My grandmother stopped wriggling and jerking. There wasn’t even a twitch in her fingers curled over the carved black arms of the chair.
‘Retrieve it from him, Katharine.’ Her voice snapped like a whip. Of an instant she didn’t look like a dying woman. It wouldn’t have surprised me if she’d stood up and caught me across the face with one of them sharp-stoned rings of hers to make sure I was paying proper attention.
I was doing that, all right, only nothing was making sense.
‘Where … where is he, then? And where’s the sequence?’
Lady Ginger stared at me. ‘That is a dullard’s question. Think, child – it is what I have trained you to do.’ Even now, she was enjoying the game. I knew it as she watched me. ‘Surely it is obvious?’
‘It’s … it’s here.’ I tapped my head. ‘Joey’s got it all locked away in here – and Lord Kite wants it?’
‘Bravo! Not so difficult, was it?’ She huddled forward. ‘The trick will be taking it from him. Truly, I do not know what you will find.’
I raised my hands. ‘Stop. No more riddles. Where is—’ I broke off as that jangling tune went off again – muffled this time by the folds of her sleeves.
Lady Ginger scrabbled into the red gown and took out the golden fob again. She flicked open the case and held it away to make out the dial.
‘Already?’ The word came as a whisper, but I caught it. Her bony fist tightened over the watch and the jingling stopped. She nodded and her blackened lips curved into a sort of smile.
‘I have chosen my hour and it approaches. Even now, Dr Pardieu will be preparing my … medicine. We will not meet again, not in this life. An old friend of mine believes that we are born again and again. An endless cycle of death and life. I wonder if he is right?’
‘You mean Ramesh Das. I know him – he works for you.’
Lady Ginger shook her head. ‘He works for you, Katharine. After today, they all work for you. And you will need them.’ She started to cough, but struggled to swallow it.
‘Telferman has something of importance – I gave it to him today. When the time is right he will pass it to you. Read it, child, and understand what I have done. You will leave me now.’
‘That’s it, is it? You’re sending me off like a package. I want more.’ I moved closer. ‘My mother – your daughter. There’s so much I need to know before you …’ I paused. ‘Before I leave. Joey and me, our father, who is …’
She raised a hand to ward me away. ‘Stop … please.’
I halted, more in surprise than obedience. It was the first time she’d ever used a politeness to me. Now I was just a couple of yards from my grandmother I could see her plain. The wet canker sores on her head were dark and puckered at the edges like a fat-fingered seamstress had stitched them to her skull.
Someone had tried to disguise the wreckage, it was almost pitiful to see that. Fine black lines were painted around her eyes and there was a thick layer of chalky powder on her head and on her cheeks. I thought I knew who that someone was. The black lacquer box Lok had given to Tan Seng had been full of paint, of sorts, after all.
As Lady Ginger quivered in the chair like a half-formed nestling, the powder rose around her in the candlelight as a fine cloud. Of an instant, the words read out by the clergy at Ma’s burial came into my head.
Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
I was standing at a graveside now. The smell of death scraped into my nose and clawed the back of my throat. I don’t know how long she’d been sitting in that chair waiting for me, but the stench in the room wasn’t just disease. It was piss and shit.
My grandmother’s eggshell head trembled like an autumn leaf in a gust of wind as she stared at me. ‘I know what you want, child. But you won’t hear it from these lips. I could not bear to see the look in your eyes. Ask your brother – ask Joseph. He despises me – and rightly so. If he can remember the sequence, he will remember so very much more. Family, Katharine, it is always a simple matter of family. Remember that.’
She closed her eyes and arched her back as pain knifed through her. She knotted herself into a ball until it had passed and then she stared up at me. It was unnatural the way her black eyes burned in a face creased up by proximity of death.
‘Do you hate them?’
‘Who else?’
‘They disgust me – the whole bleedin’ lot of them. Just thinking about them now makes me feel dirty – and yet you made me one of them, grandmother.’
She began to laugh, but the sound drowned in another choking fit. She struggled to take in a lungful of air and it bubbled in her throat. Her hands clawed at the arms of the chair and she twisted from side to side as she tried to force it down. Once she mastered herself again she sat there watching me, still as a dog waiting for table scraps. I noted that the trembling had stopped.
‘The contents of the Vinculum can destroy them, Katharine. You can end centuries of injustice if you can take the key from your brother.’
‘Then where is he?’
She closed her eyes. ‘You will find him in Bethlem.’
‘Christ!’
‘Not exactly, but I believe we both know that. Your brother is in Bedlam.’
I waited for more, but it didn’t come. I thought for a moment she might have died right there in front of me. It was only when I saw a shudder ripple through the spoiled silk of her gown that I knew she was still there and still listening.
‘Is that it, then? Is that all you’ve got for me? Joey’s in Bedlam – now off you go and have a little chat with him? That’s not what I came here for. It’s not enough!’
‘It is all I am prepared to offer.’ She turned her face to the blank wall of the screen. ‘You will go now.’
I thought about dashing over and tipping her out of that chair onto the floor, but what good would it do? I knew her too well to imagine she might give a direct answer to a question. Even now, with the last grains of sand running to the bottom of the glass, she was still shuffling her chess pieces around the board.
There was a long silence.
‘I’m still here, you know.’ It sounded pathetic, but I called out anyway. She raised a fluttering hand as if to stop me and her eyes snapped open.
‘Ah, Dr Pardieu – you are welcome.’
It was like she’d conjured him up. Right on cue he stepped from the darkness and into the puddle of light. He went about quiet as a woodlouse. I hadn’t heard a step of his approach. Lady Ginger’s eyes flicked to the small black leather bag in his hands. I saw something like hunger there, or maybe it was greed.
She nodded at him. ‘You have my medicine?’
He glanced warily at me and his hands tightened on the bag handle. ‘Everything you need is prepared, Lady.’
She smiled. ‘Good. I am so very tired.’
My grandmother tried to pull herself upright in the chair, but the effort brought on another bout of choking, heaving coughs. More black stuff spattered onto the front of her gown.
When the fit passed she spoke again.
‘Leave us, Katharine.’
I tried to get closer but Pardieu came between. He shook his head and the light shone up his buck teeth. ‘The Lady needs to rest now.’
‘But there’s something I need …’ I tried to dodge round him. It was too late to think about minding her dignity. Old rabbit face gripped my arm and forced me back. Tell truth, I was surprised by the strength in him. He pushed me gently but firmly away from my grandmother and the stink of disease was muffled for a moment by the naphtha in his cloth. I was almost grateful for it.
‘She wishes for peace.’
‘And she always gets what she wants, don’t she?’ I tried to throw him off but he held tight. I thought about biting his hand, but I didn’t want to taste his medicinals. I glared at him.
‘What about me – what about what I want?’
‘Release her.’ My grandmother’s voice was steady.
Pardieu turned and nodded once. He stepped aside so I could see her clear. Now, she was sitting up straight as Britannia on a penny. Tan Seng was at her side.
‘You will leave me now, Katharine, and you will take your destiny into your own hands. Tan Seng will escort you from the room. I have nothing more for you today except this …’ Her black eyes moved to Pardieu as she weighed her final words to me.
‘Joseph is 214. Deal with it, Lady Linnet.’