Brodie groaned and began to twitch.
They all crowded round him in spite of Doctor Netherfield’s pleas to give the lad some space and air. Within moments, the efficiency of the police force had swung into action and soon Brodie had been hauled onto a stretcher and tied down, and carried out to one of the larger coaches. Doctor Netherfield insisted on accompanying them all, and Theodore was grateful for it. Brodie was slid onto the floor of the coach and Theodore sat on the bench seat along one side next to the doctor. Rhodes, to his surprise, sat opposite, with Wilbred at his side.
“To Plymouth, and let’s see justice done!” Rhodes declared with delight as if he were on a seaside excursion. The coach lurched and took a moment to get rolling as the horses strained in the traces.
Brodie stopped groaning for a moment. His eyes opened and blinked rapidly. He coughed hoarsely and whispered, “Water.”
Wilbred nudged him with his boot. “Shut up.”
Rhodes kicked Wilbred’s foot out of the way and said, firmly, “Doctor Netherfield. Do whatever you need to do to keep this man alive and in a state to tell us everything.”
“Water first,” Brodie said.
He was unstrapped from the upper part of the stretcher and awkwardly propped up so he could sip at some water and before long, he was telling them everything, as if he had been long awaiting the chance, at last, for confession.
Or at least, his version of a confession.
“He was stealing, you know,” he started.
“Who? The valet?”
Brodie shook his head. “No, that man was only – in the way. No, I mean Knight was stealing, I am sure of it. I did the family a favour. He had stolen all the precious stones, all of your inheritance, and was keeping them in the ice house. He knew everything about it and he wouldn’t tell me a thing. He wouldn’t tell me about the curse. He said there was nothing to tell. But I looked into the family history, you know. There are gaps. Because of him.”
Theodore rubbed his eyes. Brodie was clever enough to look at the ledgers but too young to work out the truth. Theodore said, “The lapis was fake and everyone knew they were in the ice house although not everyone knew they were fake.”
“They are not fake,” Brodie said in alarm.
“They are. I’ve tested them.”
Brodie frowned. “That was the secret? But why?”
“That was part of the secret. Knight didn’t know much else. He was right when he said there wasn’t much to tell. It was more smoke and no real fire. You killed him for nothing.”
“No, no – he knew everything and it wasn’t right that he knew when I didn’t. I am a member of the family.” He gnawed his lip. “Aren’t I?”
“Yes, you are. That’s not the secret. I’m telling you, there is very little real secret, but you’ve built it up in your head to become something more. You had doubts about your lineage, didn’t you – is that why you were taking The Countess off into the tower?”
He snarled. “Yes. I was going to make her tell me everything. I’d tell her I’d throw her off the tower if she wouldn’t talk to me. It’s not fair that I don’t know. Everyone else knows!”
Theodore shuddered. It could have been a mere threat, or he could have truly meant it.
Brodie went on. “Knight wouldn’t tell me anything and then he couldn’t. As he was dead. She knew something about my past that she wasn’t going to reveal. I heard you all talking, you know, but I didn’t hear everything. I knew it was to do with my father. I don’t understand why I wasn’t allowed to know. So I assumed... well, I don’t know. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions,” he added.
Theodore snorted. “Everything you’ve done has been based on a spurious conclusion to which you’ve jumped.”
“I don’t see how.” He sounded petulant though his throat must have been sore, his voice rasping.
“You wouldn’t see how, no.” That was Doctor Netherfield, his eyes shining with professional curiosity. He had a notebook in his hands and was scribbling frantically. “You are affected by a very inward-looking mania that passes the outside real world through a kind of sieve so that you only see the things that match your very secret internal desires, you see.”
“Er, what?” Rhodes said.
Wilbred sniggered, probably at the word “desires.”
Netherfield turned to Rhodes. “You think the lady in your care is mad. She is not. Witness here a truly unhinged mind indeed.”
“Oh. So we can’t hang him?”
The doctor pursed his lips in distaste. “The law can do as the law pleases,” he said stiffly. “I am here to keep the man alive but what happens to him later is up to you, justice and the Good Lord Himself.”
“What about Felicia?” Theodore said, interrupting them both, and speaking to Brodie. Even though he knew that Brodie’s logic was flawed and twisted, he felt he had to know why his daughter had been targeted so constantly and so cruelly. “We know what you did to her.”
“Do we?” said Rhodes, looking at Wilbred, who shrugged.
Brodie pinched up his face. “I’ve done nothing.”
“You’ve been slowly poisoning her. Why?”
Brodie shook his head, slowly and almost rhythmically like he was a snake dancing to a tune, his shoulders and upper body swaying with the movement. “She didn’t fit the place. She shouldn’t have been here at all. She was bad for my Lord. Made him weak.
