The Darkest Walk of Crime (36 page)

“So Uncle Ernest was not pleased,”
Mendick said.

“It could have been an
accident,” Jennifer pointed out. Turning around, she placed a picture on the
wall and stood back, hands on her hips. “There now, that is back where it
belongs.” She stepped aside so that Mendick could see.

Emma’s silhouette had returned.
Jennifer had taken some backing paper and glued all the torn fragments of the
picture on top, fitting them together like a jigsaw, but so cleverly that
Mendick could hardly see the tears. Rising from the chair, he stepped closer,
touching the familiar image.

“Welcome home, Emma,” he said,
and the bittersweet memories crowded back. “Welcome home.” He smiled to
Jennifer. “I cannot thank you enough for that,” he said.

“That’s what friends are for,”
Jennifer told him.

They held each others’ eyes for
a few minutes, and then Jennifer sighed and reached for her coat.

“Well, James, I think I should
be getting along. I cannot spend all my day making your house more comfortable,
you know.”

Mendick shook his head, holding
out his hand. “You don’t have to,” he said. “You are always welcome to stay
here . . .”

“As what?”

The words were too quick to be
casual. Jennifer held his gaze and then allowed her eyes to drift over to the
silhouette of Emma.

“As a substitute? Or as a
friend?” There was no bitterness in her smile. “We both know that I would not
accept the former, and the etiquette of respectability dictates that I could
not remain here as the latter.”

“Stay,” Mendick asked. “I don’t
know as what, but stay.”

She shook her head and then bent
to kiss him softly on the mouth. “It would not work, James.”

He helped her on with her coat,
handed over her battered bonnet and watched as she fixed it in place with the
wickedly long hatpin. Giving him one last smile, she stepped outside and softly
closed the door. A piece of coal fell from the grate, and sighing, Mendick
lifted the tongs and replaced it in the fire.

Chartism arose after the 1832
Reform Act, which granted a limited franchise to the male middle classes and
nothing to the workers. The Chartists created a demand for parliamentary
reform, based on the famous six points:

Equal electoral
districts

Universal male
suffrage

Payments for MPs

Annual parliaments

Vote by secret ballot

Abolition of the
property qualification for Members of Parliament

The Kennington Park Chartist
rally took place on April 12
^th
1848. Feargus O’Connor, the fiery
leader of the Chartists, had threatened dire action if the government did not
accept the Chartist petition and agree to their points. In the event, he handed
the petition to the House of Commons, but there was no major trouble.
Parliament did not bother to debate any of the Six Points.

Chartism was arguably the
largest working class movement of the nineteenth century and is still the
subject of much historical debate. By the 1840s it had split into two groups, Moral
Force and Physical Force Chartism. While the Moral Force Chartists hoped to
persuade the government to adopt their demands, the devotees of physical force
preferred a more muscular approach. It is possible that this split in the
Chartist aims contributed to their eventual demise.

The 1848 rally created great
consternation in London, and Queen Victoria was hustled away to the Isle of
Wight by special train. However, there was no attempt on her life during the
journey. The other details of her journey to Gosport are also fictitious,
including the existence of the Godalhurst viaduct.

The 1848 petition was the last
surge of Chartism, which faded away with the more prosperous years of the 1850s
and the death of O’Connor, but the ideas remained. Although none of the six
points were achieved during the lifetime of the Chartist movement, all save
annual parliaments have since been incorporated into the British electoral
system.

Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover
and Duke of Cumberland, and the fifth son of King George III, was indeed near
to the British throne, and he was rumoured to have murdered his valet. His
cruelty in the army is well attested. He was involved with the Orange Order and
was suspected of having a son after an incestuous relationship with his sister.
Although there were rumours that Ernest desired the British throne, there is no
record of Ernest Augustus attempting to murder Queen Victoria in 1848. However,
although the amended Treason Act of that year was apparently intended to curb
the Chartists, it would also have been useful against any attempt to suborn the
monarchy by a foreign potentate.