The Jade Boy (19 page)

He had to tell Tolly and Ann what he knew. The men had named the date of the fire, and what’s more, the evidence of their crime was still concealed in the lining of his soiled, stinking jacket. He had to escape.

In frustration, Jem thumped his fist down hard on the windowsill and a little part of the ancient brickwork crumbled away, falling to the ground below. He looked down and noticed how fast and
how thickly the ivy had grown up the side of the building. No wonder he’d lost sight of Cleo after she’d delivered that message…

That was it! Cleo!

There was a way out of the locked room – but one that would take every ounce of his courage. He would have to climb down the four storeys of Ludlow House, clinging to the ivy like a monkey.

Jem took a deep breath and clambered out through the small window and onto the wide stone parapet that ran around the top of the building. Careful not to look down, he gripped the wall behind him and shuffled along until he came to a corner where the jutting bricks provided some footholds and the ivy grew thick and strong.

His hands were clammy with sweat. Gripping a wrist-thick rope of knotted ivy tendrils, he swung his body round so that he was facing the wall. Still clinging on tight, he lowered his right leg and felt cautiously on the brickwork below for a foothold. The ivy made a cracking noise and moved away from the wall. Jem felt himself sway out. He lunged back at the wall and gripped another stem. This was more secure and at the same time his foot made contact with a groove in the brickwork, but Jem’s body
suddenly flooded with fear and he froze.

Sweat was pouring from his forehead, his limbs were locked and completely unresponsive, and he was fifty feet above the ground.

Jem closed his eyes and gripped even tighter. His mind was screaming at his body to keep going, but somehow, he couldn’t move a muscle. His fingers were beginning to lock and cramp. He knew that it wouldn’t be long before his rigid body simply plummeted to the ground.

There was a feather-light touch on his right hand. Jem opened his eyes and saw Cleo swinging from a tendril of ivy. She gave a chirp of encouragement and fixed her warm brown eyes on his.

“
That’s good… You’re doing well. Hold there and breathe slowly. Now, just to your left, by Cleo’s tail, down a little, there’s another hand hold
.”

Tolly’s encouraging words sounded in Jem’s head.

“
Don’t look down
,” the voice came again quickly.
“Just concentrate. We’ll help you. Cleo can show you the way – just follow her. Look – to your right. Yes, just there, by Cleo’s paw. Slooooowly – good! Now move your left leg down a little and in. Yes! Good. We’ll soon have you down, Jem
.”

The descent was slow and agonising. Jem’s arms and legs were shaking so much that he could barely move them, but Cleo stayed close by, making soft encouraging noises and guiding him gently to foot and hand holds. Tolly’s voice was patient and when Jem stiffened in panic, his friend’s calm instructions helped him to grit his teeth and move on.

“
You can jump now
.”

For the first time, Jem allowed himself to look down and saw that he was just four feet from the ground. With a huge rush of relief he let go and dropped down lightly to where Tolly was waiting for him.

This side of Ludlow House was invisible from the road. The narrow passageway led around to the gardens and it was so rarely used that it was overgrown with nettles.

Tolly grinned and spoke out loud. “You did well. Watch out for the stingers there. I thought you might—” he broke off. “Jem! What on earth is that terrible stink? It’s worse than that man Wormald!”

Jem bent double and breathed deeply, he could feel his kneecaps twitching oddly as all the
built-up
tension drained from his body. At last he straightened up and, pushing a mass of damp, black
curls back from his forehead, he grinned. “Thanks, Tolly. If it for wasn’t for you and Cleo I’d probably be stuck up there for ever. The height… I don’t know what happened… I just couldn’t…” Jem faltered, embarrassed.

Tolly shrugged. “Don’t be ashamed – we all have our demons. You remember when we hid in the darkness in the four-poster bed? And the fear I couldn’t control? Since the days I spent in the boat to Alexandria, in the dark hold, I haven’t been able to—” he stopped himself, as if the memory was too painful to recall.

“I’m sorry about the smell,” Jem apologised. “I’ve been cleaning out drains.”

