The prince prodded his dessert away after less than a spoonful. “I should go. There are things which require my attention.”
“Is everything quite all right, sir? You seem rather distracted.”
“I’m fine,” Arthur snapped, and immediately felt guilty for it. “Really, I’m fine. Now I’m so sorry. I must go. I’ve a very important meeting this afternoon.”
“I’ve seen your diary, sir.” Silverman gazed unflinchingly at his master. “And I saw nothing in there for today. Nothing at all.”
The prince drew breath, opened his mouth and, guppy-like, closed it again.
He was saved by an embarrassed tap at the door. A young servant shuffled into the room, his had bowed low toward the carpet.
“Sorry to trouble you, sir.” Well into his twenties, he still looked like a teenager, his voice squeakily uncertain with protracted adolescence. “There’s a phone call for you, sir.”
“Well, tell them to call back.”
“It does sound important, sir.”
Suddenly, the prince was interested. “Is it Mr. Streater?”
The servant sounded bewildered. “No, sir. It’s your wife.”
He took the call in his study. “Laetitia?”
“Arthur, what on earth is going on?”
“What do you mean?”
“Don’t try to hide it from me. You went to see your mother today. Something is definitely up.”
“Well, perhaps we could discuss this at a more convenient time? Perhaps tonight… after lights-out?”
“I’ve no stomach for that at the moment. I thought you understood that. I need you to tell me what’s going on right now.”
“I haven’t got time to talk. I have a meeting.”
“A meeting with that Streater creature?”
“How do you know about Streater?”
“Silverman told me.”
“Did he really?”
“Ring me when you’re ready to tell the truth, Arthur. I can’t go on like this.”
She slammed down the phone.
Arthur sometimes wondered whether anyone was listening in on these calls of theirs, an enterprising underling, a junior butler with an eye on the checkbooks of the national press. Sometimes he even wondered whether he and Laetitia ought not to at least try to keep pace with modernity and invest in a pair of portable telephones. He strongly suspected that such an act would play well with the public, that it might finally and unequivocally prove him to be a man of the people, a modern prince almost psychically attuned to the lifestyles and concerns of twenty-first-century youth. Arthur scrawled a note to Silverman on the subject and, still muttering to himself like an unusually well-dressed wino, began the long walk to the old ballroom.
Mr. Streater’s trousers were concertinaed round his ankles and he was enthusiastically engaged in shoving a hypodermic needle deep into a vein somewhere in the region of his left thigh.
Arthur double-taked into the corridor, making certain that no one else had seen. “What are you doing?”
“Gets tricky after a while,” Streater drawled, “finding a new vein.”
“I can imagine.”
“Just a little pick-me-up after lunch.” The blond man stowed the hypodermic in one of his pockets and Arthur felt a pulsation of disgust.
“I’ve just bolted down my food,” the prince said softly. “I’ve been rude to my best friend and I’ve refused to speak to my wife. Why the devil can’t I stay away from you?”
“Gotta be my magnetic personality.” Like a used car salesman drawing a customer’s attention to the pride and joy of the forecourt, Streater gestured toward a china teapot on the table. “Up for a cup of tea?”
At the mention of tea, the prince seemed enthused. “Do you know, I think I am.”
“What were you saying about your wife?” the blond man asked as he poured the heir his first cup of the day.
Arthur seized it hungrily. “She says she needs to talk to me.”
“That right?” Streater laughed. “She wants you to jump and you ask how high? Is that how it goes with you?”
“No,” Arthur protested. “That is, I-”
Streater put his hand on Arthur’s shoulder. “Word to the wise, mate. Don’t put up with any backchat. Give birds an inch, they grab a bloody mile.”
Arthur seemed barely to have registered what Streater had said. He held out his cup, already drained. “Listen here. Is there any chance of a drop more?”
Streater smiled and filled the cup again. “We should press on. Your old mum’s keen to finish your education.”
“Why?”
Streater gave a savage smile and clapped his hands together, at which the thin, wintry sunlight faded away as though a cloud-bank had rolled in front of the sun. As the prince sat riveted, clasping his cup of tea, a figure began to materialize at the corner of the room, the strange shade of Windsor’s great-great-great-grandmother. Beside her — the silhouette of Wholeworm, Quillinane and Killbreath.
“Thank you for coming, gentlemen,” said the Queen.
The lawyers nodded as one.
“We regret the unpleasantness with Mr. Dedlock on the last occasion we met.”
“Not at all, ma’am,” said the Englishman. “I’m sure that Mr. Dedlock will one day come to see the light.”
“Oh, I doubt that very much, Mr. Wholeworm. I think we’re in for a long and bloody struggle. Whether Mr. Dedlock approves of it or not, Leviathan is here to stay. But the truth can be entrusted only to a few. Only the most worthy of my successors will be told — and only then when the time is right.”
“Amen,” chorused the lawyers.
“We are the inner circle. We know the truth. Leviathan will take the city only when it is ripe.”
“How will we know, ma’am?” the Irishman asked. “How will we know when London is ripe?”
“I am not certain, Mr. Quillinane. As I understand it, there are certain atmospheric conditions which must be met before the city is acceptable. Certain questions, too, of population. But I know that I shall not be here to see it.”
Various obsequious protestations at this.
“No need for flattery, gentlemen. I shall be long dead when Leviathan comes again. But the firm of Wholeworm, Quillinane and Killbreath… now they shall not.”
“Ma’am?” the Scotsman asked. “What dae ye mean?”
“Leviathan has blessed you all. Your service to the crown will continue for far longer than you could ever have dreamed. You are to be his eyes and ears on earth. You will not taste death, gentlemen, until the very end.”
Wholeworm’s face had turned white. “Ma’am? What are you suggesting?”
“You shall be eternal lawyers, in the service of Leviathan far beyond the natural span of your lives.”
They stared at her, struck dumb with horror.
“Now, now, gentlemen. Please, do not thank me. You know how easily I blush.”
“Your Majesty-” Quillinane stepped forward, hoarse voiced and shaking. “Please-”
“No, Mr. Quillinane. That’s quite enough. I envy you. You shall be here to see Leviathan in his full glory. You will be here to bear witness as he blesses the people of this city.”
Streater clapped his hands and there was light again.
Arthur realized that his body was damp with sweat. “It’s coming, isn’t it? That’s why you’re showing me this. The city is ripe. Leviathan is coming soon.”
Streater cocked his head with a sort of nod. “Leviathan’s already here, chief. It came to the city in 1967.”