“Did you miss me, little one?”
Amélie nodded.
Mummy sad without you. Amélie sad without you.
Rémy raised her head. Amélie had never said a word in her entire life.
“Did you – did you speak, Amélie? Has mummy taught you how?”
The child shook her head, blue eyes blinking at Rémy curiously.
No. I don’t. Can’t.
Rémy stared at her for a moment. And then a thought sped into her mind, so fast that it made her heart thump. She fumbled at her throat, beneath her bedshirt, until she felt the gold chain that was always there. Pulling it out, Rémy peered at the opal. Its colours seemed brighter somehow and it had cracked, a furrow lying through its centre as surely as if someone had cleaved it with an axe. She remembered what Desai had asked her, what seemed like a lifetime ago. Have you ever been able to hear the thoughts of others? In your head? And hadn’t he said it might have been sleeping? What could wake a stone? Rémy turned cold, a shiver working its way down her spine. She hid the opal under her bedshirt, determined not to think about it. It was all too strange to comprehend.
* * *
A few days later, just as the circus was packing up, Rémy had a visitor. There was a knock on the caravan door as Rémy was lying in bed, playing draughts with Amélie on a makeshift board. Claudette opened the door and there was Desai, his head almost brushing the ceiling. Behind him, dressed more cleanly than she had ever seen him, was J.
Rémy leapt out of bed and flung her arms around them both, far more quickly than was wise given her still-feeble condition.
“Mon Dieu!” she said, as Desai helped her back to bed. “How did you know I was here? I was going to come looking for you, but I have been so tired… I was planning, when I was better…”
Desai smiled his gentle smile and patted her on the shoulder. “That is why we came to you, my dear girl. It was J who found you.”
“Took me a while, it did,” J told her. “But I reckoned there was a good chance you weren’t dead. Not our Rémy Brunel, I said. She’s too brave to die, I said. So I went ‘round and about, to see if anyone ‘ad ‘eard anyfing, like.”
“I – I washed up on the riverbank,” Rémy said. “There – there was an old man.”
J bobbed his head. “Aye – the mute Mudlark. Tha’s right. ‘E told me where you were. Well, I say told. ‘E scratched it down, see. In the sand. ‘Home,’ it said. ‘Circus.’ And tha’s when I knew it was you. It ain’t ’alf good to see you, Rémy.”
Rémy returned his grin, though hers was overlaid with sadness. Seeing J reminded her of Thaddeus and she didn’t want to think about the watery death he must have suffered, waiting for wave after wave until that tiny cave was full.
“What are people saying, Desai?” she asked instead, when she knew she could speak without tears. “About what happened? Claudette said there was a flood…”
“People assume that there was a storm out at sea,” he told her, “and that it caused the Thames to be higher than usual and break its banks. It happens.”
Remy nodded, twisting her fingers together. “And Abernathy? His men? What happened to them all? When I was in the chasm, I saw… I saw one of the submarines, lying dead. But what about the rest?”
Desai and J glanced at each other. “We have been looking,” he said, “for any trace of the madman and his men. But there is no sign that any of his people or their contraptions escaped. I think – I think we must be grateful for that.”
There was a moment of silence as they all thought about Abernathy’s vast army, lost beneath the streets of London.
“I had a – a reason for wanting to see you again, Desai,” Rémy said after a moment. “Besides wanting to know if you were all right, I mean.”
“Oh?”
Rémy fumbled beneath her pillow and pulled out the diamond, wrapped in an old rag. J gasped as she held it up. “It was with the Darya-ye Noor. In Abernathy’s power chamber.”
Desai reached out and took it with a frown, turning it over in his palm as the diamond flashed in the light.
“It is a valuable one,” Rémy said quietly. “I can tell, just by looking at it. There are no flaws in it. It is cut in the old style, so it must be ancient.”
The Indian looked up at her. “You are right on all counts, Rémy Brunel, oh knower of gems. But there is something else. Something you may not know.”
