Page 10 of Unlikable

Felix starts running to catch up with my brother, but I shout for him to wait.

“I want to know what he’s going to do,” I explain.

Felix looks at me like he is ready to fight. “This is not what I signed up for. We were going to get your brother back. Don’t mess with me, Miss Prime.”

Before I can reply, Jonathan raises his hand in the air. “I agree with Miss Prime. I would also like to know what Mr Prime is up to. I think I have a right to know why he has made a fool of me.” Slightly softer, he adds, “And why he has violated my trust like this.”

I don’t know if I was meant to hear that last sentence, but Jonathan looks genuinely hurt.

Felix, too, sees his best friend’s face. He clears his throat uncomfortably and then gestures with his hand in the direction Everett left. “Get moving. Soon we’ll lose him again.”

I watch as the men resume pursuit. Felix taps once on Jonathan’s shoulder and looks at him as if to check he is all right. Jonathan gives him a sideways glance, smiles briefly once and then looks straight ahead again.

We follow Everett through Vauxhall. After a while, we arrive at the bridge leading across the Thames to Victoria.

“I have so many questions,” Felix mutters.

I nod. “I know I do.”

We follow Everett across the bridge, sometimes holding back our steps so we don’t get too close to him, afraid of being discovered. My brother keeps his head as low as possible so that his face is not clearly visible. I have to admit that he does not look masculine at all in these clothes. It is uncanny how much he looks like my mother.

A strong wind blows across the bridge, pushing the stench of the Thames into my nose. It smells like sewage here. That doesn’t surprise me either, with all the human excrement and the industrial waste floating in it. Though I do believe the smell is more bearable than it was a few years ago. My father once told me that in 1858, during summer, there was a huge stench in the city, which was mainly due to the Thames. The Great Stench, it was called.

Victoria is buzzing with life. We pass market stalls, beggars, street dogs and a lot of people. A church bell rings in the distance, followed by the sound of a steam locomotive.

We pass Victoria Station, a beautiful and grand building with several chimneys. There are many carriages lined up in front of the station, waiting to take passengers to their next destination. The middle tower of the building is wider than the other two and carries a huge clock that tells the time.

Half past three.

I have never been to Victoria. I have never gone beyond Waterloo. My mother and father had taken me and Everett to dine at the home of one of Father’s business partners. I remember not liking it much, the whole area. I just wanted to play in Father’s business partner’s big house and enjoy the stewed potatoes with gravy. Now that I am older, I understand why Mother was so in love with this city. The buildings are impressive. The city is alive.

I catch myself getting distracted by my surroundings. Looking straight ahead again, I can just see Everett turn a corner and disappear from sight. A carriage cuts us off, bringing us to an abrupt stop and losing precious time.

“If your brother wants to take a tour of London, we’re in this for a while,” Felix says petulantly. He smooths his coat and looks at me inquiringly. “If this takes another half hour, I’ll turn around.”

“I understand,” I say and straighten my back, sticking my chin in the air and trying to give myself some encouragement. We cross the station square and walk towards the street where Everett has disappeared. The stench between the walls is nauseating, a mixture of rotten fish, rubbish residue and sewage.

At the end of the alley is a pub, into which we see my brother disappear. Felix, Jonathan and I keep waiting for a while, which is just as well, because not much later he comes out again. We duck behind a couple of rubbish bins that are about to burst. Everett walks on again.

It goes on like this for a while. Everett walks from one pub to another, stopping here and there to ask someone something and then walking on again.

I feel like a little kid. Chasing my brother is something I used to do around the house, just out of boredom or to tease him. The only difference between then and now is that this chasing is not out of boredom. It is not a game.

The half hour is over. I know because Felix clicks his pocket watch shut with a sigh and excessively clears his throat. “I think it’s fine,” he says.

“I…” I keep watching the pub where Everett has been in for a good five minutes. That’s longer than he’s been in the other pubs. “Maybe wait a little longer? If he comes out, I’ll speak to him.”

Felix walks over to me and stands in front of me. A little too close if you ask me. So close that I can see three tiny birthmarks on his right cheek. “I’ll give him five more minutes. After that, we’re going to buy that stupid safety collar because we can’t return home empty-handed. And after that…”

“After that what?”

Felix smiles a crooked smile, his eyes shining. “Afterwards, we will do something I like, so that in the evening, I don’t feel that this day has been for nothing.”

“I thought you wanted to keep to our agreements?”

“Agreements?” Jonathan asks.

