Pyke 01 - The Last Days of Newgate

by Andrew Pepper

  ‘What about any news of this man Jimmy Swift?’ Pyke asked.

  ‘I’m afraid there’s nothing at all. No one seems to have heard of him or know anything about him.’

  ‘In spite of the reward?’ Pyke was incredulous. It was almost impossible for someone to disappear without trace.

  ‘There are people who claim they know where he is, of course, because of the reward, but as yet no one’s actually managed to identify him.’

  Townsend gave him one of the handbills. It announced the date, time and place of the meeting and listed a series of grievances and unspectacular demands. At the bottom of the handbill was a quote: ‘The laws passed within the last fifty years present an unbroken and unparalleled series of endeavours to enrich and increase the power of the aristocracy and to impoverish the labouring people.’

  If nothing else, such a quote would get under Edmonton’s skin.

  ‘And Edmonton’s likely to hear about this?’

  ‘Almost certainly,’ Townsend said, warily. ‘Given the number of handbills we’ve distributed.’

  ‘Edmonton won’t let an opportunity like this pass.’

  ‘It doesn’t seem likely,’ Townsend said, staring down into his tankard.

  Pyke waited for a moment. ‘If you have a problem with what I’m doing, then say so.’

  ‘A lot of ordinary men and women are going to be caught in the middle and some might get hurt.’ Townsend shrugged. ‘That’s all.’

  ‘But we’re not forcing anyone to come to the meeting who doesn’t want to.’

  ‘No, we’re not.’

  ‘And the fact that these people have been driven to near-breaking point isn’t our doing, is it?’

  ‘No, it’s not,’ Townsend said, still refusing to meet Pyke’s stare. ‘But there’ll be a lot of anger in that barn.’

  ‘I’m sure there will be.’

  ‘And when Edmonton’s militia turns up?’

  ‘There’ll probably be some fighting,’ Pyke said, trying not to think about what might happen.

  This time Townsend looked up at him. ‘And what are we supposed to do, when this fighting breaks out?’

  Pyke stared at him. He had nothing to say that would alleviate Townsend’s righteous sense of guilt.

  They arrived in twos and threes. Some walked, others came on horse-drawn carts, others rode donkeys. They trudged into the barn in their coats, frocks, pantaloons, breeches, boots and shoes, young and old men alike, some with whiskers and others who were cleanly shaven. By seven o’clock, as dusk settled over the freshly harvested fields and gently rolling hills, there were fifty or sixty people crowded into the small barn. Inside, Saville and Canning were addressing the gathering. Meanwhile, Pyke had positioned himself behind an oak tree, some fifty yards from the barn’s entrance. It was a cold night, almost cold enough for a frost, but the skies were clear and, though it was not dark enough to see the stars, a half-moon was visible above the farmhouse.

  Pyke heard them before he saw them: the sound of hoofs moving in unison, vibrating against the hard ground.

  They turned on to the track that led up to the farm, at least ten of them, all riding horses and holding torches.

  They rode slowly but with purpose along the flinty track and came to a halt about a hundred yards from where Pyke was standing. In the light of their torches, he scanned their faces and was disappointed not to see Swift among them.

  As they gathered together in a circle, all on horseback, one of their rank, their leader perhaps, addressed them in hushed tones. Pyke tried to determine who this man was, but his view was blocked by another rider. In the barn, a raucous cheer erupted from the gathered crowd which seemed to get the raiding party’s attention. Pyke could not hear what they were saying to each other, but they were clearly preparing themselves to attack; they lined up in formation alongside one another, their torches held aloft. From somewhere behind them, their leader gave the signal and the men roused their horses into action. It did not take them long to pick up speed, and once they had done so, and were bearing in on their target, they started to shout: angry, blood-curdling cries whose sole purpose was to terrorise those inside the barn. As the horses thundered past him, Pyke scanned their faces again, but saw no one he recognised.