Rémy looked away. “I think I do. It’s the stone, isn’t it? It’s the stone my parents stole. The one they were cursed for. Abernathy had it all along; it just wasn’t powerful enough for his plan. Am I – am I right?”
Desai nodded. “Yes. Yes, you are right.”
“I knew,” Rémy whispered, staring at the beautiful glow of the jewel that had destroyed her parents. “I knew as soon as I saw it.”
There was a silence. Desai continued to turn the diamond over in his hand. “I can return this for you, Rémy,” he said quietly into the hush. “I can go to India and give this to its rightful owner. The curse would be lifted. You would be free.”
Rémy smiled sadly and nodded. “I know,” she said. “But… but that doesn’t really seem very important now. And I was thinking – I was thinking that perhaps we should present it to the Shah of Persia. To replace the Darya-ye Noor. Do you think? Would that – would that be the right thing to do?”
What she really meant to ask was, “Is that what Thaddeus would have wanted?”, but Rémy couldn’t bring herself to say his name.
Desai looked at her with a frown. “That is a very noble gesture, Rémy.”
“Be a bit greedy of him, though, wouldn’t it?” J piped up. “‘E of all people don’t need two big stonking gemstones, do ‘e?”
“Two?” Rémy asked, puzzled.
“Yeah. If ‘e’s goin’ to ‘ave the Ocean o’ Light, why does ‘e need this one, too?”
“But – but the Ocean of Light was lost, wasn’t it? When the power chamber flooded. It was lost, with – with…”
J laughed. “Pfft. You fink Mr Rec was going to leave it there, after all the trouble ‘e went to to get it? You must be jokin’!”
Rémy shook her head. Her heart was doing strange things in her chest. “But – but Thaddeus – Thaddeus is dead. Isn’t he? There – there was no way out of that room. Except, except down the chasm, like me, and I only just survived that, so… so…”
“Mr Rec, dead?” cried J. “I surely ‘ope not, Rémy, or I been tending to a ghoulie the past week!”
Rémy felt the blood drain from her face. Desai leaned forward and grasped her shoulder. “The very excellent Thaddeus Rec is far from dead, Rémy. He has been in hiding, yes – he has needed almost as much care as you, though I think his wounds have been less physical and more of the mind. But he is alive, my dear. He is well. We would have brought him here, but when J learned of your whereabouts, Mr Rec had taken himself off to perform an errand of his own, and J could not wait for him to return before seeing if it really was you.”
J jumped up. “It was right bad o’ me, that, I know,” said the boy, “but I’ll go right now and get ‘im. We’ve been staying at the Professor’s old workshop, y’see. ‘E must be back by now –”
“No,” said Rémy hoarsely, cutting him off. “No – No, J. Don’t. Don’t.”
Silence fell again as J and Desai both looked at her.
It was Desai who spoke first. “What is it, Rémy?”
She shook her head. “He – things did not work so well for him when I was alive. Perhaps it is better if he thinks I am dead. I will go back to France, out of his life, and he can go back to being the good policeman, without me.”
Desai smiled and shook his head. “Surely, Miss Brunel – you must know that cannot be the case.”
Rémy drew a deep breath, her mind made up. Then she f
rowned as a thought occurred to her.
“So, he has given the Ocean of Light back?”
“Not yet ‘e ain’t. ‘E ‘asn’t been well enough, and ‘e wouldn’t let no one else do it for ‘im. Nah – that’s where ‘e’s gone just now. ‘E was off to ‘is old station. They’re going to get a right shock when ‘e walks in there with that diamond!”
Rémy shot to her feet. “But – but he can’t! He can’t do that!”
J frowned, puzzled. “Why not?”
“Because they still think he stole it! They think – they think it was him, all along!”
“Nah,” J said doubtfully. “Not Mr Rec. They wouldn’t, would they? Not after everything…”
“They don’t know about everything else!” Rémy cried, “and they won’t believe him if he tells them, will they? It is too – too ridiculous, all of it! They will arrest him! They will – they will blame him!”
