HG agreed in the end and moved on to giving me details about the house. The way he gave me those details made it very clear that he was not a man to take on a burglary.
‘There’s a great hallway, with a marble floor and statues of great men all around. There was Plato, Aristotle and …’ HG started a lecture.
‘And the book?’ I interrupted him.
‘Oh, but …’ HG wanted to tell me about the statues of great men.
‘The book,’ I said. ‘Where will he have the book?’
‘That will be in his library, of course.’ HG gave me the sort of look some of my teachers had given me when something was obvious to them and not to me.
I didn’t want to take HG with me but this was confusing. I was certainly baffled that a man should have his own library at all. I waited for him to go on.
‘There are five or six doors leading from the hallway, I think,’ HG said. ‘Just make for the one on the left hand.’ He stopped. ‘No, it’s the one in the middle, that’s his library.’
‘Are you sure? The door in the middle at the back of the hallway?’ I groaned.
‘Certain,’ HG almost grinned. ‘Now I remember. The door has an inscription above it, a quote from Goethe, “Talent develops in quiet places” or rather “Es bildet ein talent …’
‘Right,’ I stopped him giving me another lecture because none of what he was saying made sense or helped. ‘Definitely the door in the middle at the back? Below the goat?’
‘Goethe, the writer,’ HG gave the sniff of someone feeling very superior to me. Fine, at least I wouldn’t have him going on about this Goat man while we tried to break in.
We waited for dark.
The street around Masterson’s house was wide and usually quiet. The buildings were all large and expensive. It looked like a row of town halls to me. With all those posh people I worried that the police would arrive as soon as we started our riot. But we only wanted a few minutes of distraction and the men said they’d be away before any police could get there.
I went with Jenna, leaving HG and Demelza at the inn. I had to hope they would stay there. If HG was seen, we were in trouble. If Demelza was there we’d be in trouble anyway.
The men said they would wait at the end of the street for my signal. The plan was that I would hurl a beer bottle into the air and when it smashed our hired thugs would set about causing the distraction. They didn’t wait.
As soon as they saw me on the street they charged out from all over the place. I think that many of the men thought this was a good time to settle arguments. There must have been nearly a hundred people: yelling, fighting, setting light to several carts, along with people who had come to watch. HG had his money’s worth. I wondered how anyone was ever going to get it to stop.
It wasn’t long before all the residents came out of their houses to watch. Everyone came out. Masterson’s front door opened and his servants poured out – cheering at the fight. The door stayed open.
Jenna waited for me while I slipped inside, without any trouble, absolutely no trouble at all, so easy.
The hallway was amazing and would have been worth a lecture from HG if he had actually remembered the correct details. You could have parked a bus in it, even a horse drawn one. This was nothing like the place HG had described. There was no door in the middle, lots of other doors, none in the middle. A huge staircase curved upwards on one side. On the other a fire burnt in a marble fireplace. There were several doors. Around me, HG’s statues almost danced in the flickering light. Electricity had not yet been installed here. I went for a door on the left hoping HG’s first memory had been better than the rest. It was.
The library was easy to recognise. Books lined every wall in this gloomy room.
In the fireplace another fire burned brightly, more brightly than the gas lamps. Several leather armchairs with high backs stood in front of the fire. The room was dark and quiet, until …
‘She said you would come, a silly girl but she was right,’ came a voice from one of the armchairs and a man stood up to face me.
I stopped and groaned. This had to be Masterson, older that I’d thought, balding, a bit overweight, but very much at home and looking very calm.
‘I’ve always had enough people on the streets anyway, to hear what you planned for tonight. You’re after that,’ and he pointed to a few battered pages from a book, laid out on a table in front of him. ‘You can’t stop me. I have to do this, otherwise …’
I turned for the door. Another man stood in my way.
‘She told me what happens in the War, what will happen to my family, it’s all there in those pages, all about the war. She said my family will all get killed, my sons dying in the mud somewhere, never to be seen again. I have to stop that. These machines of war and this bomb will stop that happening.’
