Frey & McGray: A Fever of the Blood

Fan art: Frey & McGray by Nina Sas, Sweden

LADY Anne smiled sardonically. ‘I come to regain possession of this residence.’

‘Fu** off!’ bellowed McGray.

Lady Anne faltered, as if the words had been a physical blow.

‘What’s the matter?’ Adolphus said. ‘Have ye been lifting yer flask this early, Lady Glass?’

‘This property still belongs to my aunt,’ Alistair intervened, his tone even more arrogant than the old woman’s. ‘Your father paid her less than half, and since he’s passed away we are within our rights to repossess.’

‘We can afford to pay it off, ye fat bastard!’

‘That is not the point,’ said Lady Anne. ‘I want my property back. I regret ever offering it to the likes of you.’

‘And I’m sorry my dad ever made business with such a drunken bitch.’

Alistair jumped up. ‘Don’t talk to my aunt like that, you filthy shack-dweller.’

Adolphus thrust a punch right into her nephew’s chubby face. Alistair fell backwards on to Lady Anne’s bosom, and would have received a good beating, but Adolphus had thrown the punch with his injured hand. ‘Damn it!’ he yelled, feeling the stitches burst. He nearly lost his balance, but Clouston caught him.

The doctor’s voice was a deep, menacing growl. ‘Lady Anne, you should leave now, if you know what’s best for you!’

‘Doctor, do not force me to be impudent,’ she said, barely noticing her bleeding nephew. ‘This matter does not concern you. As Alistair said, we are within our legal rights to...’

‘Oh, don’t throw that legal waffle at me again!’ Clouston snapped. ‘If you really thought this was legal, you’d have brought your lawyers to witness it.’

The woman drew her fan close to her chest. Clouston pulled Adolphus away, staring fixedly at Lady Anne. ‘Go away and do not bother this family any more. I will not have you try anything against them.’

‘Doctor’ - Lady Anne stepped towards them - ‘you cannot interfere in my affairs. You cannot do...’

‘Lady Anne, you know damn well what I can do!’

She stopped, her face livid, as if she’d hit a brick wall.

‘You would never dare,’ she whispered, her chest swollen, her bony hands clutching the black feathers.

‘You,’ Clouston said, edging closer, ‘would not dare risk it.’

Few people had ever intimidated Lady Anne - and she’d been in the world for a good many years - but for the briefest of moments she looked as meek as a cat. Adolphus let Clouston drag him into the house. He was about to ask what had shaken Lady Glass so badly, but then he saw that old George was struggling to lift Pansy. Despite the excruciating pain in his hand, Adolphus rushed to lift his sister and carried her inside. He did not want the neighbours to see her in such a sorry state. The McGrays would not hear from Lady Anne for a good while.

‘There you go,’ Clouston said, tying up the last end of the fresh bandages. Adolphus turned his head back, for Clouston had made him look away while he worked. The bandaging looked as bulky as before, but the cloth was clean and the bleeding had finally stopped. It had been the ring finger of his right hand: chopped off less than cleanly, leaving only a phalange. It would be an eternal reminder of that terrible night. And the news would travel fast, eventually becoming part of the city’s lore. From then on, everyone would know him as Nine-Nails McGray.

‘At least I can still give Lady Glass the two fingers,’ he said, smiling bitterly.

Dr Clouston did not laugh. If possible, he looked even more miserable.

‘What is it?’

Meticulously, the doctor placed his instruments back into his case, and then he looked at Adolphus with almost fearful eyes.

‘I need to take her to the asylum.’

Adolphus could barely reply. His voice came out as a gasp. ‘What? She’s not a lunatic!’

‘Just for the time being. You know she needs proper treatment.’

Adolphus jumped to his feet. ‘Ye cannae take her there!’

Clouston could not look him in the eye. ‘Please, don’t make me say out loud what she’s done.’

Adolphus felt a nasty chill. It was as if those words opened the box he’d been trying to keep locked. He frowned, his lip trembled, and for the first time in his adult life he burst into tears in front of someone else. He sank back into the seat, covering his face in utter shame and sobbing like a young child.

A sharp, cold realisation of the full weight of the tragedy had struck him. Amy had murdered their parents. It materialised as an icy pain in his chest, a physical distress that would not go away for months.

Clouston squeezed Adolphus’s shoulder and gave him a few minutes to grieve. ‘I will take good care of her,’ he said at last. ‘You know that, don’t you?’

Adolphus used the clean bandages to wipe his tears.

‘Aye, I ken.’ He looked up at the doctor and asked an unnecessary question: ‘When d’ye want to take her?’

‘Right away, I’m afraid.’

Adolphus nodded, his eyes lost, and stood up before the sorrow overwhelmed him again. He realised it would be better not to think.

Just move, he told himself. Don’t think, just move. He dragged himself to the small study, the room where his father had liked to lock himself with a book or a cigar. Adolphus pushed that image away.

Pansy was still sleeping on the sofa where he had carefully placed her. Betsy, their old servant, had changed her into the first clean garment she’d found: a blue summer dress of thin silk, so the girl had curled up to keep herself warm. Her long eyelashes quivered in her troubled slumber.

Adolphus forced himself to look away. If he saw his sister’s young face, he could never let Clouston take her...

If you would like to continue reading A Fever of the Blood it is available in paperback, published by Penguin, priced £8.99, and as an ebook, priced £2.99, for a limited period

The latest Frey and McGray investigation, The Dance of the Serpents, the sequel to A Fever of the Blood, published by Orion, is now on sale in hardback, priced £18.99

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Frey & McGray: A Fever of the Blood - Part 5