Page 79 of The Journal of a Thousand Years
But not in time for today’s meeting. “I haven’t learned to control the magic yet. The paper could fly in any direction, including toward me.”
Melville grasped my hand between both of his. “Don’t worry. I’ll be there to help you.”
Willie went in search of some quality paper while Alex fetched his gun. Once she returned, Melville showed me how to fold the paper to make it look like a white handkerchief in a gentleman’s pocket. It was easy.
Alex returned, tucking his gun into the waistband of his trousers. “Dodson is bringing the Vauxhall around. Willie and Iwill leave in that immediately, so we’re in place well before two o’clock. You two leave in thirty minutes in a taxi.”
I peered through the library window and watched Alex and Willie drive off. I couldn’t believe we were going ahead with the rash scheme. It was not only very hastily planned, but it was also concocted by someone I wasn’t yet sure possessed all his marbles. There was an air of madness about Melville, like a racing driver who can see the finish line and knows he has to take extreme risks to reach it first.
Thirty minutes later, the taxi that Murray had gone to fetch pulled up at the neighboring house. Bristow offered to tell the driver to reverse a little to meet us, but I told him not to bother. I hurried toward it alongside Melville, my attention on our surroundings, although I didn’t expect Thurlow to be so brazen as to attempt to abduct me off an upscale street in Mayfair.
I was wrong.
As Melville and I reached the taxi, we could see the front passenger seat was occupied as well as the driver’s seat. I registered the sleek dark hair of the female passenger at the same time I saw the gun pointed at her temple, and Thurlow turn to look at us through the window aperture. He sported cuts on his face and neck. He smiled that ugly smile of his with the crowded teeth fighting each other for space in the rat-like mouth.
I noticed everything all at once, too fast for me to think clearly, let alone act. I simply stood there and stared.
Beside me, Melville swore. “Are you Thurlow? You shouldn’t be here.”
Thurlow shrugged nonchalantly. “I know who you are to the Glass family, but I don’t know why you’d help them to capture me, and I don’t care. I suspected it was a trick and decided to find out for myself. I saw those two monkeys leave and waitedaround the corner for the footman to seek out a taxi. Ah, there it is now,” he said as a taxicab pulled up behind us.
Bristow watched on from the top of the front steps. He was probably confused since he couldn’t see what we could see.
Thurlow pressed the gun barrel into the passenger’s temple. She had her back to us, but I recognized the sleek hair and the regal stiffness to the shoulders.
“Ivy, are you all right?” I wasn’t sure if she deserved my consideration, after the role she’d played in my kidnap, but she was clearly not helping him now or Thurlow wouldn’t be holding her at gunpoint.
“No,” she said on a whimper. “My mother is dead.”
“The Hobson bitch was going to blame me for everything,” Thurlow snarled. “She thought I didn’t know she was planning to turn herself in and tell the police I’d forced her to help me. No one takes me for a fool. If they do…” He cocked the gun.
Ivy’s shoulders shook.
“Tell the taxi driver to leave, Hendry,” he said. “And you, my pretty little Sylvia, empty your purse and roll up your sleeves. If I see a single slip of paper flying at me, Iwillshoot her.”
Melville waved the taxi off while I tipped everything out of my purse onto the back seat of the motorcar. Then I unbuttoned the cuffs of my blouse and rolled them up. The hidden pieces of paper fell out.
Thurlow grunted. “Give them to Ivy.”
I did as directed, then Ivy handed them to Thurlow. He sat on them.
At least Melville still had his paper handkerchief, although he couldn’t use it without distracting Thurlow first. With his gun already drawn and cocked, Thurlow would shoot Ivy before the paper reached him.
It occurred to me that Melville might think it an acceptable risk to sacrifice Ivy to save me.
“Hendry, fetch Glass,” Thurlow said, his voice oozing with confidence. He was aware he had the upper hand. “I’ll keep the two women he loves most here with me as insurance. If he tries anything, I will shoot.”
He continued to point the gun at Ivy’s temple, so clearly she and Mrs. Hobson hadn’t told him that Gabe no longer cared for her. I wondered if Ivy now regretted keeping up the pretense. Or perhaps Thurlow knew Gabe was the sort of man who wouldn’t place anyone’s life in danger to save himself, not even the life of someone who’d conspired to kidnap me.
I glanced over my shoulder and saw Melville speak to Bristow, still standing on the porch. Then Bristow disappeared inside.
“This is madness,” I said to Thurlow. “Why do you still believe Gabe can perform magic?”
“The one good trait Mrs. Hobson possessed was her clever mind. After your little escape the other day, she and I reassessed what we knew. We went through every newspaper article, and pieced together everything we’d witnessed ourselves, and it became clear that Glass didsomethingmagical to save himself and his loved ones. She came up with the theory that he can’t control it. The magic only works when his life is in danger, or that of a select few.”
I scoffed. “That’s absurd.”
“Is it? Glass saved himself and his friends in the war. He saved you, my dear little Sylvia, at the racetrack when someone shot at you. Just as he untangled the boy from the fishing net off the Isle of Wight then helped him to the surface, all of which took time.”
