Shaking out the cloth, Kit held up an enormous, very floppy, long-sleeved white shirt fully as wide as it was long. “Say you don’t mean it.”
“Sorry, old chap. We’ll get you something better tomorrow. But right now we have to hurry. So, chop-chop!”
While Cosimo dressed, Kit removed his shirt and pulled on the voluminous, gown-size garment that reached almost to his knees. He tried to make a bow of the laces at the sleeves, but found it impossible and gave up.
“Now these,” said his great-grandfather, passing him a pair of baggy woollen breeches.
Kit removed his jeans and stuffed his legs into the trousers, pulled them up, and tied them at the fly; they were a size or so too big, but heavy and warm. Next came dark woollen stockings that laced at the knee.
“Not bad,” observed Cosimo, passing a critical eye over him. “Shame we can’t do something about those shoes,” he said, regarding Kit’s ordinary brown lace-ups. “Oh well, can’t be helped. Now put this on.” He passed Kit a sleeveless, hip-length jacket-a doublet of fine broadcloth with a tight row of tiny silver buttons.
“So, are you going to tell me about those men?”
“Burley Men,” replied his great-grandfather. “They are part-”
“Burly men?” said Kit. “Is that what you said?”
“B-u-r-l-E-y,” his grandsire repeated, spelling out the word. “How best to describe them? Thieves, rogues, rascals, and highwaymen. They are in the employ of one A. P. Burley, the mastermind behind their nefarious activities.” Cosimo put his arms through a crimson satin waistcoat and began doing up the buttons.
“Organized crime, eh?” said Kit.
“Exactly,” confirmed Cosimo. “The Burley Men are a law unto themselves and best avoided by any and all. They fear neither God nor man, and are each one as treacherous as their leader. Mayhem is their natural inclination, and murder second nature.” He drew on a short coat like the one he had given Kit. “Cruel as the night is long, they are false-hearted fiends who wish no one well-even the best of them would not hesitate to sell their mothers to the devil for tuppence. They are as cunning and devious as they are relentless-all the more so if they think you have something they want.”
“Like this map of yours.”
“Quite.”
Kit considered this. It sounded reasonable enough. “What was that animal? That bloody great cat?”
“Panthera leo spelaea,” declared Cosimo, tightening the lace on a garter holding up his long black hose at the knee of his black breeches. “Better known as a cave lion-a creature from the Pleistocene epoch-oh, about six hundred thousand years ago, or thereabouts.”
“A cave lion,” echoed Kit in disbelief.
“A small one, yes,” affirmed his great-grandfather. He darted into the other room and returned with a wide lace collar that he proceeded to tie at his neck.
The thought of their narrow escape and what those scimitar claws might have done gave Kit an anxious feeling. He changed the subject. “You look like a prince or something.”
“A merchant prince, actually,” replied Cosimo, passing Kit a wide-brimmed felt hat. “Folk hereabouts think I’m something of a tycoon-sailing ships and whatnot-which is why I’m not around very much. It is a useful deception. We’ll have to think of something to explain you. For tonight, however, I would advise you to speak only when spoken to, and then say as little as possible. That way, there will be less to untangle later.” Fetching another wide-brimmed hat, he put it on and smoothed the front of his red satin doublet. “Ready?”
Kit put on his hat and adjusted it to what he imagined was a rakish angle. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
Leaving the house, they were soon charging along the near-deserted streets once more, and Kit was trying to reckon where they were in relation to the London he knew when they stopped again. Extending his hand, Cosimo said, “Shall we go in?”
Kit glanced up to see that they had come to stand before a large and imposing grey stone building with a wide flight of steps leading up to a set of brassbound doors; two oily black torches fluttered on either side of the entrance. They ascended the stone steps and entered a grand vestibule with a sweeping, carved oak staircase leading to a balustraded balcony. Doors opened off the vestibule in three directions; Cosimo chose the one in the centre and, laying a finger to his lips as a caution for Kit to keep silent, quietly opened the door and slipped in.
Kit followed and found himself at the back of a handsome and very old-fashioned lecture theatre filled row upon row with bewhiskered men formally attired in sober black gowns and plain white neck bands. The room was lit by the lambent glow of innumerable candles in sconces and massive brass chandeliers suspended from the ceiling. By Kit’s rough estimate there must have been upwards of two hundred men in the audience, and their attention was wholly directed to the platform at the front, where a very tall, lean man in a long black gown and black silk skullcap was speaking. Below a trim, spade-shaped red beard erupted a veritable fountain of intricate lace. The great silver buckles on his high-topped black shoes glimmered in the light from the row of candles along the front of the stage; his pristine white stockings were perfectly tight and straight, and he was holding forth in a dramatic, stentorian voice.
“What language is he speaking?” whispered Kit after listening a few moments and failing to make heads or tails of what the energetic fellow was saying. “German?”
“English,” hissed Cosimo. “Just let it wash over you.” He raised his finger to his lips once more and slipped into an empty chair, pulling Kit down beside him. The room was warm and hazy with the fug of candle smoke and body heat.
Kit listened to the flow of speech and, with a considerable amount of concentration, began to pick out, first, individual words, then separate phrases. A little more effort and he was able to piece together whole sentences. The fellow seemed to be banging on about some sort of new theory of energy, or something-but in the most convoluted and stilted manner possible.
“You will appreciate, my lords and gentlemen all, that there remain many unanswered queries in the diverse, but nevertheless intimately related, fields of natural mechanics and animal magnetism. The subtle energies of our earthly home are even now beginning to surrender secrets long held and jealously guarded. We in our present generation stand on the cusp of a new and glorious dawn when mastery of these energies lies fully within our grasp as secret yields to inquiry, which yields to experimentation, which leads to verification and duplication, which, in the final course, leads to knowledge.”
He paused to allow a polite smattering of applause to ripple through the auditorium.
“In conclusion, I beg the indulgence of this body in allowing me to reiterate the central premise of my lecture this evening, to wit: that an expedition shall be made to undertake the experiment outlined in your hearing this evening. The experiment will commence as soon as an expeditionary force numbering not fewer than five, nor more than eight, Royal Members in good standing has been selected and proper arrangements can be made for travel, lodging, and matters attending. Therefore, it is with the greatest anticipation that I look forward to addressing this august assembly once again in the near future to divulge the results of the aforementioned experiment.”
There were shouts of “Hear! Hear!”
The lecturer took a few steps toward the other side of the stage and resumed. “My friends, esteemed colleagues, noble patrons, and honoured guests, I leave you with this: when next you turn your eyes to the vast reaches of heaven, gentlemen, you would be well advised to remember that not only is it far more magnificent than the human mind can fathom, it is far more subtle. All the universe is permeated, upheld, knit together, conjoined, encompassed, and contained by the Elemental Ether, which we recognise as an all-pervading, responsive, and intelligent field of energy, eternal and inexhaustible, which is nothing less than the ground of our very being and the wellspring of our existence-that which in ages past and present men have been pleased to call God.”