‘She was, and very happy to be so.’
‘I’m sure she probably fitted you in before popping over to the pigman to help feed his porkers. I hear they’re very hard up, the Materazzi.’
‘Not quite so much any more. Conn has become a great darling of the King and he listens to no one else. There’s money about and a position discussed.’
‘What?’
‘The skinder is that he’ll be made second-in-command to General Musgrove to run the army of the entire Axis – if he can get them to agree to fight the Redeemers.’
‘Will they?’
‘Arthur says they’ll talk but do nothing until the Redeemers make a move, by which time it’ll be too late.’
‘Is Vipond employed?’
‘Yes, but not with any of the power he wants or needs. The Swiss have put him out to pasture, Arthur says, and IdrisPukke eats the grass with him.’
Cale looked at her, sizing up any change her good luck might have made in her sympathies towards him.
‘Do you trust your husband – his ability, I mean?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then do him a good turn and introduce him properly to Vipond and IdrisPukke. He’ll see that they’ve been about their business and he needs them. They need his influence and money.’
‘He’s my husband. I can’t tell him what to do.’
Cale nodded and remained silent, allowing her to realize she had disappointed him, and deeply. As they walked through the gardens, avoiding the cloister, he chatted about the birds and the flowers and what it was like at night to look up at the milk-white road of stars that wheeled across the sky. There was a pause. He laughed. That was good, she thought, he’d let go of the business about Vipond and IdrisPukke.
‘It’s a funny old world,’ he said, casually.
‘Because?’
‘Well, I was thinking how very singular and spooky-like life is – that now you’re a beautiful lady with a great big nabob to look after you, when hardly any time ago you were lying on a wooden table bound and beaten and about to have your giblets spilt all over the shop. What if I’d kept on walking? I was a bad boy in those days – I might have. But I didn’t. I turned around and I …’
‘Very well. Enough. You’ve made your point.’
Cale shrugged. ‘I wasn’t making a point. I was just talking about old times.’
‘I’m well aware of how much I owe you, Cale.’
‘So am I.’
And with that they walked the remainder of the gardens in silence.
The next day he asked Riba to let him return with her to Spanish Leeds.
‘Is it safe?’ she asked.
‘For you?’
‘For you to go back. Are you well enough?’
‘No – I’m not well enough. But it’s not safe here or anywhere. I thought if I got far enough away he’d leave me alone but Bosco’s going to come for me whatever I do.’
Cale was wrong about this but his wrong conclusion was the only reasonable one.
‘You’re going to destroy the Redeemers?’
‘You make me sound mad when you put it like that. Give me another choice and I’ll take it.’
‘You must have travelling clothes and a nice hat.’
‘I’d like a nice hat.’ He thought for a minute. ‘Will I be allowed inside the carriage with you?’
‘You must be more agreeable if you’re going to do great things. Arthur has a lot to teach you. He knows you saved my life and is desperate to repay you. Don’t throw his goodwill away.’
He laughed. ‘Teach me how to behave on the journey. I’ll listen, I promise.’
‘You’d better – your fists can’t protect you now.’
He looked at her. Baleful would be the word.
‘Sorry,’ she said, and laughed. ‘My good luck has made me puffed up and snooty. That’s what Arthur says.’
‘When can we leave?’
‘Tomorrow morning. Early.’
‘How about tomorrow morning, late?’
But even late morning was bad for Cale. He made it glass-eyed into the coach but laid himself down on the padded seat and fell asleep for more than six hours.
Watching him from a distance was Kevin Meatyard, who had realized that the rumours of the deaths at the Priory must be true and that he was now unemployed as well as unprotected in a town where he was wanted, admittedly for a murder he had not committed. No one in Cyprus was to hear of him for many years, but when they did it was in the hope that he had forgotten all about them. But that’s another story.
The carriage carrying Cale and Riba stopped after four hours’ travel but he refused to be disturbed and Riba and her entourage ate well without him. He woke up slowly an hour after they restarted the journey but it was more like regaining consciousness than emerging from restful sleep. He did not, could not, open his eyes for a good twenty minutes. But there was something pleasurable to be heard: Riba singing and humming softly to herself a song that was the very latest thing in Spanish Leeds.
Please tell me the truth about love,
Is it really true what they sing?
Is it really true what they sing?
That love has no ending?
Come into the shade of my parasol,
Come under the cover of my umbrella,
I will always be true to you,
And you will love me, my love, for ever.
Oh tell me the truth about love,
Is it true or is it lies,
That first love never dies?
But please don’t tell me if it isn’t so,
Please don’t tell me if it isn’t so,
For I don’t want to know,
For I don’t want to know.
He sat up slowly and she stopped singing.
‘Are you sick?’
‘Yes.’
‘Are you very sick?’
‘Yes.’
‘I was afraid to ask you, do you have any news of the girls?’
‘Girls?’
‘The girls I was with in the Sanctuary. Do you think Bosco has killed them already?’
‘Probably not.’
She was surprised at this and hopeful.
‘Why?’
‘He has no reason to kill them.’
‘He has no reason to keep them alive.’
‘No.’
‘I thought,’ she said, after a silence, ‘he might be keeping them to use against you.’
‘Not any more, obviously.’
‘Can I do anything to help them?’
‘No.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘You know you can’t help them so why keep asking if you can? Feeling guilty?’
‘For being alive and happy? Sometimes.’
‘But not all the time.’
She let out a sigh.
‘Not all the time. Not even most of the time.’
‘Just enough guilt to make you feel better about yourself and make it all right to enjoy your happiness. Go ahead. They can’t be happy, so be happy for them.’
‘It’s not up to you to tell me what to do. I’m a very important person and you have to do as I say.’
He laughed. ‘Yes. I’ve decided to do as I’m told from now on. A beautiful rich woman who owes me her life – I could take orders from someone like that.’
‘Well, you can’t kill everyone you don’t like any more. I meant it when I said you’ll have to learn to be agreeable.’
‘Agreeable?’ He said the word as if it were one he’d heard before but never expected to need in any practical way. It was good to see Riba again and it was a pleasure to see her so well accounted for. He didn’t know whether to say it but he said it anyway. ‘I found out what Picarbo wanted you for, what he was doing.’ He told her plainly and quickly.
‘Horrible,’ she said softly, ‘and mad.’
‘Bosco thought pretty much the same – that he was mad, I mean – that’s why he might keep the rest of them alive. Bosco disapproved.’
‘You don’t seem,’ she said, ‘to think of Bosco as badly as you used to.’