Page 29 of The Peculiar Incident at Thistlewick House

As if things couldn’t get much worse for Edward, he joined Barnabas in the dining room, hoping for some sympathy with his mutton chops. But after the touching honesty of the night before, he was surprised to be greeted by his cousin’s thunderous face.

‘What’s the meaning of this?’ Barnabas thrust the morning edition of the Daily Telegraph in front of Edward, who had to adjust his spectacles and hold the newspaper at a more convenient distance to read the headline.

Sir Alfred Temple Found Alive after Eight Months!

The intrepid explorer and former diplomat Sir Alfred Temple has made contact with British authorities in Leh, having been believed dead since he went missing in the Kashmir region earlier this year.

Sir Alfred had been surveying uncharted areas of the Himalayan mountains when he became separated from his party, soon after suffering extreme delirium from an illness contracted a few days previously.

Not of his right mind, he wandered from the camp in the night and, with no word from him in months, has long been assumed dead.

Lady Temple recently sought to contact her husband with the help of the renowned spiritualist Edward Blackmore.

He claimed to have summoned Sir Alfred during a séance, where he was said to have confirmed that he had fallen to his death…

Edward’s heart sank to his fine leather boots as he read of the man’s remarkable survival.

According to the article, he’d wandered southward, through the desolate Karakoram Pass, and was found on the brink of death by a band of yak traders, of all things.

He was nursed back to health, and for weeks he remained in a bewildered state, unable to recall his name or origins.

With no proof of identity or means of support, he was eventually conveyed to Leh, the remote British outpost in Ladakh, where he finally recovered his memory and dispatched a desperate telegram to his wife.

Absolutely furious to have been deceived into believing Sir Alfred had died, Lady Temple had been only too happy to talk to the newspapers about Edward’s deception. It wouldn’t take long for talk of the scandal to seep through London society and reach his other clients.

He carefully folded the newspaper up and handed it back to his cousin.

‘Well? What do you have to say? Dammit, man. You told the woman you’d made contact with her dead husband, and all the time he was alive. They’re denouncing you as a fraud. Will there be further tales of such deceit seeping from the woodwork? Have you been lying to me all these years?’

Considering his world was about to come tumbling down in the most dramatic fashion, Edward was surprisingly calm.

He could claim that he had spun Lady Temple the tale as a kindness, that it had been a one-off and all his other spirit communications had been genuine, but that would be more lies and he didn’t want to be that man any more.

Barnabas had a valid point, though – others would soon start to query his legitimacy.

And he was pretty sure if there was a way to make money out of the scandal, Carl, still bitter about the poisoning, would sell his story to the newspapers and spill all his secrets. It was only a matter of time.

He said nothing.

‘Did you really contact Emma when you performed the séance for me? Or was that a sham, too?’ His cousin was shaking now, and he could see the desperation in the man’s eyes.

Edward knew there was a part of Barnabas that wanted him to refute the newspaper report, because he needed Emma’s comforting words to be real – that final goodbye had cost him five hundred pounds and his house.

His cousin read the silence correctly and slumped into the chair opposite, shaking his head. ‘Just tell me the truth, Edward.’

There was no point continuing the charade.

‘I cannot, and never could, contact the spirits of the dead. Not once in my thirty-six years have I communicated with anyone during a séance. You’re quite correct: it’s all been illusion, careful planning and detailed research.

But I’m not minded if you think badly of me, because I did what I could to earn a crust when my father all but cut me from his will. ’

Barnabas had the grace to look uncomfortable.

‘Well played, sir. You got your revenge and I hope you’ll be happy at Thistlewick House.

Even though you did not deliver the services I required, I shan’t dispute the legality of our agreement.

This whole situation is divine retribution and I graciously accept my punishment for doing nothing to address the unjust nature of your father’s actions.

More fool me for believing such poppycock.

Which just proves how useless I am without my beloved wife. ’

‘You’re missing the point, though.’ Edward leaned forward to emphasise the earnestness of what he was about to say. ‘Because I’m now utterly convinced that spirits do exist and that you were correct in your belief that Emma was possessed—’

‘Enough. Don’t try to play me for a fool twice. Take the damn house and either live in it or sell it and move back to London. I care not.’ Barnabas slammed his fist down on the table and his cutlery jumped.

‘With my reputation in tatters? Besides, I suspect Carl and his sister will have cleared out my house and be long gone.’

He’d written to Delphine but expected no answer.

As soon as her brother had returned, with tales of possessed villagers and the true horror of his poisoning, which Edward did feel guilt over, the pair would be off.

And now with the news of Sir Alfred, they might see another opportunity to make money, and he didn’t blame them.

Even before his lie had been exposed, Edward had felt uncomfortable about his old life.

Yes, his hand had been forced with regard to timing, but he found he didn’t mind as much as he should.

‘What I said to you about Emma was true,’ he continued.

‘I know you were conscious of our special friendship, but it was always something that meant more to me than it did to her. The conversation we shared as we went for the ices that day in Hyde Park was her letting me down gently when I revealed the extent of my ardour. I always let you think her feelings were greater for me than they were as part of my bitterness for what you did to me in the past.’

