The Paid Companion

by Amanda Quick

  “He escaped from that private asylum where you sent him.”

  “Dear heaven.” Lady Wilmington sank back down onto her chair, stricken. “No one sent word that he was gone. I swear it.”

  “I believe you. No doubt they have not told you yet because they are hoping to find Parker before you learn that he escaped. After all, you are a very wealthy client. The proprietors of the asylum would not want you to take your business elsewhere.”

  “This is a disaster.”

  Arthur crossed the room in three strides and came to a halt on the other side of the little desk.

  “Parker left a note instructing me to go alone to a certain address in the stews at midnight tonight. There I am to be met by two men who will convey me to some secret location. I can only assume that I will first be bound, blindfolded and disarmed before I am taken to see your grandson. I will not be of much assistance to Elenora in that condition.”

  “I am so sorry. So very sorry.” Lady Wilmington seemed dazed with despair. “I do not know what to say or do. I never meant for this to happen. I thought I was doing what was for the best for everyone.”

  Arthur leaned forward and flattened his palms on the dainty desk. “Where is Parker’s laboratory?”

  Lady Wilmington was obviously confused by the question. “I beg your pardon?”

  “I went to his house today and searched it thoroughly. The books and furnishings are nothing more than a stage set designed to imitate the lodgings of a fashionable gentleman.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I spent a great deal of my youth in my great-uncle’s house,” Arthur said. “I know what to expect in the way of furnishings in the home of a man who is consumed with a passion for science. I found none of those things in Parker’s lodgings.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “There should have been a laboratory cluttered with instruments, apparatus, glassware. There should have been books on optics and mathematics, not poetry and fashion. Treyford’s journals were not there either.”

  “Yes, of course, I see. I was too overset yesterday to even think about such things.”

  “Parker may be mad, but he is obsessed with his plans to build Jove’s Thunderbolt. He must have a secret laboratory somewhere in London. It will be a place where he feels secure. A place where he is free to labor all night without drawing attention. That is where he will have taken Elenora.”

  “Treyford’s old laboratory.” Lady Wilmington rubbed her brow. “Parker no doubt discovered the location in the journals. He would have been fascinated with the notion of pursuing his research there where his grandfather had once conducted his experiments.”

  “What do you know of it?”

  “Treyford constructed it after he broke with your great-uncle and Glentworth. They were never aware of the place and likely wouldn’t have cared if they had known. But Treyford took me there on many occasions,” Lady Wilmington said wistfully. “He needed to share his research with someone who could appreciate his genius, you see, but by that time he was no longer speaking to Lancaster or Glentworth.”

  “So he took you to his laboratory to witness the results of his experiments?”

  “Yes. The location was our secret. It was the one place where he and I could be alone together without fear of discovery.”

  The shorter of the two men waiting in the alley was the first to notice the flaring light of an approaching lantern.

  “Well, now, what do you know? He came after all, just like Mr. Stone said he would.” The footpad pushed himself away from the wall and raised his pistol. “You’d think he’d be too smart to risk his neck for a female.”

  A figure in a hat and greatcoat appeared at the entrance of the alley. He was starkly silhouetted against the light of the lantern.

  “He’s a fool, all right.” The second man hefted the knife he held in one hand. With the other, he reached down to pick up the length of rope that he intended to use to bind their prisoner. “But that’s his problem, not ours. All we have to do is take him to the old abbey and leave him in the cage that Mr. Stone described.”

  They went cautiously toward their prey, but the figure in the hat and greatcoat did not make any suspicious moves. He simply stood there, waiting.

  “Stay right where ye are, yer lordship,” the short man said, holding the pistol so that his intended victim could see it clearly. “Don’t move so much as yer little finger. My companion here is going to play valet for ye and see that yer dressed right and proper for yer visit to Mr. Stone.”

  The figure in the greatcoat did not speak.

  “Not feeling in the mood to chat, eh?” The taller man moved forward, rope in hand. “Can’t say that I blame ye. I wouldn’t be anxious to be in your shoes right now and that’s a fact. Mr. Stone is a strange bird all right.”

  “But he’s generous when it comes to our pay so we try not to notice his odd ways,” the short man said. “Let’s get on with it. Put your hands behind your back so my associate can truss ye up. We don’t have all night, y’know.”

  “No,” Jenks, said, removing his hat. “We do not have all night.”

  Ned and Hitchins stepped quickly out of the shadows of the doorway behind the two footpads.

  At the sound of the footsteps behind them, the pair started to turn. But Ned and Hitchins were already upon them. They jammed the barrels of their pistols into the spines of the two footpads.

  “Drop the weapons or you’re both dead men,” Hitchins said.

  The villains froze. The pistol clattered on the stones. The knife followed.

  “Now, hold on. My friend and I were hired to take his lordship to our employer,” the short man said, unnerved. “We were told it was all arranged and that his lordship was agreeable to the plan. There’s no crime here.”

  “That’s a matter of opinion,” Hitchins said.

  The taller of the two villains squinted at him uneasily. “Are ye St. Merryn?”

  “No. St. Merryn decided to take another route to meet up with your employer.”

