Chapter 42

The first interval on the play had started. The bar had been full of people, having drinks, discussing the play. Everyone was mesmerised. Barrymore had been magnificent in the role of Hamlet.

"I think Claudius and Gertrude were right to put Hamlet's friends to spy on him." Archie said as they had sat down the table at the bar. "Hamlet clearly is turning mad."

"Or his mother and uncle had ulterior motives?" Terry replied. "Hamlet was the Prince after all."

The women were swooning over Barrymore. As Hamlet he was completely enthralling. Especially over his love for Ophelia.

"Can really someone turn insane because of love?" Marion asked but she was already dreaming.

"Passion can drive a man do things they never thought of doing." Terry turned towards them, voicing his opinion. His stare stood for a moment on Candy's face before he looked at Marion.

"Looks like you have lived such passion by the way you say this, Terry..." Archie commented. Isabel caught his eyes. His heart beat fast. Could she be this elusive true love for him? They only knew each other for a couple of months. What Archie felt for Isabel was all too consuming. Could it be just the move to London? The freedom he felt for the first time in his life? Under the table, his hand slipped between her thighs. He relished feeling the smoothness of her skin under his fingers. He could feel the goosebumps he caused her by his caress. She coughed and he smiled.

"That is personal matters Cornwell." Terry replied, taking a drag from his cigarette. Candy felt her face warm. She knew too well the madness Terry had descended when they had broken up.

"I'd love to have that experience." Marion said, looking straight at Terry.

"You are romantic, Marion." He said back. "Becoming insane by love is good for the theatre but in reality...it destroys you." He took another drag from his cigarette before stabbing it out in the astray.

"What's your opinion Miss White?" He turned all of sudden to Candy who had kept quiet. "Do you believe in all consuming love?"

"To the point of insanity." He added.

She stumbled. Words seemed to her like hurdles. He had caught her completely off guard the moment her mind was reliving the time she saw him trying to act while on a drunken stupor under that dirty theatre tent in Rockstown. She remembered how she willed him to pull himself together through a blur of tears.

"Love can destroy and love can revive." She said in the end, "But even the biggest fires with time can turn just to embers and die."

"Is that so?" He replied, raising his brow. She was pushing him to the edge. Nothing he felt with her was half-measured. When he tasted her lips, he thought he could die right there and then and he wouldn't regret the life he had. And now, everything she said was a challenge directed to him. Testing his control, finding his limits.

"I think it's time to go back." He announce to their group. They all got up. The interval was almost over. Candy rushed to the stairs first. He caught up with her.

"You must enjoy all that, right?" He asked her, the anger evident in his voice.

"What do you mean?"

"Those innuendos..." He explained.

"If you don't like my answers, stop asking me those questions, Terry." She turned and said back to him.

Marion was approaching. "By the way...if you'll be kissing her tonight like the other time...since I'm not the only one kissing whomever as you accused me, find a more discreet place than a room where everyone can walk on you." She let her anger control her voice. Feelings she had pushed down since that night she caught them, in the dining room. He really hadn't expected that. She had been right. The moment Marion got by his side, he had regretted everything he had said inside the car. It was too late. They arrived at the box. Candy had already sat down and was looking at the theatre programme she had left on her chair.

The lights dimmed once again.

Act 3, Scene 1.

"You look 'alf as bad as I thought you'd look, mate." Billy said to Christian while they sat down at the kitchen's table.

Billy had been on his own at home. Monday night was bingo night, it was wifey's night out.

"A bit o' shaving, combing them hair an' you'll be good as new."

"Cut the crap, Billy." Christian stopped Billy's nonstop yapping. In truth, Billy looked nervous. Last time they had parted ways, was at Christian's house when they laid down the plans for the failed-by-now attempt to burgle Lord Wooster's place. "Laid down" of course wasn't a term, Christian would pick. It was more of Billy telling him what he had to do, courtesy of his boss, Charlie MacDonald.

When he found out that Christian took a blade in, to save Alice Diamond, he wasn't just impressed. He also got afraid. MacDonald was dangerous, it was no doubt about that. But Christian balanced on the edge of insane by his actions alone so to underestimate what he may have been able to do would be a big mistake. His stomach crushed on his chest when he heard "Black Feathers" outside his door. He opened it, and saw him standing there, looking like a ghost. He glanced on the outside for any eyes lurking and told him to come in before taking another breath.

"I didn't come here for a tea and a chat." Christian added. He took Billy's smoke from the table and rolled himself a cigarette. He hadn't smoked since Friday.

"Got anything stronger to drink?" He asked once he took the first drag from the cigarette. He felt lightheaded. Closed his eyes for a moment.

"Got a couple of Guinness." Billy said.

"Great! Bring one." Christian said again.