Masterson seemed determined to tell me more. I barely listened as I tried to work out if I could escape. The door opened and five or six of his uniformed men stood outside. Between them they held Jenna who screamed and shouted and struggled but it was no use.
‘It’s over,’ Masterson said, almost as if he hoped we would put up more of our own fight. His army of servants certainly looked up for it.
‘Destroying a whole country is worth it?’ Jenna had given up struggling.
‘Has to be done,’ he sighed, almost as though he wanted us to believe he would regret destroying millions of lives. I didn’t believe that he would have any regrets at all. This man had money and power. With the added power of a nuclear bomb so long before anyone else, it would be a disaster. We had to stop him. I grabbed the book. Blank pages fell from my hand.
‘You think I’m stupid?’ Masterson said, as though it was me he felt was the stupid one. ‘That’s not it, not the real thing, of course, that’s in my safe.’
Marble halls, a library and a safe. I was out of my depth here, it was over. I had no idea what would happen to us. But what was it Masterson had said? ‘Silly girl’.
I turned to him, ‘Who said we would come?’
‘Just a girl,’ he answered.
‘Demelza,’ I said to Jenna.
‘That was her name,’ Masterson confirmed my fears. He looked so confident, so pleased with himself.
Demelza had sold us out. Where was she now? Her and HG, they must have another plan? That was why she persuaded him not to come.
Masterson pointed to the door and we were taken back into the hallway. We hadn’t destroyed the book. We were caught. All our planning was useless. My dad would have had a better plan. I wasn’t good at this. I didn’t really want to be good at it.
‘You can come out now,’ Masterson, full of confidence, clapped his hands and called. Other doors opened and two small children ran out with a woman who might have been their mother or more likely another servant from her dress.
The smallest ran to Masterson and jumped into his arms as she shouted, ‘Daddy, Daddy.’
‘It’s alright now, my little ones,’ he smiled at the children. ‘Daddy has caught all the bad people, all safe now. You can see them over there.’ He pointed at us and gave the little girl a kiss on the forehead.
Through the open front door, the noise on the street was even louder. It sounded as though a war had started. Stopping that wasn’t going to be my problem anymore. We had to get away, but surely that was impossible.
Impossible became far worse. Noises outside grew even louder with people screaming. The front door crashed wide open on its hinges. With a thunderous roar a huge brown shape charged into the hallway. Giving another roar the beast reared up on its hind legs, a brown monster, taller than any of the statues. A roaring, snarling bear with razor sharp claws searching out its victims.
The children screamed, Masterson screamed. The bear went straight for them.
‘No,’ Masterson cowered, dropping his daughter and seeming to push her forward as he hid behind one of his marble statues.
The animal towered above the tiny frozen child. She covered he
r eyes as the bear roared again, raising its vicious claws to strike.
We’d done bears. We’d even eaten a bear back in time. It had kept us alive. That didn’t make me less scared now. A bear, here in London, how, where? Demelza had said the streets were like a circus with animals … yes, Demelza had said that, Demelza again.
The hallway emptied. Masterson’s servants flew out of the front door. Jenna and I were free, all we had to do was run.
Jenna prodded me hard, handed me a poker from the fire with another in her hand, screaming: ‘GO, GO,’ and pushed me forward as we ran at the beast. My mind flashed up that this had to be the worst of Jenna’s bad ideas.
Jenna got to the animal first, lunging with her poker. I followed, expecting the bear to lunge back. Jenna struck first with her red hot poker. The bear gave a howling yell. A smell of burning fur. It was only a glancing injury for such a huge beast, making it even angrier. I flashed a glance at Jenna hoping it told her how much I felt for her in our last moments.
We jumped backwards as the bear fell towards us. Another growl, we could smell its breath, see the teeth, the claws coming to tear us apart. Our backs against the wall, no chance to escape its flailing arms.
It didn’t happen.