Felix smiles briefly. “Those don’t apply today, do they, Miss Prime? You took care of that a long time ago.”

All sorts of words go through my head, but I don’t think there are enough words to express my feelings for this scoundrel. Besides, I am a lady, and I am not going to stoop to the level of Felix “Grumpy” Clifton. I refuse to do that.

“I am extremely sorry, Mr Clifton, for breaking your rules today,” I bring out sarcastically. “It won’t happen again.”

Jonathan asks Felix what all this means, but he doesn’t really get an answer. Felix waves away his question, as if he is ashamed of the arrangements he made with me. Something I don’t understand since it was his own initiative.

We wait in silence. Then once again the clasp of Felix’s pocket watch sounds.

Before he can say anything, I lift the skirt of my dress and walk into the intermediate hall of the pub.

“Miss Prime!” I hear Jonathan call out behind me.

However, I have already disappeared through the first door. My hand rests briefly on the handle of the second door, which separates the pub from the mezzanine.

“We didn’t agree on this,” Felix says behind me.

I push down the latch and step into the pub. Felix and Jonathan follow closely behind me.

It’s busier than I expected. In the time Everett was inside, I didn’t see anyone else enter the pub. It is a large room with lots of tables, chairs and bar stools. The bar itself is against the wall. There are two men behind it who are busy pouring drinks. I estimate there are about thirty people inside, all busily carrying on a conversation, laughing, discussing and occasionally walking to the bar to get another drink. The walls are covered in pale wallpaper, capped with a wooden skirting board about a metre high. Candles burn in the flower-shaped chandeliers on the ceiling. There is no music, just the sound of people talking. The place smells of alcohol and sweat. My slippers stick to the wooden planks that are supposed to pass for a floor.

I look around to see if I see Everett anywhere, and fortunately I don’t have to look for long. He is sitting on a bar stool at the bar, still in disguise, having a conversation with a young man I don’t recognise. Sitting next to the young man is a woman about my age. The couple hold hands as they strike up a conversation with my brother and sip their drinks. Judging by their clothes, they are of the lower class: sallow, worn and cheap material.

“And what are you up to now?” Felix asks somewhat bemused, clearly uncomfortable in this room.

“I’m going to confront him.”

“Here? With all those people around? How would you feel in his position?”

I think about that for a moment. I come to the conclusion that my impulsive plan might not be such a good idea after all. I would be better off just addressing him and pretending nothing is wrong. Then Everett can handle the situation himself, but he will know he has been caught.

With slow steps, I walk towards my brother. Next to him is another empty bar stool. Because his back is to me, he doesn’t notice I’m there at first. Only when Felix and Jonathan walk towards me does he look up. I can’t see his face, but his whole body stiffens.

“What the heck…” he brings out in his normal, heavy voice. Something that is in strange contrast to the clothes he is wearing.

“We had a nosy lady who needed to know what her brother was up to,” Felix responds to my brother, and he nods at me.

Everett turns to me at lightning speed. His eyes are as big as saucers. Seeing him up close like this, with the wig, hat and dress, I wonder how he could ever have thought he could pass for a woman. Up close, it is abundantly clear that he is in disguise.

“Good afternoon, dear brother,” I say, sounding braver than I feel at the moment.

Everett says nothing for a while, just looks at me inquiringly. His face has gone white. Then he turns back to the boy and the woman. “Thanks for the conversation. Hopefully they catch him soon.”

The two nod at him gravely. Judging by the woman’s face, she is clearly uncomfortable. A muscle under her left eye contracts and her lips are pressed tightly together.

Everett stands up, looks around and gestures for us to follow him. He leads us to an empty table at the back of the pub, and when he sits down and pulls back a chair for me, he says, “It’s not what you think.”

I take my seat. Across from me, Felix and Jonathan do the same.

“And what is it that I think?” I ask my brother.

Everett looks from me to the men and back again. He puts his hands on the table, braids his fingers together and shakes his head. “I don’t know where to start.”

“At the beginning?” Felix suggests sarcastically.

Everett throws him an irritated look. Then he looks at Jonathan, and when their gazes cross, he immediately looks away again.

Jonathan does the same.

“Everett,” I urge. I place my gloved hand—which is still soaked from the rain—on his arm. “Do you do this more often? Like this? Dressing up as a woman and going to a pub? Is there something you need to tell me?”

My brother looks up at me, startled. “Surely you don’t think I…Don’t be absurd, Eleonora. What do you think of me?”