Billy took the bottles from the pantry, opened them and gave one to Christian.

"Hold on to get us some glasses."

"No need." Christian said and swigged a big gulp of the stout straight from the bottle. Now he felt better. Took a deep breath of pleasure and passed the back of his hand over his wet lips. Billy kept silent. Christian's eyes shone bright.

"I want you to take me to MacDonald." He said and took another big gulp from the bottle, followed it with a drag from the cigarette he had left burning at the ashtray. Billy shifted from where he stood, looking uncomfortable, he pushed his hand through his hair.

"Now." Christian said.

"Are you sure, Christian?"

He hadn't let his eyes move from Billy's face. He kept drinking and smoking.

"I'm sure."

"Don't you want to wait mate till you are well on your feet?" He asked again, looking worried.

"Now is the time Billy." He said sounding hoarse. He had relished both the cigarette and the ale which he had finished in a few gulps.

"MacDonald isn't that happy with you...you know that, Alice must have told you."

Christian narrowed his eyes down. "She reports everything to you I see..."

"We talk, yes."

"No business of mine I guess." Christian commented once Billy admitted his connection to Alice. "All I want is the boss."

"Mate..." Billy tried one last time to talk him out of this.

"Listen Billy, if Charlie wanted me dead, he had plenty of time." Christian said and got up. He was ready. "Will you take me without trouble or I can persuade you another way..." He warned him, tightening his fists. Christian was getting impatient. He didn't plan for this to take long.

"Alright, alright, I'll take you! Hold your 'orses, for fuck's sake." He said. He put his jacket on, took the smokes from the table.

"Just to warn you, it's water off a duck's back as far as I'm concerned, ok?"

"Don't worry for me Billy." Christian said as they both headed on the quiet street, caps way down to their eyes. They hoped on the first cab available. Destination - The Blind Beggar.

Christian had been inside the Blind Beggar plenty of times. It hadn't been a pub frequented by the high society. But Christian hadn't been a bloke for mingling with one set of people either. Like a chameleon - from the mansions of Lords to the pubs of London gangs - he managed to fit everywhere without looking like a sore thumb. Perhaps it was the one thing he was most proud about. To be able to walk in all walks of life. However, when they passed through the doors of the pub, despite the familiarity, he was well aware where he was heading. The blood pumped thick in his veins and he felt fully alert, noticing everything around him. Despite the adrenaline spike in his blood, he knew, what he had to say he had to keep brief, and hope for the best. Because if he caught MacDonald on the wrong moment, he may not come back out alive.

Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1

Inside the palace, there is talk about Hamlet. Gertrude, his mother and Claudius his uncle, together with Ophelia and Polonius her father receive the news Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had gathered from meeting with him.

CLAUDIUS

And you can't put your heads together and figure out why he's acting so dazed and confused, ruining his peace and quiet with such dangerous displays of lunacy?

Billy headed for the pub lord who stood behind the bar. Their eyes crossed paths.

"Here for the usual George." Billy said when they approached the bench. The man glanced at Christian who kept his head lowered but didn't commend. He lifted the wooden flap of the bar bench and let the two men pass inside. There was a small door on the side.

"Wag's here?"

George nodded. "Yes." He said and opened the door. "Go ahead."

ROSENCRANTZ

He admits he feels confused, but refuses to say why.

GUILDENSTERN

And he's not exactly eager to be interrogated. He's very sly and dances around our questions when we try to get him to talk about how he feels.

Marion looked enthralled. Not just with Hamlet but with the man who sat next to her. She kept throwing him glances. He was absorbed in the play. The profile of his face in the dimmed light reminded her of a Greek statue of a man she had seen at the British museum. It had taken her breath away just as Terry did at that moment.

She felt daring, the more she was looking at him. They talked about love driving you to insanity. Didn't know whether what she felt was love or not, but he made her lose her mind. Never before she had gone to such lengths of chasing a man. She turned her face back to the stage.

"I don't know what she is watching more, the play or Terry..." Archie whispered at the back. Candy was fast approaching the end of her patience.

"I swear to God, Arch if you don't shut up, I'll get up and go." She hissed at him.

GERTRUDE

Did he treat you well when you saw him?

ROSENCRANTZ

Yes, in a very gentlemanly way.

Billy and Christian went down a narrow set of stairs. The air smelled of damp ale. They reached a closed door. He knocked and both went in. It was a wide enough room for five poker tables. Two were occupied already. The guys who were around them didn't pay any attention to the couple who passed them by. There was another bar there at the bottom of the room. Much more basic than the one upstairs. Ale and whiskey, they didn't serve anything else. Billy tipped his hat to the guy behind it. Christian noticed several guys in the room, standing in the shadows. Heavy built kind of guys, you wouldn't want to cross paths with in a dark alley. A couple of faces looked familiar. Those were the guys who had beaten him up on the night of his exhibition opening. Billy knocked another door next to the bar and they entered.

