Bedlam: The Further Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë

by Laura Joh Rowland

  She glared at her husband, then at Slade and Stieber. “If it is true, then why bring this bad business here, of all places? How dare you disrupt our beloved Great Exhibition?”

  “I beg your forgiveness, Your Majesty,” Slade said. “Dr. Kavanagh wants to demonstrate his bomb. This is the place he chose. Miss Brontë, Mr. Stieber, and I merely followed him here.”

  Uncomprehending and irate, the Queen turned on Kavanagh. “Why would you do such a thing? Dr. Kavanagh, you are a British subject. If you have invented such a weapon, you should have presented it to me, through official channels, and let me be the judge of when and where to test it. Why did you not?”

  Kavanagh wasn’t listening. He’d noticed Lord Eastbourne. Anger and hatred enflamed his bloodshot eyes. “We had a deal,” he said, lurching to his feet and pointing at Lord Eastbourne. Lord Eastbourne recoiled as if from a leper’s touch. “You agreed to help me build my weapon, but then you changed your mind. You called me a fraud. You cut me off.”

  Slade said, “Perhaps Lord Eastbourne could answer Your Majesty’s questions.”

  41

  “DO YOU KNOW DR. KAVANAGH?” THE QUEEN ASKED LORD EASTBOURNE in surprise. “Is what he says true?”

  “Your Majesty, I’ve never seen this man before,” Lord Eastbourne said calmly. “He’s lying.”

  “You forbade me to tell anyone about our arrangement. You said that if I did, no one would believe me.” Kavanagh fixed an accusing stare on Lord Eastbourne. “You burned down my laboratory.”

  “I haven’t the slightest idea what he’s talking about.” Lord Eastbourne’s face was a placid, urbane mask. “Pay him no attention, Your Majesty.”

  I found my voice. “Lord Eastbourne did burn down the laboratory. Mr. Slade and I were there.” I moved out of George Smith’s embrace, to stand beside Slade. “We saw him.”

  Slade nodded. “We were almost killed.”

  Surprise jarred the mask of innocence off Lord Eastbourne’s face. As he turned to Slade and me, his lips pursed; then his features tightened with vexation. I knew what he was thinking: he hadn’t known we were at the laboratory; he’d believed there had been no witnesses to his act of arson; and he heartily wished we had died.

  “Miss Brontë is lying, too, Your Majesty,” Lord Eastbourne said. “She’s a murderess, and a fugitive. And Mr. Slade, well, Mr. Slade is a traitor.” His voice was unnaturally thin. “Don’t believe them. They’re trying to . . . to incriminate me to save their own skins.”

  Neither the Queen nor the Prince was fooled. They regarded Lord Eastbourne with hurt, reproachful expressions. She clasped a hand to her chest as though his betrayal of her trust had pierced her heart and said, “Why?”

  Lord Eastbourne seemed to realize that there was no use denying what he’d done, but he hurried to provide an explanation that put him in a good light. “I didn’t tell you about Dr. Kavanagh because I wasn’t sure that he could really deliver what he promised, a weapon with destructive powers such as the world has never known. But I felt duty-bound to investigate his claim, in case it had validity. I entered into a private arrangement with Dr. Kavanagh because I didn’t want to bother Your Majesty about a project that might come to nothing. I paid for his research myself, in order to spare your treasury the expense. As it turned out, my misgivings about Dr. Kavanagh were justified. He is a fraud.”

  The Queen shook her head. Lord Eastbourne couldn’t hide his fear now, but he blustered on. “The laboratory was in a building that I had purchased. Dr. Kavanagh had left it in such bad condition that it was beyond repair. I was within my rights to burn it down. I didn’t know that Mr. Slade and Miss Brontë were there.”

  “That’s not why you burned it down,” Niall Kavanagh said. “You wanted to get rid of anything that could connect me with you. You wanted to destroy me and my work. But here I am.” He bowed to the Queen, wobbled, and righted himself. “Your Majesty, I have the weapon here.”

  He fumbled with the latches on the suitcase. He opened it and lifted out the bomb. It had appeared more impressive in the dungeon than it did here, surrounded by splendid inventions. Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Lord Eastbourne, and Stieber gazed dubiously at the glass jars strapped to the canister of gunpowder, the limp fuse. “That is the weapon?” Stieber said.