  Just as the first figures stumbled out of the barn, the raiders were upon them, scything them down and using their torches to set the rickety wooden building alight. Moments later, the trickle of men emerging from the barn became a deluge. As they spilled out into the darkness, the raiders were waiting for them and attacked without mercy; some were trampled under hoofs, others were beaten with sticks and set alight.

  It was a bloody sight and Pyke bore his own responsibility for initiating the conflict heavily. He tried to close his eyes to the horror of what was happening but the cruelty of the raiders and the helplessness of the protesters elicited a feeling of self-disgust.

  As he scanned the faces of the mob, he saw the familiar gait of the old man who had lost his daughter and grandchild. He was trying to hobble to safety when one of the men on horseback flew past him and struck him on the head with what looked like a makeshift hammer. The old man went down. The rider pulled up the horse, turned around and without another thought rode the horse over the old man’s prostrate figure. The man quivered for a moment and then stopped moving.

  But Pyke’s attention was distracted by one of the raiding party who had kept himself back from the fray and was watching the unfolding mayhem from a safe distance. Without pausing to determine whether this was Swift or not, he scurried across the track that led to the farm, concealing himself in the shadows of the grassy verge. Ten yards away, he paused to take aim with the pistol; his plan was to shoot the horse and take Swift alive.

  He steadied himself and cocked the pistol.

  But in the instant before Pyke fired, something alerted the horse to his presence and the animal reared upwards; the shot whistled harmlessly past its head.

  In these circumstances, most riders would have fallen off. But Swift - if indeed that was who it was - was a skilled horseman and remained upright, even as the horse reared up. Before Pyke could further unsettle the animal, or reload the pistol, the rider had managed to calm the horse down and goad it into action. With the man clinging to its back, the animal bolted off along the track, leaving Pyke on the ground staring upwards into a cloud of dust. But just before the galloping horse turned the corner at the end of the hedge-lined track, the rider pulled up and, turning around to face him, waited for a few moments and waved.

  *

  ‘I have come with a message from my mistress.’ Jo’s timid voice echoed around the draughty church. She removed her bonnet and approached the pew where Pyke was sitting, with obvious caution.

  Sensing her unease, Pyke invited her to take a seat, but she ignored his offer and opted to remain where she was. ‘I was under the impression that Emily planned to visit herself.’ He watched as she brushed the rain from her short red hair.

  Jo looked down at her feet. ‘She instructed me to tell you that Edmonton will not permit her to leave Hambledon.’

  ‘I see.’

  For a while, neither of them seemed to know what to say.

  ‘Mr Pyke . . .’

  ‘Please,’ he said, gently, ‘Pyke will do.’ He tried to smile. ‘I’m not used to being addressed in such a formal manner.’

  This drew a pained expression. ‘Miss Blackwood has been so good to me, and I don’t want to lose my job . . .’

  ‘Please don’t blame yourself,’ Pyke said, raising his hand. ‘It was not your fault. I shouldn’t have . . .’ He hesitated, not sure what else to say.

  But this seemed enough to put her at ease. ‘She’s so unhappy. She didn’t tell me to say that to you, but I thought I should say something anyway.’

  Pyke stood up and rubbed his hands together to keep them warm. ‘Is it your impression she intends to go ahead with this marriage?’

  ‘I know such a thought appals her.’
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br />   ‘But she’s at least willing to contemplate it as a possibility?’

  ‘It is not a question of being willing, I think.’ This time Jo raised her eyes to meet his stare.

  ‘But she is on the verge of succumbing to her father’s bullying?’

  ‘I wouldn’t know about that, but . . .’ Jo hesitated, as though unsure about whether she should continue. She pulled her woollen shawl tighter around her shoulders.

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘I know she’s to meet this man the day after tomorrow. He’s sending a carriage for her.’

  Pyke studied her expression. ‘Did Emily instruct you to inform me of this meeting?’

  ‘Not in so many words.’ Jo stared up at the ceiling of the church. ‘But I know how unhappy she is at the prospect of it.’

  Pyke assessed her seemingly well-intentioned concern. ‘Perhaps I may ask another question?’

  Jo gave him an unsettled look.

