by Oisin McGann
It was largely traditional, however, and their aurea sanitas gave the family a formidable resistance to poisoning anyway.
Hugo had been given the place of honour at the table, at Edgar's right hand – normally the Heir's position – facing Gideon and Eunice. Elizabeth and Brunhilde sat alongside the husband and wife, facing Roberto and Daisy. Nate sat beside them. Beyond this clique sat the rest of the immediate family, over thirty in all. This included Gideon's five sons, all younger versions of their father, their stocky, muscular bodies already a trifle overfed. The Gideonettes, Nate called them, and he regarded them now with barely concealed hatred. They tended to speak in short, barking sentences and wear truculent expressions. Each expressed his individualism by sporting his black facial hair in a different style. All the most up-to-date cuts of moustache and goatee were represented there that day.
At the other end of the table, furthest from the important elders, were the younger members of the family, including Tatiana. Responsibility for their good behaviour was entrusted to Aunt Elvira, an endearing old harridan with bad legs and worse hearing, who listened to everything with a horn extending from her ear and shouted 'What?' down the table at regular intervals.
'Moors?' Hugo muttered in disbelief as he gestured to the Duke's two black servants, who stood at the wall behind their master. 'You allow blackamoors inside your walls?'
'I judge my servants on their ability and their loyalty, not on their race,' Edgar retorted. 'They and their brothers provide the most expert service.'
'Just wait until they find out slavery's been abolished,' Daisy said under her breath.
Nate gave her a hard look, but he was the only one who heard.
Hugo and his sisters spent some time taking in the majestic dining hall with its magnificent stucco mouldings and the painting of a heavenly feast on the ceiling. Tapestries of hunts and battles hung on the walls and there were six doorways and numerous alcoves where the servants could conceal themselves from the family's view. The ancestors then turned their attention to the bewildering array of silver cutlery before them.
'Start on the outside and work your way in,' Daisy whispered to them. 'We'll explain the more complicated bits later.'
The first course was brought in, consisting of turtle soup, bread, chicken, plovers' eggs, various salads and numerous other delicacies. The gorging began. The three ancestors had still said very little about their previous lives, and some of the family tried to engage them in conversation by asking about meals in their times. Hugo and his sisters said little or nothing in response and soon the questions dried up. The ancients clearly did not want to be bothered while they ate. And eat they did, greedily sampling one dish after another with insatiable appetites.
Nate found Elizabeth staring at him as she ate. He fumbled with his knife and fork, suddenly nervous without knowing why. She looked no older than thirty-five or -six now, and while her face was beautiful in a cold, proud way, her eyes were so intense he couldn't meet her gaze. They fixed on him now as she bit into a small tomato and a single drop of juice ran down the side of her mouth. His knife skidded across his plate with a loud squeak.
The second course was served: steaming platters of venison, beef, pork, sturgeon, salmon, lobster and more, with heaps of vegetables, butter and more bread. MacDonald, the butler, was reaching across to carve slices from the breast of a roast goose, but Hugo couldn't wait. He lunged out and grabbed a drumstick. MacDonald pulled back, but not in time to avoid Hugo's impulsive lunge, and the razor-sharp edge of the carving knife caught the ancestor across the back of his hand.
'Aargh!' Hugo roared. 'You clumsy swine! Look what you've done!'
A hairline cut across his knuckles started to bead with blood.
'I'm dreadfully sorry, sir!' MacDonald exclaimed. 'It was an accident – I'll fetch a bandage for you imm-'
It was as far as he got. Hugo snatched the hand with the knife and wrenched it towards him. He pulled the knife from MacDonald's fingers and pressed the servant's hand flat on the table.
'Hugo!' Edgar barked. 'That's enough!'
Hugo raised the knife high and brought it down hard… slamming the point deep into the table between the butler's thumb and forefinger, just missing his flesh. MacDonald yelped in fright and then gave a gasp of relief as he realized he had not been hurt. Panting a little, he gave Hugo an ingratiating smile and tried to take his hand off the table.
