‘Why, is your lodging close at hand?’
‘Just across the road. We shall be all right.’
‘But you can’t manage the Black Pyramid on your own.’
‘He’ll walk the few final steps.’
‘No he won’t. Not without help,’ John answered firmly.
The coach pulled to a stop and the three men heaved the fighter’s inert body out into the street. The Pyramid, meanwhile, was groaning and muttering, quite definitely alive but lacking any will of his own.
‘Gentlemen, please leave us,’ said Nathaniel with a certain amount of force.
John and Joe did not reply, too out of breath staggering beneath the formidable weight.
As if by magic the door in the house they were approaching opened and a figure stood silhouetted by the candles which burned brightly behind. John stared, hardly able to believe his eyes. It seemed as though the Black Pyramid and Nathaniel Broome had sought lodging with somebody they had met on the coach on their original journey. For it was Paulina Gower who stood there in the darkness waiting to greet them.
Eighteen
‘You are sure it was her?’ said Joe Jago. stretching himself and still managing to look alert despite the fact that he was yawning.
John put out a hand and touched his arm. ‘Positive. Look, Joe, I know this is rather late in the day but will you come and spend the night at Elizabeth’s house? I really need to talk to you about this case and we can be private there. Besides it is time you caught up with her again.’
‘It will be a pleasure to do so, Mr Rawlings. But I have no clean linen with me. No shaving accoutrements.’
‘I can lend you anything you like. Joe, please come. I honestly feel as if I am walking through a maze.’
‘Very well, Sir. You have persuaded me. Now, as to Paulina Gower, could it not be mere coincidence that she has rented a room in the same house as the Black Pyramid?’
‘But you saw her. She had heard them coming and opened the door to greet them. Surely that is the act of an established friendship. What is going on, Joe?’
‘I have no idea, Sir. But as long as she did not get a good look at me I intend to play the role of an ardent admirer and theatregoer who has followed her down from London particularly to see her Lady Macbeth.’
John fingered his chin, a sure sign that he was thinking. ‘The light from the door was shining out but you and I stood in the shadows. I would not be surprised if she saw neither of us.’
‘Then as soon as I am back in Exeter I shall start hanging round the stage door.’
‘A very good plan. Did you notice how insistent Nat Broome was that we should not accompany them to the house?’
Joe nodded. ‘Yes, he was pretty firm about that.’
‘Then that means that he was afraid we would find out how friendly they are with Miss Gower.’
‘No, steady down, Sir. As I said, it could all be a coincidence.’
‘There are too many coincidences for my liking, Joe.’
And the Apothecary proceeded to run over the facts of his seeing Lucinda Silverwood and Jemima Lovell in Lewes, the names of Helen and Richard which had occurred in connection with Vinehurst Place and had then been repeated by Fraulein Schmitt, the fact that William Gorringe had thought he recognized the Black Pyramid.
‘They could all be explained away, Sir.’
‘I know that. Yet I feel that there is a thread here. Though what it is I have no idea at all.’
‘No more have I, Mr Rawlings. But let us hope that something comes up.’
A short while later they turned into the uphill drive that led to Elizabeth’s house and Joe, peering out of the coach’s window, let out a low whistle as the mansion, lit from outside by lamps, came into view.
‘By Jove, Sir, this is something of a palace. I had not expected anything quite like this.’
John laughed. ‘You wait till you see inside.’
The coach drew up at the front door which was opened by a liveried footman who bowed to them both.
‘This is Mr Jago,’ said John. ‘I have invited him to spend the night here.’
But he got no further. There was a cry from the staircase and Elizabeth, clad only in sleeping clothes and a night-rail, rushed towards Joe and gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek.
‘My very dear friend,’ she said, ‘I could not greet you properly at the ball t’other night for fear of throwing light on a blind man’s holiday. But I cannot tell you how very pleased I am to see you again.’
Joe bowed low. ‘And in much happier circumstances, Madam.’
‘It seems an age ago now. But you look well, Joe. Come and sit down and tell me all that you have been doing.’
‘Precious little, my lady. I lead a dull old life in London.’
‘Now that I do not believe.’
As they had been talking she had led Joe into the mighty entrance hall and John smiled to himself to see his old friend’s jaw drop open as he took in the details of the painted ceiling with Britannia crowning all.
Elizabeth laughed. ‘You remind me of John when he first saw this place. I think he was quite awestruck.’
‘I was,’ the Apothecary answered. ‘With you as well,’ he added in an undertone.
She ignored that remark and went sailing ahead, her arm linked through Joe Jago’s, chattering and laughing. John stopped in his tracks, filled with a sudden joyfulness that he should have been blessed with such marvellous and giving friends. Friends who knew him well and would forgive him his many trespasses. Friends who would ask no questions but always be at his side when danger threatened. He laughed aloud and Elizabeth turned her head to look at him. She gave him her incredible smile.
‘You are happy?’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I am truly very happy indeed.’
He and Joe sat up late — Joe smoking his long pipe and drinking port, his wig, which he had slapped back on his head at the sight of Elizabeth’s house, at a very rakish angle.
‘Well, I reckon we’ve said all about the case that we can possibly say, Sir.’
‘I still think I should go back to Lewes, Joe. There’s some link with this affair that none of us can see at the moment.’
‘Not before you’ve visited Fraulein Schmitt again.’
‘No, I think that she might hold the key. So shall we go down to Padstow and see if we can find her?’
‘I don’t see why not. But on the other hand perhaps we should leave the poor old dear in peace until her holiday is over.’
‘Very well, I’ll be guided by you, Joe. But don’t forget that Sir John has given you a fortnight’s leave and no more.’
‘That thought is uppermost in my mind. So how can we usefully employ ourselves tomorrow?’
‘I can call on the Black Pyramid and see how he is progressing.’
‘A good idea. You must do that. While I shall go accourting Mrs Gower.’
And so saying Joe downed his port before giving the most enormous yawn.
He was up and out and away at daybreak, leaving John to glimpse his departing figure, riding tall in the saddle, his back straight as a tree. As he watched the departing figure, the Apothecary felt that next to his father he loved Joe Jago more than any other man alive. Then he thought of Sir John Fielding and considered that he was the kind of person that one could not really love as a companion, being too grand and huge an individual, a monumental man in every sense of the word.
For some unknown reason John felt in the mood to hurry and washed and dressed himself rapidly before descending to breakfast. But even sitting before the meal he loved best the restlessness persisted and his eyes kept wandering to the window and the landscape outside. The golden weather continued, despite the fact that it was nearly October. The hills were shot with rose, but where the shadows fell they were purple, dark and mysterious, while the river far below wound like a curling blue ribbon, twisting in the autumn sunshine.
