“Yes. I thought at the time that it was fortunate that you did not see me. I did not want to kill you at that point. I wanted you to continue your search. Indeed, I thought it quite possible that with March’s connections the two of you might well find the thing.” Pelling smiled again and raised the point of the knife. “And that is just what happened, is it not?”
“Yes.”
“Where is the Medusa bracelet, Mrs. Lake?”
She drew a breath. “You don’t really expect me to tell you, do you? I know that you will kill me the moment the bracelet is in your possession.”
“You will tell me,” Pelling promised. Something snakelike slithered just beneath the surface of his eyes. “In the end, you will be only too happy to tell me the location of the bracelet.”
The hackney rattled to a halt a short time later. Lavinia could smell the river. When Pelling opened the door, she saw sagging docks and shabby outbuildings swathed in fog. She heard the creak of dock timbers, but the water itself was invisible in the gray mist. There was no indication that anyone else was about.
She tried to think of what to do next.
Pelling used the tip of the knife to motion her out of the cab. She jumped down cautiously and looked up at the coachman. One glimpse of his rough features destroyed her small hope of help from that quarter: The man on the box was one of the two men who had attacked Tobias in Maggie’s front hall.
He did not meet her eyes, his entire attention on Pelling. “This is the end of the matter as far as I’m concerned. Where’s the rest of my money?”
“Here.” Pelling tossed a small sack at him. “You’ll find that it is all there. Take it and be off.”
The villain loosened the string that secured the sack, glanced inside, and then nodded, satisfied. He picked up the whip and gave the horses the signal.
The hackney clattered off and was soon lost in the fog.
The thickening mist might provide some concealment, Lavinia thought. If she could run fast enough, she might be able to escape Pelling’s knife and lose herself in the gathering darkness. She collected her skirts.
“Do not think that you can escape me, Mrs. Lake.” Pelling reached into the pocket of his greatcoat and produced a pistol. He smiled again. “You may be able to outrun a knife, but you cannot outrun a bullet. I am an excellent shot.”
“I do not doubt that for a moment. But if you kill me now, you will never learn where Celeste hid the bracelet.”
“Rest assured that the bullet I lodge in you will not kill you. Not immediately. There will be ample time for you to tell me everything you know. Now, then, we are going through that door over there.” He pointed with the knife. “Move quickly, Mrs. Lake. I am growing extremely impatient.”
She touched the pendant again. “You told me that you were a strong man. I believe you, sir. I have great respect for a man of your power.”
He glanced at the pendant. “Stop fiddling with that damned necklace.”
“Your power makes me anxious.”
“As well it should.”
“It makes me feel small. As if I were far away from you at the end of a very long, very dark hall.”
“Stop talking.” He jerked his gaze away from the pendant with obvious effort. “Go through that door, Mrs. Lake. Be quick about it.”
“I know where the bracelet is,” she said gently. “Shall I tell you now?”
He shifted restlessly and looked away from the pendant. “Where is it?”
“Celeste hid it well.” She took a step back toward the quay that edged the river. “It is at the end of a very long hall. Can you see the hall in your mind? It is the same hall in which I am standing. I look so small there at the very end of the hall. You will have to come closer to see me.” She fell back another step. “I have the Medusa here with me at the end of the hall. You must come down this long hall to find me and the bracelet-”
“Bloody hell, cease prattling on about hallways.” But he took a hesitant step, following her as she edged back through the mists toward the river. “I do not want to hear about the long hall.”
“But you must go down this long, long hall if you wish to find the Medusa.” She continued gliding slowly toward the gray wall of fog that cloaked the river. From the corner of her eye, she watched for an alley or passageway between buildings that might provide cover for a few seconds. “Come with me down this hall. You know it well.”
“No. No, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
But he followed, as if drawn by a string. Unfortunately, the pistol in his hand never wavered.
“It is the hall you go down whenever you find it necessary to beat a woman. It is the place where you are in control. The place where you are powerful. When you are in this hallway no one is stronger than you.”
“Yes.” He continued walking toward her, moving more quickly now. “I am the strong one.”
“Women cannot control you when you are in this place.”
“No. Here I am in command.” His voice altered slightly, rising in pitch. “She cannot hurt me here.”
“Who cannot hurt you?”
“Aunt Medusa.”
Lavinia nearly missed her footing. “Aunt Medusa?”
Pelling smirked, the giggle of a young boy, not a full-grown man. “That’s what I call Aunt Miranda behind her back. She thinks she can make me stop doing the bad things if she beats me often enough and hard enough. But I won’t stop. Because she’s right, you see. There is a demon in me and he makes me strong. One of these days I’m going to hurt Aunt Medusa so bad she’ll never be able to beat me again. I’m going to kill her.”
She could not retreat any farther. The river was directly behind her. She could hear it lapping softly, hungrily. The only choice was to walk backward along the stone quay. She edged in that direction. The row of empty warehouses formed a seemingly solid wall facing the river.
“You are halfway along the long, long hall…”
She moved slowly and carefully, terrified of stumbling over a stone and breaking the fragile trance. She glanced quickly at the closed doors and blank windows to her right, searching for an escape route.
“I followed her into the kitchen that night after we were alone in the house. None of the servants would live in it anymore, you see. They were all frightened of me…”
The narrow passage between two buildings loomed suddenly. It was the only opening she had seen. She stopped, preparing to run.
“… I stabbed Medusa with the carving knife. There was a great deal of blood…”
The action of taking flight would shatter the crystalline trance that bound Pelling. She would get no second chances.
“I took everything I could carry and later sold all of it, including the damned stone. She had always told me that the stone possessed certain forces, but I didn’t believe her. I did not realize until many years later when my spells started to get worse that she had told the truth. She came to see me in my dreams. She laughed at me. That was when she told me that I had got rid of the one thing that had the power to banish her ghost.”
“The Blue Medusa. You set out to find it.”
“I must find it. She is trying to drive me mad, you see. The bracelet is the only thing that can stop her. You will tell me where it is, damn you.”
She was preparing herself for the effort when there was a sudden, wild fluttering of wings to her left. A water bird squawked its displeasure and took off, soaring low across the water.
Pelling came to his senses instantly. He blinked once and then seemed to comprehend immediately that something had gone badly wrong.
“Where am I? What do you think you’re doing?” He raised the pistol. “Did you think you could trick me?”
“Pelling.” Tobias’s voice rang ominously in the fog, echoing eerily among the empty buildings. “Stop or I will shoot you where you stand.”