Barnabas’s jaw visibly clenched as he stared at his plate of food.

‘But I will get to the bottom of what happened to her. There are strange things going on at Thistlewick Tye. Bones are falling onto the beach from the burial of circus folk who came to the village forty years ago and disappeared in mysterious circumstances. The names mentioned by Emma in her delirious state, and the recent unusual behaviour of Noah Garrod, are linked to these people.’

‘More tales to suck in your gullible cousin?’ Barnabas batted the comments away with an uninterested hand.

‘This is the truth. I swear on Emma’s grave.

These people came to Thistlewick Tye and caused all sorts of trouble, and seem intent on causing even more harm as they rise back up.

’ He was agitated now, needing someone on his side.

‘Don’t you see? They must be stopped before they kill again.

It’s because I’ve been looking into it all that someone sent me the contaminated hair tonic. ’

Barnabas narrowed his eyes. ‘This is not a joke?’

‘I swear it, cousin. I can only assume someone else in the village has been possessed and is after me. Until the newspaper story broke, they may even have believed me capable of detecting spirits – which would naturally have made me a target.’

‘How do you know I’m not possessed of a dead man, if you say you don’t have the power to sense them?’

‘Because I know you, Barnabas – your mannerisms, the way you speak and the very fact that we’ve been sitting here discussing our shared history. You’re exactly who you say you are.’

His cousin shook his head. ‘I’m almost certainly being taken for a chump, again.’

‘Do you want justice for Emma?’

His cousin nodded.

‘Then trust me.’

* * *

As word of the newspaper report spread through the household, Edward detected a change in the staff’s attitude towards him.

Wright spoke to him with deference but his eyes told a different story.

And he overheard Mrs Drayton talking to the cook, angry that he’d played on Lady Temple’s grief and sore that he’d soon be her new master.

Edward stopped short of stepping into the kitchen and announcing he no longer required her services.

Two days after that, he received correspondence from his landlord regarding the apartment in Ambury Lane. He requested that Mr Blackmore find other accommodation, although he noticed that many of his possessions had already been moved, and asked for the final rent payment.

As Edward suspected, Carl and Delphine had quickly sold him out, with exclusive interviews about their time working for the charlatan spiritualist, revealing all his tricks and illusions.

Interestingly, they didn’t mention his albinism.

Perhaps Delphine had more compassion than she let on, or maybe Carl, after years of helping Edward conceal his condition, understood that Jonah Shaw’s cruelty had nearly broken his master. They were after money, not revenge.

Lord Felthorpe saw fit to visit Thistlewick House when the news reached him. As a passing acquaintance of Sir Alfred, he was angry at Edward’s deception, and possibly also furious that he’d been duped into attending the séance.

‘I’m greatly concerned that the scandal will follow you to our lovely village.

May I strongly suggest you return to London and deal with the mess.

I realise the constable hit a dead end with the poisoning of your man, but if nothing else, it’s proof that you’re not welcome here.

There may be a further attempt on your life and my first thought is naturally for your welfare.

’ The man was being disingenuous but Edward said nothing.

‘We’ve had too many deaths in the village recently, and with the doctor’s father and several children from the school now ill with influenza, we’ve enough to deal with.

I think it would be best for everyone if you left Thistlewick Tye. ’

‘And yet the greater scandal brewing in the village, you cannot lay at my door. There are several bodies buried on the common land by the cliffs, the bones of which are now being exposed as the soil falls into the sea. Those responsible clearly didn’t think the erosion of the land would expose the dead in their lifetime, but the evidence suggests they were put there forty years ago. That’s the real crime, Your Lordship.’

Lord Felthorpe frowned. ‘Why was I not told of this? We need to get Constable Lovett to investigate immediately and determine whether the coroner needs to be involved.’

It was Edward’s turn to frown. ‘I mentioned all this to Mr Palmer days ago and he said he’d do exactly that. I assumed the constable had been investigating. Or at least waiting for more bones to fall, as the land has been stable recently.’

‘I don’t believe Mr Palmer has done any such thing. Constable Lovett would have told me. Are you even sure they’re human?’

Edward was confused why Jacob hadn’t passed on the information.

That man was hiding things – not least a barn full of circus paraphernalia – and he racked his brains to think if there’d been any indication that the landlord of the Sailmaker’s was not who he said he was.

Surely Banjo would be the first to react had his owner been possessed, having sensed all was not right with Noah Garrod.

‘I’ve seen the skulls for myself – they’re people, all right – but come high tide, the sea claims them.

’ He didn’t want to involve Maude at this stage.

The villagers didn’t need any more reasons to vilify the poor woman.

‘But, more alarmingly, as the dead fall, their spirits are rising. I believe my cousin was right to claim that his wife had been possessed.’

‘And why should this interest you, Mr Blackmore? A man with no faith, who we now discover has built a career laughing behind the backs of those who believe in spirits?’

But Edward was definite in his assertion.

‘Because whatever you think of me, I do not condone the murders of Mrs Shaw or Silas Garrod. And because I am the only person who believes spirits are responsible, I am the only person who is likely to get to the truth.’