The Custodian of Marvels (22 page)

“We’re going where none but those Patent Office bastards have gone. We’re going to see what not even the Grand Master of your guild has seen, Jeremiah. Isn’t that right?”

“That’s right,” said the locksmith, his face grave.

Fabulo looked around the circle, meeting everyone’s eyes, mine last because I was sitting next to where he stood. “There’s going to be machines in there. We don’t know what it is they’ll do. But there’s going to be marvels. That much I can promise. And there’s going to be documents and books – things the Patent Office don’t want no one to see. We’ll be the first to see them.

“From all these treasures we get to choose which bits to take. It’ll only be what we can carry, but that should be enough. Then we ride away and we don’t look back. Not ever. They’re going to know they’ve been robbed. And they’re going to know what’s been taken. But not who did it.

“What will happen after that? I can’t tell you. Depends on what we’ve found. We know there’s a machine there can punch a hole through metal like a bullet through wax. Lizzy – you tell them.”

“It’s true,” I said. “I’ve seen it.”

“She’s more than seen it,” said Fabulo. “She’s used it.”

“Does it make a fire?” asked Lara.

“No fire,” I said. “It mixes chemicals and water to make a beam of light. There are tubes and mirrors. I don’t understand it, but I know how to make it work.”

“It’s a marvel,” said Fabulo. “And there’s going to be other marvels besides. Maybe there’s a machine that makes you invisible. Or one to make you fly without an airship. Or breathe underwater. Or one to let you whisper across a thousand miles. We can’t know till we get there. But, whatever it is, we can use it to make our fortunes.”

Lara put up a hand. “How can we use it if the Patent Office won’t let it be used?”

“They can never know,” said Fabulo. “Whatever we do with what we take, it’s got to be a secret thing. It’s got to be out of sight from the law. What we do now makes us criminals forever. But we were always that.”

Jeremiah sat up straighter. “I wasn’t,” he said.

I tensed, fearing another argument would break out between them. But then the locksmith sighed and his doughy frame subsided once more. “I’m content with it, little man. Don’t worry. As soon as I told you the secrets of the guild, I put myself on the other side. It’s done already. It’s what I want.”

Fabulo nodded as if he’d never had a doubt about Jeremiah’s dedication to the cause, though I knew him well enough now to recognise relief from the sloping of his shoulders.

“Good,” he said, then turned towards Lara and Ellie. “You’ve been keeping watch on the men-at-arms?”

“Yes,” said Ellie.

“Since the storm they’ve started searching again,” said Lara. “They’ve got as far as Mary Anne Street.”

Not recognising the name, I looked around the circle, searching for a reaction. Tinker, Yan and Jeremiah seemed as confused as I. But Fabulo had tensed.

“Good work,” he said, with a forced smile.

“How close is that?” I asked.

“Three streets across,” said Ellie, gesturing with her thumb towards the back of the tenement.

All of us who hadn’t known inhaled in the same moment.

“Only three streets?” said Yan. “But…”

“They’ve got quicker,” said Lara. “And there are more of them. There are two carriages where there was one before.”

“How soon before they reach us?” I asked.

“Depends which streets they do first,” she said.

“What’s the shortest time – if they move directly here?”

“Maybe five days.”

“Five?” blurted Yan, alarm in his voice.

“They’ll never reach us!” barked Fabulo. “In five days we’ll be gone from London forever.”

It took a second for the meaning of his words to unfold in my mind. “When are you planning to break into the Patent Court?”

“Just as soon as everything’s ready,” he said. “That’ll be in four days’ time.”

“As most of you know, we’re going to break in at the back of the court, which is the north side of the building. It’s like the wall of a castle back there. No windows near the ground. Buttresses to keep it strong. Enough grey stone to block out half the sky. There’s just one door, which is towards the east side of the plaza. It leads down to the cellars, which is where we’re going.

“But first we have to get past the railings. These the Kingdom built just to irritate our lords and masters in the Patent Office. There’s but one way through, which is via a gate. You saw the key holder there, making a nuisance of himself, keeping the Turkish soldiers waiting. The Kingdom built it to be about as inconvenient as possible, putting it over towards the west side of the plaza, giving the soldiers a good long march. I’ve timed it at one minute. Regular as a clock.”