“Oh no,” said J, growing pale. “You’re right!”
Rémy spun towards Desai. “He would have known that. He can’t have not known that!”
Desai nodded solemnly. “I think he probably did.”
Rémy grabbed her street clothes and began to pull them on. “I can’t let him do it. I can’t – I can’t let him throw his life away, his career. He’ll go to prison!”
She hardly took any notice as Desai stood and motioned to J that they should go.
“J and I have a long trip to take, Rémy,” he said softly. “Will you be well without our assistance?”
“Yes,” Rémy replied, hardly listening. “I just – I just have to stop him. I’ll see you soon.”
“Perhaps,” said Desai, then he bowed to her and left.
It was only as she was rushing along Wapping High Street that Rémy realized he had not handed back the diamond.
Twenty Three
A Caged Bird
It was raining again, icy drops pouring from London’s indolently melancholic sky. Thaddeus Rec pulled his collar up, and then realized it was possible that after today he would not feel the rain for a very long time. He pulled it down again, letting the torrent run down his cold neck and savouring the feeling.
The past two weeks seemed to have lasted a lifetime and, when he thought about it now, he couldn’t quite remember the man he had been before they began. He knew he was different. He knew he was older. He knew there was now a space in his heart that would never be filled again.
J had been so attentive – making him eat, making him drink. Thaddeus himself would have been happy to let his life fade away, as he’d hoped would happen when he allowed himself to be taken into the chasm. But he suspected Desai had been slipping a concoction into his food that meant no matter how little Thaddeus wanted to, he had slowly regained his strength.
Even when he’d been at his weakest, though, Thaddeus had known what he had to do. The Shah of Persia deserved to have his stolen property returned, and the only person to do that was Thaddeus himself. He knew it would probably mean spending the rest of his life behind bars. But at the moment, he couldn’t see the point of being free. His sleep was still haunted by the sight of Rémy’s tiny frame, being sucked beneath a volume of water so great it could have annihilated London itself, let alone a sixteen-year-old girl.
Finding himself on the street opposite Scotland Yard, Thaddeus paused. He remembered how he had looked forward to entering those doors each morning. Now he knew that, once inside, he faced the disdain of his peers. He put his hand into his pocket, feeling the Darya-ye Noor resting there safely, wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper.
But, he thought, there are worse things in life. And this is the right thing. All I’ve ever wanted to do was the right thing.
He took a deep breath and stepped out to cross the road.
Something hit him in the side. It was a person with a hood pulled up over their head, tackling him so hard that he almost fell over.
“What the –?”
“Idiot!” hissed a voice. “What are you doing? Stupid, stupid man!”
As Thaddeus looked down his eyes fell on a face that he thought he’d never see again. His mouth fell open as the girl dragged him back to the kerb and along the street.
“Rémy?” he whispered. “Rémy Brunel?”
She stopped as they reached a small alley, and pushed him into it, turning to look up at him. “Yes, of course, me. Who else would care to stop you, little policeman? Foolish man, what are you doing?”
He couldn’t speak. He could hardly take a breath.
“What?” he whispered. “How… I mean, when… How did you…”
She shook her head and stepped away from him, glancing over her shoulder into the empty alleyway. “It takes more than a little bath to kill me, Thaddeus Rec. But you – you. How did you survive?”
He stared at her, trying to fathom how she was here, now, in the flesh, as whole and as angry as she ever had been.
“I – I don’t know,” he told her, truthfully. “Maybe – maybe because I didn’t want to.”
She didn’t seem to have anything to say to that, so Thaddeus reached out and pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. Her face pressed into his neck. After a second, she held on to him, too.
“I thought you were dead,” he said, and the words were so terrible that they still made him tremble.
She nodded, her hair brushing his cheek. “I thought you were, too. Instead you were just being stupid, as usual.”
