Page 26 of The Quarterlands (Dark Water #4)

“She was good to me once, but she’s a Floodite to her core. She can’t look at me without disgust. I refuse to feel the shame they want me to feel. You must understand that, Josiah,” he said impatiently.

“I’ve never felt any shame about who I am. ”

“How fortunate for you. You think I went too far? I’d have thought that you, of all people, would understand. I wanted Alex to have his victory, and I also wanted for him to have you . If I can’t, at least one of us should.” He gave another of those coquettish winks.

“Alex and I aren’t a couple, Gideon,” Josiah told him quietly. “You can’t possibly believe that throwing us together in this way would mean we’d automatically fall in love.”

“He was already half in love with you, that was evident. As for you, I’d studied you for a long time and could see how lonely you were since your husband died.”

“You studied me , too?” Josiah asked, taken aback.

“Of course. From the moment Alex showed me your photograph and told me your tragic story, I admit I had something of a fixation on you. A crush, if you like.” He gave a flirtatious smile.

“I felt sure if you were forced together by circumstance that you’d fall in love.

I know you’re still grieving for your husband, but why wouldn’t you fall in love with such a beautiful, tragic young man? ”

“I’m not saying there isn’t an attraction there, but Alex didn’t really know me. How could he? If he was in love with me, it was a fantasy. The real me is less interesting, I’m afraid, and far less attractive than he thought.”

“Having met you in person now, I can assure you that is absolutely not the case,” Gideon said stubbornly.

Josiah sighed and sat back, shaking his head. “So, you did all this – faked your own death, killed an innocent man – to give Alex his happy ending?”

“Doesn’t he deserve it?” Gideon raised an eyebrow. “I won’t get mine, but at least he can have his – and you can, too.”

Josiah stared at him, completely and utterly lost for words.

Gideon made a face like he’d sucked on a lemon. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. It’s true that the cancer has spread to my brain, but I can assure you that I’m of sound mind. None of what I’ve told you has been illogical or without sense.”

“No, it all makes perfect sense,” Josiah said slowly. “But even you have to admit it’s diabolical, in both planning and execution.”

“Diabolical? Or justified? Alex told me how he helped you fight that vagrant who attacked your husband. It was so desperately sad. I felt your grief and read everything I could find about you, trying to understand you. You could say I was a tad obsessed.” His eyes twinkled.

“Alex didn’t tell me everything, of course, but I’m no fool.

I guessed your secret. I know what you and Peter were doing that night. ”

Josiah took a sharp intake of breath. He hadn’t expected this.

“You intended to rescue Alex but it all went wrong. Who could blame me for wanting to bring the pair of you together and move this whole sorry story to a satisfactory conclusion? Oh, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.” Gideon leaned forward and patted his knee reassuringly.

“In exchange for what?” Josiah asked. This was worrying. With Tyler’s trial imminent, he couldn’t afford for Gideon to reveal the existence of the Kathleen Line to the media.

“So cynical.”

“You won’t tell my secret in exchange for not arresting you? Is that it? Is that the proposition you mentioned when I first arrived?”

Gideon looked outraged. “No. I don’t care if you arrest me or not. I won’t live to see my own trial, so it’d be a waste of your time. It’s not important to me. However, I would like to see another trial – one that is shortly about to start.”

“George Tyler,” Josiah said softly.

“Quite.”

“Why not just kill him, if you wanted revenge on houders?”

“That’s a misrepresentation of my motives, Josiah, and not worthy of you,” Gideon chided.

“I didn’t kill Tyler for two reasons: one, he’s very hard to get close to, given all the security he has, and two, I wanted him to face justice, and I wanted you and Alex to bring that about.

I want to see his fall from grace and the loss of the power and control that he loves so much. ”

“So, what is it that you want from me?”

“I want to see Tyler’s trial. I know it’s going to be livestreamed.

I want to watch it every day and see you and him do battle, and I want to know the outcome of that battle.

It’s really all I’m hanging on for now.” A shadow of pain passed over Gideon’s face, and he leaned forward, holding his stomach and grimacing.

“I don’t have long, but I’m determined to see him go down.

I do hope you’ve created a watertight case against him, Josiah. Have you?”

“Honestly? I’m not sure. It hangs in the balance. We know he’ll play dirty.”

“Of course he will.”

“So, you’re asking me to hold off from arresting you, so you can follow the trial? The law doesn’t work like that, Gideon.”

“Come now, we both know you aren’t averse to breaking the law when it suits you.”

Josiah shifted uncomfortably, but he couldn’t deny it. “This doesn’t suit me.”

“It might. You see, I still have most of the money Miss Madeleine gave me. It’s my intention to leave it all to you.”

Josiah was aghast. “What would I do with it? I already have more money than I need.”

