Carver's Quest (56 page)

Fields began to back and wheel slowly to his left, allowing Adam a path to walk towards the horse. The young man was about to move forward when he saw that the professor was edging in the
direction of two mounds of earth, upturned from the trench earlier in the day. He chose to wait for a moment.

‘Come, Adam. We have not all day.’ Fields gestured impatiently. As he did so, his foot caught on one of the piles of earth and he stumbled slightly. Involuntarily, he swung the gun
away from the young man’s body. Adam saw his chance. In one swift movement, he ducked to the ground, seized the rock and threw it at the professor. It struck the older man a glancing blow on
the forehead and he stumbled still further. Adam, pushing up from his crouching position, hurled himself towards Fields and the gun. He collided with him just as the professor was recovering his
balance and both men crashed to the ground. Winded, Adam still managed to seize the barrel of the revolver with one hand. Fields, spread-eagled beneath him, was clinging desperately to the gun as
well. With a strength that belied his years, he succeeded in pushing Adam off him but the young man, realising that his life depended upon it, refused to let go of the gun barrel. The two of them
rolled over one another, the weapon trapped between them. Both had their hands upon it but neither could claim possession of it.

As they continued to grapple near the edge of the trench, clouds of dust rose about them. Both men began to cough. The revolver was still caught between their bodies. Adam felt his head and
shoulders being forced over the lip of the trench and fought back as best he could but his opponent seemed to possess the vigour of a man decades younger than he was. The young man could sense that
Fields was gaining the upper hand. He himself was slipping further and further into the earthwork they had dug. He clung desperately to the barrel of the gun as his feet scrabbled to keep a
purchase on the upturned soil. Fields continued to push his upper body over the edge. Adam could feel his balance slowly going but he would not let go of the revolver. That was the only thought
that still possessed him. Keep hold of the gun. For what seemed like long minutes, the two men swayed on the rim, spluttering and struggling.

Then the professor, in his effort to hurl Adam into the pit, momentarily lost his own balance and involuntarily reached out a hand to steady himself. It was enough. The younger man was able to
snatch the revolver wholly from the professor’s grasp, but as he did so, the world gave way beneath him. He tumbled backwards into the trench. His fall was accompanied by a deafening roar as
the gun went off. There was a scream from Fields. Adam, plummeting backwards into the earthwork, struck his head against its solid floor. A black pool appeared before him and he dove gratefully
into its depths.

* * * * *

When he came round, Adam was still sprawled in the trench like an upturned beetle. He had no idea how long he had been unconscious. He stared up at the cloudless blue sky. He
attempted gingerly to move his arms and legs and found, to his relief, that he could do so. He reached a hand around to the back of his head and winced as he felt an egg-shaped lump on his scalp.
Hearing a voice, he froze. Could Fields still be up there on the surface? Surely he would have fled the camp by now? Unless Adam was dead, and this was a poor version of the afterlife, the
professor had clearly shown him mercy after his fall into the pit. But he would not have lingered long before departing, would he? The voice could be heard again. Certainly it sounded familiar.
What was it shouting? Adam sought to sit up in the trench but he found that many of his muscles refused to obey him. He was obliged to remain where he was. The voice echoed in his head, evoking
memories which he could not quite place. He knew the rhythms and timbre of it so well. It must be Fields. As he strove to gather his scattered wits, a dark figure appeared over the edge of the
trench and looked down at him. Silhouetted against the light, it spoke.

‘You planning on being down there all day?’ the figure asked.

It was Quint.

Adam found that he could now move. He hauled himself to his feet and reached up his hand to his manservant.

‘Get me out of here, Quint. I feel like Hades in the Underworld.’

Quint seized hold of him and, with his assistance, Adam was able to hoist himself out of the earthwork. Once again on the surface, he brushed as much of the soil from his clothing as he could
and shook his hair free of the earth lodged in it.

‘We been shouting for the last five minutes,’ Quint said, in a tone of voice that suggested Adam had been deliberately concealing himself, like a child playing hide-and-seek.

‘We?’

Quint nodded in the direction of the camp. Adam could see horses tethered to posts. Two figures were making their way towards them. Blinking in the fierce sunlight, he could just recognise
Garland and Emily.