Tolly wrinkled his nose in disgust. Now that he was dressed in ordinary clothes, instead of the formal uniform of a rich man’s page, he looked younger and less exotic.

“Er… how did you know I was up there on the wall?” Jem asked.

“I shared your mind.”

“How does that work? Do you mean you were reading my thoughts?”

Tolly shook his head. “It’s not like that. I can’t hear words exactly. When I have a– a… bond
with someone I sometimes see images and pick up feelings. I suddenly knew you were in trouble yesterday afternoon. I was fetching clean hay for the lions when I sensed your fear – it was so sharp and strong it was almost like a smell. The trail of it led me straight to Ludlow House. I’ve been waiting here ever since, trying to find a way to reach you, but it was Cleo who got there first.” Tolly’s eyes glinted with mischief. “But to be honest Jem, the way you stink right now I can’t be entirely sure it wasn’t that awful smell that led us to you, after all.”

Jem grinned as he looked down at his stained clothes. He realised that Tolly must have felt his fear at the very moment when he thought that he was going to be discovered in the model. In a rush he began to tell his friend about everything that had happened, but Tolly stopped him. “You must tell Ann all this too. Save your words and come with me. Are you hungry?”

Jem nodded. He was ravenous as well as thirsty.

“Well, follow me. There’s always a good rich stew bubbling on Mr Jericho’s campfire – and you can tell us everything while we eat.”

With Cleo perched on his shoulder, Tolly led the way along the passage, careful to avoid the clumps
of nettles. “You’ll have to wash first though,” Tolly called back. “I don’t think even I could eat anything if you’re within ten feet of me!”

The boys and the monkey passed through one of London’s eastern gates and into the fields beyond the city walls. Gabriel Jericho’s theatrical circus was spread across an acre of parched grass – a lively mass of colourful tents, glittering fabrics, fires, torches, wagons and carts. At the centre of the camp was an open ring. A huge, curtained stage erected on poles and scaffolding stood at the far side.

Jem could hear the sound of laughter, conversation and music and, more importantly, he could smell the tempting savoury smell of roasting meat. As they reached the outskirts of the camp a painted woman with an enormous snake draped about her shoulders waved at Tolly and came over to greet them.

“I hope your friend’ll be joining us, Tolly?” she grinned. “He’s a bit whiffy, but he’s the most handsome lad I’ve ever clapped eyes on… Apart from you, of course.”

Tolly laughed and Jem felt his face burn.

“I think that’s up to Jem here, Juno.” Tolly nudged
Jem’s arm, “I know there’s a place for him with us, if he wants it.”

“Our lion boy is back then?” A deep voice thundered from behind them.

A burly man with thick golden hair, a reddish beard and a fur pelt thrown over his shoulders sauntered over. He grinned and winked at Jem. “Balthazar Sampson, lion tamer, at your service. Your mate here is the talk of the circus. He’s a marvel!”

Jem looked at Tolly and raised an eyebrow. Tolly looked delighted. “Come on,” the dark boy said, grinning broadly, “I’ll show you. It won’t take long.”

Tolly led the way back over to some torchlit cages at the edge of the field. In the central cage two massive male lions were lolling in the straw. As the boys approached, the animals lifted their heads and sniffed the air. Immediately they sprang to their feet and hurled themselves against the bars, snarling and roaring. The sound was deafening.

Cleo shrieked and leapt from Tolly’s shoulder to the roof of the cage, where she kept up a furious chatter.

Tolly smiled. “They can smell the drains on you, Jem. Like the rest of us.”

He bent to a small gate in the side of the cage, unhooked the wires that fastened it and stepped inside.

Jem was astonished. “Tolly! No! You’ll be eaten alive!”

But Tolly just walked slowly over to the largest crouching lion and held out his hand. He stared intently at the creature and after a moment it licked his hand and nuzzled its enormous head against Tolly’s shoulder. The other lion did exactly the same. Within a minute the two animals were sitting meekly on either side of the boy. Then they rolled over and playfully invited him to tickle their tummies.

