Those were only the first three questions on James’ list.
‘Will I be in trouble, Uncle Jimmy?’
‘You will be if you don’t wash your face,’ James admonished with a playful wag of his finger. There was no point being angry with the lad, not if he wanted to gain his trust and learn some truths. ‘As long as you’re honest, you won’t be told off, not by me, but I expect your parents and teachers are very worried. I tell you what, you get washed and dressed, and we’ll play Payoff over our supper, yeah?’
‘You don’t need to bribe me again,’ Jerry said. ‘I realise now I have to tell you everything I know. I have found myself in something of a predicament, and have to admit defeat. I need help.’
They were the words of an adult, spoken by a nine-year-old in a bathtub who had tried to put to sea in a storm as though it was a game. Jerry was a young man of many surprises, and James wondered how many more would come his way before the night was over.
‘And I am here to give you that help,’ he said. ‘As is His Lordship’s coachman, the man you were kicking earlier.’
‘Sorry about that. I thought he was Mrs Shelly’s monster.’
‘Ha!’ James huffed a laugh. ‘I doubt you’re the first to think that. But he’s not, he’s a very nice man. It was him who found you under the railway carriage, and he will help you again as long as you are honest with us.’
‘He’s scary. What’s his name?’
‘Mr Andrej.’
‘Oh, is he Russian?’
Another intelligent comment.
‘He is from Ukraine, and it’s safest for all of us to remember that. Come on, out you get. If the water’s not too dirty, I could do with washing my face.’
Jerry climbed from the bath and backed into the towel James held open for him. The valet-turned-guardian knelt and washed as his charge dressed in silence.
The landlady delivered their supper, and they ate their shares quickly. James’s intention of learning the truth from the boy as they ate was pointless, Jerry spooned in the stew as if he hadn’t eaten in two days. They had just finished, and James was about to repeat his questions, when heavy footsteps approached in the passageway.
‘Who’s that?’ Jerry’s nervousness returned in a flash, and he hurried to stand behind James as the door latch rattled.
Fecker ducked into the room wearing a triple-cape greatcoat to his ankles with brass buttons and wide cuffs. His wet hair hung in strands from beneath a tricorn hat. Water dripped from his nose and ran into the corners of his mouth as it spread wide in a grin.
‘Tato,’ he laughed. ‘Why you look like man in lighthouse?’
Wearing a white, woollen jumper rolled at the neck, and dark trousers tucked into his boots, James had to admit that he did look like a lighthouse keeper, but the jest went both ways.
‘Why do you look like a highwayman?’ he retorted. ‘Get in, you’re letting the heat out.’ Jerry was tugging at his sleeve. ‘It’s alright,’ he reassured the boy. ‘It’s only Mr Andrej.’
‘Police give me from station,’ Fecker said, taking off the hat that was being crushed by the ceiling. ‘Their horses are shit.’
‘Oi! Not in front of the boy.’
Fecker closed the door and undid his coat as he took in the scene. ‘We chased Smith,’ he explained. ‘Police had horses, so did he. Man got ahead, and police idiot fell off at first jump.’ Hanging the coat on a hook and placing his hat over it, he came to stand by the fire. ‘Cold, dark, wet, mud, my horse tired. They not feed them right. I caught man on fields.’
‘You caught him?’
‘Da. I reach across as we gallop, but he slippery like riba.’ His hand weaved like a fish. ‘And laughing.’
‘Laughing?’
‘Don’t know why. Is also idiot. “What you do?” I shout. “Why you scare Jimmy’s boy?” He only laugh and whip horse. Police horse not fast. I can’t catch him. Horse was shit.’
Jerry laughed.
‘This isn’t funny,’ James snapped, his patience worn down by concern and exhaustion. ‘It’s your fault we’re here and Mr Andrej had to go riding into the night.’ Jerry appeared about to burst into tears, and James relented. ‘I’m sorry, but it’s time you told us exactly what this is about.’
Jerry’s bottom lip quivered, and his eyes grew large.