I feel my face getting hot. Am I wrong? Seeing your brother in these kinds of clothes, him sneaking away from home and then going to town and there…What else could it be?

“Hey, I have friends who do this for fun,” Felix says, offended. “There’s nothing wrong with that. Escaping reality once in a while is a relief for many people.”

I look up at him in surprise. His face is dead serious.

“I don’t do it to escape reality,” Everett says then. “I do it to attract someone.”

“To attract?” I raise my eyebrows.

Everett nods. “Yes. There is something horrific going on in London at the moment. The evil was first in Canterbury but has now moved here.”

Immediately, newspaper articles shoot through my mind. “Junior R?”

His face tightens. “Have you heard of him?”

Panic creeps through my body. If my brother discovers I am reading the newspaper, I hang. “Yes,” I say quickly, “I catch things here and there in the corridors of the manor. Both at home in Canterbury and here. Staff talk too.”

Everett nods as if he should have thought of that himself.

“I don’t understand what your costume party has to do with that foolish fellow,” Felix says. He leans over the table a little further, clearly intrigued by it all. “Explain.”

“I actually wouldn’t know why I have to explain myself. I have nothing to do with you.”

“Ouch, that hurts,” Felix responds, feigning hurt. He puts his hand where his heart is—if he has one—and purses his lips in a childish pout.

“Perhaps you owe it to us to explain,” Jonathan says softly. He is still looking the other way. “You rather fooled me.”

I see Everett cringe for a moment. He shakes my hand off his arm, straightens his back and looks around fleetingly. “A few days back, a woman was murdered.”

Felix snorts. “Which of the hundred?”

“It’s not a hundred,” I snarl at him, completely done with this man’s childish behaviour. “Let my brother talk.”

Felix rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.

“Felicity Johnson was only twenty-three.” I watch Everett ball his hand into a fist under the table. “And she didn’t deserve to die.”

The name Felicity Johnson is still fresh in my mind. The drawing on the front page of the newspaper was offensive, nauseating. When I think back to how Felicity was found, my stomach turns inside out.

“Did you know her?” Jonathan asks.

Everett colours as red as a tomato. “I did meet her once, yes.”

“You mean you did share the sheets with her once,” Felix concludes. This time, there is no trace of sarcasm or boredom in his voice.

“Can we not do this while my younger sister sits next to me?”

“I don’t think Miss Prime is so naive as to think her brother never frequents whores.”

Everett slams his clenched fist on the table. “She wasn’t a whore!”

Silence.

My brother’s outburst causes people in the pub to stop their conversation and look our way in amazement. All four of us keep quiet until the stares stop.

“That was…embarrassing,” Felix brings out excitedly.

Jonathan says nothing.

The tension has made me bite the inside of my cheeks.

“What I mean,” Everett continues softly, “is that Felicity was a woman with values and someone who…” He clears his throat and bats his eyes. “Someone who had stolen my heart.”

I don’t know what I’m hearing. All this time, Father and I thought Everett paid the occasional visit to prostitutes, but nothing seems to have been further from the truth. My brother was in love.

And I didn’t realise it.

“I didn’t notice anything about you,” I confess. “Not that you had a girlfriend or that you were sad when Felicity was found. You’re always so…”

“So what?”

“Yourself.”

Everett smiles, but his eyes do not. “It was still fresh. I didn’t want to come right out and tell you I had met a woman. Father is still mourning Mother. It didn’t feel right to tell him I had found happiness in love while he still languishes at the thought of Mother being gone. Besides, if I had let on that I was grieving, you would have started asking questions and I would have had to tell.”

“You could have told me.”

“But I didn’t want to, Eleonora. How could I have known for sure you wouldn’t run your mouth?”

I swallow and search for the right words, but I can’t think of anything. I want to tell him he can trust me, but on the other hand, I did bring these two men with me and embarrass Everett.

“This is starting to get a little too personal for my taste,” Felix says. He stands up and walks to the bar.

“I would never have betrayed you,” I tell my brother. “I feel terrible to hear that this happened to you.”

“Thanks, sis.” He puts his hand on mine and looks at me cautiously, as if afraid he would find some kind of condemnation in my eyes.

Felix returns with four mugs. He carries them by the ears, two in each hand, and places them on the table without sparing us a glance.

I pick up a mug, look at it, smell it and pull a face. “What is this?”

“Something we need to continue this conversation.”