“He’s quite a performer, isn’t he?”

This admiring voice belonged to Jericho. He was watching through the bars on the far side of the cage. “In all my years on the road I’ve never seen anything like it. Those two are usually devils incarnate, but Tolly here has made kittens of them, hasn’t he Balthazar?”

“He can make them do anything,” the lion tamer nodded. “He’s a veritable Daniel – don’t know how he does it.”

Tolly looked even more delighted. Jem smiled at his friend. Even he wondered how he had done it.

A voice sounded in his head. “
I just asked them politely, Jem. That’s all they wanted
.”

The boys laughed at the same moment and the men turned to look at them.

“And I wonder what your secret might be, gypsy prince?” enquired Gabriel shrewdly, his warm brown eyes crinkling with interest.

For the first time ever, Jem didn’t mind being called ‘gypsy’. The way Jericho said it, the word sounded like something special, something good.

He looked around at the twinkling camp. In just a few minutes he’d felt more at home among Mr Jericho’s players that in all the years he’d lived at Ludlow House.

Ludlow House!

He had to tell the others what he knew.

“Er… sir, Mr Jericho,” he began quickly. “Where’s Ann, please? I need to see her… I…”

“She’ll be glad to to see you too, lad. You as well, Tolly. She’s been fretting about you and little Cleo since you both disappeared yesterday without saying a word. In the end I had to tell her some cock and bull story about sending you out to the city with playbills, but I could see she didn’t believe me. She was quite sharp.” The big man pulled a face and
winked conspiratorially, “You know how she can be.”

Gabriel led the boys and the monkey back to the heart of the camp. Just beyond the stage Jem saw a large, circular tent beautifully decorated with colourful scenes of mythical beings and creatures. One of them was a smiling mermaid and Jem was momentarily reminded of the pedlar girl frozen into the River Thames. This painted mermaid was shimmering and silver and oddly alive. Unlike that poor dead girl in the ice.

“Welcome to my home, boys,” said Gabriel, striding towards the tent. They headed round to the door flap, which was lit by flaring braziers. “Ann’s over there practising. I thought it might be a good idea to give her something to do.”

The showman pointed across the field. A little way off, Ann was standing beneath a tree talking to a man wearing a long coat made of hundreds of different squares of bright material.

She laughed with delight as the man pushed up his sleeves and held out his hands to reveal two small green fires burning brightly in each open palm. He whispered in her ear then made a low bow. Ann blushed and dropped a curtsey.

Then she held out her right hand. At first nothing
happened. Then a tiny blue light seemed to flicker in her palm. The light grew larger and stronger until a glowing ball was hovering there.

Ann pointed at the ball with her other hand and it rose into the air, following the direction of her finger. Slowly she raised the glowing orb higher and higher until it floated over the man’s head. Then she clapped her hands and it burst into a shower of sliver sparks and shimmering moths. The man grinned broadly. Looking over to Jericho and the boys, he called out, “She is remarkable. Truly her mother’s daughter, Gabriel.”

“Jem! Tolly!” Ann came running over as soon as she saw them. “Where have you been, Tolly? And you, little one?” She bent to fondle Cleo’s velvety ears. “You’ve been missing since yesterday. I was beginning to worry.” She sounded annoyed and relieved at the same time.

She grinned up at Jem and touched his arm, “It’s so good to see you. I’ve been…” she stopped and wrinkled her nose. “What’s that awful smell – you haven’t brought that man Wormald with—”

Jem began to gabble. “Ann, I know what they are going to do! There are buildings in the boxes, London’s going to burn on the first of September,
Cazalon’s going to build himself a hideous cathedral and thousands of people are going to…”

“Slow down. Slow down!” Ann flicked her thick white hair back from her shoulders and began to knot it loosely at the nape of her neck. As her tapering fingers wound the hair into a white ball she scrutinised him closely. “Look at you, Jem, you are exhausted – and famished, no doubt. Come inside. Before you do anything else you need to eat.”

It was an order, not a suggestion.