  38

  Parker pulled his gold watch from his pocket and checked the time again. “Another half hour until my employees leave St. Merryn, neatly bound and secured, in the iron cage in the chapel above this room.”

  “You mean your men know about this laboratory?” Elenora asked, astonished.

  “What do you take me for?” He gave her a disdainful look. “Do you think that I would risk telling a couple of footpads such a great secret? They were given instructions to secure St. Merryn, leave him locked in the cage in the back of the chapel and then depart. No one knows about this place except me.”

  “I now know about it,” she pointed out.

  He inclined his head, amused. “I stand corrected.” He looked up at the vaulted ceiling. “And, in a short time, after the cage is lowered through the hidden trapdoor in the floor of the chapel, St. Merryn will learn of it also. I trust the two of you will both be suitably cognizant of the great honor that I have bestowed upon you.”

  “The honor of allowing us to view the secret laboratory of England’s second Newton?”

  “You sound so scathing, Miss Lodge. Really, you wound me.” He chuckled and reached out to take hold of a handle on Jove’s Thunderbolt. “But you will change your tune after you see what this device can do.”

  He began to turn the crank very quickly.

  Elenora watched uneasily. “What are you doing?”

  “Building up a strong store of electricity. When it is ready, I will use it to activate the machine.”

  She studied the device with mounting anxiety, paying close attention now. “How does it work?”

  “Once the charge of electricity has been properly stored, I can release it by turning that knob on top of the machine.” He pointed to it. “That is also how one turns off the thunderbolt. When the sparks of electricity come in contact with the three stones in the chamber it excites the energy stored in them, just as the old alchemist predicted. A very narrow
beam of crimson light is released. I tested it once, just before my grandmother had me carried off. It worked perfectly.”

  “What does the beam do?”

  “Why, the most amazing thing, Miss Lodge.” Parker exclaimed. “It destroys whatever happens to be in its path.”

  She would not have thought it possible to be any more terrified than she had been already. But when she saw the madness burning in Parker’s eyes, the icy sensation in the pit of her stomach became a thousand times more intense.

  She knew then that whatever else he planned to do with Jove’s Thunderbolt, he intended to turn it on Arthur and herself first.

  Arthur had thought that the darkness would be the worst part of the business, but in the end it was the odor that bothered him the most. The smell that emanated from the enclosed riverbed was so foul that he had been forced to wrap his neckcloth around his nose and mouth to block the stench.

  But at least he hadn’t had to walk along the narrow, rat-infested banks of the lost river, Arthur thought, dipping the pole back into the black water. He had found a small, shallow-bottomed boat and a pole at the secret dock beneath the old warehouse.

  “Treyford kept extra boats and poles at both the entrance to the laboratory and here in the warehouse,” Lady Wilmington had explained when she had led him down into the dark basement of the abandoned building and showed him the secret underground dock. “He told me that this way he could enter or leave the laboratory through the abbey or this place, according to his whim or if it became necessary to escape due to some disaster with an experiment. Parker appears to have followed the same practice.”

  The current of the murky river was sluggish, making it relatively easy to force the little boat upstream with the pole. The light from the lantern that he had positioned at the front of the craft splashed its glare across a bizarre scene.

  More than once he had eased the boat around a twist in the river and had to crouch quickly to avoid an ancient footbridge.

  There were other hazards in addition to the low bridges. Chunks of stone and ancient timbers had fallen into the river in places. Some projected above the waters, looming like the long-lost monuments of a dead civilization. Others were submerged and did not reveal themselves until the little boat bumped lightly against them.

  He studied each fallen stone carefully as he poled past it, watching for the classical statues and the strange marble relief that Lady Wilmington had told him to use as landmarks.

  “They had survived many centuries when I last saw them,” she said. “I am certain they will still be there.”

  Parker checked his gold watch yet again and appeared satisfied, even eager. “Twelve-thirty. My employees will have locked St. Merryn in the cage and left by now.”

  Elenora looked up at the vaulted ceiling. “I heard no sound from the rooms above this chamber.”

  “The stone floors are very thick. They do not transmit any noise. That is one of this laboratory’s most admirable features. I am able to conduct experiments that produce a great deal of noise and light and no one, even if he were standing directly above, would have so much as an inkling of what is happening down here.”

  “What makes you think your men will not wait and watch to see what happens?” she asked.

  “Bah. They are as frightened of the old abbey as everyone else in the neighborhood. But even if their curiosity got the better of them, they would see nothing but the cage disappearing into the wall of stone behind the altar. Once the hidden panel closes, it is impossible to find the opening. They would not see the cage being lowered into this chamber.”

  He reached up and turned the great iron wheel that projected from the stone wall.

  A section of the ceiling slid aside, revealing a dark shaft overhead. Elenora heard the creak and rumble of heavy chain. She recognized it as the sound she had heard earlier when Parker had brought her here.

  Her heart pounded. The only chance she would have to seize the rod on the workbench would be when Parker was occupied with the task of getting Arthur out of the cage.

  The rattling of the chain grew louder. Elenora saw the bottom edge of the iron cage appear out of the shadows of the vault that housed the mechanism.