He pulled away. “What do you mean?”
“J says you are taking back the Darya-ye Noor.”
“I have to. It belongs to someone else.”
She slapped a hand against his shoulder in frustration. “Agh! They will arrest you!”
“I know that.”
“Then let me. Let me take it in. I can be your prisoner. You can prove that it wasn’t you!”
He was taken aback. “I’m not doing that!”
“Why not?” Rémy cried. “It’s true!”
“It’s not true! Abernathy took it, not you!”
“But only because I didn’t get there first! This is my fault. This is all – all my fault.” He tried to pull her close again, but she shook him off and stepped away. “I can’t let you take the blame, Thaddeus. You – you changed me. You know? You – you made me want to… to do the right thing. And you going to prison, for me or Abernathy – that is not the right thing.”
Thaddeus smiled. “It is. It is the right thing. It’s –”
Rémy threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling his head down to hers. Their lips met before his heart even realized what was happening. He went into freefall as a thunderbolt hit him, burning white-hot, straight through to his core. The kiss was soft and urgent at the same time, and he pulled Rémy closer, backing against the wall of the alley and lifting her up until there was no space at all between them. He felt her slip her arms around him, running her hands up his back, down his arms, around his waist. Their mouths parted, met again, the kiss growing deeper and deeper.
Thaddeus didn’t know how long it lasted, and didn’t care. When he lowered her to the ground again they were both out of breath. And then he realized that Rémy was crying.
“Rémy?” he asked. “What – what is it? What’s the –”
She leaned in against him briefly, pressing another kiss to his lips, her tears touching his cheek. And then, before he could react, she ran.
“What? Wait!” he called, as she fled out into the street. “Where are you going? What’s wrong?”
Realization hit him like another thunderbolt, but this time it drove his heart through the floor. Thaddeus fumbled in his pocket.
The diamond. The Darya-ye Noor. It was gone. Only the newspaper was left behind.
“No!” he shouted, runnin
g after her. Rémy was already across the street and heading straight for the main doors of Scotland Yard. “Rémy!” he bellowed after her, dodging carts as he crossed the road. “Don’t do it! Don’t you –”
Thaddeus was only a couple of moments behind her, but he was already too late. By the time he’d burst through the wooden double doors of Scotland Yard, Rémy was surrounded by police. She was holding the Ocean of Light high above her head.
“I can’t take it anymore,” she cried shrilly, and then pointed straight at Thaddeus. “He never gives up! He won’t leave me alone until he’s caught me! And now – and now he has! I give up! I surrender the stone. I give myself up!”
Thaddeus froze, out of breath, as every uniformed face turned to look at him. He saw Collins’ ruddy face staring at him, the beginnings of surprised pride blooming in his eyes. And there was Chief Inspector Glove, looking fatter even than he remembered.
“Is this true, Rec?” Glove asked, stepping towards him with narrowed eyes.
Thaddeus shook his head. “No. Wait, I –”
“‘Ere,” spoke up Collins, peering closely at Rémy. “‘Ere – I know this girl. She was there, sir! She was there, the night the diamond was nicked from the Tower. She ‘elped that old man, she did, Lord Abernathy…”
Glove glanced at Rémy, looking her up and down. “Well. She certainly looks like trouble.” He turned back to Thaddeus, staring at him coldly for a moment. Then the Chief Inspector reached out to slap him on the back. “Well, well, Rec, this is a turn-up for the books. It seems I owe you an apology, after all. Still, no hard feelings, eh? Good work, boy, good work.”
Thaddeus took no notice of Glove’s prattle. He was looking at Rémy. The Ocean of Light had been snatched from her hand, her arms pulled roughly behind her back. Collins was dragging her off to the cells.
“Wait,” Thaddeus said. “Just – just wait. It was my collar. Let me take her.”
Collins looked askance at Glove, who nodded. “Of course, of course. Only fair. Have at it, Rec.”
The Diamond Thief Page 20
