Jane Austen Mysteries 10 Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron (48 page)

"H
ENRY
!"

I stood in the private parlour that divided my bedchamber from my brother's, holding aloft a fresh candle--the one I had employed for reading being almost guttered--and knocked at his door. "
Henry
!"

After an interval, he peered out, looking rather absurd, as I thought, in his nightcap and silk robe. I should rather it had been flannel, tho' in general I despise the stuff--there is something profoundly comforting and home-like about flannel.

"Did you hear the messenger?"

"What messenger?"

He groped towards one of the parlour's chairs, eyes still blinded with sleep; he had not wasted so much time as to light a candle.

"In the street below. A mounted rider--from Brighton Camp, as I presume, and bound for the Regent's people. Byron has escaped!"

"Oh,
Lord
." Henry rubbed ineffectually at his head, loosing the cap and raking his grey hair into tufts. "He'll have the whole country roused against him now! Men on foot with torches and dogs, constabulary horsed--and Byron cannot even run! What is the fool about, to be limping towards liberty?"

"I only hope that he did not employ Mona's pen-knife in his escape," I fretted, "for she should never forgive herself."

"Mona's pen--? No, do not explain--I should rather remain in ignorance," Henry said. "But consider, Jane, how ill-advised--Flight cannot impress the magistrate with his lordship's innocence!"

"I think it may be
guilt
Byron prefers," I said frantically. "A murderous aspect--particularly when it is assumed in the name of Justice--appears so much more
romantic
than a helpless one."

"What are you talking of, Jane?"

"I know where Lord Byron will have gone."

"If he has any sense, he'll have stolen a horse and raced up the London road by now."

"That is exactly where he shall
not
go. He means to avenge Catherine Twining's murder--like the Giaour of his poem."

"The what?" Henry demanded blankly.

"Never mind." I thrust the telling sheet of paper into Henry's hands. "Read this--and be so good as to put on your clothes. I mean to thwart his lordship, and I cannot go out in the dead of night alone."

M
ORE THAN OURSELVES WERE ABROAD BY THE TIME MY
brother roused the Castle's porter, and pled with the bewildered fellow to unbolt the door. The lackey would not promise to wait up for our return, until Henry informed him sternly that it was a matter of life and death--and pressed a guinea into his hand. Then we were out into the night.

A party of horsemen were collecting on the Steyne; and as predicted, torches flamed about them, casting a livid glow upon cheek and brow. Rising behind them, the bulk of the Marine Pavilion showed lights in many windows, and the riding stables were also illuminated; was Caro Lamb aware of what had occurred? There was much hallooing and barking of orders from the assembling search party; and some of the common Brighton folk had gathered on foot to observe the bustle. I glimpsed the undergroom, Jem, with his arm about the shoulders of my chambermaid, Betsy--both looking watchful and expectant.

"Wait a moment, Jane," my brother said. "It would be as well to learn the latest intelligence."

He crossed swiftly to one of the mounted constables, and conversed with the man briefly; then, with a shrug of his shoulders and a faint laugh, turned back to me.

"It seems his lordship was aided in his escape by a page from the Pavilion, who rode up to the gaol dressed in the Regent's blue and buff livery," Henry explained hurriedly. "The boy claimed to bear a reprieve for Byron, direct from His Royal Highness--and the sentries, upon reading it, released his lordship immediately. It was only once the Camp Commandant learnt what had occurred, and demanded to see the paper, that the Regent's signature was perceived to be a forgery. By that time, of course, the two had cantered away."

"Caro Lamb!" I exclaimed. "That is
entirely
like her! She should commit every crime in the Kingdom to save her Genius--and never give two snaps of her fingers for what the Law might say."

"But to forge the Regent's signature," Henry returned in tones of shock, "must be a
treasonous
offence."

"She should argue, with complete
sang-froid
, that to do anything less should be traitorous to the dictates of her
heart
--and might even win clemency from a Prince who saw fit to marry two women bigamously. But enough about Caro--We must
hurry
, Henry, or it shall be too late."