And that was when Hugo grabbed the butler's middle finger with his free hand. In a vicious movement he bent it back – back at an awful, impossible angle until there was a snap and MacDonald screamed. Hugo released him and let him stumble backwards, clutching his broken finger.
'You'll be more careful in future, you dolt,' he hissed, pressing a napkin to his own wound.
A couple of the footmen rushed forward to help MacDonald, escorting him out of the room. Daisy had her napkin up to her mouth. Elizabeth let out a patient sigh and Brunhilde uttered a little giggle.
'That wasn't necessary-' Nate began, but Edgar cut in.
'Hugo,' he rumbled, 'we do not indulge in summary punishment of our servants in this house and we certainly do not tolerate it from our guests. There are protocols to follow for disciplining any member of staff. In future, you should direct any grievance to Nathaniel, who will deal with it in the appropriate manner.'
'I will discipline servants as I see fit!' Hugo snarled. 'And I will not be commanded by any man.'
'You will be commanded by me, while you are under my roof and eating at my table,' the Duke told him in a low voice like stone grating across stone. 'Have no doubt about it.'
They stared at each other for what seemed like the longest time… and then Hugo dropped his eyes. He nodded truculently and, taking the knife that he had snatched from MacDonald, he cut some meat off the goose. He did not look at the Patriarch again.
Nate found that he was gripping his own knife tightly and his hands were shaking. He took them off the table and pressed them against his thighs. For the briefest instant he had been sure that the two old men were about to have a go at each other. The idea thrilled him, but he knew it would not have been a fair contest. Hugo did not know how close he had come to being seriously hurt. Nate exhaled slowly and started eating again.
'Ha!' Brunhilde blurted out. Baring her teeth to those around her, she grinned and chewed with her mouth wide open. 'Fresh meat! Eat, everyone eat!'
Not knowing how else to react, they obeyed.
XXIII
AN EVENING OF CONFESSION AND DISCOVERY
Shay Noonan burst into the damp, grotty room that he shared with his wife and slammed the door behind him. He didn't dare light a candle, but there was enough light from the night sky shining through the window for him to see. Cathy was already waking up, looking up from the mattress on the floor as he grabbed her and shook her shoulders.
'We have to get out of here, Cathy!' he whispered hoarsely to her. 'Up into the attic, quick!'
'What?' she asked dully. 'What're yeh talkin' about, Shay? What ungodly hour is this to be wakin' me up?'
'Forget the bloody hour, woman! Slattery's men are outside and they're lookin' for me. If they find either one of us, they'll have our guts for garters. Now get up out of that bed and get yer dressing gown on. We have to go out by the roof.'
'I'm not going out on any roof!' Cathy retorted. 'I'll catch me death o' cold!'
He seized her up roughly and shoved her threadbare dressing gown into her arms.
'You'll catch yer death of Patrick Slattery if he finds us here. Now come on!'
He pulled over a chair and stood on it, pushing open the trap door to the attic. Then he took hold of the rim and pulled himself up. Cathy stepped up onto the chair, wobbling slightly as she was still drowsy, and held up her hands for her husband to grasp. With a grunt of effort, he heaved her up through the opening. He lowered the hatch and stood up, taking a stub of a candle from his pocket. He lit it and held it up. There were no windows or doors out to the roof,
but over by the corner he saw what he was looking for: the glow of the night sky through a hole in the gabled roof.
Guiding his wife across the rafters, he made his way towards the corner, stepping carefully from one board to the next. If either of them put a foot wrong, they could fall through the plaster ceiling into the room below. They ducked as the roof sloped down and finally reached the hole. It was small, but it was enough for Shay to reach through and push aside some of the slate roof tiles. It only took a minute for him to make it big enough to fit through.
Ignoring Cathy's whispered protests, he climbed out and pressed himself down against the slates.
'Come on!' he hissed impatiently.
She struggled clumsily through the hole and let out a moan of terror as she looked down at the ground, four storeys below.
