***
We walked down Totten Lane rather than take the coach. The road was narrow, being only a little wider than the width of the brougham, and turning would have been impossible. Besides, it made us too conspicuous. Although Fitzroy didn't say it, I suspected he wanted to arrive undetected. Unfortunately, the sight of four well-dressed strangers drew stares anyway.
"Should've worn disguises," Gus muttered. He and Seth seemed tense, their arms and fingers rigid as if they were ready to draw weapons at the slightest sign of trouble. Where they'd hidden their weapons, I couldn't say, but I strongly suspected they possessed a knife or two and perhaps a pistol on their person.
"Where precisely did you last see him?" I asked Fitzroy.
He walked beside me. Outwardly, he seemed calm, his body less stiff than the others, his movements as fluid as always. But when he came so close to me that our arms brushed, I sensed him clench. "In Black Water Yard." He nodded ahead where the lane ended at an archway that led through to a small courtyard.
"Our exit will be easily blocked once we enter," I said.
He looked at me and arched a brow.
I shrugged. "I remember Black Water Yard well. I was almost caught after stealing a shirt from a washing line."
He nodded gravely.
Up ahead, Seth peered back at me over his shoulder, a small smile on his lips. "It's easy to forget that you were a thief, looking as you do now."
Gus and Seth went through the arch first, then me, and finally Lincoln. Gus and Fitzroy had to duck beneath the ancient bricks of the arch, and Seth's head skimmed it. He was hatless, as were the other men, whereas I wore the small bonnet set back on my head, my hair pinned off my face. I felt much too exposed as people stared at us, and me in particular. Did they recognize me as that boy thief of mere weeks ago?
A group of children stopped their game of tag and watched us through wary eyes. Washing strung from lines between buildings flapped overhead. It would take an age for it to dry; the sun struggled to pierce the dense air and the courtyard was filled with shadows layered upon shadows.
"That wall there is false," I said, nodding at the bricks on the far side of the courtyard. "From here it blends in with the wall of the building behind it, but if you get closer, you see that it's separate. Between the two walls is a manhole that leads down into the sewers."
"Bloody dangerous, having a manhole near where children play," Seth said.
"I don't think the authorities cared much about the slum children when they put it there. They think there are too many mouths to feed in these parts anyway. Losing a child to the sewers from time to time won't keep them awake at night."
Fitzroy eyed his surroundings before striding to the wall and disappearing behind it. He reappeared moments later. "Take her back to Lichfield."
Gus nodded. "Yes, sir. Both of us?"
Fitzroy nodded.
"Shouldn't one of them stay with you to help?" I asked him.
He shook his head. "Go."
Seth placed his hand at my lower back and both men flanked me as we walked out of the courtyard. I glanced over my shoulder, but Fitzroy had already disappeared behind the wall again. Whether he was lying in wait or going down into the sewers, I didn't know.
"We'll be out of here in a moment," Seth said, splaying his fingers wide on my back. "Miserable place."
"It's home to some," I told him, hotly. "Not everyone can live in a mansion."
His mouth opened, closed, and opened again. "I'm sorry if I offended. It wasn't my intention."
I sighed. "I know. I'm sorry too."
"Blimey." Gus stopped a few paces ahead of us. "Don't look now but there's a toff coming our way. You don't think it's—"
"It is," I muttered. "Frankenstein."
I recognized the slim man with the short whiskers in the gray suit. His gaze settled on us and he slowed, just as we did. He'd never laid eyes on me before, and he couldn't know what Charlotte Holloway looked like, yet my instincts screamed at me to run.
Seth and Gus fell into step alongside me. Did they sense my anxiety? Seth took my hand and placed it on his arm, then folded his own hand over the top, trapping me. If we were in Hyde Park, we would have looked like any other couple taking a stroll on a warm summer's day. But no well-dressed couple strolled through the filthy lanes of Clerkenwell for entertainment.
I tried not to look directly at Frankenstein as he passed, but I couldn't help myself peering through my lowered lashes. He touched the brim of his hat, but neither Seth nor Gus offered a greeting in return.
Later, I wondered if that had tipped him off.
I breathed out a long breath as he passed us by, but another caught in my throat when he called out. "Miss Holloway?"
My heart stopped dead. How did he know?
Seth shoved me behind him and I stumbled into the wall. I whipped around, gathering my skirts at the same time. But I lowered them again when I spotted Frankenstein backing up, hands above his head. My two protectors aimed pistols at him.