As we achieved Church Street, I observed Scrope Davies's lodgings to be as well-lit as tho' for a ball. That would be, no doubt, where the little page in blue and buff would be regaling her court with her adventures. No doubt Caro had expected a flight by water, in Byron's yacht, perhaps--the two of them sailing romantically out into the darkened sea, their destination Greece or Turkey. It had not turned out like that; but then, Caro's plans rarely bore fruit, and never corresponded to the elaborate phantasies she spun. She would be busy already, I guessed, at spinning another--

We were bound for a different abode, one that stood still shuttered in darkness, but for the faint glow emanating from a side window, that suggested
one
was awake, and keeping vigil at the house's rear--

Henry strode up the path to General Twining's door, and pounded on the oak. To our surprize, it gave way with a reverberating shudder--it had been ajar, and trembled on its hinges. My brother glanced at me wordlessly; I nodded, and he stepped across the threshold. The entry hall was in darkness.

"General Twining!" Henry called.

"Suddley?" I attempted.

No answering voice came. But there were footfalls--a curious, sickening,
dragging
gait that betrayed the club foot. It was approaching us.

I clutched at Henry's sleeve.

He groped, in turn, for a taper that ought to lie on the entry hall table. But there was no way to light it.

A dark head, faintly backlit by the pale glow spilling over the threshold of the rear room, appeared suddenly before us; I was reminded of General Twining's habit of materialising at the far end of the passage. That must be where his book room lay.

"The General will receive you now," Byron said with a bow, "but do not expect to speak with him overmuch; he is unequal to all explanation."

I could not make out his countenance or read his looks in the darkness of the passage; but in the throb of his voice, in the very current of suppressed violence his still form conveyed, I read the truth. Every pore of my being was alive to his; that was Byron's inimitable power. "Dear God," I whispered. "You have killed him, then. We are too late."

Byron advanced towards us silently; Henry raised the taper as tho' it were a weapon. His lordship stopped perhaps a yard from where we stood. At last I could see his eyes glittering in the faint light, and the pallid gleam of his countenance.

"Killed him?" he repeated contemptuously. "He did not die by
my
hand. That was unnecessary; there are such men on earth, Miss Austen, who are mortal to themselves." He stepped closer, all the intensity of his look fixed upon mine, and my rebellious pulse quickened. "But how did you come here?" he demanded. "What unknown seraph whispered my truth into your ears?"

By way of answer, I drew breath and recited the words I had read only a half-hour before, in the comfort of my Castle bedroom:

Thy victims ere they yet expire
Shall know the demon for their sire
,
As cursing thee, thou cursing them
,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem
.
But one that for thy crime must fall
,
The youngest, most beloved of all
,
Shall bless thee with a
father's
name--
That word shall wrap thy heart in Flame
!

"Ah," Byron said acidly. "
The Giaour
. It is an excellent tale, is it not? So replete with exotic detail--so vivid with Attic life! All of London shall read it, and exclaim at the barbarous customs that obtain in the East!"

"And in Brighton," I supplied.

"Exactly so, Miss Austen. And now--if you will forgive me--I stand in need of whiskey." He made as if to limp past us, but Henry seized him by the arm.

"You cannot quit this place, Byron," he said wonderingly. "Are you out of your senses? The entire town is raised against you!"

"If the
entire town
wishes to speak with me, I shall be at Davies's house," the poet said wearily. "In the meanwhile, you might offer the
entire town
the General's last letter."

He shook off my brother's hand, and pushed his way through the open door.

We let him go.

Then we glanced at each other and walked side by side towards the faint light spilling from the back room.

General Twining was in dress uniform, seated at his writing desk as tho' sleeping, his head resting on his arms; but a pool of dark blood flowing from one temple shattered the illusion of dreaming peace. His eyes were open, and dreadfully fixed; their last sight, I must suppose, had been the portrait of a young officer of the 10th Hussars that hung over the mantelpiece--his son and heir, Richard, killed in the Peninsula.

"Observe, Jane." Henry reached for a folded sheet of hot-pressed paper, which had been sealed with wax and the General's ring. "It is inscribed to Sir Harding Cross."

"His confession, no doubt." Another sheet had lain beneath it--and this hand I recognised. It was Byron's.

Yes, Leila sleeps beneath the wave
,
But his shall be a redder grave;
Her spirit pointed well the steel
Which taught that felon heart to feel
.
I watched my time, I leagued with
these, The traitor in his turn to seize;
My wrath is wreaked, the deed is done
,
And now I go,--but go alone
.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
The Corsair

S
ATURDAY, 15
M
AY
1813
B
RIGHTON, CONT
.