  The tips of a pair of brilliantly polished boots came into view. Parker was riveted by the sight.

  “Welcome to the laboratory of England’s second Newton, St. Merryn,” he said, never taking his eyes off the boots. The words rang with exultation and excitement.

  Elenora took a step closer to the workbench. She reached out with her bound hands and picked up a heavy iron rod. There would be only one chance, she thought.

  “Elenora, get down.” Arthur’s sharp command reverberated across the chamber.

  She obeyed reflexively and dropped to the floor, still clutching the iron rod.

  “St. Merryn.” Parker spun away from the sight of the empty boots in the cage, pistol lifting.

  “No,” Elenora screamed.

  The twin explosions that ensued echoed through the laboratory. The acrid stench of burnt powder wafted through the air.

  The two men were still standing, she saw. The pistols had both discharged, but the distance had been too great to allow any degree of accuracy.

  Both weapons were now useless until they were reloaded, but Arthur quickly drew a second pistol from his pocket. He came forward swiftly, never taking his attention off Parker.

  “Elenora,” Arthur’s voice cracked across the space. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes.” She got to her feet. “What about you?”

  “I am unharmed.” He aimed the pistol at Parker.

  “Bastard,” Parker rasped. He looked at Arthur with eyes that glittered with fury, and moved a little closer to the workbench.

  “He has another pistol,” Elenora shouted. “It’s on the table behind him.”

  “I see it.” Arthur stepped forward and scooped up the unfired weapon.

  “Fool.” Parker stared at him from the opposite side of the workbench. “You do not know who you are dealing with.”

  Without warning, he flung himself toward the strange device and used both hands to turn the round knob on the top.

  Arthur raised the pistol. “Do not move.”

  “Beware,” Elenora warned. “He claims that the machine works.”

  “I doubt it. Nevertheless—” Arthur motioned with his pistol. “Get away from the device, Parker.”

  “Too late, St. Merryn.” Parker’s laughter echoed off the stone walls. “Too late. Now you will learn the truth of my genius.”

  A strange crackling came from the device. Elenora saw electricity snap and arc in the air around it.

  A thin beam of ruby red fire blazed forth from the long barrel. Parker swung the mouth of the weapon slowly toward Arthur.

  Arthur dropped to the floor. The ray of red light sliced through the air where he had been standing a second ago. It struck the stone wall behind him, hissing and sparking wildly.

  Sprawled on the floor, Arthur raised his pistol and fired. But he had no time to aim properly. The shot thudded into the workbench.

  Parker was already swinging the nose of the device downward in the direction of his target. The hellish beam sliced toward Arthur, charring everything in its narrow path.

  Elenora tried to move soundlessly up behind Parker. She must not alert him until she was close enough to strike, she told herself.

  “Did you really think that you could defeat me?” Parker shouted at Arthur.

  He used both hands to make the barrel of Jove’s Thunderbolt follow Arthur’s rolling body. The action of the heavy machine was slow, and it was clear that Parker had to exert considerable force to continually readjust the aim.

  Just a few more feet, Elenora, thought. She tightened her grip on the iron bar she had taken from the workbench and raised it.

  “You are a madman, not a genius,” Arthur yelled. “Just like your grandfather.”

  “You will acknowledge my genius with your dying breath, St. M
erryn,” Parker vowed.

  Elenora took another step closer to Parker and swung the rod with all her strength, aiming for his head. But at the last instant, he sensed her presence.

  He spun quickly to the side just as she brought the bar down in what should have been a deadly blow. The iron struck the heavy table and rebounded with such force that she lost her grip on it.

  She had missed her target, but the distraction had obliged Parker to release his hold on the killing machine. Enraged, he shoved Elenora to one side.

  She tumbled to the floor, bruising herself on the hard stones. Her eyes closed against the pain.

  It was the sound of a rush of motion that made her raise her lashes. She opened her eyes just in time to see Arthur slam headlong into Parker.

  The two men went down together, hitting the floor with a sickening thud. They crashed violently from side to side, Arthur on top one second, Parker the next.

  Abandoned by its operator, Jove’s Thunderbolt was steady now, but the deadly ray continued to blaze from the mouth of the barrel.

  The two men fought with a savagery that was unlike anything Elenora had ever witnessed. There was nothing she could do to intervene.

  Without warning, Parker suddenly rolled free and surged to his feet. He scooped up the iron bar that Elenora had attempted to use against him and made to bring it down on Arthur’s head.

  Elenora screamed a warning.

  Arthur hurled himself to the side as the rod descended toward him. The bar narrowly missed his skull. He reached out, seized one of Parker’s ankles and jerked violently.

  Parker shouted in rage and staggered in an attempt to free his leg and regain his balance. He raised the rod again, preparing to deliver another crushing blow.

  Still half lying on the floor, Arthur suddenly released his captive.

  Caught off balance, Parker swept out an arm and moved back hastily in an attempt to find his footing.

  “No,” Elenora shrieked.

  But it was too late. She watched in horror, her hands to her mouth, as Parker’s desperate attempt to catch his balance carried him straight into the path of the deadly beam of light.