‘Yes, there are several dotted round and about.’
‘Where?’ she enquired eagerly.
The Apothecary became deliberately vague. ‘Various places in London. Their actual location is secret.’
‘Why is that?’
‘So that curious people won’t go digging them up and start the epidemic all over again.’
Rose pulled a face. ‘What a horrid thought. I do not care for the sound of it.’
John grinned. ‘Then the best thing is to think about something else. How would the two of you like to come away with me next week?’
Rose jumped in the air. ‘Oh, yes please. Where to Papa?’
‘To Sussex. To a small country town called Lewes. I’ve got some looking around to do and it would be so nice to have your company. Father?’
‘I don’t know, my son. I don’t move about much anymore as you well know.’
‘Nonsense, Sir. You are known for your walks round Kensington.’
‘They are on the level. I pant going up slopes and what I can remember of Lewes is that it is very hilly.’
‘Indeed it is. But if we travel in my coach Irish Tom can take you wherever you please so that you need only perambulate on the flat.’
Sir Gabriel considered, putting his superbly turbaned head on one side so that the zircon adorning it glinted in the light of the flames. John, as he had so many times in his life before, silently drew breath in wonderment at the magnificence of the great man.
‘Please come, Sir,’ he said quietly.
Sir Gabriel raised his head. ‘Put like that, my boy, it would be impossible to resist.’
Rose leapt to her feet and gave her grandfather a thorough hugging. ‘T’will be a great adventure, Grandpa. We might discover something.’
‘What sort of thing?’ he asked, holding her at arm’s length and looking at her quizically.
‘I don’t know exactly, but something exciting and mysterious,’ Rose answered, and throwing her head back laughed the laugh of a happy child.
Twenty-Five
They set off in fine fig two days later. The coach which Sir Gabriel had given John for his wedding present had been newly washed and polished by Irish Tom, who was seated on the box wearing a long caped driving coat, boots and a three-cornered hat. A footman sat beside him acting as guard, while within a nursery maid — a quiet, shy girl, quite flustered by the thought of going to Sussex — excitedly adjusted her best scarf. She had dressed Rose very neatly in a dove grey travelling cloak and a straw hat trimmed with flowers, while Mr Rawlings himself was sporting the very latest fashion — a double-breasted coat. Sir Gabriel was resplendent in an old-fashioned but stunning ensemble of black with silver buttons.
John, not wishing to tire his daughter too greatly, decided that they would spend the night at East Grinstead which they made comfortably by early evening. They put up at The George and after Rose had gone to bed, John and Sir Gabriel enjoyed a meal together served with two bottles of particularly fine wine. Next morning they set off once more and arrived at Lewes some four hours later, heading straight for The White Hart. That done there were several hours before the time to dine and John filled these by taking his daughter and Emily, the nursery maid, on a tour of the town and a climb up the hill to what remained of the ancient castle. Rose gazed at the ruinous buildings wide-eyed.
‘Does anybody live there, Papa?’
‘No, I don’t think so. It used to belong to the Earls of Surrey but the family died out and I don’t think it’s inhabited any more.’
‘But I can see a lady sitting outside in a garden chair. There.’ She pointed.
John stared and sure enough a woman in a pink gown wearing a shady hat was taking her ease outside the keep.
‘You are right, Rosebud. Somebody is obviously in residence.’
And enquiries over dinner at the inn revealed that the castle, ruinous though it was, now belonged to the Earls of Arundel who had decided to convert the keep into a summerhouse and were currently in situ.
‘I must say,’ Sir Gabriel stated, having taken a gentle stroll round the town while his younger relatives braved the heights, ‘that Lewes is quite fashionable. I passed several well-dressed men and women, to say nothing of coffee houses. And I also saw a poster advertising a prize fight.’
John was all attention. ‘Really? How interesting. Who were the fighters?’
‘That I can’t tell you. My memory is not what it was, you know.’
The Apothecary gave his adopted father a fond smile. ‘Yet you still manage to win at cards, Sir. I think you protest too much.’
Rose piped up. ‘When are we going on an adventure, Father?’
‘Tomorrow, my darling. We shall go and visit Vinehurst Place tomorrow morning. Will you come, Sir?’
Sir Gabriel waved a long thin hand. ‘I shall sleep late and then stroll to a coffee house and read the newspaper.’
‘Will you be requiring the services of Irish Tom?’
‘I may do so later in the day.’ Sir Gabriel patted Rose on top of her foxy head. ‘Are you looking forward to venturing forth with your father, my child?’
‘Very much, Sir,’ she answered in such an adult way that John saw the older man supress a smile.
‘Then I shall get him to drop us off and ask him to return to Lewes,’ the Apothecary said, also concealing a grin.
‘That will be most satisfactory,’ answered Sir Gabriel and, very subtly indeed winked a sparkling eye.
Later that evening after Rose had retired to bed, ably assisted by a still-excited Emily, John permabulated through the town with his father, noticing that Lewes was indeed turning itself into a place of interest. Small wonder, he thought, that the Earls of Arundel had decided to convert a part of the castle into a summer residence. John briefly let his mind wander to Coralie Clive, the widow of the late Lord Arundel, and he wondered how she was faring. At one time he had loved her so deeply, would have laid down his life for her, but now his thoughts and commitment lay elsewhere, with the mother of his unborn child. He presumed that the Earl of Arundel must be related to Coralie by marriage and wondered if she would ever be invited to the summerhouse in the castle.
Sir Gabriel interrupted his train of thought. ‘There is the poster for the prize fight I told you of.’
John stared, hardly able to believe his eyes, feeling at that moment that he and the Black Pyramid must have some strange spiritual link. For the bare-knuckle fighter was coming to Lewes in two days’ time, almost as if he had known that the Apothecary would be there.
‘Damme,’ he exclaimed. ‘He’s coming here. The black fighter who is involved in the case I am trying so hard to solve.’
‘A strange coincidence,’ Sir Gabriel answered.
‘It is indeed. Well, if we are still here I shall take you to see him.’
‘Now that would indeed give me pleasure. There is nothing I like better than seeing a good and well-fought mill.’
‘Then go we shall,’ answered John, but his thoughts were a million miles away.
The next morning he got up early and knocked at Rose’s door. Emily answered, very pink in the cheeks and full of excitement. She dropped him a curtsy.
‘Good morning, Sir. Miss Rose is just getting dressed. I will bring her down to breakfast in ten minutes.’
‘Very good. I’ll go ahead and have a quick look at the papers.’
But in the few moments before his daughter joined him John had a strange feeling of disquiet. She was still a little girl for all her adult manner and he felt that to expose her to any kind of danger would be wrong. Yet what danger was there in going to look at that most beautiful of houses, that scene of rural tranquility? Though he had to admit that he himself had felt a touch of ice when that solitary, unmoving figure had come out and so silently stared at him. Thinking about it brought the scene back quite clearly and the Apothecary had just decided that he would go
