Sometimes, Edwin would go quiet and she could tell he was searching in himself for things irretrievably lost. She did not know if he was a broken man, or merely cracked. By the hour, he was cooling. There was still a speck of vampire in him, ice around his heart.
Neither of them had finished with the war.
At Victoria Station, Charles was waiting. For both of them. Kate was briefly worried he might have constables ready to place her under arrest and carry her off to Devil's Dyke. In the crowds, she spotted Sergeant Dravot.
Charles shook Edwin's hand and Edwin got out an apology which Charles waved away. He understood Edwin had not been himself.
'You have leave,' Charles told Edwin. 'I assume you will wish to spend it in the West Country.'
'I have to return from the dead.'
'That's not such a big thing as it's made up to be,' Kate said. J
'Easy for you to say. You don't have to explain to Miss Catriona Kaye.'
'Neither do you, Edwin. Believe me, she'll need no explanation. Having you back will be enough.'
All this nobility was choking her. She shook his hand and darted a swift kiss at him. It was all very friendly. Tears stabbed the backs of her eyes, but she refused to have a weepy spell.
What would the rector's daughter make of the man who came back to her? Kate knew Catriona would get the worst of it, being with him through a convalescence that could never really put him together again.
'I shall follow your career with interest/ she told him, scolding. 'So be on your best behaviour.'
'I have taken out a subscription to the Cambridge Magazine, so I'll know what fevers your busy brain.'
Edwin let go of her hand, picked up his kitbag and walked away.
Charles laid a hand on her shoulder. She had forgotten he would know what she was feeling.
'He is too young for you,' Charles said.
'So is everybody.'
'As you well know, there are far older creatures than you strewn about the world.'
She turned to face Charles. He was calm again. Secret wars had been fought and he had his balance back. She was encouraged by that.
Edwin disappeared from sight, lost in the crowds of soldiers and their sweethearts. Their link was broken.
Dravot let Edwin go. He was staying with Charles now.
'So, will you depart for the Russias and become a heroine of the bolsheviki?' Charles asked.
She shook her head. 'Not yet a while, I think. This corner of the world interests me still. The old men are not exhausted. It would be a sin to let them be just now. There's the war, and then there's the matter of Ireland. Countess Markowitz and Erskine Childers have asked me to be on a committee for Home Rule.'
'Tell me no more. We may be enemies.'
She stroked his lapel. 'I hope not, Charles.'
'Ruthven still reigns, even as his Cabinet conspires against him. Dracula, though demoted, remains close to the counsels of the Kaiser.'
Kate considered the situation.
'All Europe is stark mad with red thirst. All America, for that matter. All the world. But that's no reason to merge with the killing hordes, no reason not to struggle against the dead hands at the wheel.'
Charles was smiling. He looked younger. She knew he was on the ascendant. Edwin was dead to her, and maybe to himself. J But Charles soldiered on.
Fresh troops, conscripts and volunteers as yet unblooded, broke from disorderly queues and shoved past to board the boat train. Their open faces, warm or vampire, bothered her. All they : knew of war was fire and glory. Insanity would continue as long as lies were perpetuated.
'I should have you arrested,' Charles said, 'before you make more mischief.'
She thought of what she would write next. About the war, about the government, about the old men. She would write and shout and wheedle and nag until her voice was heard, drowning out the drumbeat of jingo and the blather of politicians. She could not be the last priestess of the truth. People would listen. Things would change.
'Mischief, my dear,' she said to Charles. 'You don't know the half of it.'
This should be considered an addendum to the already lengthy enough roster of credits and mentions appended to Anno Dracula. Works that have proved useful for The Bloody Red Baron are:
Kim Newman
Islington, 1995