  ‘Have you heard of Edmonton’s threats to disinherit her? Or, indeed, to quadruple her allowance, should she agree to marry this man?’

  ‘I have not heard such a conversation for myself but my mistress has informed me of certain matters.’

  ‘And you think this is why Emily is considering the claims of this suitor?’

  ‘In part.’

  ‘Only in part?’

  ‘Mr . . .’ Jo hesitated. ‘Sorry . . . Pyke.’ She looked at him and smiled. ‘I overheard a conversation at Hambledon between Lord Edmonton and his lawyer. I haven’t yet told my mistress what I learned but I presume that she is aware of what they talked about.’

  Pyke nodded at her to continue.

  ‘As far as I understand it, Lord Edmonton has not simply threatened to disinherit my mistress, should she refuse to countenance this marriage. He has also instructed his lawyer to draw up a codicil to his will. From what I could gather from their conversation, the codicil states that if, at any point following Lord Edmonton’s death and the death of any of my mistress’s future husbands, she should marry you, then she would forfeit any claim to her inheritance and the family estate.’

  ‘I am to be personally named in this new document?’

  ‘As I understand it.’ Her manner was almost apologetic.

  So it was a choice between him and the money, Pyke thought bitterly. The fat lord was indeed a formidable adversary.

  ‘And how can I contact Emily, should I need to,’ Pyke asked, ‘if she’s to be kept locked up in her quarters?’

  Jo told him Emily would make arrangements to contact him.

  ‘Where? Here?’

  Jo shrugged and said she did not know.

  ‘Here,’ he said, scribbling his uncle’s address down on a scrap of paper. ‘Should Emily need to get in touch.’ Pyke waited for a moment. ‘Thank you for making the journey from Hambledon.’

  This time, Jo could not bring herself to look at him. ‘I just want what is best for my mistress.’ She fidgeted, shifting her body weight awkwardly from foot to foot.

  ‘But I have yet another reason to be grateful to you in particular.’

  This time Jo neither answered him nor even looked at him. He approached her, smiling.

  ‘Do you know what I’m referring to?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘The occasion you warned me about the assault in the Blue Dog tavern.’ As Jo tried to leave, he grabbed her wrist. ‘Well?’

  She stared at him like a trapped rabbit but managed to mutter, ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

  ‘You shouted my name. I presume to warn me.’ He tightened his hold on her wrist. ‘But I cannot for the life of me work out why you might have been following me in the first place.’

  ‘I have never even been to that place.’ She grimaced, struggling in vain to free herself from Pyke’s grip.

  ‘You concealed your face well under the bonnet. But it was your voice that gave you away.’

  ‘I’m afraid you’re mistaken, sir.’

  ‘Am I?’ Pyke let go of her wrist, aware that he had perhaps bruised her, and watched as she gathered up her skirt and hurried from the church.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Sir Richard Fox disembarked from his private carriage and was hurrying towards the entrance to number five Bow Street when Pyke caught up with him. Pyke was dressed as a beggar and Fox did not recognise him until he said, ‘Don’t look at me, Sir Richard. Just keep on walking, as though you have somewhere else to go.’

  Rigid as a washboard, Fox did as he was told. Though Pyke could not be certain, it struck him that Fox may have been frightened.

  Thirty yards past the Bow Street offices, they came to a halt. Pyke looked around, to make sure that no one had followed them. The street was thronging with the usual traffic of carriages, carts and traders.

  ‘The addresses,’ he said, not bothering with any formalities.

  Fox looked around him, as though searching for assistance. ‘I told you yesterday, Pyke. Vines is away at the moment.’

  ‘His address.’

  ‘It’s somewhere in the office, if you want to come in with me and wait . . .’ He smoothed his moustache.

  ‘Tilling’s, then.’

  ‘Ah, yes, I managed to find that one for you.’ He reached into his jacket, pulled out his wallet, removed a scrap of paper and thrust it into Pyke’s outstretched hand.

  Pyke read what was on the scrap, stuffed it into his own pocket and said, ‘I’ll be back for Vines’s address.’

