Page 65 of The Journal of a Thousand Years
But I could not. The time for resisting my urges would come later. For now, I needed to feel his blood pulsing steadily in his veins as much as I needed to breathe.
Cyclops rested a hand on the door and peered inside, checking on Gabe again. “I’ll do my best to find out what Alcott knows about Stanley’s whereabouts.” From the tone of his voice, he did not sound hopeful.
The doctorat the Royal London Hospital confirmed that Gabe wouldn’t die from blood loss and dismissed the idea of a transfusion when Willie suggested it. “The science behind it is too new. I don’t trust it yet. Besides, he’s not in dire need.” He nodded at Gabe, sleeping on a hospital bed in a busy ward. The pulse in his throat throbbed a little too quickly for my liking, but his breathing was steadier. According to the doctor, that was a good sign at this stage.
Willie began rolling up her sleeve. “If you’re worried about finding a match, test my blood. We’re cousins.”
“It’s not simply a matter of giving Mr. Glass blood from the same group as his own. There are other factors that haven’t yet been studied sufficiently.”
“I saw soldiers get transfusions in field hospitals all the time.”
“Did you see them months later? A year or two? Some died, and the scientists don’t know why. Is that a risk you want me to take with your cousin?”
Willie rolled down her sleeve. “I suppose if he ain’t in immediate danger…”
The doctor hung the clipboard on the end of Gabe’s bed. “He just needs rest.”
The patient in the bed beside Gabe moaned in pain. Nurses in crisp white uniforms and orderlies in blue ones moved around the ward. A policeman appeared in the doorway, shook his head at us, then left again.
The patient in the bed beside Gabe’s threw up.
“We’ll take him home,” Alex told the doctor.
With Gabe sleepingin his own bed, Willie shooed Alex and me out of the room, or tried to. Neither Alex nor I wanted to leave Gabe. I suspected for Alex, it was to protect him. He peered out of the window at the street below, as if gauging how easy it would be to scale the wall. When he checked the window’s lock was secure, I knew my suspicion was correct.
My focus wasn’t on the bedroom’s entry points, however. It was on the figure in the bed. The strong, capable man I loved, who looked so uncharacteristically vulnerable, yet I didn’t love him any less. It brought out a side of me that I didn’t know I possessed, the role of his protector. Willie and Alex could only do so much to keep him safe. I had a part to play, too, and I wanted to play it to the full extent of my abilities. It was all I could think about.
A doctor came and went. Nurse Tilda arrived, too, and promised to stay for as long as necessary. I suspected that was more for Willie’s benefit than Gabe’s. Willie was as tense as a wound-up toy, but Tilda’s presence seemed to calm her.
Mrs. Bristow brought in food, but none of us felt like eating. She, Bristow and the other servants came in from time to time, using one excuse or another. They didn’t fool anyone. They all needed to see Gabe for themselves.
The only visitor who managed to draw us out of the bedroom was Cyclops, and that was only because we didn’t want to wake Gabe with our voices. We left Tilda to watch over him and retreated to the dining room where Mrs. Ling’s delicious Chinese cooking enticed us all to finally eat something.
While he transferred food from the various dishes to his plate, Cyclops told us about the interrogation of Frank Alcott.“I’m positive he doesn’t know where Stanley Greville is at this point in time. Stanley went to test the first batch of Gabe’s blood, but he didn’t tell Alcott where he was going.”
“The Royal London Hospital,” Willie said, as if it were obvious.
“My men questioned the staff, and no one had seen him. I’ve kept some constables there to watch for him, as well as at Milsom Court.”
Willie snorted. “Reckon the whores ain’t happy about that.”
“Alcott told me that Stanley enlisted his help on a recent visit to Rosebank. His first task was to stab Gabe in the shoulder, but he didn’t want to do it. He knew he’d be arrested immediately. So, Stanley concocted a plan to have one of the patients with little hope of a full recovery do it instead.”
“That’s despicable,” I murmured. Stanley had been an excellent actor to keep this side of himself from his friends.
Willie picked up a spring roll from her plate and pointed it at Cyclops. “The attacker said God made him do it. Stanley must have told him he was God. Frank Alcott went along with it, maybe even encouraged the patient, too.”
Cyclops nodded. “He admitted he did. He also admitted his role in this kidnap.”
“It’s too late to deny it! We caught him red-handed.”
“What about the kidnapping attempts prior to the stabbing?” Alex asked.
“Alcott claims he wasn’t involved then,” Cyclops said. “Apparently Stanley hired help when he needed it. When they continued to fail, only then did Stanley resort to someone he knew from his time at Rosebank, someone capable who would be as invested as Stanley once he explained his motive for studying Gabe.”
Willie stabbed a dumpling with the end of her chopstick. “Good job getting him to confess. You must have been real hard on him.”
He looked up from his plate where he was expertly using his chopsticks to scoop up food. “I did nothing unethical.”
