Page 67 of The Quarterlands (Dark Water #4)

“Where’s my father?” Alex asked suddenly, looking around. Noah was nowhere to be seen, and Josiah feared for him in the crush outside.

“I’ll find him,” he said, grateful to leave the room and the drama he’d unleashed.

He fought his way out of the scrum of people milling around like vultures outside. They all wanted him to talk to them, but he used his large body like a battering ram and bulldozed his way out.

There was no sign of Noah anywhere. A thought occurred to him, and he walked away from the baying mob, back to the calm and safety of the courtroom. It was completely empty now, except for one sad figure sitting exactly where he’d been for the entire trial.

Silently, Josiah sat down next to him. Noah didn’t move or speak. He just sat there, his head down, his body trembling. Aware of his poor health, Josiah was wondering if he should call for help when, finally, Noah lifted his head.

“Is it true?” he asked quietly. “Alex wasn’t driving?”

“It’s true.”

“It couldn’t have been Isobel because she didn’t drive, so…”

“It was Charles.”

Noah looked at him with blank incomprehension. “Why the lie?” he asked. “Why lie about this?”

“Charles was taking a banned substance called Flex that almost certainly helped him win the gold medal. He was terrified the medal would be taken away from him if his blood was tested. He asked Alex to take the blame.”

Noah stared at him, his face haggard, his eyes bleary with shock. “Did Isobel know?” he asked eventually.

“Yes. It was her idea. She obtained the drug for him. That’s partly why she had the affair with Tyler. She wanted him to pay for the drug, so you wouldn’t find out.”

Noah stared into space for a long time as he processed this. “Did I ever know any of them?” he asked eventually. “Isobel, Charles, Alex? What kind of a fool am I to not truly know any of my own family?”

“Not a fool, a good man,” Josiah reassured him. “They hid it from you precisely because they knew you wouldn’t approve. You couldn’t have guessed because, unlike Tyler, you don’t seek out the worst in people.”

“I loved them all,” Noah said despairingly.

“You still do,” Josiah murmured gently. “I’m sorry you had to learn it in this way.

I wish things had been different.” God, did he ever!

He’d never shirked at taking the hard path, at doing the right thing rather than the expedient one, or the kind one, but now he was paying a high price for that, as were the entire Lytton clan.

“All these years of believing Alex was behind the wheel, that his broken promises to me were behind his actions that day, only to find…” Noah shook his head.

“Charles. Poor, silly Charles. I don’t blame him, not really.

” He looked at Josiah. “He would have found it hard to say no to Isobel. Most people did.”

“I think you’re giving Charles too much of a free pass,” Josiah said. “He was a grown man and he went along with all this willingly. It was Charles who asked Alex to lie for him. Charles would have done anything to protect that bloody medal.”

“Maybe he’s more like his mother than I thought.” Noah gave a wry smile.

“Just remember that Alex is the one who bore the brunt of your family’s mistakes,” Josiah told him. “He’s the stronger of the two, the braver, and the one who most deserves your love.”

“He has it,” Noah said. “We’ve all failed him, but that ends now.”

“As for Charles… he’ll need you now more than ever. Don’t turn your back on him the way you did with Alex. He just stood outside and admitted everything. He’s been brave today.”

“I’m bitterly ashamed of how I treated Alex. I won’t make the same mistake with Charles.”

“Good. Now, you can’t just leave. The media is like a pack of wolves out there. Esther is making arrangements for Charles. Let me take you to where your sons are, and you can decide what to do from there.”

Noah nodded, and Josiah helped him to his feet. He was shaky, and Josiah had to hold him up as they walked towards the exit. He was worried for his health and greatly relieved when Noah managed to walk safely along the hallway to the room where the rest of his family were.

Charles and Alex were both where he’d left them, Alex still holding his brother protectively. They looked up when Noah entered, and Josiah could see the terrible anxiety on their faces. Noah gathered up all his strength, released his hold on Josiah’s arm, and walked purposefully towards his sons.

“It’s alright,” he said, in a quiet, decisive voice.

“It’s all out in the open now and we’ll deal with it together.

As a family.” He reached out and put one arm around Alex, while resting his other hand on Charles’s shoulder and squeezing firmly.

“I love you both,” he said. “Nothing else matters. None of it. Understand?”