  “See, Your Majesty?” Lord Eastbourne said, jubilant. “It’s not a new miraculous weapon of war. It’s an ordinary bomb that an idiot could build. This fellow is clearly mad.”

  “Please don’t let appearances deceive you, Your Majesty,” I found the courage to say. “The bomb isn’t the innovation. The innovation is the powder in the jars.”

  Slade quickly and concisely explained that Dr. Kavanagh had discovered that animalcules caused disease and had learned how to cultivate them. “Those jars contain enough culture to infect thousands of people with woolsorter’s disease, which is fatal. The bomb is only the mechanism of spreading the culture through the air.”

  “It will work,” Dr. Kavanagh insisted eagerly.

  “Bosh and nonsense,” Lord Eastbourne said. “Everyone knows that diseases are caused by bad air. Whom are you going to believe, Your Majesty? A madman, a murderess and traitor, or me? I have served the Crown long and faithfully. My record is unimpeachable.”

  “Not anymore,” Slade said. “You blotted it when you succumbed to your ambitions. You didn’t keep Kavanagh and his research under wraps for Her Majesty’s sake. Rather, you wanted the weapon for yourself. You wanted the power that it would give the man who owned it. You wanted a place in history as much as Dr. Kavanagh does, at the price of your loyalty to your sovereign. You’re the traitor, not I.”

  With a visible effort Lord Eastbourne ignored Slade. “I advise you to judge for yourself, Your Majesty.” He flung his hand toward the bomb in a gesture of disdain. “Is this a weapon that will revolutionize warfare, or a joke?”

  “It’s not a joke!” Kavanagh wailed.

  The Queen looked uncertain, although she liked Slade and I saw her incline toward taking him at his word. Slade said, “Let’s try a test. Dr. Kavanagh, open one of those jars. Lord Eastbourne, you breathe the culture and show Her Majesty that it’s harmless.”

  Lord Eastbourne took a step backward, his expression filling with alarm.

  “Just as I thought,” Slade said. “He’s afraid to take the test. He knows Dr. Kavanagh has succeeded in creating the weapon he paid for. He reneged on their contract because he realized that the weapon is too powerful for him to control, too dangerous to use. And he had another reason for burning down the laboratory besides covering up his involvement: he knew it was rife with disease.”

  “That is proof enough for me,” the Queen said. Indeed, it was obvious from Lord Eastbourne’s face that everything Slade had said was true. “Lord Eastbourne, you have committed such serious breaches of protocol and crimes against the state that it will require a court to determine—”

  Lord Eastbourne’s eyes glazed with panic. He’d changed from a suave, confident gentleman into a cornered animal. He shuffled a few quick steps backward, then turned and ran into the receding horde.

  “Wait!” called the Queen. “How dare you leave while I’m speaking to you?” She saw four soldiers hurrying to her aid. She ordered them, “Go arrest that man!”

  Two of them hurried off; the others remained to guard her. Prince Albert said, “Don’t worry; he won’t get far.”

  “In the meantime, I have business with Dr. Kavanagh,” the Queen said, turning to the scientist. “I am declaring your invention the property of the Crown and the British government. If you would be so good as to hand it over.”

  Kavanagh looked startled. “No.” He knelt and flung his arms around the bomb.

  “My dear sir, that was an order from the Queen,” Mr. Thackeray said, regaining his eloquence, even though fear blanched his big, florid face.

  “You have to obey,” George Smith said. He, too, was pale and shaken. I saw him glance from me to Slade, trying to discern our relation
ship.

  “I won’t,” Kavanagh said.

  “Take it,” the Queen told the two soldiers.

  They started forward. Stieber pointed his gun at them and said, “I claim the weapon in the name of Russia,” then started toward Kavanagh. “Put it in the suitcase and give it to me.”

  “Don’t move!” the soldiers ordered, aiming their rifles at Stieber.

  He froze. Kavanagh took a loose jar of culture from the suitcase and cried, “Nobody come near me, or I’ll drop this.” Everyone stood still, terrified. “There’s no use fighting over my invention.” Kavanagh gloated because two such powerful heads of state wanted it. “I’m not giving it away to anyone. I’m going to stage my demonstration. You can all watch.”

  He fumbled in his pocket and brought out a box of matches. I gasped with horror. That the Queen herself, and Prince Albert, would be among Kavanagh’s first victims!

  “Your Majesty and Your Highness should leave,” Slade said urgently. “Go somewhere far away.” He told George Smith, Mr. Thackeray, and me, “You should leave, too.”