“Eleonora doesn’t drink beer,” Everett says, already wanting to snatch the mug from my hands. “She’s a lady.”

“And ladies are only allowed to drink tea, wine and water?” Felix laughs out loud and takes a sip of his beer. “Do what you like. I don’t care.”

Everett still has his hand in the air reaching for my mug; he looks at me expectantly.

I stare at the mug, at his hand, at Felix and then back at the mug. Yes, I am a lady. I was brought up with values and…

I take a sip.

Felix watches me, amused.

I pull a face. How bitter this is, but after a while the taste gets better and even…delicious?

Everett withdraws his hand with a sigh. “You are a bad influence on my sister.”

“Your sister still makes her own choices.” Felix puts his beer back on the table and leans back in his chair. “Besides, I don’t know if you realise it, but Miss Prime isn’t as angelic as she pretends to be. Does manipulation run in the family, or has she taught herself?”

I choke on my beer. Again, I feel all the blood in my body rise to my cheeks.

“Be careful what you say about her,” Everett growls. “Just because we are currently living in your house doesn’t mean you can sprinkle insults.”

“And just because you live in our house doesn’t mean blackmail will be tolerated either.”

“Stop it,” I squeak. I don’t like the mood at the table. “There’s no need for this.”

“Still,” Jonathan says, who has yet to touch his beer with a finger, “I don’t know why I let myself be so fooled. Sick, you said? You look perfectly healthy. I want answers.”

I look at my brother again, waiting for the rest of the story.

Everett shakes his head. “You guys are going to make fun of me.”

“We already did that when you climbed out of a bedroom window in a dress,” Felix says. “I don’t know if it can get any weirder.”

My brother looks like he’s going to resort to fisticuffs at any moment. Thank God, the expression on his face soon softens. He strokes a lock of hair from the wig behind his ear and then says, “I intend to expose the killer.” The way he says it is at the same time so light-hearted and yet serious, as if it is the most normal thing in the world for a civilian to be on the heels of a dangerous murderer. “I want to know why.”

I feel my mouth drop open.

“Dear Lord,” Felix exclaims, leaning forward to study my brother closely. “We have brought in a fool. Do you really think your approach is better than that of the police? This guy has already committed more than ten murders, if not more. You’d better pack your things and stay far away from him.”

“I’m not afraid of Junior R.”

“That’s really foolish then,” Felix says. “This man seems to know what he’s doing and isn’t averse to murder.”

“Is that why you’re wearing these clothes?” I ask Everett. “In the hope that Junior R will mistake you for a woman?”

Everett nods.

“London is big. What are the chances of running into him?”

“If I don’t try anything, I’ll never find out.”

“Do you have a plan?” Felix sips his beer.

“Nothing concrete. I talk to people here and there to find out if anyone has heard or seen anything.”

“And what will you do when you have found him?” Jonathan wants to know. “Report it to the police?”

Everett clamps his jaws together. “I’ll see about that then.”

“If your throat is not cut by then,” Felix responds.

“You can think what you want of me, but leave me and my research alone. It’s none of your business. All I ask of you is not to say anything to Father and Theodor.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Everett,” I cautiously admit. “I can’t bear to think of anything happening to you.”

“I’d sooner worry about you, sister dear. You’re in London, where a killer at large makes it unsafe on the streets. Where is your safety collar?”

Felix clicks his tongue. “Well, you were going to buy those with her today, if you hadn’t been ill, at least.”

Everett grows silent. Then he looks at me again and puts on a smile, as if the whole conversation had not taken place. “Shall we, then?”

I blink. What a sudden turn of the conversation. Eventually I nod, a little dazed. When I stand, I feel how my bladder is bursting. And how long has it actually been since I changed myself?

“What is it?” Everett asks.

“I’ll be right there,” I say timidly and then rush into the crowd, looking for the lavatory.

During my search, I try to avoid as many people as possible. I hear Everett calling behind me to walk with me, but I just can’t hold on any longer. I tiptoe to look over people’s heads. Then I see a sign at the back of the room depicting a lavatory. I smile with relief, and when I take another step forward, I bump into a wall with my powdered nose.

No, not a wall. One person.

I immediately look down, staring at his shoes, which are noticeably worn. “Forgive me, sir,” I exclaim.

“No problem,” I get back in reply. The voice is young, controlled, but carries an ominous tone. Hearing that voice, I feel a cold shiver creep up my spine.

I make my way out, don’t look back and wonder who on earth knows how to convey such an unpleasant feeling simply by using his voice.