‘Where’s the professor?’ he asked. ‘Was he still here when you returned?’

‘You could say that,’ his servant said.

‘Well, where is he now? He must be apprehended. His mind is overthrown. He is a danger to us all.’

By way of reply, Quint inclined his head again, this time towards a pile of earth they had upturned when they had all first arrived at Koutles. Lying across it was what Adam at first thought was
a pile of old clothes. He moved a step towards it and realised that it was Fields. His body lolled back across the ground as if it had been dropped from on high. The whole of his front was stained
red with blood and innards. Adam could imagine only too well what had happened. In falling into the trench, while still clinging to the gun, he had inadvertently pulled the trigger. The full force
of the shot had taken Fields in the midriff, virtually eviscerating him. He had staggered backwards to collapse and die on a mound of newly turned Greek earth.

‘He tried to kill me,’ Adam said, still scarcely believing the truth.

‘Tried to kill Rallis as well,’ Quint replied. ‘’E
did
kill the tall bugger. Poor old Andros.’

‘Where is Rallis?’

‘On the road back to Salonika. Garland told two of his men to get him to the Catholic sisters there. Fast as possible.’

‘Will he live?’

Quint shrugged.

‘’E’s got an ’ole in him ’alf the size of an Essex Pippin. But ’e probably will. The professor here didn’t catch him full on like the tall
cove.’

Adam walked away from the sorry sight of Fields’s body. His manservant followed him, a pace behind.

‘ ’E ’ad you fooled as much as me,’ he said, managing to sound both truculent and plaintive at the same time.

Adam made no reply.

‘ ’E’d ’ave got ’old of that Euphorion book with or without me.’

‘I have no doubt that he would.’

‘I don’t do what any old swaggering Bob tells me to do. But I thought ’e was the boss.’

It was as near to an apology as Quint was ever likely to offer.

‘I do not blame you, Quint,’ Adam said. ‘The responsibility for all this lies with Fields. Let us bury all that has happened with him.’

* * * * *

‘I cannot say how happy I am to see you unharmed, Mr Carver. Such terrible pictures filled my imagination as we approached the camp. Of you wounded. Or dead.’

Emily, who had left Garland to supervise the care of the horses, approached Adam as if unsure of the greeting she might receive. Quint, showing unwonted tact, immediately retired.

‘As you can see, Miss Maitland, I have survived my ordeal.’ Adam looked to catch Emily’s eye but she turned away.

‘I rejoice to know that we arrived in good time and that you are unhurt.’

A silence fell between the two.

‘Oh, Emily,’ Adam said, after a long pause, ‘how long ago it seems since you came to Doughty Street for the first time. When Quint broke the plates.’

‘That was not my first visit. I came to your rooms several days earlier. When neither you nor Mr Quint were present.’

‘Of course,’ Adam said, smiling wrily. ‘I had forgotten. My landlady – a formidable termagant named Gaffery – saw you as you left. I am surprised that she did not
attempt to detain you. Or have you arrested.’

‘I was convinced that she would.’ Emily laughed. ‘She watched me descend the stairs with the door to her own rooms ajar. But she did not show herself any further.’

‘I think perhaps she must have feared that the respectability of her house would have been compromised had she confronted you. But she spoke to me. She berated me fiercely.’

‘I am sorry to cause you such trouble.’

‘It was nothing. Her bark is worse than her bite. But how did you breach the Gaffery fortress in the first place?’

‘There is another lodger on the floors above you.’

‘Dupont? The Frenchman?’

‘Is he French? I knew only that he was not English. I approached him as he was leaving the house. I told him that I was your lady friend and that I needed to leave you a
message.’

‘And he believed you.’ Adam could easily envisage the delight with which Dupont, an engaging and chatty salesman for a French furrier in Mayfair, would have responded to
Emily’s approach. He would have been only too pleased to assist a beautiful woman in any scheme he thought might further a romantic dalliance.

‘He let me in. I thought perhaps you would not have locked your doors. But I could find no way to enter your rooms.’

‘So you returned a few days later.’

‘On the Tuesday, yes.’

‘But why did you leave us so abruptly? Was Quint’s clumsiness with the plates so terrifying?’

