Read Online Steps to the Gallows by Edward Marston - Free Book Online Page B

Jem?’ she asked, crossing to the bed.
    ‘I think that I’m on the mend now.’
    ‘You certainly have more colour than when you first arrived. Is Meg looking after you properly?’
    ‘Oh, yes, she’s in and out all the time.’
    ‘She said that you ate most of the meal we sent up. Had youbeen able, we’d have invited you to join us in the dining room.’
    ‘Thank you, Mrs Skillen.’
    ‘But you need to stay up here and rest.’
    ‘I thought I heard the front door opening a while ago.’
    ‘Paul was just leaving,’ she explained. ‘He was going back to the gallery to see if Gully had anything to report.’
    ‘Why – what has he been doing?’
    ‘He’s been trying to turn the tables on your attacker, Jem. We know that he must have kept watch for a bodyguard to come out. According to Gully, he’d have been out there for some time because Mr Paige had a long story to tell. The chances are, therefore, that someone noticed the man lying in wait for you.’
    ‘But there were two men – the one who followed Mr Paige and the one who tried to knock my brains out.’
    ‘Then someone may have noticed both of them,’ she said, hopefully. ‘If they loitered together, they’d be more likely to arouse curiosity.’
    Huckvale was pleased. ‘We have good friends who live or work near the gallery,’ he said. ‘If anyone behaved suspiciously, they’d be seen. Thank you so much for telling me. It’s really lifted my spirits.’
    He made the mistake of sitting up quickly in bed, only to set off the pounding of a sledgehammer inside his head. Holding him gently by the shoulders, Charlotte eased him against the pillows. She could see the anguish and frustration in his eyes.
    ‘I know you want to be involved, Jem,’ she said, ‘but you’re simply not well enough.’
    ‘But I may be well enough to get up tomorrow.’
    ‘I won’t hear of it. You must listen to medical advice. Peter, Paul and Gully will find the killer somehow. All you have to do is to enjoy a life of leisure.’ Huckvale grimaced. ‘Yes, I know it’s againstyour nature to lie there and do nothing but Meg is only a tinkle on that bell away from you.’ Charlotte smiled. ‘She’ll help you to stave off boredom.’
     
    Though it was late evening, the streets were full of people and horse-drawn traffic. As he walked along, Paul Skillen heard the familiar tumult and inhaled the familiar stink of London. Neither had existed when Hannah Granville had been there. Her presence in the city seemed to banish both its abiding clamour and its cloying stench. Now that she was on the other side of the Channel, he was made brutally aware once more of the capital’s shortcomings. With a supreme effort, he put Hannah out of his mind and thought about the task in hand. He was soon entering the shooting gallery.
    ‘Did you have any luck, Gully?’ he asked.
    ‘I hope so,’ replied the other. ‘It was a costly business.’
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Well, as you know, it was market day. The traders were outside in the street. When their work was done, some of them went straight to the White Hart to slake their thirst. That’s where I found Quint.’
    ‘Is he that fishmonger?’
    ‘You’d be left in no doubt about that, Paul. Get within a yard of him and the smell is enough to make your toes curl. However, he keeps his wits about him and was far more use than any of the others.’
    ‘What did he tell you?’
    ‘When I’d bought his ale,’ said Ackford, ‘he remembered two men lurking outside the gallery around the time when Leo Paige was in here. They pretended to look at items in the market but their real interest was in this place.’
    ‘And did Quint remember what these men looked like?’
    ‘Yes, he did – but only after I’d jogged his memory with a second pint. Once he’d taken a first mouthful of that, he described both of them. One was a young man dressed like a costermonger and wearing a wide-brimmed hat pulled down over his face. He