Horror swept over Sophie as she looked straight up into the face of Mr Cooper.
He was dressed as a butler, in a neat black tailcoat, and he looked quite different from when she had last seen him – his face was thinner, he had shaved off his beard and now wore a small moustache – but the one-time Sinclair’s store manager was quite unmistakable. He was standing in the doorway, one hand on the door handle and a revolver poised in the other.
‘Unfortunately for you, I’m afraid that my master doesn’t care very much for snoopers.’
Sophie stood as if frozen to the ground. Mr Cooper was Lord Beaucastle’s butler – the one that Veronica had warned them about! She could scarcely believe it. As her thoughts raced, he stood watching her with a cold smirk on his face. ‘I could call him,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Or perhaps I could just deal with you myself. The music from the ball is loud enough that I daresay no one would hear a gunshot. And after all, it seems fitting for me to be the one to bring your little investigation to an end.’
He looked at her mockingly and raised the gun, pointing it straight at her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Everything seemed to happen very quickly. From the window, Billy gave a yell of horror. Mr Cooper glanced up in surprise, and as he did so, Lil emerged from behind the door, clasping the bust of Lord Beaucastle in both hands, and smashed it defiantly over his head. The blow was a hard one: Cooper crashed to the ground. The revolver went off, firing into the air, shattering some of the crystals in the chandelier that hung above the writing desk. The noise was impossibly loud.
Lil dropped the bust, her eyes wide as she gazed at Cooper, prostrate on the floor and groaning feebly.
‘Oh . . . I say . . .’ she muttered.
Sophie began to breathe again – but her relief was only momentary. ‘Quickly!’ she cried. ‘We have to go!’
She grabbed Lil’s hand, and dragged her to the window. Billy and Joe helped her through, and then Sophie followed, bundling the skirts of her gown up in her hand.
Mei and Song came running towards them from between the trees. ‘What happened?’ demanded Song. ‘We thought we heard a shot!’
‘You did!’ said Sophie, breathlessly. She could still scarcely believe what had happened, but there was no time to pause now, not even for a moment.
‘It looked like he was really going to shoot you!’ exclaimed Billy.
‘I reckon he would’ve, too, if it hadn’t been for what you did,’ said Joe, giving Lil a glance that was even more admiring than usual, if that was possible. ‘That was a cracking great wallop you gave him.’
‘Oh golly,’ said Lil. ‘Do you think he’ll be all right?’
‘Don’t waste your sympathy on Cooper!’ exclaimed Billy crossly. ‘Haven’t you forgotten what happened at Sinclair’s? He’d have happily finished us all off if he’d had the chance!’
Lights were coming on in the windows of the East Tower, and they could hear the sound of raised voices. ‘Come on – we need to go!’ said Joe, urging them forwards into the trees, away from the house. But it was already too late.
‘I can see them!’ yelled a voice from the window. ‘They’re outside in the gardens!’
A door somewhere banged open: there were footsteps on the gravel, figures coming towards them in the darkness.
‘Split up!’ called Joe urgently, and they scattered.
‘Quick – get the evidence away!’ called Sophie over her shoulder to Billy. He was carrying the appointment book and one of the account books, while Joe had the two others. She saw him nod and veer off into the trees, with Song racing after him.
‘What now?’ cried Lil.
A surge of energy swept through Sophie: They must not lose the evidence now, after they had worked so hard to find it. ‘We have to draw them away from Billy!’ she exclaimed. ‘It’s like in the ballroom – we have to create a diversion!’
Lil darted forwards. ‘I know how!’ she cried. ‘Follow me!’
At the back of Lord Beaucastle’s manor house, twenty or more carriages and motor cars stood in the stable-yard, waiting until their owners were ready to leave the ball. Their drivers were sitting sociably together, enjoying the mugs of ale that two kitchen maids were passing around. There was a festive mood in the air: music from the ball was spilling out of the open door, inspiring a stable boy to swing round one of the maids in an impromptu dance.
‘You ought to see the spread they’ve got in there,’ the other kitchen maid was saying to Mr Pendleton’s driver. ‘A whole salmon! Roast chicken. Ham and tongue and game. French rolls. Blancmange – you’ve never seen the like.’