  Pyke was already five yards along the street, disappearing into the crowd, when he heard Fox shout, ‘Pyke.’

  It was an innocent mistake, or so Pyke believed - uttering the name of an old friend or acquaintance, as one might do under normal circumstances. But its consequences were startling. At first, other passers-by seemed not to have heard Fox’s mistake, or at least did not outwardly respond to it. Pyke pulled the cap down over his face and walked briskly in the direction of Covent Garden market, trying not to draw attention to himself. But after a few moments, the impact of this public utterance of his name percolated into the minds of those who had heard it, a few looked at him and finally one shouted, ‘That’s Pyke.’ The effect of these words was astonishing. Perhaps it was simply the reward money: five hundred pounds was a monumental, almost unheard-of, sum, and suddenly everyone on Bow Street could taste a share of it. Another voice shouted, ‘That’s Pyke, that is.’ Still another, ‘Someone stop ’im.’ It was possible his name electrified those who heard it for different reasons: some may have been afraid, others wanted to see him hang. In the end, the effect was the same: suddenly he was a marked man and others joined the hunt. ‘Is that ’im?’ one asked. Another said, ‘He’s got a pistol.’ Still another said, ‘Just kill him. They’ll pay up for a corpse too.’

  Pyke darted into a side street and broke into a run. Doing so may have been a mistake: it unnecessarily drew attention to him. But he could not help it. He needed to put as much distance between himself and his pursuers as possible. That was his ambition, but alerted to his presence by shouts from behind, others were spilling out of dilapidated buildings almost at the same moment as he was passing them. Turning into an even smaller alleyway, he pushed his way past a newsboy. From behind, someone tried to grab his shoulder; he pulled himself free and ducked into a dingy entrance. Shouts followed. It was a pawnshop: there were racks of shawls, petticoats, skirts, stays, gowns, shirt-fronts, handkerchiefs and trousers. Ignoring the owner, he barged his way through the shop, knocking over piles of clothes as he did so. He kicked down the back door, and found himself in a small courtyard, surrounded by buildings. A fighting dog, chained to its kennel, sprang to its feet and growled at him through bared teeth. Pyke took no notice of it and forced his way into another building on the other side of the court. He could still hear voices behind him. This time he found himself in the kitchen of a lodging house: a fire was blazing in the grate, rashers of bacon suspended before it. Around a table sat seven or eight men dressed in working clothes. No one made any effort to
block his path. As he left the lodging house, this time by the front entrance, he could not see any sign of his pursuers. Across the alleyway, he entered another lodging house, this one more run down, and pushed his way through to the back of the building, where he found himself in an identical courtyard. This time, however, he hesitated for a moment and looked behind him.

  No one seemed to have followed him.

  It was dark and quiet in the yard. Above him rain fell lightly out of a desolate sky. Pyke kept moving deeper and deeper into the rookery. If he had stopped to think about it, he might have likened himself to a hunted animal, but such was his fear, and his desire to evade capture, that he did not once pause to consider his predicament. Perhaps his nerves were dulled by the laudanum. In any case, he felt oddly calm by the time he finally came to a halt, in an empty skittle yard attached to a beer shop. At first he just chuckled, but very soon this had mutated into a deep belly-laugh and finally into uncontrolled hysteria. He laughed because he was not yet dead.

  From the bay window in Fitzroy Tilling’s front room, the view took in Hampstead Heath and extended far beyond to the sprawling metropolis, which spilled out in every direction. A blanket of fog clung to the city’s smoke-blackened buildings, and the sun was barely visible through the murkiness.

  From a cursory inspection, Pyke concluded that it was a masculine environment and, as such, was appropriately anonymous. There were no personal effects in the rooms and few decorative features. The ground floor comprised a front and a back room, in addition to the small - and from what Pyke could tell unused - kitchen in the basement. The rooms were furnished with dingy Turkey carpets and an assortment of old-fashioned tables and chairs. Above the fireplace in the front room sat two old-fashioned silver candlesticks, but otherwise the furnishings were sparse and utilitarian.