A Little Knowledge (32 page)

“They won’t come back,” she said, patting the shotgun. “Pull him out. He’s all squashed and he needs air.”

They did as she ordered and then helped her out too, glass tinkling on the cobbles as it fell from her hair and clothing. Glancing back to see where the shotgun was, she spotted a flattened bullet on the floor of the carriage.

“Was he Charmed against bullets?” she asked the footmen, who both shrugged.

“I reckon he’d be a poor bodyguard if he weren’t,” said the driver, coming round to see what was going on after calming the horses. “I’m so sorry, your Grace. They made something flash like a firework to startle the horses and then Dolled us all. Weren’t a thing I could do about it.”

Cathy knelt beside Carter and examined the gash on his forehead. There was a nasty lump with it, but it didn’t look too bad. The force that knocked him forwards had made him bang his head against the inside of the carriage and simply knocked him out. She fetched a clean handkerchief from her reticule and pressed it against the wound. She thought of her father, how he’d been Charmed to be protected against shrapnel and bullets before going to fight in the First World War.

Then she imagined what Will was going to say. Cathy groaned, feeling the bruise from the shotgun blossoming on her shoulder. “Okay, you all need to listen. When the Duke asks what happened, you tell him the truth, but I didn’t fire the shotgun, Carter did. Right?”

They all frowned at her.

“He wasn’t knocked out,” she added. “He just banged his head, that’s all. If the Duke thinks I did that, and that Carter was out of action, he’ll sack him and never let me out of the house again. Understand?” They all nodded. It helped that she paid their wages, but they were still uncomfortable. “I know you don’t want to lie to him, but this way, Carter will be fine. Agreed?”

They did. The driver climbed up to his seat and fetched a flask of tea that was shared round and before long they were laughing about what she’d yelled at the gang. Cathy grimaced. “Don’t mention that bit, either.”

• • •

Will knelt in front of Lord Iris, feeling the intensity of the gaze on the top of his head. There was no sense of anger or disapproval, just his patron’s usual iciness.

“You received my gift.”

Gift? Will realised he meant the case and…her. “Yes, my Lord. A most eloquent demonstration of your expectations.”

Lord Iris reached down and with one of his long fingers lifted Will’s chin until their eyes met. “And what did your wife think of it?”

Even though Will had already seen his blue eyes and knew there was no pupil or white or anything human about them at all, his heart still faltered at the sight of them boring into him. “She was rather shocked and distressed, my Lord. But she understood the meaning well enough.”

“Have you come to make excuses for her?”

“No, my Lord. I came to discuss another lady of our family.”

Iris glanced towards the edge of the clearing. “You brought another into Exilium but not into my domain.”

“I needed to explain what has happened to her first. Our family is incomplete, Lord Iris. We are without a Dame, and the women of the family are without guidance. I wish to offer a solution in the form of the lady I’ve brought with me. She was the former Dame Iris, before the one who displeased you.”

Lord Iris tilted his head. “Eleanor did not meet the expectations of her husband. She was replaced and died.”

“For all intents and purposes, my Lord. The one who displeased you wove a web of deceit and despicable lies, convincing Society that Lady Eleanor had gone mad so that she could be usurped. In order to preserve the perfection of the family, Sir Iris was forced to send Lady Eleanor to an asylum in Mundanus to live out her days—”

Lord Iris stood as leaves and iris flowers in the clearing were pressed back by a sudden blast of cold radiating from him. “He said nothing of madness! Why did he not bring her to me?” He stared at the edge again, whispering something as Will frantically tried to think of a response.

Will had no idea why Sir Iris had decided to hide Eleanor away rather than bring her to his patron. Now he was thinking it through, it did seem rather poor form to not bring his wife here first. Then he feared it was because Sir Iris hadn’t wanted to save Eleanor and simply wanted a new wife. “Because—”

“Because the usurper executed a brilliant plan, my Lord,” Eleanor said from the edge of the clearing. Will turned to see her give a deep curtsy and then straighten again with some effort. “My husband knew that even if you could help me, the damage I had done in Society by offending the idiots of the Court with no more than the truth would make it untenable for me to remain in my position. Better to lead you to believe that he had lost interest in me, so you would simply let me go and he could take another wife quickly, to preserve order within the family.”