‘Ah well, Lord Beaucastle knows how to give a party,’ said a wheezing old groom, proudly. ‘Anyway, it’s a special occasion, ain’t it?’
‘That’s right,’ said Perkins, the Whiteley’s driver, nodding sagely. ‘Young Miss Veronica’s debut. Her maid says she’ll be engaged to your Lord Beaucastle before the night is up.’
The maid opened her mouth as if she was going to say more, but her attention was caught by something happening across the yard. A young man was running towards one of the carriages: a glossy black affair pulled by a beautifully matched pair of chestnut horses. Mr Pendleton’s driver looked up from his glass of ale in astonishment.
‘Hey you!’ he called out. ‘Get away from there! That’s Mr Pendleton’s carriage. Whatever do you think you’re doing?’
But Joe had already hopped up into the driver’s seat. Lil pushed Mei up beside him and he flung out an arm to steady her. Then Sophie and Lil leaped inside the carriage and slammed the door.
‘Don’t have a fit, guv’nor,’ Joe called saucily from the driver’s seat. ‘I’m just taking ’em for a little spin.’
Joe clucked his tongue and had started the horses before the driver had chance to take more than a step towards them. Astonished, the driver dropped his glass and shot forwards, the rest hot on his heels.
‘Hey! Stop! Stop, thief !’
But it was too late. In a great clatter of hooves, the carriage was rattling down the sweeping driveway. Not realising what had happened, but seeing Mr Pendleton’s carriage coming, the gatekeeper had already opened the gates, and a moment later, the carriage had swept through and out on to the road beyond.
Mei clung to the seat, white-faced and terrified, as the carriage shot forwards. Beside her, Joe was flicking the reins and murmuring comforting words to the horses as they paced along the road, leaving the Baron’s house behind them.
‘Well that was a right old fuss, wasn’t it?’ said Joe, giving her a hesitant smile. ‘But with any luck we’ll have given your brother and Billy a good chance to slip away without being seen.’
‘Will – will they follow us?’ asked Mei, her voice tremulous.
‘I reckon they will, but we’ve got a bit of a head start on them,’ said Joe. ‘Besides, this pair are tip-top – fine horses, they are.’
He settled back in his seat, but Mei could not relax. The thought of Song, left behind in the dark, made her feel sick with fear.
‘What about Song and Billy?’ she gasped out. ‘What will they do now?’
‘Don’t fret,’ said Joe, in the same quiet way he spoke to the horses. ‘They’ll be safe and sound in the boat by now. All they’ll have to do is sail back along the river. They’ll be toasting their toes in front of the fire before you know it.’
His voice, with its familiar cockney sound, was strangely comforting. Mei found herself beginning to breathe a little more easily.
‘So where to now, modom?’ Joe asked her jokingly, touching his hat as if he were a polite chauffeur and she was his passenger.
There was only one place that Mei wanted to go. She knew exactly where Song would head just as soon as he could. ‘Let’s go back home – to the shop,’ she said eagerly.
Joe hesitated. In spite of his attempts to reassure Mei, he was feeling anything but calm himself, and the thought of going back to the East End gave him a sharp stab of fear in the
way that nothing else had tonight – not even taking Mr Pendleton’s carriage from right outside the Baron’s manor. Mind you, it wasn’t as though that was exactly stealing. Lil had been very adamant that this Mr Pendleton – whoever he was – wouldn’t mind them ‘borrowing’ his fancy carriage.
‘I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,’ he said gently to Mei now. ‘I know we said we’d meet back at your place in China Town if we got separated, but the Baron’s Boys, well . . . the East End is their territory. If we get out there and they’re on our tail, they’ll have the upper hand, for sure.’
‘But I know somewhere perfect that we can hide the carriage,’ said Mei earnestly. ‘It will be quite safe and they’ll never know. Besides,’ she added, after a pause, ‘where else could we go?’
For a long moment, Joe found himself thinking of the wonderful comfort and peace of the Sinclair’s stable-yard. Right now, it seemed hundreds of miles away. But Mei was right: they could not turn up there in a carriage that to all intents and purposes was stolen. What was more, it would undoubtedly be the first place that Cooper would think to look for them.