"Well, well, well...if it isn't Black Feathers himself...and alive..." The man behind the desk said once their eyes met. "Billy you spoil me with your presents." He turned to the man standing next to Christian.

"I wanted to see you." Christian said with a firm voice.

Charlie looked at Christian under the harsh lights of the electric lamps. His stare had been amused but impressed at the same time.

"Sit." He ordered him, "I can't decide whether you are crazy or fucking stupid but whichever it is, I have to say, you got balls mate."

Christian didn't comment. He decided to keep words to an absolute minimum. Took a chair and sat down.

"So...before I mention that you saved me the trip of my men to the hospital, what is it that you want to say to me?" He said to Christian.

GUILDENSTERN

But it seemed like he had to force himself to be nice to us.

ROSENCRANTZ

He didn't ask questions, but answered ours at length.

GERTRUDE

Did you try tempting him with some entertainment?

She tried to focus to the play but she couldn't. She had to get closer to him. The box provided some privacy. Rose and the rest at the back would have been watching the play. She could feel her heartbeat echoing in the veins of her throat. She perspired with excitement. She put her hand on his thigh. Her fingers tingled, feeling how firm it was. He hadn't moved. Everything inside her were aroused. She rested her palm on his thigh completely, letting her fingers enjoy the sense of his body beneath his trousers. In a slow stroke she moved her hand upwards. A sigh left her lips. Enough for Candy to notice...

But that was enough for Terry too. He had let her cross the line by a mile. Before her hand moved even further up, he covered it with his. Grasped at her fingers. Held them closed in his hand, and turned to look at her, looking stern.

What the heck was wrong with the women in his life on that day?

There was some shuffling at the back. Terry turned on the spot. Candy's seat was empty.

Archie looked annoyed.

"She's going to Christian, Graham...had enough theatre drama for the night, she said."

Terry was ready to get up. Marion looked confused. Archie put a hand over his shoulder before he got up.

"Better stay here, mate." He whispered. "She'll be fine...she worries too much." He said, raising his voice just a little so Marion could hear too. "You two kids, go back to what you were doing...but keep the noise down - people can see you..."

Archie felt sad for Candy. He knew very well why she left. He had even put a hand in all of that. But he hadn't expected Marion to be so predatory. In fact, he was gobsmacked, she had made a move to Terry in such plain view. Hadn't even waited for them to be alone somewhere.

"What will it take to get you off my back Charlie?" Christian asked him straight away.

MacDonald looked at him for a minute. Lit a cigarette. Offered one to Christian. He declined. As was said, Christian had planned to be there for the absolute minimum. Keep it business like. Firm. Show no fear. Nothing more, nothing less. If he managed to get out alive, he would take Rose and go to the isle of Barra as she had asked him a couple of days back.

"I thought we had discussed this already." He said back to him, once he blew the smoke out.

"Well, things have changed now."

"They bloody well have Christian!" MacDonald raised his voice and slapped the desk with his hand. Blood rushed in his face. "You fucking disobeyed me." He yelled, and stood up.

Christian kept quiet, his face revealed nothing. Billy stared at him with worry. He wished Alice was there. She always talked reason and calmed MacDonald down.

He turned, walked towards Christian, his blue eyes blazing. He towered above him, leaned forward and put his hands on the arms of his chair. He lowered his head, facing Christian from a breath's distance. "Do you know what happens to those who don't follow my orders?" He asked him with a quiet voice.

"You plan wasn't going to work." he said calmly.

MacDonald's eyes stayed inside his, drilling inside his mind. Trying to spot his weakness. Christian didn't flinch. MacDonald's breath smelled rough whiskey. It wasn't a good sign but there was no back tracking for him.

He stood back up. "Bollocks it wouldn't!" He shouted, having started pacing again.

"It wouldn't work Charlie and you know it." Christian insisted, sensing the doubt in MacDonald. "The surveillance of the house was weak." He added. He eyed up the cigarette left out for him. He took it this time and lit it. Took a drag, and let the smoke out.

"Alice should have known someone had been left in the house."

There was no response from MacDonald. A trail of smoke followed him as he paced. Every few steps, he turned and stabbed Christian with a fierce stare.

"I could have let her know before she went in."

"I could have gone out, just as I did, for a smoke at 11, and let her know before she went in that breaking inside Lord Wooster's mansion was a no-go."

"And why didn't you?" He asked back.

"Because she already had gone in."

"The two houses were too near Charlie - This plan was always going to be not worth the risk. Bluebottles were bound to be around the area."