"Miss Holloway," he said, eyeing the pistols. "Charlotte. I know it's you."
"You don't know me," I said.
"I saw a photograph of you at the Holloway residence. You were younger, but you haven't changed so much that you're unrecognizable."
"I'm not going with you."
"Please, listen to me before you make that decision."
Seth straightened his arm and aimed the pistol at Frankenstein's temple. "Don't speak."
"I must. Charlotte, these people have lied to you about me. They've made you afraid of me, when it is them you should fear."
"Shut your mouth!" Gus shouted.
Frankenstein swallowed heavily and directed his gaze at me. He had bright blue eyes, and where his jaw had been hard that day I'd seen him storming away from my father's house, it was now slack. He didn't appear in the least harmful, particularly as Seth and Gus were so much bigger.
"Listen to me, Charlotte. Whatever these people have told you is false. Lies. They've been seeking out my secrets for some time now, and wish to use my knowledge for their own gain."
"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, chin up.
"Good girl," Seth said. "Don't believe him. He's a liar and a murderer."
"I've not murdered anyone!" Frankenstein took a step toward me, but Seth and Gus blocked his path. The doctor's lips curled in frustration. "It's not murder to put suffering, dying men out of their misery. Those poor souls were terminally ill. They were in pain. They begged me to end their suffering."
"You used their body parts!" I covered my mouth and swallowed bile. It was one thing to hear of his deeds second hand, it was quite another to come face to face with such a monster. Yet he looked nothing like a monster. He looked like a normal gentleman. He was in earnest, yes, but I wasn't afraid of him.
"Calthorn wasn't dying," Seth said.
"Calthorn was a wicked man." Frankenstein spoke to me. His entire focus was directed at me. "He hurt his wife. He beat her daily. Not on her face, where the bruises would be seen, but in the stomach and chest. She couldn't have children because of the beatings. He used the secrets he gained through his position as head of the nation's spy ring to bully and harm those weaker than himself. He was a cruel man, yet no court would have convicted him. He was above the law and he knew it. You tell me, Charlotte, if you think a man like that ought to get away with his crimes. Perhaps I acted rashly, and should not have killed him for his wife's sake, but I am not always a rational man when I'm riled. And that man did rile me."
"You took his brain!"
"I found another use for it. But that's not why I killed him." He slowly pressed his hands together above his head then lowered them. "I have begged God's forgiveness every day, and I know I will be punished for my sins in the afterlife. But while I live, I can do good here. My experiments are not to be feared. I have done England a service by creating new life. Superior life. Once the bodies have spirits, you'll see them for what they are, Cha
rlotte. Wonderful, amazing humans who deserve to live."
I screwed up my face, unable to hide my disgust. Did he think I would believe he was doing something good for the country? For human-kind? He was mad. "They are abominations. They're not humans, they're monsters."
"They are no more an abomination than me. Or you. We are all made, one way or another. Have you yourself not been called an abomination by the very man you thought was your father?"
"He is not my father."
"I know." He smiled gently. His eyes shone—familiar, blue eyes.
My stomach plunged. My throat tightened and it suddenly felt too hot in the lane, the air too close. I backed away and hit the wall. I pressed myself into the cool bricks, but couldn't take my eyes off Frankenstein.
"I'm your father, Charlotte."
"Bloody hell," Gus muttered, lowering his weapon.
Seth cocked his gun.
"Don't!" I cried. I raced up to them, but stopped short. I wasn't sure what to do or say. All I did know was that I didn't want Frankenstein to be shot.
If he was my father, I had a million questions I needed answered. But I could ask none of them. I could only stare. I took in his appearance, his slender frame and oval face, so like mine. His eyes were the same shade of blue too, although not as wide. The more I looked, the more certain I became that he spoke the truth. This man had fathered me.
He lowered his hands altogether and smiled at me. "Charlotte. That's a pretty name."
I swallowed again, but the lump in my throat was too great for me to speak. I blinked back hot tears and simply nodded like a halfwit.
"I never knew you existed until very recently," he said. "Your mother never confided in me."
"Who…?" I managed to whisper.
"A kind, gentle woman. Her name was Ellen, and I'd like to tell you all about her."
I nodded. I wanted that too.
"But you have to come with me. Together we'll find out what happened to her. Yes?"
My tears hovered on my eyelids. One blink and they would spill. I nodded.
"Charlie," Gus snapped. "Don't listen to him. He's no better than a turd."
"He only wants to lure you to his laboratory and use you to resurrect his monsters," Seth said. "Don't believe a thing he says." He jerked his head toward the entrance to the lane. "Come with us, Doctor."