‘And you can forget that. My sister pulls the same act when she’s in trouble, and it…’
Jerry really was crying. Genuine tears of remorse ran from his eyes, his shoulders slumped, and he sat on the bed staring forlornly at the floor.
James and Fecker looked at each other, neither knowing what they should do. Fecker thumbed at Jerry and shooed James towards him before sitting to devour the remains of the stew. James mouthed, ‘Thanks,’ with a fake sneer and sat beside the boy who immediately leant into him and pulled James’ arm around his shoulder.
‘Okay, mate,’ James sighed. ‘Here’s where you come clean. Start by telling us what you were doing on that train. You didn’t have a ticket, did you?’
Jerry shook his head and looked up with dewy eyes. ‘You won’t be angry?’
‘No, I promise.’
The boy looked nervously at Fecker ripping bread with his teeth and grinning.
‘I told you, Jerry. You don’t need to fear Mr Andrej. Think of him as a cuddly, toy bear.’
Fecker threw an untrusting glance his way.
‘He’s a big old softie really, aren’t you, Andrej?’
When Fecker didn’t answer, James nodded violently behind Jerry’s back, and finally understanding, Fecker raised his undamaged hand, and curling his fingers, growled softly, bringing a smile to the boy’s face.
‘So, off you go, Jerry. Take your time, but you must tell me everything. How come you were on the train with no ticket.’
‘It was that man,’ the lad began. ‘He came to my school and told them he was a relative there to collect me for a day out. I refused to go with him, of course, and he left, but he came back on Sunday morning.’ He hesitated, pouting up at James who squeezed him gently and told him to go on. ‘We were returning from church, and I saw him watching. I told my housemaster, and the masters took me seriously, but there wasn’t anyone in the grounds. They told me he had gone, but if I saw him again, they would tell the police.’
‘You didn’t recognise him?’
‘No. I should know if I had met him before, with those eyes and that long nose. His hair too, all black and swept backwards. Not at all in the manner of a gentleman.’
‘This was the same man you saw at Larkspur? The one His Lordship allowed to stay after the accident?’
‘Yes. Definitely.’
‘Okay. And how did you end up on the train?’
Jerry took a breath before continuing. ‘I had a gate pass… That’s when we can go to the village, and I was going for tuck with Bradshaw and Elphinstone. They’re in my dorm, and some boys are allowed out on Sundays after church. Last Sunday it was the turn of dorm two, that’s ours. The housemaster had told Bradshaw and Elphinstone to stay with me, but they ran ahead because they thought the shop was closing as it was Sunday, but I knew it wasn’t. Bernard Harcourt said that it never closes early because…’
‘Yes, alright, Jerry,’ James interrupted. Now the boy was finally speaking, the words were gushing like water from a tap. ‘I don’t need all the details. What happened next?’
‘Sorry. The man leapt out from nowhere, behind me. He grabbed me, dragged me away, behind the houses where he had a carriage waiting. Don’t mind admitting I was frightened, but when he tried to get me into the carriage, I kicked him in the… You know, like Bradshaw did to Harcourt once when he wasn’t wearing a cricket box, and got a caning from…’
‘Just the important things.’
‘It was
important to Harcourt.’ Jerry seemed surprised James didn’t agree with him, and then noticed his warning expression. ‘Oh, yes. He let go of me, and I made a run for it. The nearest place to go was the railway cut. I was very upset, as you can imagine, and I ran the wrong way. Just ran and ran until I was lost, but I followed the tracks and came to the shunting yard. I thought he wouldn’t be able to find me there, but I was so worried, I stayed until it got dark, thinking the school would come looking for me. I stayed the whole night wondering what to do. As soon as it got light, he was there again, still searching for me, and the only thing I could do was run into the station where there was a train. I hid in third, because in third you can hide under the benches, and no-one in third is going to tell the attendant. Then the train pulled out. I looked around and thought I’d lost him.’
‘And you stayed on the train?’
‘No, I changed later to get on the one going to Plymouth.’
‘Why?’
‘So I could get the train to Newquay.’
‘To meet your father?’
