No need. Jake was looking casual. ‘After the fire, I got in touch with Mike. He’s an electrician,’ he informed me, as if that were news.
No shit, Sherlock, would be vulgar, but nothing else sprang to mind. Fortunately, Jake continued without waiting for a reply. ‘Mike told me that Arthur Winslow had hired him and Steve to take over from his son.’
For the past weeks I had refused to talk about Winslow, apart from asking if he’d been charged. Now I was ashamed. Arthur Winslow and I had been on nodding terms for years, I’d been on more than that with the squatters, and I hadn’t asked what had happened to any of them.
‘Arthur hired them?’
‘He hired them to look after his properties – to supervise their upkeep and maintenance. And since his upstairs tenants had just moved out, he moved Mike and Steve and Mo and Dan and their kids in until the empty house is rebuilt. The plan is that Mike and Steve will stay on there afterwards, and Mo and Dan and the kids will get the empty house.’
I smiled hugely. Then I saw movement in the hall. Quickly, before Helena could return, I asked, ‘And how does Sam come into it?’
Jake shrugged. ‘I heard about it, and suggested to Mike that if he was looking for people to work with in his new job, Sam was a good kid. So he took him on as an apprentice, and as well as earning, Sam will get the hours he needs to get his certification.’
First he’d tried to dissuade me from hiring Steve, and had frightened me by taking his papers; then he got Mike to help Sam. I didn’t know whether I should throw something at him or kiss him. One after the other might be the way to go.
But I had to postpone those plans, because Helena was back, bringing Sam with her – and for some reason Victor was with them. I hadn’t been aware of plans for a breakfast party, but someone had: I should have noticed that Mr Rudiger had brought over a dozen croissants.
I didn’t say anything, just waggled the coffee-pot questioningly in Victor’s direction. In return, he waggled an envelope in my direction. ‘For me?’ I asked. I’d only met Victor once – a birthday present would be embarrassing.
‘At Helena’s request,’ he said, handing over the envelope over in exchange for coffee.
I opened it. My passport application, countersigned by one Victor Walker, university professor.
I looked around the room again. Bim was running underfoot, yanking everyone’s hands, whether he knew them or not, shrieking, ‘Look!’ as he dragged us out in turn to admire the glories of his new playground. My mother, my partner, my neighbours and friends. I poured myself another cup of coffee and took a croissant. If I were editing this novel, I’d tell the author that this was exactly where I wanted it to end.
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About the Author
JUDITH FLANDERS was born in London and grew up in Canada. After returning to London she made her career in publishing before she began to write. In 2001 her first book, A Circle of Sisters, the biography of four Victorian women, was published to great acclaim and nominated for The Guardian First Book Award. She has since written four books on Victorian Britain, including the bestselling The Victorian House, which was nominated for the British Book Awards History Book of the Year.
judithflanders.co.uk
By Judith Flanders
A Murder of Magpies
A Bed of Scorpions
A Cast of Vultures
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
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First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2016.
This ebook edition published by Allison & Busby in 2016.
Copyright © 2016 by JUDITH FLANDERS
All characters and events in this publication
other than those clearly in the public domain
are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental.
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-7490-1913-6
A Cast of Vultures Page 27