Peering out through half closed eyes I saw the animal twitch, its head turned, as though it heard a new sound, sniffed the air, turned again and lumbered out into the street.
Back outside, the screams and shouts quickly grew louder as the bear went through the door along with a stampede of people running. A whistle sounded out, I thought that would be the police. But had it been another call to the bear?
Masterson, emerging from the shadow of his statue, ran to the front door, slammed it shut, throwing bolts across at the top and bottom, turning and sliding down to sit on the floor.
The hall was in chaos. Statues lay toppled and broken, pushed by fleeing servants. A table with flowers was overturned and water was pouring from a broken vase onto the marble floor. Jenna, of course, had one arm holding the small trembling girl and her other around the slightly older boy. We were the only ones left.
‘The book,’ I said, standing over Masterson.
He just buried his head in his hands.
‘The book,’ I repeated, and pulled him to his feet.
‘Never,’ Masterson whimpered. ‘Get out, leave me alone.’
‘The book, or we tell everyone out there what happened. How you pushed your child towards the bear to save yourself and let her die.’ I saw the fear in his eyes. A man for whom reputation would be so important.
‘And it would be easy for that fire to get out of control,’ Jenna nodded at the fireplace while still holding the children.
‘My men will soon stop you,’ Masterson’s voice wavered, we were the only ones in the hall. I still had the poker in my hand and the door was bolted shut.
‘The book,’ Jenna and I said.
‘Daddy, just give it to them,’ the small girl said to her father. ‘GIVE IT NOW.’
It Isn’t Curry
-10-
The street was quiet when we left Masterson’s house. The bear must have stopped the riot when it ran out into the street. The rioters hadn’t stayed, not even for the rest of their money, although they had left an old lady to wait around the corner who stopped us with her stick.
‘Brave of them to stay,’ Jenna handed over the cash and the lady grunted at her before waddling away without a word.
Further on, we saw the bear again, held on a chain by a man with a whip. The animal was quieter, sitting on the ground, almost asleep. This looked like a circus animal, one like Demelza had said she had seen. Demelza again. Jenna wanted to ask the man questions.
‘Need to get back to the inn.’ I pulled her away and started to run.
We were only just in time. Demelza and HG were at the door and about to leave.
‘Alvin,’ Demelza stared. ‘I didn’t expect …’
‘Didn’t expect us to be alive?’ Jenna moved forward and pinned Demelza to the wall. HG looked as though he might intervene but I shook my head.
‘You told him, you told him we were coming.’ Jenna thumped Demelza into the wall.
‘I didn’t … never … don’t,’ Demelza whined and I saw her head thump backwards.
‘Why did you side with her?’ I turned on HG. ‘Why?’
‘She told me all the things you’d done to her, the things you would do, how you’d tried to kill her, she wasn’t safe, I needed to get her away,’ HG’s mouth was flapping with his words. I could see he recognised the lies.
‘I can guess what was in your mind,’ Jenna almost spat at him. ‘And yours too.’ Demelza’s head hit the wall again.
‘Who was the bear meant to kill? Was that just insurance in case Masterson didn’t finish us off?’ I hadn’t been certain that the animal had been her idea, but the wide-eyed look she gave me confirmed that it was and that was rewarded by another crash as her head hit the wall. Slowly Demelza slid downwards, Jenna let her fall to the floor, before sitting on her.
Jenna let out a loud ‘ouch’, feeling behind her into Demelza’s jacket which she had sat on.
‘What?’ Jenna held up a small stone.
It wasn’t a stone. Sparkling in the light I could see this was a piece of the crystal, a piece of the one Miss Tregarthur had held, had used to control the time tunnel. Jenna’s hands were at Demelza’s throat, squeezing.
‘It’s not, it’s not,’ Demelza gurgled.
‘Not what?’ Jenna eased off a little.
‘Not what you think.’ Demelza tried to sit up, Jenna pushed her down.
‘What is it then?’ I joined in as I held back HG who kept telling us to stop hurting her.