He’d already resolved that it was time to stop running away. So he gathered himself: now was the moment to put his fear of the East End aside, once and for all. ‘Right then, milady,’ he said. ‘To China Town we go.’
Lil and Sophie slumped back against the comfortable padded seats of Mr Pendleton’s carriage.
‘First you’re almost shot – and now here we are in a stolen carriage,’ gasped Lil in awe. ‘What an evening! Not that it’s really stolen of course – I mean, Pendleton would have lent it to us, if we’d had the chance to ask. It was rather a good idea of mine, don’t you think?’ she went on, peering out of the window as they trotted along at a brisk pace. ‘I just hope Joe and Mei are all right up there.’
Sophie said nothing. Her mind was working feverishly as she tried to make sense of all the extraordinary things that had happened to them. She thought of the secret laboratory, which must be where the scientist Veronica had mentioned had been carrying out his experiments on the mineral from the mines. Could the papers she had taken show how it could be used to make an incendiary weapon? She took them out of her pocket and gazed at them, but the numbers and letters remained an unknowable jumble. She remembered that when she had overheard the Baron and one of his companions discussing their plans when she had encountered him before, they were talking about wanting to kick-start a war, and how it would make them rich and powerful. Creating a new and deadly weapon was exactly the kind of thing that would help him to do that. Had Emily somehow stumbled on the laboratory and learned what was going on there? Could that have been what she had used to try and blackmail the Baron?
The horses were going faster now. Lil knelt up on the seat for a better view. ‘I say, there’s a motor coming up behind us!’ she exclaimed. ‘We’re being followed!’
‘Is it them?’ asked Sophie, scrambling up beside her.
The carriage lurched to the side as Joe sent them flying around a corner at a rapid pace. It was evident that he was going as fast as he dared, trying to lose their pursuers. But the motor car swerved out behind them too, its bright lamps burning like yellow eyes. The horses were going even faster now, and the two girls had to cling to their seats to prevent themselves being bumped about the carriage. They clattered over the cobbles of a back street, then out again on to a road, weaving between the motor cars and carriages that made London’s roads so busy even at this time of the night, then out into another back street. Joe was deliberately taking a twisting route, trying to throw off their pursuers, but the yellow lights were still behind them in the dark. Over the noise of hooves on the cobbles, Sophie could hear the engine roaring.
Then there came a sharp crack, and a pinging sound. A horse whinnied in fear.
‘Was that – a shot ?’ breathed Lil. ‘They’re shooting at us?’
As they looked at each other, horror sweeping over them, another shot rang out, and the stolen carriage rattled onwards, carrying them faster and faster towards the East End.
‘Miss Whiteley, my dear. I hope you are having a delightful evening?’
Veronica rose anxiously to her feet from where she had been sitting, talking with some of the other debutantes. She had hardly glimpsed Lord Beaucastle all evening: now here he was, holding out a gloved hand. Instinctively, she glanced around for Sophie and Lil. She hadn’t seen them for hours. It was already after eleven – surely they must have found what they needed by now?
‘Would you care for a stroll on the terrace?’
Veronica swallowed, and accepted Lord Beaucastle’s arm, trying to smile.
‘What a very beautiful night,’ he said companionably as they stepped together through the glass doors that led from the ballroom out on to the magnificent terrace. ‘A perfect midsummer eve, don’t you agree?’
Veronica managed to murmur something about how beautiful his gardens looked.
‘I’m delighted to hear you admire them. They will be your gardens soon, after all.’
Veronica felt herself blushing. There were one or two other couples also strolling on the terrace, taking advantage of the warm evening, but Beaucastle led her away from them, down into the gardens. He pointed things out to her as they went: first a magnolia tree that he said was magnificent in the springtime; then a particularly fine marble statue; then a climbing rose that smelled delicious in the evening. Gallantly he plucked a flower and handed it to her.
‘Miss Whiteley, I am afraid I have brought you out here under false pretences,’ he said, after they had been strolling for some minutes. ‘I wanted to take the opportunity to have a talk with you in private.’
She looked up at him, taken aback. It was not yet close to midnight – surely he couldn’t be going to propose to her already?
He had stopped short on the gravel path, and gently turned her around to face him.
