Deliver us from Evil (71 page)

Very softly now, he laid the bag upon the bed. He unlaced the fastening to expose what lay within. 'Can you not breathe it?' he whispered. 'The scent of your extinction?' He drew close over Lord Rochester; he lay upon him; he kissed him suddenly, very hard.
‘
I
should have known you like this,' he murmured, 'many years before -when your lips, perhaps, were less withered and dry. And yet still, my Lord, still - your charms are very great.'

it
is fitting you should think so,' Lord Rochester answered, 'since all that
I
have and all
I
am will soon be yours.' He reached for Lovelace's cheeks, and pulled him down again. Through their kisses he began to tear at Lovelace's shirt; and then at the golden, naked skin. Lovelace screamed, a cry of mingled ecstasy and pain. He shuddered; his body arched; he moaned very softly at the feel of his own blood.

Lovelace turned, for he could feel the world melting into the flood of his wounds, and he wanted symmetry, his own eternal life to be born from the moment of Lord Rochester's death. He dabbled his fingers in the bag, then sucked upon the gore. He laughed softly, for he could feel
it
now: knew he would succeed. Upon the thunderous pounding of his own naked heart, he leaned forward again to brush Lord Rochester's lips. For a moment he heard a second heart beating with his own; and then the sound began to fade, to pulse and ebb away, so that in the end there was silence and nothing else -impossibly still, as though the very universe had been dimmed into nothingness, as though all of creation itself upon that silence had grown dead.

And then - at last - from the depths of that silence: a pulse again -the beating of a heart.

But it was single now: single and alone.

V

'And some are fallen, to disobedience fallen, And so from heaven to deepest hell.'

John Milton,
Paradise Lost

‘T
he afternoon of May Day.
I
could have wished, Milady, you had X come sooner than this.'

Milady smiled with chilly politeness, if
I
had known how desperate you were for the delights of my company, sir, then
I
would have jumped to your summons even sooner than
I
did.'

Lovelace grinned. 'You are perfectly aware, Milady, how
I
have regretted every second of these long months you have not been by my side. And in truth' - he opened the carriage door and clambered in -'it is good to see you again.' He folded her in his arms and kissed her, just long enough to feel her surrender to his embrace. Then he released her; but as he sat back, he kept hold of her hands and started to kiss each slim finger in turn.

Milady watched him a moment, then pulled her hands away.

Lovelace looked up as though bitterly wounded.
'A
woman's love, they say, is ever as fleeting and unreal as a dream.'

‘I
t
was not
I
who betrayed our love.'

‘I
ndeed?' Lovelace's grin broadened and he struck a pose. 'You do not find me improved by my transformation?'

'You seem as deadly and cruel a thing now as myself 'Oh, worse, Milady - worse. For
I
have such a business now in hand, such a matter of revenge, as
..
. well - as you shall see very shortly for yourself He nodded in emphasis; then leaned out from the carriage window and struck its side with his hand. As the carriage began to rumble through the Salisbury streets, he continued to lean

out, craning his neck, to make certain that the wagon following them did not grow lost; and he only resumed his seat when they had left the city gates behind. 'It is loaded, then,' he asked, gesturing back through the window, 'just as
I
requested it to be?'

'To the very letter.'

'Save for . . .'

Milady angled her head.

'There is one thing
I
requested which
I
perceive you have not brought with you.'

Milady did not answer, but looked away.

Lovelace leaned forward, took her by her chin. 'And how is she?' he whispered. 'How does our little child?'

'
I
have not set eyes on her,' Milady answered distantly. 'Not since she was born. It was temptation enough, scenting her presence in my womb. But you, Lovelace - if you had not been changed - you might have tended her.' She widened her gaze.
'You
might have been a parent to our child.'

Lovelace's own gaze widened as well. 'Is the pleasure in her blood,' he murmured, 'truly so dangerous as that?'

'It is not to be endured.'

'And yet you know full well,
I
have no intention of enduring it. For there is only one certain way to abolish temptation - and that is to surrender to it.'

Milady brushed his hand away, but Lovelace leaned forward closer and seized her chin again. 'Why would you deny her to me?' he asked slowly. '
I
have not seen you growing wrinkles, Milady.'

'No!' Again, Milady struggled to free herself, but Lovelace would not release his grip.

'
I
want to be as you are, eternally young.'

'But with the blood of
our
child, Lovelace - the offspring of
our
union? Can you not do as
I
did, and get a child upon some flinty-hearted whore, who will not care what you do to her bastard?'

'Your sensibilities, Milady, are worthy of a nun.' Lovelace leaned forward even closer, tightening his grip. 'Where is she now?' he whispered.

'With Lightborn.'

Lovelace smiled unpleasantly. 'It is a pity, then, for his purposes, the bastard was not a boy.'

'Yet he will cherish her all the same - the child being what she is, my daughter. For still, sir, he loves me - as you no longer seem to do.' She pushed his hand away, and this time Lovelace did not seek to hold her again. She leaned her head against the carriage window, and for a long while she said nothing more.
'
I
could wish,' she murmured at last, 'wish it with all my heart, that you had not paid your visit to Lord Rochester.' 'You know
I
had no choice.'