He fished in his waistcoat pocket and extracted the key that Jeremiah had crafted. Everyone stared at that small object as Fabulo placed it on the tea chest. I nodded to the locksmith, who managed to return a smile, despite the tension in the room.

“This will open the gate,” said Fabulo.

“It’s simple enough when you have the knowing,” said Jeremiah.

“But we’ll be seen,” said Yan. “Even at night.”

“True,” said Fabulo. “There’s lights around the Inns of Court. They’re far enough from the gate to be feeble. But the soldiers guarding the door would see us – if they were looking in the right direction. That’s where Ellie comes in.”

She beamed at the mention of her name. Lara reached over and squeezed her hand.

“Ellie has a way with the horses, so she’s the one in charge of the carriage to take us there and get us away at the end. At twenty minutes to eleven, she drives it up the road and stops in just such a place as will cast its shadow on the gate. The soldiers guarding the door will see it in silhouette, but they won’t be able to see us opening the gate and getting inside. The carriage can’t stay more than a few seconds, or they’ll send one of their number to check. Once we’re through and the gate’s closed, Ellie drives on and away.”

“But we haven’t got a carriage,” said Tinker.

“We will have in four days’ time,” said Fabulo. “It’s being made for us. With hidden compartments for the most precious of the marvels, in case we get searched.”

“Won’t the soldiers see us as soon as Ellie drives off?” I asked.

“Not if we keep low. The railings sit on three foot of wall. We can make it most of the way in shadow.”

“Easy for a dwarf,” growled Yan.

“It’s sixty yards from the railings to the wall of the Patent Court. You can crawl that far. We’ll have time enough to do it. You can crawl on your belly like a worm if you like. And you won’t be seen once you’re in the shadow of the buttresses, even if it’s an owl doing the looking.

“That’s the way it’s going to work. We sneak into one of them corners and wait. When the Patent Court clock starts to strike eleven, we’ll see the soldiers marching away towards the gate. As soon as they’ve passed us, we can walk along next to the Patent Court wall. We’ll see them if they walk between us and the gas lamps. But even if they look back, all they’ll see will be grey walls and shadows.

“From the moment the key holder lets them through, we’ll have nine minutes and twenty-one seconds. Plus another sixty seconds for the new guards to march from gate to door. Jeremiah – will that be enough for you to pick the lock and let us into the building?”

“That door’s easy. It’s a simple warded lock. I could teach any of you to pick it.”

“Why a simple lock?” I asked, suspicious of anything so easy.

“Because the door’s always guarded.”

“They’re complacent,” said Fabulo. “It’s their weakness. No one’s ever tried to break in.”

“How do you know?”

“We’d have heard about it.”

That seemed unlikely to me, but I could see my questioning was disturbing the others so I let it lie.

“Once inside, we’ll see a corridor ahead, sloping down. After thirty paces there’ll be doors to right and left. Jeremiah has seen this with his own eyes. He can open them. But further in, there’s a door blocking the way that he can’t.”

The locksmith stirred. “That’s not right,” he said. “I might open it. Or I might not. I never had a chance to try. If I’d been higher in the guild, I’d have gone through it to whatever lies beyond. But…” He spread his hands in resignation.

“But one door you can get through contains Elizabeth’s machine.”

“It’s not mine,” I said.

“But you know how to work it. You can use it to cut holes through the door that blocks our way. Once we have the machine in our hands, there’ll be no lock or door that can stop us. We will find our way to the innermost heart of the Patent Court and take whatever we wish.”

“How do we get out?” asked Lara.

“By the same route. We wait until the guard is due to be changed. Then we slip out onto the plaza and hide in the shadow of a buttress. Once the new guards are in place, we’ll crawl back across the ground to the gate. At ten minutes past the hour after every guard change, Ellie will drive to the gate. If we’re there, she’ll stop the carriage to shield us as we leave.”

“When do the guards change?” asked Lara.

“The front of the building is different. But at the back there’s a guard change every two hours on the hour. We get in at eleven o’clock. That leaves us the guard changes at one o’clock and three o’clock to get out. By five o’clock there’ll be too many people around on the street. The clocks will have gone back by then, so the sky will be getting light.”