‘That’s right.’ Jerry was pleasantly surprised. ‘How do you know that?’
‘I’m asking the questions, mate,’ James frowned. ‘Why didn’t you call for help or tell someone?’
‘Because of what the man was saying when I kicked him.’
James waited, but when no explanation came, prompted with, ‘Which was what?’
‘That if I didn’t go with him, he was going to kill my father.’
‘Mr O’Sullivan who works on the St Merrynporth, and who is due to arrive here tomorrow afternoon. Yes?’
‘No. Well, no and yes.’
‘Jerry.’ The warning tone in James’ voice made the boy cower.
‘Father doesn’t work on the boat,’ he admitted. ‘He is a passenger on the Britannic.’
‘A passenger?’
The Britannic. The initials in Jerry’s jacket. The tattoo on Smith’s back. The Lyceum theatre. Realisation hit James like the blinding beam of the lighthouse, except he was no longer blind, he could see clearly.
‘Oh, shit!’
‘Oi, Tato!’ Fecker complained. ‘Not in front of the boy.’
James ignored him, took Jerry by the shoulders and forced him to look into his eyes.
‘Your name’s not Jerry O’Sullivan, is it?’
Shamefaced, Jerry shook his head. His eyes were watering again, and his bottom lip had turned out.
‘Who is Jerry O’Sullivan?’ James demanded. It was the only piece of the puzzle he couldn’t fit into place.
‘One of father’s characters,’ Jerry admitted, and burst into tears.
Twenty-One
While James, Fecker and Jerry slept the sleep of the dead in Newquay, the storm passed overhead and gradually travelled north-east through the night. It hadn’t reached the city by the time Silas and Jake left Clearwater House dressed in black, wearing gloves and with Silas carrying a lantern and small leather pouch in his overcoat pocket. The night was clear save for a light smog that rolled in on a gathering breeze.
Silas walked in high spirits thanks to Thomas Payne and a chance meeting. Thomas because he had remembered the theatre review and made the connections which led to Silas now preparing to break into a building, something he hadn’t done since his desperate days starving in Greychurch. Although he wouldn’t admit it publicly, he missed the thrill of a break-in and the possibility of being caught, and he was wound by nervous excitement as he and Jake made their way into the West End.
Jake was the chance meeting, and Silas was still trying to make sense of how it came about. Fate was the only word to use after they worked out their unlikely connection over lunch.
Silas had asked Jake for every detail of his parents, and once Jake had told him, he knew the connection was complicated and couldn’t be proved, but it was too unlikely to be anything but the truth.
‘Why do you want to know all this?’ Jake asked, relishing the half bottle of wine they had ordered.
‘Your dad was called Billy O’Hara.’ Silas wanted to double-check the facts. ‘Came
to Westerpool when? Sixty-six?’
‘That’s right. Westerpool in the late sixties then down here. Came looking for work, met my mum, went back and forth for a few years, married my mum and settled in town in seventy-two, year after I was born. We went through this just now, and you still ain’t told me why.’
‘That’s because I am still trying to make sense of it.’ Silas had finished his steak, and he pushed his plate away. ‘Jake, you know what I used to do in Greychurch.’
Jake nodded.
‘Well, when I was renting and stuff, I called myself Billy O’Hara.’
Jake’s eye opened wide. ‘That’s a coincidence.’
‘Well, maybe not. See, the thing is, I never knew my dad. To be honest, I’m not sure my mam ever knew who he was either, and she left Dublin a few months before I was born. When I was about three, my mam had a boyfriend in Westerpool. My earliest memories are of being in the room with just us, and him playing a guitar and singing to me. We had our own room in the block then because this man had a regular wage from the docks. Then there was this time when he wasn’t there so much, he’d come and go, you know, and when my mam was pregnant with the twins, he vanished. Least, that’s what she said when we had to move into spare rooms. “Can’t afford our own with no Billy,” she said. When mam died, and I had to come to the city to earn a living for Karan and Iona, I used the name Billy O’Hara because it was a name I remembered from when I was little. Me mam’s boyfriend. Do you see where I’m going with this Jake?’