She took a tentative step forwards and, seeing that Lord Iris was expecting her to continue, spoke again. “It was a very delicate time for the Frankish Empire. With war ravaging Mundanus, the mundane underpinnings of our power were under threat. He acted swiftly and decisively to limit the damage I had done, but he was also proud and he loved me. The reasons behind the action he took may not have been perfect, my Lord, but to everyone else outside of the family, perfection was swiftly restored once I was gone. He had a wife who was beautiful and devoted, willing to destroy anyone who threatened him or the family’s honour. Not the one he loved, but the family came first.”

Lord Iris stepped down from his living throne of wood and flowers and walked past Will towards Eleanor. Will stood, unable to read what the Fae intended. Iris stopped halfway across the clearing and beckoned her further in. “And why did you not come to me for help?”

“Because you do not exist to resolve my difficulties, Lord Iris. I exist to serve and please you, and if I am found wanting, I accept the consequences. My enemy exploited the complacency of our marriage and my sense of security. I never dreamt that a daughter of an inconsequential family would even contemplate destroying my life. That was a dreadful mistake, and I was willing to pay for that deviation from perfection.”

“And as Mundanus stole the youth from your body, did you not regret this? Did you not nurse hatred towards your husband for abandoning you?”

“No, my Lord. I nursed a hatred towards the one who took my place, but not him. My husband was thinking of the family and of how we represented you. The perfection of our family required that I be absent, and I accepted that. I still love him, dearly.”

“Your devotion pleases me,” Lord Iris said, closing the distance between them. “You will return to your husband and resume your position as Dame with my blessing.” He wrapped his arms around her, his long white hair draping down like silk, obscuring her from Will’s sight. Then the Fae released her and to Will’s surprise, she still looked the same.

Lord Iris took a step back and cupped Eleanor’s face with his hand in a remarkably tender way. It was jarring, seeing him be anything but cold and detached. Eleanor gazed up at him, her eyes shining, beatific in her devotion, as Lord Iris ran his thumb across her cheek.

Something flaked away from her face in its wake, making Will tense, but then he saw youthful skin revealed, as if it had been there all along. With gentle strokes, Lord Iris brushed away the age from the rest of her face, as if excavating her youthful self from the wrinkled woman standing before him. As he worked, fresh irises grew around them, the stems stretching up and the blooms bursting as if a month had passed in but moments. Lord Iris plucked one, cupped his hand around it, and whispered whilst looking at the others around them, moving further away from Eleanor. When he dropped his hand away the petals twisted into the shape of a butterfly, as did all of the fresh blooms, rising up in chaotic flight to obscure Eleanor from sight. Will heard her laughter, as light and bright as an excited debutante, as the rippling blue mass of wings covered her.

Lord Iris returned to his throne and Will stood back, wishing that he could be dismissed rather than stand there without any certain purpose. But when he saw the way Lord Iris watched and the first hint of a smile he’d ever seen on his patron’s face, Will realised that he was witnessing something remarkable. He could see a flicker of excitement, too, something he’d never associated with Lord Iris, something he’d never even believed possible. Then he remembered that mere hours ago, Lord Iris would have sat on the same throne while Eleanor’s rival probably begged for her life. He would have stolen the youth from her body and created the case around her. Will shuddered. They were nothing more than pets to the Fae, things to do their bidding and relieve the boredom of eternity.

How could he ever feel safe? How could he ever protect Cathy and Sophia from creatures such as this?

Lord Iris snapped his fingers and a faerie flew in from the trees surrounding the clearing and hovered in front of its master. It seemed to take an order without the need for words and flew off, leaving a shower of sparkling blue. When it left, Lord Iris leaned back, watching as the butterflies started to fly off, their work done.

Dame Iris stood with the poise and confidence of a queen, her hair raven black, her lips full and deep red, her skin flawless. Her dark blue eyes were bright with joy and no little triumph. Her gown had been replaced by one made of silk and iris petals, revealing an hourglass figure and a creamy décolletage that Will made himself look away from immediately. She was dressed as if about to step into a ball, her dark blue opera gloves adorned with diamond bracelets that sparkled in the dappled sunshine reaching through the trees.