She turned to stare at him again, narrowing her eyes,
I
wonder.'

'No, Milady. Be honest with yourself. For you must understand, in the depths of your soul, that if
I
am to succeed in my revenge, then
I
require all the powers and the strength that
I
can seize.'

'Any yet
..
.'

Lovelace silenced her by taking her hands. As he had done before, he began to kiss each finger. Then he entwined them with his own. 'Wait until you have arrived at Woodton,' he whispered. 'Then you will see the fruits of all my preparations. Then you will see how my transformation has not been in vain.'

Milady parted her lips again, but Lovelace silenced them with a kiss. He crossed to sit beside her and, kissing her a second time, began to stroke with practised hands. 'Let us discover,' he murmured, 'how my gift to you fares.'

Milady gasped. Lovelace grinned. So easy, he thought, as he pulled back her petticoats and felt Milady shudder, and cleave to him tightly, parting with her own hand the skirts of his coat. So easy - as everything had seemed easy since the change. He glanced out through the window. They were still a distance yet from Stonehenge. More than time enough. He did not need to wait for Woodton to demonstrate the scope of his new powers. Let Milady feel them now. And when he had finished with her
..
. well
..
. then let her complain!

'There,' he asked afterwards, as she lay upon his lap, 'was that not better than a mortal's fuck?'

She smiled up at him faintly,
I
felt no difference.'

He laughed, and looked away, knowing that she was lying. As he stared out through the window, he saw that they had passed Stonehenge and were drawing near to the trees which served to veil Woodton. 'We are almost home.'

Milady stirred, and sat up as the carriage jolted to a halt. 'Where are we now?'

'By the gates. They have to be opened.' 'They are still guarded?' 'Yes - but by my own soldiers now.' 'Your own?'

‘
I
could not permit the villagers to escape.' 'Why? You have need of them?'

Lovelace nodded and grinned. 'As you shall witness this evening.'

Milady did not answer Lovelace's smile. The carriage was now rumbling forward through the gates, and then out of the trees into open land; and she saw, as she looked, how there seemed no change at all. Rubble was still scattered everywhere, and fields and village alike appeared a wilderness of weeds. She turned to Lovelace in puzzlement. 'Where are the marks of the great transformation?'

He pointed towards a manor house silhouetted beyond the village. 'There is the house where Emily grew up. Where Sir Henry Vaughan was quartered with his guards.'

Milady stared at it. 'But that was standing here before.'

'True,' Lovelace grinned. 'So that is one change at least.'

Milady narrowed her eyes; and realised that the building was indeed abandoned, its beams charred by fire, its windows dark and empty. She turned again to Lovelace, to ask him what had happened; but he was leaning from the window, shouting at the coachman to come to a halt. As the carriage began to slow, Lovelace pointed at a second house. It stood on the edge of the village green, on the very spot where before three gallows had been placed. The carriage halted beside it. Lovelace climbed out. He waited to take Milady by the hand; then led her past two guards and into the house.

Gazing about her, she could see a few of Lovelace's familiar things decorating the room. 'What is this place?' she whispered.

'My parents' house, where
I
was a boy.'

'But, Lovelace
..
.' She turned to him. 'That was destroyed.'

'As you can see' - he gestured with his arms -
I
have had it rebuilt.'

'How?'

‘I
t
was a condition
I
made.' 'Condition?'

‘
I
have grown a great benefactor to this village. Come.' He took her by the arm; led her across to the doorway again, and pointed. Men were unloading crates from the wagon, piling them in a line along the edge of the green, while guards in tattered uniforms and rusty breastplates stood beside them on watch. 'And if you have indeed done as
I
requested you to do, and brought the finest delicacies that London can afford, then
I
shall soon be able to demand even more. For you will see' - he pointed to the labourers - 'how although they are fuller than they were, there is still very little flesh upon their bones.'

'They are the wretches
I
saw before in
the fields?' 'And from the pens
by Wolverton Hall.' 'You freed them?'

Lovelace grinned crookedly, in a manner of speaking.' 'How do you mean?'

'Say rather -
I
bought them. For
I
understood, when
I
first came here following my night with Lord Rochester, that the villagers might easily be seduced - not by wealth, as Faustus had seduced them, but more simply, by food. They could not leave the village; no one else could enter it; only
I
had the power to pass to and fro. It was therefore a simple matter to control the entry and supply of bread.

'And yet you said, you
bought
the villagers?'

'Naturally - for as they themselves had shown me long before, everyone has his price.' 'What did you demand?'

Lovelace narrowed his eyes. A shadow of hatred passed across his face. 'Sir Henry Vaughan.' 'He was still alive?' 'Oh yes. He and his men.' 'Yet they were armed.'

'True.' Lovelace grinned. 'And so, of course, it was a difficult struggle for the slaves: between their natural terror, and their ravening greed. Yet in the end, some grew brave enough. They came to me,
I
supplied them with arms, and they stormed Sir Henry's house. They captured him, and all his men.
I
gave my own men the abandoned uniforms.' He gestured through the window at the soldiers outside. 'As you can see for yourself.'