‘Let me up and I’ll tell you.’
Jenna pulled her to sitting and banged her head once more. ‘One lie and I smash a hole in the wall with your head.’
‘That piece came off,’ Demelza squeaked. ‘When she hit the whole crystal.’
With a lot more head banging, we got more of the story. Miss Tregarthur, when trying to get the tunnel to work, had hit her crystal over and over again, a small fragment had broken off. Demelza had managed to grab and hide it before Zach was shot.
Demelza tried to make out that the bear was part of the distraction in the street. ‘I thought I was helping,’ she said, obviously lying.
‘It was me, I found the man with the bear,’ HG confessed. ‘She said she wanted it to be a secret.’
‘How did he control the animal?’ I asked.
‘He’s taught it to respond to the whistle,’ HG explained. ‘It’s the chain with the ring in its nose, it hurts. He used to blow the whistle and pull the chain, now he just has to blow the whistle. The bear’s scared.’
Demelza was trying to crawl away.
‘Can we do that with her?’ Jenna pulled her back. ‘The ring through the nose?’
‘The man said the bear was quite gentle. Wouldn’t harm anyone,’ Demelza said in a voice that screamed a lie.
‘That’s not what …’ HG started.
Demelza tried to tell him to shut up, he wouldn’t and told us that the bear handler was planning to get rid of the bear because it was too dangerous. ‘Kept trying to attack people.’
‘And eat small children?’ I explained to HG what had happened. Demelza did not look surprised.
‘You wanted us all to die?’ Jenna shoved her head again and getting no answer started smacking Demelza around the face. At first Demelza kept denying it, saying she was trying to help.
‘I didn’t need you,’ Demelza sobbed. ‘I had the piece of crystal. I don’t need you.’
Jenna stopped. ‘But if Miss Tregarthur couldn’t get the crystal to call the tunnel, what good would your piece be?’
‘That may be my fault,’ HG butted in. ‘Let her up, we’ll get a drink and I’ll explain. I thought the man would stop the bear. The plan wasn’t to kill you.’
‘Perhaps not your plan. I’m sure it was Demelza�
�s,’ Jenna snarled at her. ‘And stop snivelling, we all know it’s put on. I can’t wait to hear more of your lies.’
We moved into the bar with its low beams and another fire smouldering in the grate. There weren’t many people staying at this inn but all of them must have been listening to us. It wouldn’t be long before they connected us to the riot we had organised. We needed to get out of here soon.
We were fed up with not getting any information from Demelza, we were lucky if HG knew some of what was happening.
‘Herbie, please explain why it might be your fault,’ Jenna sat in the bar while we watched HG order himself another drink.
‘Not Herbie, call me HG, please,’ he said. ‘It was in the pages from her book.’
I shot a look at Jenna which Demelza caught and smiled. We hadn’t said anything. Masterson had handed it over to me. He had given in to his children, they might have had no idea what it was about, but having been saved from the bear they felt we deserved some reward, that and Jenna starting to pull bits of burning wood out of the fire in the hall.
‘You have got it, I know you have.’ Demelza was rubbing the back of her head. ‘Let’s see it.’
There didn’t seem any point in keeping it hidden so I pulled it out from my jacket. It was just a few sheets held together by what was left of the cover.
‘It’s not really more than a school book,’ Jenna said, after flicking through the pages. ‘With pictures, not sure what you could do with that.’
‘The ideas, can’t you see the ideas?’ HG pulled at the pages and several came away in his hand. ‘Look at these guns and, what are they called, rockets and bombs. Look at these pictures of the houses in flames and the numbers of dead – millions.’
‘That will happen whatever we do,’ Jenna murmured.
‘I will stop it.’ HG tried to make that sound possible.
‘This stuff about the nuclear bomb.’ I poked my finger into the pages HG was holding and pulled them to the table. ‘There’s not a great deal of detail here. Surely not enough to make a real nuclear bomb?’
Tregarthur's Crystal: Book 4 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 9