Celia Hampney had been a small woman. She had been taken by surprise. My father had been large and still vigorous in body. Had she tried to stand up? Had he thrown her back on the sofa? Had he held her down in her death throes, clamped his hand over her mouth?
Dear God, I thought, the ugliness of it, the horror, the sadness.
He had told me what had happened, just as he had told me everything else. The poor, abandoned wretch. Her sins found her out, and she suffered the punishment for them. He had taken out his knife and rooted out the sin. We had found blood on his shirt cuff that last evening, but no sign of a wound on him.
As so often in my childhood, my father had appointed himself God’s agent and meted out the punishment to the sinner. Perhaps he desired the punishment of whores because he desired them too much. He had been a man of strong appetites. He punished his own lusts.
They say it’s a wise father that knows his own child. Yes, and the contrary is also true.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
When she left Marwood, Cat walked along the Strand with the receipt for the money in her pocket. She didn’t hurry back to the drawing office, though it was perfectly true that Hakesby would be worrying about her.
The affair was over and done with, at last. Let the dead bury the dead. Marwood was probably right but, if he had any sense, he would forget what he knew and what he suspected. He would cover the more visible of his injuries with a new wig and go back to Whitehall to earn his living. What else was there for him to do?
For the moment, life went on. She would try to forget what Marwood had told her. She would push her own injuries deep inside her to join the others that lay there in the darkness. For most of the time, it was a simple matter to pretend that they weren’t there.
As she waited to cross the road, she forced her mind into a different direction. She thought with satisfaction of the plan for a set of stables at Dragon Yard that Hakesby had entrusted to her. If he would permit it, she would start work this afternoon.
Cat turned up towards Henrietta Street and Covent Garden. For a moment, another thought crossed her mind like a cloud drifting over the sun. She hadn’t told Marwood her news, that she had agreed to marry Hakesby.
There had been other, more pressing things to talk about. If she saw Marwood again, she would mention it. In any case, there was no hurry. The marriage was purely a business matter between her and Hakesby, and there was no reason why the news should interest Marwood.
Besides, it was not something she cared to think about, let alone talk about, unless she had to.
Marwood, she murmured aloud. James Marwood.
THE END
If you enjoyed The Fire Court, make sure you’ve read The Ashes of London, the first book featuring James Marwood:
A CITY IN FLAMES
London, 1666. As the Great Fire consumes everything in its path, the body of a man is found in the ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral – stabbed in the neck, thumbs tied behind his back.
A WOMAN ON THE RUN
The son of a traitor, James Marwood is forced to hunt the killer through the city’s devastated streets. There he encounters a determined young woman, who will stop at nothing to secure her freedom.
A KILLER SEEKING REVENGE
When a second murder victim is discovered in the Fleet Ditch, Marwood is drawn into the political and religious intrigue of Westminster – and across the path of a killer with nothing to lose…
Click here to buy The Ashes of London
About the Author
Andrew Taylor is the author of a number of crime novels, including the ground-breaking Roth Trilogy, which was adapted into the acclaimed TV drama Fallen Angel, and the historical crime novels The Ashes of London, The Silent Boy, The Scent of Death and The American Boy, a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller and a 2005 Richard & Judy Book Club Choice.
He has won many awards, including the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger, an Edgar Scroll from the Mystery Writers of America, the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award (the only author to win it three times) and the CWA’s prestigious Diamond Dagger, awarded for sustained excellence in crime writing. He also writes for the Spectator and The Times.
He lives with his wife Caroline in the Forest of Dean.
@AndrewJRTaylor
www.andrew-taylor.co.uk
By the Same Author
Fireside Gothic
The Ashes of London
The Silent Boy
The Scent of Death
The Anatomy of Ghosts
Bleeding Heart Square
The American Boy
A Stain on the Silence
The Barred Window
The Raven on the Water
THE ROTH TRILOGY: FALLEN ANGEL
The Four Last Things
The Judgement of Strangers
The Office of the Dead
THE LYDMOUTH SERIES
THE BLAINES NOVELS
THE DOUGAL SERIES
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The Fire Court Page 36