Jake’s fork had been halfway to his mouth for the last minute, and gravy was dripping from the piece of beef suspended there. He nodded again, this time slowly.
‘Coincidence maybe,’ Silas said. ‘If it weren’t for the fact that you’ve got the same hair, same eyes and same kind of face as Iona and Karan. Okay, so I’ve got my mam’s black hair and blue eyes the same as them and hundreds of other Micks, but that time I first saw you, I couldn’t get over how much you looked like them. You get me?’
Jake gave up on the idea of food and put down the fork. Instead, he picked up his wine and drained the glass.
‘Granddad did tell me that my dad liked to play around,’ Jake said, thinking hard. ‘That’s why he was happy to go up and down to Westerpool even after he was married. His boss here used to send him up there regular to work at their yard in… Where was it? Something to do with horses? Gallop Wharf?’
‘Canter Wharf?’
‘That’s it! How d’you know that?’
Silas’ heart was racing. That was the link in the chain that surely proved him right.
‘Because that’s where we lived,’ he said.
‘This is weird.’ Jake shook his head in disbelief. ‘So, you think my dad was your sisters’ dad? No way. That would make you and me… what?’
‘I don’t know,’ Silas admitted. ‘That’s what I’ve been trying to work out. If I’m right and your dad was mam’s boyfriend back then, you’re half-brother to my half-sisters which makes us… Two halves of no relation, really.’
‘Or quarter-brothers,’ Jake said, grinning. ‘Not by blood, though.’
‘Man. I’d be happy to have a quarter of a brother like you.’
‘And I’ve got two sisters?’ Jake was too dumbfounded to notice the compliment.
‘You have, and you’ll meet them when we get to Larkspur.’
‘Larkspur?’
‘I’m not sending you back to the streets,’ Silas said. ‘We’ve got a job to do tonight, and when that’s done, it’s straight back to Cornwall. That’s if you want to come.’
The waiter had arrived at that point, fussing over the table and ending the conversation.
/> They took it up again through the afternoon, and by nightfall, had decided they were to consider themselves as brothers-by-accident because most things in Silas’ life had happened by accident. It pleased him that fate was on his side. It was a good omen for the night ahead.
High spirits became focused determination as they weaved silently through the side streets to Covent Garden, their way lit by yellow gas lamps and Silas’ oil lantern. There were few people about, the market stallholders wouldn’t arrive to set up for a couple more hours, but when someone approached, they talked about the weather, appearing as respectable young men on their way home after an evening’s entertainment. They fell silent again as the back of the Opera House came into view, murky through the veil of fog.
‘There’s the stables,’ Jake said, pointing. ‘People live above them, but by this time of night, the downstairs will be empty. I’ll go in first, though, just in case.’
Coming to a pair of tall wooden gates, Jake let himself in through a smaller, built-in door while Silas waited outside, pretending to read the bill posters that advertised coming attractions. When Jake’s hand appeared and beckoned him through, he checked that he wasn’t being watched, and followed.
The stables were lined either side with stalls, and the floor was covered by straw which muffled their footsteps. A solitary lamp threw little light at the horses, asleep on their feet. The creak of floorboards overhead warned them of the presence of the stable hands, and they crept cautiously towards the far end and another door built into the plastered wall. Jake stood with his back to it to keep watch while Silas crouched to the lock and took the leather pouch from his pocket. Unrolling it on the straw, he examined the lock and selected a Chubb’s master key, and picked a thin strip of steel from a ring of several.
Nudging Jake, he passed him the lantern and directed it towards the keyhole before inserting both the steel and the key. Pressing his ear to the wood, he listened as metal slid over metal until he found resistance. The picks pressed firmly together in place, he turned them clockwise until the deadbolt began to move. When he judged it to be free of its housing, he leant his head against the wood, applied pressure and the door opened a fraction. Standing, he replaced his tools and cautiously opened the door further, expecting to hear the hinges creak. The door opened silently, however, and they slipped inside with ease.
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