“You want the time in which to plan to destroy me.”
“Yes! Yes, I do. I admit it. You have been the greatest mistake of all my lives, Catling, and I will do anything I can to unwind you.”
“I can’t be—”
“I know what you have told me. Perhaps you are right. Perhaps all I can do is complete you and take what comfort that gives me.”
Her eyes narrowed until they were bleak gleaming slivers. “And you will be comforted, Jack. If I am completed, then this land and the Faerie will be saved. Payment enough, I should imagine.”
“Perhaps,” said Jack. The idea of the land and the Faerie under Catling’s dominion did not sound much like salvation to him.
Catling stepped very close, and put a hand on Jack’s arm; he had to force himself not to flinch away as iciness crept down through the layers of his coat, jacket and shirt.
“It won’t be that bad, Jack. The ordinary man on the street, and the average woman at her knitting, will never know the difference. Besides, what has mankind ever achieved with his freedom? War, pain, brutality. So what difference me?”
Come now, Jack. It won’t be too bad. The Faerie will be safe, finally you can have Noah, and Grace can be freed from her pain. Isn’t that a good deal?
Jack suddenly realised that Catling did think this was reasonable, and that he would truly be tempted.
And why shouldn’t she believe this, eh? If he’d been either Brutus or William he would not have hesitated.
Although, if he’d been Brutus he may have asked for some gold as well.
Catling watched Jack walk away down Ferndale Road.
He wanted to delay any attempt to complete her.
The delay (if not Jack’s reason for it) suited Catling perfectly. Gods alone knew she needed the time to bolster her own strength for Jack and Noah’s inevitable attempt to destroy her.
But she wasn’t happy. She glanced upwards at the sky. Damn it, she needed to feed in order to strengthen herself. When would the horror start?
She looked back along the street.
Jack had disappeared.
What was he planning?
Coming to a decision, Catling vanished.
It took her over an hour to intuit the imps’ location, but once she knew precisely where they were, Catling wasted no time in making her presence known.
“What are you doing?” she hissed, stepping forward to see just what it was the imps crouched over under the porch of the church.
Bill and Jim leaped back, mewing in their startlement, and Catling’s hiss turned into a gasp.
A woman’s body lay sprawled on the stone. It was naked, its torso torn and bloodied.
Catling crouched down beside the mutilated corpse, keeping her skirts carefully drawn aside lest they be dirtied. She studied it closely, then looked up at Bill and Jim. “Just having fun, then?”
The imps hung their heads.
Catling stood up. “Just having fun?”
Their heads swayed slowly from side to side.
“We thought it would please you,” whispered Jim.
Catling looked down at the corpse again. “You’ve torn her womb out.”
The imps nodded.
Catling giggled. “Where is it?”
“In the river,” said Bill.
“Oh.” Catling shrugged. “Never mind. Well, obviously you have too much time on your hands. You need something to keep you busy.”
“Yes,” Jim said doubtfully.
“I need you to keep an eye on Jack. You know who I mean, surely. Brutus-reborn. He had come back as Louis the last time—”
“We know who you mean,” the imps said together.
“Good, then. He’s up to something, walking about all over London, much as he’d like to disguise it. I’d like to know what it is.”
“You want us to follow him?” Jim said.
“Not obviously, you fool!” Catling said. “Just…discover what it is he and Noah plan, why can’t you?”
“It’ll be dangerous,” Bill said.
“Not half as dangerous as I can be,” Catling said.
The imps nodded, pretending to think about it. “Of course we can help you,” Jim said. “Discover what Jack and Noah are about. Certainly.”
Catling stared at them. “Good.”
Then she was gone, and the imps were left standing under the porch of St Magnus the Martyr with the corpse of their latest victim at their feet. They looked each other in the eye.
“Never any mention of payment,” Bill said.
“Doesn’t she realise we’re professionals now?” said his brother.
“Even Weyland realised we’re professionals,” said Bill.
“Bet we won’t get a penny out of her.”
Bill sighed, then poked a foot into the corpse. “All we need now is for Jack to turn up and ask us to keep a watch on himself.”
TWELVE
Autumn 1939
His encounter with Catling both unnerved and relieved Jack. He was relieved that Catling hadn’t argued about the delay in completing her, yet that very lack unnerved him. Why wasn’t she angry? Why hadn’t she pushed for completion?
Jack was also unsettled by a third murder of a woman on the night he’d met with Catling—the murderer had left his victim’s mutilated body under the porch of St Magnus as he had the first two.
While the papers gave no details, they did allude to the means of mutilation and Harry’s prediction soon proved correct. The papers picked up on Scotland Yard’s epithet “the Penitent Ripper”, and now headlines once given over exclusively to the war in Europe took a vacation into the horror at home.
Ripper Rises from Grave!
Penitent Ripper Haunts the City!
London’s Women Live in Fear!
Jack shuddered every time he read another lurid headline. The murders disturbed him deeply, although he wasn’t certain why. Surely he was inured to death and pain by now?
Four days after meeting Catling, Jack managed to have a quiet word with Noah. He recounted to her what had happened in Ferndale Road.
“I am glad enough she didn’t push for completion,” he said, “but I worry about it at the same time.”
Noah gave a shrug. “Perhaps she accepted your argument that the Great Marriage not only needs to be done to strengthen us both, but needs to wait for May Day.” She gave a small smile. “And maybe Catling really believes that you will be happy enough to complete her if it means you will have me at the end of it.”
He leaned forward—they were alone in the lee of her mobile canteen, Eaving’s Sisters bustling food and drink into a community hall on the other side—and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek.
“Do I have a chance with you, Noah?”
“No.” But she said it a little too quickly, her gaze sliding away, and Jack’s eyes narrowed fractionally.
Finally he laughed, very softly, and leaned back, wondering why he didn’t push the issue.
“I know the Great Marriage will cause difficulties for you at home,” he said.
“Weyland and I will manage, Jack.”
“Noah…”
She looked up at him then, and Jack’s heart leapt in his chest. I do have a chance, he thought.
“Noah…” He leaned down to her, but just before his mouth touched hers they heard Matilda and Ecub approach the van, and they drew back from each other.
Jack sought out Grace in early December. He’d seen her on several occasions over the past two months, mostly with Noah’s mobile canteen, with which she helped from time to time. She’d been at Faerie Hill Manor one day when he’d visited Harry, and similarly one afternoon when he’d gone to the Savoy to see Noah (Weyland being conveniently out). On that day Grace had been very tense and watchful of her mother with Jack, and he knew Grace did not like the idea of his trying to prise Noah away from Weyland.
Apart from that afternoon, when Grace had been obviously tense, Jack had noticed a subtle change in her over the months. It was most apparent in her relationship with Noah. The wariness between the two had dissipated a little bit, and both of them seemed more relaxed around each other. Certainly Noah was more relaxed with her daughter, although Jack suspected it was something that Noah had to work at assiduously.
And Grace was more confident within herself. Again, it was not a dramatic change, but it was there. Noah told him that Grace was going out more by herself, and that she and Weyland had taken to enjoying one or two nights dancing to the big band music of The Orpheans in the hotel’s ballroom.
One afternoon, when he knew Noah and Weyland were out, Jack, dressed in military uniform, stood patiently before Robert Stacey’s desk as the concierge rang Grace to see if she wanted a visitor.
Stacey had to wait in silence for a considerable time as Grace thought about it, and Jack half thought Grace would refuse to see him, but then Stacey spoke, put down the receiver, and nodded Jack towards the lifts.
“It is good to see Miss Orr receiving a gentleman, Major.”