'Don't make a bloody sound!' he warned her.
They heard the muffled voices of Slattery and his men through the floor of the attic. Shay looked around frantically for some way off the roof, but there was nothing. He heard the attic hatch being opened and quickly laid his body across the hole to block out the light inside. Every move he made seemed to cause the loose slates to shift, and he closed his eyes and lay still. A light was held up into the attic, he could see it shine through the gaps on either side of his body. He could hear Cathy's teeth chattering and his own heart beating like a drum.
The light disappeared and he took a deep breath before daring to peek inside.
'They're gone,' he said at last. 'But they might have left someone behind down below to wait for us to come back. We'll give it a while and then come down by one of the other hatches.'
'Séamas Noonan, you tell me what's going on this instant or I swear to Almighty God-'
'All right, all right, woman!' he rasped, covering her mouth in exasperation. 'Keep yer voice down! Me 'n' Francie stole somethin' from the Wildensterns, and I fenced it through Duffy in town. That's how I paid off what we owed on the rent. But Slattery must have got to Duffy, 'cos now he's on our trail. And because of what we stole, he thinks we were in on the explosion at the funeral, all right? If we're caught, we're dead. It's as simple as that.'
Cathy stared at him, aghast. For a minute she seemed lost for words – a rare event indeed. Leaning back against the slate slope, her feet flat against the tiles, she gazed out on the roofs of Dublin around them. It was a clear night and she could see as far as the river; she had never seen her city from this angle before and it was a beautiful sight. The air was clearer too this evening. There was less of the gritty smog that thousands of coalfires and factory smokestacks churned into the sky each day. She looked on her city with new eyes.
'And what about Francis?' she asked at last. 'He's still at the house, isn't he? How long before they figure out who he is and sling him into Kilmainham Gaol for the rest of his life?'
'None of us will live to see gaol if we're caught,' Shay muttered. 'But we've got to warn Francie. He's supposed to be doin' a job for me tonight. It was goin' to set us up for life, Cathy. But we'd have to leave the country. I had our escape planned – I've got a boat set to take us to England and everything; you, me, Francie and the girls. It's all sorted. But we've got to hide up now until it's ready to leave and we've got to get Francie out of that house-'
'I don't want to go to England!' Cathy exclaimed, close to tears.
'Keep yer voice down, for God's sake! They could hear us!'
'We can't just pick up and leave like that! I can't… This… This is the last straw, Séamas; I've had enough of living with you and yer sins. Yeh'll go up to that house and get Francie out before they realize his part in this. I've prayed for yer soul every night since our marriage, but the devil can have it now for all I care, yeh miserable guttersnipe yeh!' Her face creased into a mask of rage as she grabbed his collar. 'But yeh're not takin' our little boy with yeh! I want you to pray for him now, Shay. Pray for all yeh're worth!'
'Get yer hands off me, I'm not prayin' for nothin'!'
Cathy smacked him hard across the face, nearly knocking him loose from his perch. He scrabbled for a grip on the tiles, sliding down before he caught himself. Staring in shock at his wife, he opened his mouth to curse her name but she slapped him again.
'Yeh'll pray, Séamas Noonan, or I'll knock us both off this roof!'
With disbelief written all over his face, Shay gaped at his wife. He had never seen her like this, but the look in her eyes convinced him she was serious. Bowing his head, he closed his eyes, and Cathy glared at him for a minute longer before joining him. And clinging there to that slate roof, they prayed for the life of their son.
*
Most of the stable boys went to bed not long after nightfall. Their work was hard and they had to rise early in the morning, so only the die-hards stayed up that night to play cards around the top of a crate by the light of a candle. Francie played until the last hand, and then waited impatiently for the others to go to bed. He said he was going out for a walk; it was forbidden by Old Hennessy, but most of the lads did it now and then. It was almost time to pull off the job of his life, but he needed the others to be asleep before he set about it.