“And how will we know when we’ve found enough treasure to leave?” I asked.

“Ah, well,” said Fabulo. “There’s one room we need to get to. It’s why this enterprise got started in the first place. It was Harry Timpson that found out about it. There’s a room where all the most valuable things are kept. And just outside it, there’s a guard.”

“A guard?” said Yan.

“It’s nothing,” said Fabulo. “A ceremonial post. He’ll be an old man, I expect. But we have you and your knives to help us, whatever his skills turn out to be. The one thing we know about him is his title. And that’s why we know we have to pass him. He’s called the Custodian of Marvels.”

CHAPTER 20

October 9th

Declare a thing unknown and they will share in your wonderment. Declare it a secret and they will consider it a challenge.

The Bullet-Catcher’s Handbook

Although Julia’s letter lay on my boat, sixty miles to the north, I had read it so many times that there was no chance of forgetting even a word. In the course of her studies she went on Tuesdays and Fridays in the afternoon to observe cases being tried. Thus it was that I started waiting at midday just inside the entrance of the Royal Courts of Justice.

Had I access to my boat and its contents, I might have chosen to come disguised as a man. Through years of practising, such a presentation was my second nature. It seemed no more unusual for me to wrap the binding cloth over my breasts than it was to tighten the laces of a corset. But, deprived of my wardrobe, I made such small adjustments to my appearance as I thought sufficient to protect me in the teeming city. A pair of wire-rimmed reading glasses and a leather satchel gave me a studious appearance. A straw hat was also useful, its brim wide enough to hide most of my face beneath.

These items I purchased from a second hand shop on Cable Street, using a few coins I’d managed to save from petty cash. I’d no intention of telling Fabulo about my journey, it being a risk he wouldn’t approve for a purpose I couldn’t admit.

My disguise proved only partly successful. There were many bookish undergraduates in the lobby of the Royal Courts of Justice. But those of the most studious appearance were all men. The scattering of young women were dressed with conspicuous glamour. Happily, I was ignored for the most part, though three different gentlemen did pause to raise their hats to me.

At half past one in the afternoon, being somewhat after I’d grown tired of sitting on a hard wooden bench, a new party of law students arrived, led by a gentleman wearing a barrister’s wig and silks. He stopped and faced them, waiting until they were all quiet before issuing his instructions.

“Wait here. I’ll fetch the list of cases being heard. Then you can choose. But I want no more than three of you in each court.”

As he strode away to grab the sleeve of a clerk who happened to be hurrying past, I approached one of the women students on the outer fringe of the group.

“Excuse me,” I said.

“Yes?”

She turned towards me and I was surprised to see how much makeup she wore. Her lips shone with a deep gloss, her eyes had been outlined with kohl and her cheeks blushed with rouge.

“Are you from the University of London?” I asked.

She looked me up and down.

“Yes, indeed,” she said. “What about you?”

“I’m not a student. But I’m looking for a friend who is. She’s in her first year of studies.”

“That’ll be Julia Swain, right?”

“How did you know?” I asked, amazed.

“If there’s something different, it’s always going to be Julia. I mean, you can tell she’s a Republican. Not that there’s anything wrong with her.” A thought seemed to strike her. She covered her mouth with her hand and said, “Oh no! You’re not one as well, are you? I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I’m not,” I said.

“I wouldn’t have minded. I’m not prejudiced or anything. I mean, I’m sure there are some very nice Republicans. It’s not their fault where they were born, right? And Julia – she’s really kind and everything. But she’s just… different. I mean, she really studies. Like the men.”

This I did not understand, but put my confusion to one side. “Where might I find her?”

“The other place,” said the woman, pointing.

It took me a moment to realise that she didn’t mean the wall of the lobby, but what lay beyond it. “You mean the International Patent Court?”

“Oh my God! You shouldn’t say its name. It’s bad luck to say it in here. Are you sure you’re not a Republican?”

Craning my neck, I took in the extraordinary height of the building I’d been told not to name. I could understand why the “Fast Clock” had become a sensitive issue for the people of the metropolis. Precisely out of step, it was the perfect symbol of a conflicted relationship.