Matthew Corbett 03 - Mister Slaughter

We're expecting a letter in the autumn instructing us to take him to the New York gaol to wait for ship transfer to England. You know, if this business goes well with the Queen, you gentlemen might consider our hiring you to escort Mr. Slaughter to New York.

Greathouse brought forth a fierce grin that Matthew thought was one of his more disturbing expressions, because it meant the man was considering violence. 'Are you out of your mind? You can't come in here and give orders!'

'You will see,' said Lillehorne quietly, as he gazed about the office and his thin nostrils wrinkled with distaste, 'that I'm not the person giving the orders. Don't you recognize Governor Lord Cornbury's seal?'

Greathouse took another look at it and dropped the envelope onto his desk. 'That doesn't mean anything to me.'

'Your doctor friends received two letters, both from the Crown's constable. One told them to prepare the prisoner for removal. The other was to be presented to Lord Cornbury, directing him to have the man brought here and held in irons. Lord Cornbury has been told to use the best possible men at his disposal. That's at least what he informed me when he dumped the mess in my lap. You two were specifically requested by Ramsendell and Hulzen. So here you are.'

'We're a private concern,' Greathouse said, with a thrust of his chin. 'We don't work for the city, or the New Jersey colony. Certainly not for Lord Cornbury!'

'Ah, yes. The matter of who you do work for.' Lillehorne reached into a pocket and brought out a small brown bag tied with a leather cord. He shook it, so that the coins might jingle. 'Mister Three- Pounds. Have you made his acquaintance lately?'

Matthew kept his mouth closed.

'There are official transfer papers in that envelope,' Lillehorne went on. 'They require the signatures of both yourselves and the two doctors. Upon your acceptance of the prisoner, the doctors have agreed to pay you an additional two pounds. Can you do the mathematics, sir?'

Greathouse snorted. 'They must want to get rid of him very badly.' He paused, regarding the bag of coins with a hungry eye. 'He must be dangerous. No, I'm not sure five pounds is enough.' He shook his head. 'Send some of your constables to get him. A half-dozen of them ought to do the job.'

'My constables, as Mr. Corbett has pointed out before, are not fully suited to more demanding tasks. After all, are you not so proud to be the professionals?' He let that comment float in the air before he continued. 'And you're laboring under the mistaken presumption that this is a request from Lord Cornbury. You might realize by now that he wishes to shall we say show himself able before his cousin, the Queen. I wish to show myself able before Lord Cornbury. And so it goes. You see?'

'Five pounds is not enough,' Greathouse repeated, with some force behind it.

'For two days' work? My God, what are they paying you people these days?' Lillehorne took note of the broom that stood in the corner. 'A poor little office like this could be swept away with the rubbish. Lord Cornbury can put a lock on any door he chooses, Greathouse. If I were you-which I know I am not-I would gladly take this very generous amount and consider that Lord Cornbury can be useful to you, if you get on his good side.'

'He has a good side?'

'He can be managed. And if you do a favor for him, I'm sure he might someday do a favor for you.'

'A favor,' Greathouse said, and Matthew saw his eyes narrow in thought.

'Two days' work. If you could leave within the hour, you might make Westerwicke by nightfall.' Lillehorne inspected the silver lion's-head that topped his cane. 'You won't be gone long enough to um miss any opportunities for further business.' A reference, Matthew assumed, to the mysterious work that Greathouse was doing for his latest client.

It was another moment before Greathouse returned from his mental wanderings. He said, 'I don't like the idea of going back there. To that hospital, with all those lunatics. What do you say, Matthew?' What could he say? Therefore he kept silent and shrugged. 'You could use the money, I know. Maybe I could use a little goodwill from Cornbury. Tell me, Lillehorne: have you ever seen him wearing a man's clothes?'

'I have. Unfortunately, in them he is equally as unfortunate.'

Greathouse nodded, and then he said, 'The irons.'

'Pardon?'

'The irons had better not have any rusted links.'

They didn't. The sturdy cuffs and chains were now in a burlap bag in the back of the wagon. Matthew turned the horses onto the branch road leading off the Philadelphia Pike and through a grove of trees. The three buildings of the Publick Hospital stood just ahead.

It was a quiet place, with birds singing in the trees and a soft wind whispering. Still, Greathouse shifted uneasily on the seat and kept his eyes averted from the buildings, as if not wishing to think about what went on behind the walls. The second and largest building, made of rough stones and resembling a grainhouse or meeting- hall, held all the inmates except for a few who resided in the third structure, which was a white-painted house that faced a garden. Some of the second building's windows were shuttered and some were open but barred, and a few faces peered out at the wagon's approach. The pastoral quiet was broken when someone in there started hollering and a second, more shrill voice, joined the commotion.

'We must be here,' Greathouse said dryly, working his hands together. Matthew knew from past experience that this place-even though it was run efficiently and in a humane manner by the two doctors-made Greathouse as jumpy as a cat on a carpet of razors.

Matthew pulled the team up in front of the first building, which was painted white and appeared to be simply a normal house. As Matthew climbed down to let the horses drink from a nearby trough, the first building's door opened and a stocky man in a dark brown suit and waistcoat emerged. He lifted his hand in greeting, at the same time removing the clay pipe that was clenched between his teeth.

'Greetings, gentlemen,' said Dr. Curtis Hulzen. He had gray hair and spectacles perched on a hooked nose. 'It seems the day has arrived.'

Greathouse muttered something, but Matthew couldn't hear what he said and wasn't sure he wanted to.

'Jacob!' Hulzen called into the house, and a man in gray clothes and a brown leather waistcoat came out. 'Will you go fetch Dr. Ramsendell, please? And tell him the escorts are here?'

'Sir,' answered Jacob, with a quick nod, and he strode along a well-worn pathway toward Matthew, who had met this particular patient on his first visit here. Jacob suddenly stopped right in front of the horse trough and said to Matthew in a mangled voice, 'Have you come to take me home?' The left side of Jacob's temple was crushed inward, and an old jagged scar began at his right cheek and continued up across a concave patch on his scalp where the hair no longer grew. His eyes were bright and glassy, and fixed upon Matthew with pitiful hope. A sawmill accident had done this, Ramsendell had told Matthew, and Jacob could never again live 'out there', as the doctor had put it, with his wife and two children.

When he realized Hulzen wasn't going to intercede for him, Matthew said as kindly as he could, 'No, I'm afraid not.'

Jacob shrugged, as if this news was expected, but perhaps there was a glint of pain in the eyes. 'It's all right,' he said, with a crooked grin. 'I hear music in my head.' Then he continued along the path toward the second building, brought a ring of keys from within his waistcoat, unlocked the big wooden slab of a door and disappeared inside.

'You're liberal with your keys around here,' Greathouse remarked, as he stepped down from the wagon. 'I wouldn't be surprised if all your lunatics got out into the woods someday, and then what would you do?'

'Bring them back.' Hulzen had returned the pipe to his mouth and blew smoke in Greathouse's direction, as those two had had their verbal clashes before. 'The ones that ran away, which would be few. You don't seem to realize that most of our patients are like children.'

Greathouse produced the sealed envelope from within his tan-colored coat and held it aloft. 'This tells me at least one of them isn't too child-like. We're supposed to have you sign some papers.'

'Come in, then.'