  “I’m staying.” I would not abandon my husband.

  “I won’t leave Charlotte,” George declared. Not only did he wish to protect me, I observed; he’d figured out that Slade was his rival for my affections and he wouldn’t let Slade be a hero while he decamped like a coward.

  “Nor will I,” Mr. Thackeray said. “A proper Englishman doesn’t desert the battleground.”

  Prince Albert took his wife by the hand. Her expression was anxious, conflicted. Stieber said, “Everyone will stay,” but he sounded uncertain. Events were moving too fast, too unpredictably. The Queen and the Prince, George Smith, and Thackeray were wild cards that he’d not had time to figure into his game. He moved the gun back and forth, as if he couldn’t decide whom it would be best to shoot.

  “Let the Queen and the Prince Consort go,” Slade said. “If you hurt them, you’ll be shot dead the next moment. You won’t be able to do your duty to the Tsar.”

  I watched Stieber realize the truth in Slade’s words, even though he was clearly loath to cooperate with Slade and wondered what tricks he might have up his sleeve. “Very well.”

  Prince Albert said, “Come, along, dearest.”

  “I will not.” The Queen tore her hand free. “Britain is in danger. I can’t run off like a ninny and hide. I must defend my kingdom.”

  I heard Slade stifle a groan. The Queen’s contrary nature had asserted itself at the worst possible time. Dr. Kavanagh frowned because attention had shifted away from him.

  “It’s not necessary for you to be here,” Prince Albert said. “I will help Mr. Slade resolve the situation peacefully.”

  The Queen swelled with wrath. “Are you saying that you and Mr. Slade can accomplish that better than I can?”

  Prince Albert winced; he realized he’d touched a sore point. “Of course not. But you’re the Queen. If anything happens to you, what will become of Britain?”

  “Why should anything happen to me?” the Queen said, in high dudgeon now. “Why do you assume that I’ll fail?”

  “Think of the children,” Prince Albert pleaded. “Do not put their mother in danger.”

  The Queen hesitated, torn between her duty as a monarch and her love for her children. Then her plump, girlish face hardened into mature lines. “There are times for being a mother and times for being a soldier. This is the latter sort of time. I will stay.” She embodied the spirit of her ancestors who’d ridden into battle at the forefront of their armies. At that moment she looked like Henry VIII. “You go.”

  “I can’t leave you.” The prince was aghast.

  “You will take care of the children. That’s an order.”

  Prince Albert was stunned; evidently his wife had never pulled rank on him so harshly before. “Well, then . . .”

  Dr. Kavanagh interrupted: “I’m going ahead with my demonstration. Stay and watch it or not.”

  “Go!” the Queen urged Prince Albert. “Now!”

  He lumbered away, casting a worried look over his shoulder. The Queen turned to Dr. Kavanagh. “There’s no need for a demonstration. I believe your theory about diseases. I believe that your invention is as wonderful as you claim. Your scientific achievement is duly recognized.”

  Even as I admired her for her courage and her astute assessment of what to say to placate him, Kavanagh said, “Your recognition isn’t good enough.”

  Her eyebrows went up. “Why not? I am the highest authority in the land.”

  “Lord Eastbourne tried to sweep me and my discovery under the rug.” Kavanagh bent an accusing stare on the Queen. “What’s to say that you won’t?”

  Drawing herself up, her head high, she said. “I swear on the throne.”

  Her oath rang with the full augustness of her royal blood, but Kavanagh only frowned, toying with his matches. He absently set down the jar.

  The soldiers rushed at him. Slade said, “No! Don’t!”

  Kavanagh screamed, gathered up his bomb, and clasped it to his chest.

  “If you break the jars, we’ll be infected and the entire Crystal Palace will be contaminated,” Slade said.

  Even as the soldiers skidded to a halt, Stieber fired his gun. The Queen shrieked. One soldier spun, fell, and lay still. A wet patch spread on his uniform jacket. The other soldier gaped with shock. He was a middle-aged man who’d probably spent years guarding the royal family but never experienced a crisis like this. Confused, he aimed the rifle at Kavanagh.

  “Do not shoot him,” Stieber said. “Drop your weapon and walk away.” He needed Kavanagh alive, for the Tsar. He aimed his gun at the Queen. “Do as I say, or I’ll shoot Her Majesty.”

