on every continent on earth, and taken law and government, religion and language, to every people. Can we really not control the unruly elements of our own capital city?
“ ‘Gentlemen, we must do better. We must change this sorry story of incompetence and failure. We must reorganize our forces of law and make sure they are the best in the world before we become a laughingstock, a byword for incompetence, and we will have every criminal in Europe descending upon us to make good his chances.
“ ‘We do not need the soft options of the Liberal party. We need strength and resolve.’ ”
Emily put it down with disgust. She should not have been surprised and indeed she was not, but it still made her angry. She looked up at Jack.
“It’s so stupid,” she said helplessly. “This is all just words. He doesn’t make any actual suggestions.