Emily paused. For a moment it seemed as if she might not reply.

‘You were so kind to me. Such a gentleman. I grew ashamed of what my father had asked me to do. When Mr Quint provided the distraction, I decided to leave.’

‘Ah, your father. I had not realised that Creech
was
your father until Fields informed me of the fact. I am sorry that he met his death so cruelly.’

Emily bowed her head.

‘We should not have plotted to deceive you. But my father was eager to learn as much of you as he could. That is why he wished me to make your acquaintance.’

‘And Garland? When did you meet Garland?’

‘As you must surely be aware, my father and Lewis Garland were boys together at school. We have known one another for a long time.’

‘Of course, he is your godfather.’

There was another pause as Emily turned her head towards Garland, thirty yards away, who was pointing to the horses and delivering instructions to two of the servants.

‘Mr Garland is not my godfather.’

Adam waited for her to say more.

‘He is my fiancé.’

‘That cannot be,’ the young man blurted out and would have spoken further, but Emily held up her hand to stop him.

‘There is no more to be said, Adam. I am engaged to Lewis Garland and that is all that you need to know.’

‘But the difference in your ages.’

‘Many a happy marriage has been contracted between a man of mature years and a younger woman.’ Emily spoke with a confidence that Adam was certain she did not feel. He stared
miserably at the distant mountains. The highest peak of Mount Olympus, where the gods of the ancient Greeks held court, glittered in the afternoon sunshine. They would be looking down and laughing
at this latest unexpected twist of fate, he thought.

‘I can think little of a man who would place the woman he loved in such danger,’ he said eventually. ‘Garland should never have allowed you to leave Salonika with
him.’

‘It was at my insistence, Adam.’

‘She was really most persuasive, Mr Carver.’ Unseen by either of the young couple, Lewis Garland had left the horses by the camp. He was now standing six feet from them. Adam noticed
once again the deep black of his hair and beard, so dark that it must be dyed. He felt he should hate this older man, engaged to marry the woman he now recognised he loved himself, but he found
that he could not. ‘I defy any man to resist the arguments she used to carry her case.’

‘I am still uncertain why you travelled out here from Salonika in the first place. Although I am glad, of course, that you did.’

Garland took two paces closer to them and rested his hand on his fiancée’s arm. Was it Adam’s imagination, or did Emily move ever so slightly away from him as he did so?

‘I was curious as to why my old and – forgive me, my dear – wicked friend Sam Creech was interested in this place Koutles. He had told Emily that he was. Although he had told
her little else. We were spending time in Salonika anyway. As you know, Emily and her mother live here. I thought it would be easy enough to satisfy my curiosity by an excursion out
here.’

‘He was blackmailing you, was he not?’ Adam could see no reason now to beat about the bush or indulge in the evasions of polite conversation. Garland looked startled at first by his
directness but he rapidly recovered what little composure he had lost.

‘Yes – the ties of old friendship meant little to Sam where money was involved. And then, after he was killed, the canary man came calling. Also intent on extorting money from
me.’

‘Jinkinson was also killed.’

‘I am sorry to hear that. In a strange way, I rather liked the man, garrulous and greedy as he was. But I hope you now understand that I was not responsible for his death.’

‘No. It was the professor who killed him. He killed Creech as well. And Andros. He thought he had killed Rallis. He was planning, I think, to kill me, although he denied it. Once he had
unburdened himself to me as much as he did, I do not think he could have allowed me to stay alive.’

‘You must tell us all that Professor Fields confessed,’ Emily said.

‘It will be a long story.’

‘We have the time,’ Garland said, gesturing towards the camp. ‘My men have prepared the horses for departure, I believe. It will take us several days to return to
Salonika.’

‘What of the professor’s body?’ Adam asked.

‘We shall bury it here. Where his dreams turned to ashes.’

L
ike distilled mud, the fog swirled in filthy and foul-smelling clouds around Adam’s head as he stepped out into Doughty Street. Although it
was still the afternoon, the city was given over to the gaslights as he made his way to the Marco Polo. The smoking room was empty save for Mr Moorhouse, sitting in his favourite chair, lost in
thought. Adam joined him.