  She gasped. The soldier let his rifle fall and reluctantly departed. Stieber said to Kavanagh, “If you give me the bomb and come with me to Russia, the Tsar will give you your own laboratory.”

  Awe, disbelief, and yearning combined in Kavanagh’s expression. “He would do that?”

  “Yes,” Stieber said.

  “I’ll top that offer,” Slade said, and looked to the Queen. “With Your Majesty’s permission.”

  “You have it,” she said. “Proceed.”

  “Not only will we give you a laboratory,” Slade told Kavanagh, “you’ll have unlimited funds for your research.”

  Kavanagh listened, as rapt and wishful as a little boy at Christmas, looking at toys in a shop window. Setting his bomb on the floor, he glanced from Slade to Stieber. I wished I could do something to sway his decision, to avert disaster.

  “Oh, don’t be so stingy!” the Queen scolded Slade. She said to Kavanagh, “I’ll put Britain’s best scientists at your disposal, to assist you with your work. I’ll create a new Royal Scientific Society and appoint you head of it.” She seemed to understand better than anyone Kavanagh’s need for affirmation of his importance. “And you’ll give lectures about your discoveries to Parliament.”

  Emotion choked Kavanagh. “Such riches are laid before me. But it’s too late.” He burst into tears. He smiled a sickly smile filled with pain. “I’m dying.”

  Stieber blinked as enlightenment struck him. “He has the disease?”

  “Yes,” Slade said.

  George Smith, Mr. Thackeray, and the Queen shrank away from Kavanagh, fearing contagion. Stieber cut his eyes at Slade. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Would it have made any difference if I had?” Slade said.

  Stieber didn’t bother answering. “Come with me, Dr. Kavanagh. Share your knowledge with the Russian scientists before you die. The Tsar will give you a state funeral, with your body embalmed in a glass coffin and the Russian army parading you through the streets of Moscow.”

  Kavanagh sobbed. “I have two more days to live, at most. I wouldn’t make it to Russia in time.”

  “Give us the bomb,” Slade said, “and we’ll have your state funeral here in England.”

  “Miss Brontë and I will write your life story together,” Mr. Thackeray sa
id. “She’s a famous authoress, I’m a famous author, and everyone will read about your great scientific breakthrough.”

  “I’ll publish your biography,” George chimed in. “I own a major publishing house, I should mention. I’ll flood the country with copies of the book. Your face will be on the covers, in every bookstore in Britain.”

  “You’ll be immortalized,” Slade said.

  “Immortalized.” Kavanagh’s voice was hushed; his eyes shone with tears and rapture. “It’s what I always wanted.” For a moment I thought he would capitulate. We were all paralyzed by suspense. I felt hope in the air. We waited . . . until Kavanagh’s habitual distrust returned. “But when I’m dead, I won’t know whether you kept your word. Instead of giving me the honors I deserve, you might just relegate me to obscurity.” His ghastly expression showed how much he dreaded that fate. “No. I won’t be bought by promises. I must go ahead with my original plan. Then I can die happy, because everyone will know what I’ve done.”

  He struck a match. With trembling hands he applied the flame to the fuse.

  42

  THE FUSE CAUGHT FIRE. IT BEGAN TO BURN. THE FLAME REFLECTED in Niall Kavanagh’s spectacles. Kneeling before his bomb, he had the reverent look of a saint witnessing a divine visitation. For an instant, the rest of us watched in motionless, horrified silence. The next instant, everything happened so fast that I barely had time to register who did what and when.

  Slade exclaimed, “Your Majesty! Run!”

  She tried to, but stumbled on her skirts. George Smith rushed to help her. Supported on his arm, she ran with him, but tripped again and fell, bringing George down with her. Slade charged toward the bomb. So did Stieber. He didn’t want the bomb to explode, kill him, and foil the Tsar’s plot against England, but neither did he want Slade to gain possession of the device. Before Slade could throw himself on the fuse and smother the flame, Stieber rashly gave in to his desire to destroy Slade. He fired the pistol.

  I screamed, “Look out!” But I was too late. Slade dropped as if the bullet had cut his legs out from under him. A shout of pain burst from him as he landed with a heavy thud, on his side, before he reached Kavanagh. He tried to raise himself, his hands slipping in blood that spread on the floor beneath his body. Stieber aimed the gun down at Slade. I rushed to him and grabbed his arm. He threw me off and pulled the trigger.