“Don’t be so slow, Josiah. That’s not why I’m leaving it to you,” Gideon chided.

“Oh.” Josiah stared at him, the realisation dawning.

“Precisely. If Tyler’s ill treatment of his servant is revealed in court, then it’s likely they’ll order Alex’s contract be sold, whether Tyler is convicted of Solange’s murder or not.”

“You want me to buy his contract,” Josiah said slowly.

“Yes. Then set him free, obviously.”

“Obviously.” Josiah nodded. “All this, in return for not arresting you?”

“I’d rather see out my days here where I can feel close to you than in a dingy cell somewhere, away from all the news.”

“You really have thought all this through, haven’t you?” Josiah couldn’t help admiring the man’s attention to detail, especially given his frailty.

“Yes.” Gideon gave a smug smile. “It’s my talent, Josiah. So, what do you say?”

“I say that Elliot Dacre didn’t deserve to die, and when Alex finds out why he was killed, he’ll be incredibly upset.”

“I’m sure, but it wasn’t his choice, it was mine.” Gideon waved his hand in the air. “He has no reason to feel guilty. ”

“He will, anyway. He already does about Peter, and Solange, and his mother… This will be one more burden for him to carry.”

“Then you must persuade him otherwise.” Gideon gazed at him curiously. “Tell me, did you ever discover his secret?”

Josiah almost jumped out of his skin in surprise. “What secret?”

“Oh, please. You know there is one, even if you don’t know what it is. I knew of its existence, of course, but I could never get him to reveal it. He shared so much else but not that one thing. I knew it was about his family, but I couldn’t quite work out what it was.”

“Do you have any idea?” Josiah leaned in close. “I wondered if it was about his brother.”

“My bet was the mother. Has he ever told you about his first sexual experience?”

“No.” Josiah frowned. “Do you think he was abused as a child?”

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think that’s it, although it’s something just as damaging in its own way.

Something he’s ashamed about, and I should know.

I know all about early sexual experiences and shame.

” He gave a sharp bark of laughter. “You should find out what it is, Josiah, because I think it’s important. ”

“Easier said than done. He says there are no more secrets.”

“He would. This is one of those secrets a man takes to his grave, unless he’s forced to give it up.

” Gideon shrugged. “I studied him in great depth. Poor dear Alex – beautiful, wealthy, and utterly doomed. Those good looks were quite his undoing. People expected him to be arrogant, but in my view, he has quite low self-esteem. He’s quirky and artistic, but his looks and his family’s wealth fooled people into thinking he was something else.

Then there’s the awful brother…” He made a sour face.

“Charles – you dislike him too?” Josiah couldn’t help being pleased that someone else shared his antipathy towards the smiling, affable, utterly vacuous Charles.

“Oh, completely. Charles was the golden boy who ate up all that family’s attention.

Alex was groomed from birth to be second best. The place of the good child was taken; the position of bad child was all that was left for him to fill.

Charles was the gold medallist child, the only important one in the family. Everything was always about him. ”

“Alex loves his brother. He won’t hear a word against him,” Josiah sighed. “He says Charles was always good to him.”

“I’m sure he was. I’m not suggesting he’s evil or malicious, but he sucked up all the resources that family had and left Alex with very little.

He loves it, doesn’t he? The praise, the limelight, the national treasure status.

He doesn’t care that Alex was the… What was the phrase you used?

Collateral damage? That was irrelevant, as long as Charles got what Charles wanted: the undivided attention of his mother and that bloody gold medal he was so obsessed with.

Alex was brought up to believe that Charles and that medal were the only important things in the world.

Certainly much more important than him.”

“I agree. Alex was badly damaged by the whole family, but they are still his family, and he loves them.”

“Oh, I understand. It takes a great deal for us to walk away from the ones who raised us.” Gideon gave another of those bitter little laughs.

“But we’ve rather strayed from the subject, haven’t we?

On purpose, I suspect, as you’ve been playing for time.

So, tell me, dear Investigator Raine, do we have a deal? ” He held out his hand expectantly.

Josiah gazed at it, mulling it over. He preferred to do things by the book, but his life with Peter and his years working for the Kathleen Line had forced him to take a more pragmatic view.

The world wasn’t fair, the rules not always right, and every person had to find their own way through the moral maze that was existence in this complex, post-apocalyptic world.

Did Gideon really have enough money to buy Alex?

He doubted it, but it might be enough to mount a good legal challenge to persuade the courts to free him, although that was a long shot.

Still, he’d do almost anything to be able to set Alex free, and the money would at least give them options.

It wasn’t as if Gideon was going anywhere, or posed a threat to anyone. He clearly didn’t have long left.

He reached out, taking Gideon’s bony hand and squeezing it.

“Deal,” he said.