Alex buried his face in his father’s shoulder, while Charles wrapped his arms around his father’s waist, and they stood there, sheltering from the storm together, a family united against the world.

Josiah cleared his throat. How could he possibly think he’d done the wrong thing when this was the result?

Or was that just self-justification? Yet, he couldn’t deny that he was fiercely satisfied by the fact the world would now see Alex as he truly was and not the pantomime villain they’d loved to hate.

He hoped so, anyway. It occurred to him that he wasn’t so different to Gideon, wanting the truth to surface, no matter who was hurt in the process.

After a family conference, Noah and Charles decided they wanted to return to The Orchard. Esther saw to it that they were transported there with an Inquisitus escort that would stay with them for the foreseeable future.

“I’d like to go with them,” Alex said.

“Absolutely not,” Esther told him firmly, and Josiah was grateful it was her turning Alex down, not him. “You’re in Inquisitus’s custody, and I won’t risk that with this trial hanging in the balance. You’ll remain with Josiah.”

Alex shot him a look of pure venom, and he knew that neither of them would be getting much sleep tonight.

Alex climbed into the duck and slammed the door, then rammed his hand to the radio, filling the AV with the gleeful tones of what seemed like every person in the country with an opinion on today’s drama.

Neither of them spoke for the entire journey home, but the second they walked into the house, Alex turned on him.

“I begged you! I pleaded with you not to use that information. You didn’t have to. It wasn’t fucking well relevant.”

“Alex, listen to me. You have every right to be angry, but please hear me out,” Josiah said urgently.

“Tyler found me during the lunch recess. He told me he’d paid off some of the media to ensure they’d write negative stories about you.

I wanted to give them something else to write about.

The perception of you as the villain of this piece was holding us back.

Nobody was going to believe your story because of it. ”

“Well, now they all know that I lied under oath when I took the blame for the accident. So how does that help us?”

“It was a gamble, but we had nothing left to lose.”

“Charles had a great deal to lose.”

“Charles is a liar and a cheat. Why do we have to keep protecting him?”

“Because he’s my brother, and I love him!”

“Well, you’re my friend, and I love you!”

“I don’t want your fucking love. I didn’t bloody well ask for it.” Alex took a running jump and kicked over a nearby footstool. It slammed against the sideboard with a resounding crash. “Some fucking friend.”

“I did it for you.”

“No, you did it for yourself. You wanted to win at all costs. This was always about you winning because you’ve never lost a case, and you can’t bear the thought you’ll lose this one.”

“That’s not true. I told you at the beginning that I’d do everything it took to get justice. I asked you if you had the fire in your belly for that, and you said you did.”

“I didn’t know it’d mean this.”

“I’ve never hidden this side of myself, Alex. I’m an investigator – this is who I am. ”

“You’re also hiding a great big fat secret. How would you like it if I blabbed about that in court?”

Josiah sighed and threw himself down on the sofa. “Too late. George is going to beat you to it,” he said, feeling suddenly completely shattered.

“What?” Alex stared down at him.

“That’s one of the things he wanted to talk to me about in the park earlier.

He’s got a dossier. I’m not sure entirely what’s in it, but he knows about the Kathleen Line.

His plan is to take me down, too. It always was.

He just wants the biggest audience possible for when he drops his bombshell.

My guess is HMS was supposed to do it this afternoon when questioning me but events rather slipped away from him.

I’m sure he’ll pick up where he left off when the court reconvenes. ”

“So, you gave up my secret to protect yours?” Alex accused.

“God, no.” Josiah was shocked. “I promise that wasn’t the reason I did what I did.”

“Oh, well, if you promise , then it must be true, because you always keep your fucking promises, don’t you?”

“I deserve that.” Josiah sighed. “But it’s true, nonetheless.

This buys me a day at most, so it’s definitely not the reason I did it.

The truth is we’re going to lose, and then Tyler’s going to take you back, and he’s going to crucify you, and I won’t be able to help you or rescue you because I’ll be in prison.

” Josiah’s voice broke in despair. “At least now, he can’t justify what he does to you by using your mother’s death against you.

He might go easier on you as a result. I had to do it, Alex, for that reason alone.

I had to do something to make it easier for you when you’re returned to him. You can see that, can’t you?”

“No. You can’t really believe this will change how Tyler treats me. There’s far too much water under the bridge for that.”