‘I have heard some news this evening that I find unsettling,’ he said in a rather different tone of voice. It was sharper – colder – the voice she had heard talking to Henry Snow through the study door. ‘I don’t wish to alarm you, but my butler has discovered two intruders in my study. Two young ladies – or perhaps ladies is not quite the right word for them – who were guests here at this party. They took advantage of my hospitality to sneak into my private quarters and help themselves to my property – and took it upon themselves to attack my butler when they were exposed. What do you think of that?’
Veronica felt ice-cold. Had Sophie and Lil been captured? ‘That – that’s terrible,’ she stammered out helplessly.
Beaucastle nodded. He was not smiling now. ‘But what troubles me most, Miss Whiteley, is that I have met these two particular “young ladies” before,’ he went on, fixing her with a searching expression. ‘And so, I think, have you.’
Veronica gazed back at him, her eyes wide, uncertain what he meant. Had he recognised Sophie and Lil from the day they had seen him at Belgrave Square? Would she need to construct some sort of story about what they had been doing there? Her heart thumped frantically.
‘I don’t care for insubordinate girls,’ said Beaucastle in a slow, meaningful voice. ‘Young ladies ought to know their place. Don’t you agree, Miss Whiteley?’
Veronica managed to stammer out that she did agree, of course.
‘You’ll have to be more careful about who you befriend, my dear,’ said Beaucastle, returning to his usual avuncular tone, tucking her arm back into his, and leading her back in the direction of the house. ‘You mustn’t let unscrupulous people take advantage of you. But don’t be anxious,’ he added, patting her hand. ‘I’ll take care of this. And once we are married, I will ensure you are always well looked after.’
Instead of returning to the ballroom, Beaucastle led her around to the front of the house. His glossy black motor was waiting on the driveway: a uniformed chauffeur behind the wheel. As they approached, he turned his head, and Veronica was shocked to see that he
was not Beaucastle’s usual chauffeur at all, but the scientist, Henry Snow.
‘They are travelling east – towards Limehouse,’ Snow said shortly. ‘We’re headed to the docks.’
‘Very well then,’ said Beaucastle. He patted Veronica’s hand once more, then detached his arm from hers and opened the door to the motor.
‘Where are you going?’ gasped Veronica.
‘I have a matter of business to take care of,’ said Beaucastle, coolly. ‘That inconvenient incident that I mentioned to you needs to be dealt with properly – and I’ve decided that I must handle it personally this time. I am sorry to leave you without a host, my dear, but I am sure you will manage admirably. Remember what I said, and do not worry. I’ll be back very soon. After all, when I return, we have an engagement to celebrate. Drive on!’
The motor rumbled off into the night, leaving Veronica standing all alone on the empty driveway.
At long last, the carriage jolted to a halt. Sophie breathed out a long, wavering sigh of relief. They had lost the motor car some time ago: whizzing out into the city’s brightly lit main streets amongst the traffic had prevented any more shots being fired, and by dint of some clever driving, Joe had at last managed to shake off their pursuers.
Someone jumped down from the driver’s seat, and after a moment they heard the sound of a heavy door sliding open. Then the horses were moving forwards, slowly this time. After a few moments, the carriage came to a standstill.
‘Where are we?’ whispered Sophie.
Lil was peering out of the window. ‘I say!’ she exclaimed. ‘We’re inside! I think we’re in some sort of a warehouse.’
The door of the carriage opened, and the two girls found Mei and Joe looking in at them. They looked rather pleased with themselves.
‘Well, I don’t think much of you as a coachman,’ said Lil, as she accepted the hand Joe was holding out to her. She laughed, but the sound was trembly. ‘You had us bumping about all over the place!’
Joe grinned as he helped her to jump down, but Sophie saw that he looked drawn and exhausted. ‘Look, you should just be glad that you were safe inside and not up top, with bullets flying at you,’ he said, in a voice that was trying hard to remain light and teasing. ‘Not like Mei, here. She’s a proper trouper,’ he added, then let out a long gust of breath. ‘I never thought I’d be relieved to see the East End again,’ he said. ‘But this was a smart idea of yours, all right.’
The Mystery of the Jewelled Moth Page 19