“You are restored,” Lord Iris said. He looked at Will. “I am capable of benevolence towards those that please me.”

Will inclined his head. Had he not pleased his patron? Then he realised he was talking about Cathy. Not that this was the sort of display of affection she would appreciate.

A figure moving through the trees towards the clearing caught Will’s eye, and he saw Sir Iris approaching. He too looked younger, but only by a few years. Perhaps Lord Iris was rewarding Eleanor further with a less aged husband for her reunion.

Sir Iris stopped at the edge of the clearing, taking in the back of the woman before him, Will, and his patron without showing any sort of reaction. He bowed deeply and awaited his patron’s invitation, which was given with a beckoning finger.

“My Lord,” he said, keeping his eyes fixed on the Fae as he drew level with Eleanor. Will admired his self-control. Surely he knew that was Eleanor? How could he resist looking at her?

“Your first wife has told me what you did,” Lord Iris said, and for the first time, Will saw a flicker of fear in his Patroon’s eyes. “She has satisfied me that you put the family and my desire for perfection first.” Lord Iris spread his hands. “This is all I ask of you. Of any of you.”

Will felt that was aimed at him and Cathy, but he stayed silent.

“Your second wife has already paid her debt, as has your first. You, however, are indebted to me now and when the time comes, you will give me what I ask for without hesitation.”

“Gladly, my Lord,” Sir Iris said.

“In a moment,” Lord Iris whispered, “you will turn and look at each other and know that despite the evil of others, you are reunited once more. And your love will endure as your enemies are forgotten. The love I will see in your eyes will be pure and unbreakable. No one will come between you ever again.”

As he spoke, Will watched his patron lean forwards, a hunger beneath his words. There was something about the way he described it, as if it were more a fantasy of his own than anything to do with the people in front of him.

“Now,” Lord Iris said, and stared with longing as the man and woman before him turned to look at each other.

Will kept his focus on him, watching his patron’s eyes widen and the smile appear, just briefly, before the coldness crept back. Will smiled to himself too, not because of the joyful reunion unfolding nearby, but because he would be leaving this place with more than he’d hoped for. Not just an association with something that clearly made Lord Iris happy, but also the suspicion that his patron was longing for a reunion of his own. The question was, with whom?

Sam flicked through ten news channels in his Manchester office, his smile broadening at the sight of the same things appearing in the scrolling headlines at the bottom of the screen. Lord Copper had ignored his polite request, and his warning, so Sam had executed the next part of the plan.

Leanne’s friend Martin Barclay had done sterling work with the information Sam had sent him. He’d listened to Sam’s ideas, too, agreed to the plan to increase the pressure on Copper with a huge breakout story about the horrific conditions of several copper mines that supplied metal to prominent UK companies. Just like Lord Copper’s mines, those companies had been hiding the information about their suppliers.

As expected, a CEO from the mining company had resigned and the usual bollocks about internal enquiries and rigorous reform were trotted out. Both Sam and Martin agreed that nothing significant would actually happen, so they’d held back more information on further abuses of workers and the environment so that they could pile on more pressure when the time was right. Martin had picked a slow news day, called in some favours with his press contacts, and mobilised hundreds of members of his environmental pressure group to blog, tweet, and generally push the stories on social media too. He’d just received a text from Martin on a burner phone he’d acquired for that very purpose, telling him that the
Daily Mail
was going to run a two-page spread. “It’s the first time those bastards have ever taken an interest in one of my press releases!” Martin had crowed.

There was a single knock on his door and then Susan, one of Amir’s board whom he’d been purposefully avoiding, stormed in.

“What the fuck are you doing?” she yelled. “I’ve just sacked the head of Pin PR for—”

“Sit down,” Sam said.

“
You
leaked that stuff to the eco-twats! Is this your idea of being a hero?” she shouted, ignoring him. “Do you think that this is going to do anything? It’s probably going to make things worse for those poor bastards in the mines. If you keep pushing this the mines will be shut down and they’ll lose their jobs. It’s the only employer in the region! What the fuck is the point of protecting the environment when it means people are going to starve and—”