Some of the residents gathered near the archway, their eyes wide as they watched the scene play out between the toffs. Children clung to their mothers' aprons, and men murmured among themselves. None seemed too concerned about stray bullets.
Frankenstein held out his hand to me. "Come with me, Charlotte. Please. I mean you no harm. I'm your father, after all. I want to get to know you. I've always wanted a child to love, and a daughter most of all. I have the means to give you material things you desire, and the immaterial too. Those which only a parent can give."
My tears spilled down my cheeks. He said everything I'd ever wanted to hear. For five years, I'd lived in hope that Anselm Holloway would say such words to me, but that hope had been dashed when I learned of my adoption. Yet it rose again now, and bloomed like a flower in the dessert, with everything Frankenstein said.
"Charlie," Seth begged, "don't fall for it."
Gus cocked his weapon. "Death never said he wanted the turd alive."
"No!" I shouted. "Don't shoot him! Please."
Frankenstein backed away toward the arch and the courtyard where the crowd milled. Seth growled low in his throat.
"Death will get him in there," Gus muttered, lowering his weapon. "There're too many witnesses here."
Too many innocent bystanders who could get hurt.
The crowd parted for Frankenstein, but he did not pass through the arch. He held out his hand to me again. "Come with me, Charlotte."
Seth raised his gun again. "She's not going anywhere with you."
Frankenstein appealed to me and stretched his hand out further. Seth took my hand in his, but I snatched it free. To Frankenstein, I said, "I…I'm not sure. I need time."
His jaw stiffened, and his lips pressed together, then his face slackened once more. "I'll see you very soon, my dear sweet daughter." He turned and disappeared into the crowd, who closed around him.
"He must be paying them." Gus swore. "Bloody fools are protecting him."
"Come on." Seth took my elbow. When I tried to pull free this time, he didn't let go. "We have to get you away from him."
I planted my feet apart and resisted. "I don't—"
A woman's scream tore through the thick, hot air. Gus and Seth let me go and ran toward the arch. I followed close at their heels, but got no further than the crowd gathered in the courtyard. The woman was no longer screaming, but her sobs echoed around the clearing. I couldn't see her, but could just make out her spluttered plea. "Don't hurt 'im, sir."
"Drop it!" Frankenstein shouted, from somewhere beyond the wall of bodies blocking my sight.
"What is it?" I asked Seth. "Can you see?"
He didn't answer but pushed through the crowd, his strong arms shoving people aside. Gus joined him, and once again I followed in their wake.
I peeked past Gus to see Frankenstein standing near the false wall, a child in front of him, his gaze dead ahead on something I couldn't see behind the wall, but I knew was Fitzroy. Frankenstein held a knife at the boy's throat. The sobbing woman must be his mother. Her menfolk held her back, but the anguish on her face made my heart ache for her.
"Now do you see what sort of character he is?" Seth growled at me.
"Drop the gun down there," Frankenstein snapped. "Do it now, or I'll slit his throat."
A hush fell over the crowd as we waited for the clank of the gun being dropped down the unseen manhole. But the only sound was the woman's uncontrollable sobs.
Frankenstein's arm tensed and the boy cried out in pain as the blade bit into his neck.
I was about to open my mouth, to scream at Fitzroy to do it, when Seth's hand clamped over it. He jerked me against his chest, blocking my view. "Quiet, Charlie," he hissed. "If he knows you're here, he'll use the boy to force you to go with him."
Perhaps I could force an exchange, the boy's life for mine…
"Do it!" the mother screamed before I'd made up my mind.
The distant splash of something hitting water was a relief to hear. The crowd seemed to take a breath all at once.
"Get away from the hole." The edge in Frankenstein's voice wasn't quite as harsh anymore.
I pulled free of Seth's hard embrace and peered past him. Frankenstein moved toward the manhole behind the wall, the child still locked in his arm with a knife to his throat. As he disappeared behind the wall, Fitzroy reappeared. He did not have his hands raised, but his intense focus zeroed in on Frankenstein.
"Let him go!" shouted one of the men holding back the sobbing mother.
Everything seemed to happen at once. The boy was spat out from behind the wall, propelled into Fitzroy's waiting arms. At the same moment, while everyone's attention was distracted, the knife flew at the boy.
Several women screamed, including me. But Fitzroy spun the child out of the way and put his own body between blade and boy.
The knife buried itself in his side.
CHAPTER 13