He made his way down to the stables, slipping quietly through the door and stroking the noses of some of the horses, which whickered softly when they caught his smell. He liked being here, just standing among the animals when he had no work to do. It gave him a sense of peace. Walking slowly down past the stalls, he came to Flash's door. He let himself in and crouched down by the engimal's front wheel, running his hand over its front legs. It leaned against his hand, enjoying the contact. There was no reticence now; they had become friends at last.
'Tonight's goin' to be a big night for you 'n' me,' Francie whispered to it. 'Life's about to change for the both of us.'
At that moment he heard a noise at the end of the stables. Pressing himself up against the low wall that looked out onto the stable, he pushed the engimal away from him and held his breath. There came the sound of footsteps, and the flickering light of a candle passed the stall and carried on down towards the other end of the building. There had been no sound of the stable door opening. It must be the mysterious gentleman again. Francie was about to come out of hiding when he heard more footsteps. He ducked back down again and peered through a gap between the boards. His eyes had adjusted to the bad light and he saw that it was a short, slender man in ill-fitting clothes. Francie got a brief look at his face but didn't recognize him. The stranger had come from the same end of the building, but was not carrying a light. Francie wondered if he was following the first person.
But where had they come in?
When he was sure the stranger was gone, he darted out through the door and crept down to the end of the stables. They had not come in by the big double doors; he was sure of it. Somehow, they were getting into the stables at the house end and sneaking through to go out of the side door, which couldn't be seen from the house.
He turned to look at the wall to his left and was just in time to see a section of it swinging shut. Lunging forward, he stuck his foot in the gap and held the door open. The stones on the front of the door were real, but it was balanced so perfectly it swung easily, and with hardly any sound at all. Pushing one of the smaller stones operated a latch, and he closed the door and opened it again. When it was closed, its shape was hidden amongst the stones of the wall. He marvelled at the clever engineering. Peering inside, he saw there was a stack of candles just inside the door, and a box of matches. A stone-walled passage disappeared into the darkness beyond.
Francie was itching to explore it, but there was no point. It was a pity that this was to be his last day in Wildenstern Hall. He would have loved to follow the passage and see where it went; he wondered what secrets he could uncover. But he had a job to do and this wasn't it. He swung the door shut and heard the latch click home. He would wait a little while longer to give the lads upstairs time to fall asleep, and then he'd make a start.
Daisy crept through the stables
, careful not to let Roberto see her following him. She waited until he had gone out of the side door before letting go of the secret door in the stone wall and hurrying past the stalls to the other end of the building. She reached the side door and opened it cautiously, peering out.
He was not going to get away from her this time. After hearing about Tatiana's velocycle ride, she had decided that she too would dress for adventure. She hitched up her trousers for the umpteenth time that evening, unable to get the braces tight enough. Wearing a man's clothes was an alien and exciting sensation. It solved the problem of trying to negotiate one of her cumbersome dresses through the narrow hidden passageways, and if she were spotted, a man would attract less attention walking around at this time of night than a woman alone. Assuming one of the trigger-happy sentries didn't shoot her, of course.
Making sure her long hair was still piled up under her flat cap, she ventured outside and was just in time to see her husband making his way down towards the end of the huge lawn, staying close to the hedge to avoid attracting attention. She had deliberately taken some of his less flamboyantly coloured clothes for this task and was able to meld into the darkness behind him with relative ease.
He was headed for the woods that bordered the south-east edge of the grounds. A lazy rain was beginning to fall, but there was still enough light from the sky to allow her to trail behind him at a distance. Roberto was normally a graceful mover but tonight he walked with a dogged purpose. Daisy almost had to run to keep up. They entered the woods along a path she did not know, the airy beech trees still allowing in enough of a glow from the moon to see where she was going, but it became harder to keep Roberto in sight in the fragmented light, as she had to watch where she put her feet to avoid tripping on the roots and undergrowth. The jacket she wore was not heavy enough and the rain was starting to soak through. It fell from the branches above her, no longer a light spray now, collecting instead in large drops that spattered on her head and shoulders and dripped down the back of her neck.