“Do not believe it yet.” Darwin snuffed the light of three of the lamps, leaving one to illuminate the room. He turned to Tom Solborne, standing openmouthed in the doorway. “So much for your missing oil. Have there been reports of ships lost off this coast in the past few months?”
Solborne shook his head and stared at his sister.
“So it is not wreckers, Jacob,” Darwin went on. “And it is not vampires. It is something with the potential to be more dangerous than both. It is signals, lights amplified by means of reflecting surfaces. I compliment you, Miss Solborne, on your mastery of light propagation and collimation.” He waved his hand toward the array of mirrors. “But now it is over. Shall we then, as the bard advises, ‘sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings’?”
“That was never our intent!” The blue eyes opened wide. “But you know. How can you? You arrived only this afternoon. Who told you? What told you?”
“No one told me. I know not from a single major event, but from an accumulation of many small ones. Now it is necessary that your brother know, too.” When she remained silent, Darwin continued, “Come, Helen Solborne. This will serve better coming from you.”
She shook her head, and turned her eyes to her brother.
“No? Very well.” Darwin pushed three tall mirrors out of the way and pulled forth the chairs that stood behind them. He gestured to the others to sit down. “Apparently I must begin. You, Miss Solborne, may correct me as necessary.
“Your brother came to see me concerned only for your welfare. You had, he feared, fallen under some evil influence. I must admit, my own first instinct upon hearing the circumstances was no more valid than his speculations on the undying monsters of Transylvania. For I thought of Dr. Franz Mesmer, whose ‘animal magnetism’ has allowed him for the past few years to achieve amazing control over subjects and patients in Vienna.” Darwin regarded Helen Solborne with a definite glint of humor in his eye. “That theory did not survive my first exposure to you and Professor Riker. I judge you more likely to dominate and control him, than vice-versa.
“Nonetheless, I was forced to take seriously your brother’s concern that you were the slave of an evil circumstance. I suspect that he may think so still, when he knows all. But I knew from my first look that you were—and are—not possessed by any demons but your own. You are suffering from one malady recognized by medical science: great fatigue. You have the look of someone who has seen no rest for many weeks. Of a woman, in fact, who occupies her nights providing signals that ships offshore are able to interpret.”
“Smugglers!” Pole exclaimed. “They are running goods along Chesil Bank, and into The Fleet.”
“Very true, Jacob.” Darwin had one eye still on Helen Solborne. “Smugglers, however, who carry an unusual cargo. The Solborne family, as we were told on that first evening in Birmingham, does not lack for wealth. Can you see the mistress of Newlands, a lady of ‘substantial independent means,’ dealing in rope tobacco, Nantz brandy, or Alenзon lace, when she can easily purchase them with her own funds?”
“It was a cargo more precious than lace,” Helen said abruptly. “More valuable than gold or rubies. Brother, I seldom ask for anything, but I beg you, do not take this to the Court. Promise me that, and I will tell you everything.”
Solborne had not sat down. He stared at her in total confusion.
“He cannot promise what he does not understand,” Darwin said mildly. “Tell first, Miss Helen, then make your request.”
“I cannot.” And then, under Darwin’s steady gaze, “But I must.” She took a deep breath. “Very well. I will.
“Tom, you cannot guess how it distressed when you thought me the devoted slave of that—that mountebank, Riker. He is nothing, merely an intermediary for others. What I am doing, I do because I choose, not because I am in any way controlled. And this did not begin two months ago, with my trip to Bristol. It began a full year earlier, with my visit to France. I saw poverty there beyond imagining, people downtrodden and hopeless and reduced to animal existence. But in Paris I also met a group of men and women, small in numbers yet dedicated, who seek in France what was recently achieved by the American colonies: freedom.”
“A revolt!”
“No, brother, not a revolt. A revolution. They cannot speak openly—King Louis, ineffectual as he seems, has ministers and minions both suspicious and bloodthirsty. Plans must be made in secret; in the churches, in the Paris catacombs, in the open fields, by sunlight and moonlight and candlelight. And still there is risk. When exposure comes too close, there is only one chance: the suspect must quit France entirely, and fly to another country. I have helped those in peril to find sanctuary.” Helen Solborne walked forward and took her brother by the hand. “Tom, I have deceived you for one reason only: I seek to save human lives.”
“I believe you.” But Solborne was not looking at her. “If the King found out—he already becomes demented at any mention of the American revolt—he would fear for the spread to England, men would say treason—”
“And women would say compassion. Tom, I had no choice. Don’t you see that?”
“It must stop, Helen. Tonight was the last time.”
“The secret is out now. I will agree—if you will not go to London, and betray them. A score or more are here in England, facing certain death on a return to France.”
“I will—think about it.” Solborne met his sister’s eyes for the first time. He sat down on one of the straight-backed chairs. “If you can promise me that there is nothing else. Nothing more that you are concealing from me.”
“Brother, I will answer every question that you ask, openly and honestly. But do not betray those whose lives have depended on me.”
Darwin caught Jacob Pole’s eye, and jerked his head toward the door. “This is no part of our business,” he said softly, as they headed down the stairs. “It is between Tom and Helen Solborne.”
“Will she persuade him?”
“She is his little sister. She will throw herself on his mercy, and he will be unable to resist her.”
“But ’Rasmus, this could be—treason.” Pole hissed the word. “If anything like the Americas were to happen here…”
“It will not. King George is sane only north-northwest, but there is too much of a bottom of good sense in our people and parliament for revolution to be a danger. The Continent is different. You heard Matthew Boulton. France is stirring, there is unrest in Bavaria and Bohemia. The royal courts must look out for themselves. The problems in Europe run broad and deep.”
They had reached the bottom of the stairs and were passing Joan Rowland’s room. She was standing by her bed in a long flannel nightgown, round eyed and as far from sleep as anyone could be.
Darwin turned to Pole. “I feared as much. Jacob, will you do me a favor? Will you calm her fears, and tell her that it is quite safe to go to bed?”
“Me? You are the one who knows all.”
“I lack your talent to soothe a lady’s worries.”
“Rubbish! You boast of it. Oh, all right.” Pole turned into the bedroom. “You owe me, ’Rasmus,” he said over his shoulder. And then, in a confiding voice to Joan, which happened to be quite loud enough for Darwin to hear. “You see how it is, Joan Rowland, the great Dr. Darwin goes off to roll his fat in a cozy bed, and leaves others to do his work.”
Darwin smiled to himself as he continued into the dining room. He remained only long enough to adjust his scarf and button his greatcoat. Then he headed downstairs for the entrance hall. He left Newlands, and took the dark path that led south along the cliff.