MacDonald, stopped pacing. He turned back to his chair, looking thoughtful as he processed what Christian was telling him.

"And you should had left the whole thing on me - plan and execution." He added. "Sending Alice to tail me, so you'd be sure I'd kept my word...was a big fucking mistake."

"Watch your tongue when you speak about Alice, kid." MacDonald warned him.

"I saved her skin, didn't I?" Christian said and lifted his shirt to show the bandaged beneath.

"Yes, and in the process, police went on high alert." He counter argued.

"It was that, or your woman in jail and me dead." Christian pushed on. He hadn't much energy left. MacDonald noticed that.

"So...suppose I'm not about to kill you, what do you propose?"

Christian took a deep breath.

"You keep away from me and my woman." Christian said with a tone that didn't leave any space for negotiations. There was no response from behind the desk. "I lay low for the present and near future."

"No!" He raised the voice. "That's not good enough." He said back to Christian.

"If you want me to do ONE more job...that is my last offer Charlie," Christian said. "You let me plan and execute it when I see fit."

"That's bullshit." MacDonald leaned forward, having fixed his stare to Christian. "You're trying to worm your way out of this and I won't let you."

Christian felt the sweat trickling down his body. Was suspecting whether the fever had turned back up. "I'm not." He assured him. "But I have fucking Shaw on my tail." He said, "I won't move till things die down."

"July, end of." MacDonald said back.

"When Shaw drops drawing circles around me, I'll do it." Christian stayed in his position. "If that is sometime in July, then it is July."

"If it is end of summer, then it is fucking end of summer." He leaned forward and said between clenched teeth, fever making him more daring.

The boss dragged the palm of his hand over his chin, thinking. He had to admit Christian made sense, as much as he hated to admit it. In the end he conceded. One more job, Christian in charge, when he saw fit, but before the summer ended.

"And no Alice." Christian said when he got up.

"She'll kill me." MacDonald said back.

"I won't have people thinking Raven was a girl..." He said with a half-smile.

"It'll be up to her..."

Christian didn't have much more energy left to argue further. He left this to deal with Alice later. It would have been easier to talk to her than her partner. The two men gave hands, sealing their word in the handshake.

"You definitely have balls Black Feathers." He said as they were getting ready to split with Billy.

Christian gave him a weak smile. "I won't say it's been a pleasure to do business with you Charlie...if you don't mind."

"Get the fuck out of here before I change my mind." MacDonald said to him. Christian took his cue and Billy escorted him out.

"Man, you are fucking batty." Billy said to him, the relief sounding obvious in his voice. His eyes harboured the happiness that rose from the outcome that his friend hadn't been snuffed out.

"Laters mate." Christian said without sharing much of the same happiness. He was desperate to get out of there. He made his way towards the stairs.

"Wait, when will I hear from you?" Billy said.

"Whenever I'm ready Billy." Christian said back and opened the door.

"Cool...take care Black Feathers."

"To sunny weathers mate." Christian replied and left. Closed the door behind him and stood for a moment to catch his breath. Beads of sweat were rolling down his forehead.

Went back up. Tipped his hat to the pub lord, pulled it down to his eyes, lowered his face as he had done before, and went out. A pair of eyes followed him till the door.

He hailed a taxi, went in and left a long breath out. He was exhausted. He was heading to his girl.

She had rushed out of the theatre, holding her breath and her tears for dear life. She had been a fool for letting Terry back in her life. An even bigger fool believing that they could be friends. She hated him, for everything he made her feel. He played her like a puppet in his fingers, the way he flirted with Marion in front of her eyes. Asking her awkward questions, making her feel uncomfortable. She couldn't lie for ever to Marion, her friend wasn't a stupid girl either. She wasn't mad at her. She knew her ways.

What Marion wants, Marion gets.

She had said that to her, jokingly one night when she had set her eyes on a bloke at the Kit Kat club, when they had gone out dancing. How was she supposed to know what her story was with Terry? She had asked her more than once, if she had been ok with this. And every time, Candy had denied everything. As far as Marion was concerned, Terry had been a beautiful stranger to her friend.

She rushed to the hospital as if her life was depended to it. With every cell of her body asking for Christian's presence, his love. Had she stopped to think she was asking for substitutes, she hadn't, no. As far as she was concerned Terry was finished for her.

She went in, almost running down the ward. The doctor saw her, started running after her. He caught her almost before she burst inside Christian's room.

"Mr. Blake has left..."

Her face dropped to her feet.

"Where? Do you know?"

"I apologise Miss White, but he didn't leave a destination. He just left this." He said and gave her his hand-written note. She stood there and read it multiple times, each time the letters looked more blurred than before. Tears flooded her eyes. She tightened her jaw. Thanked the doctor without looking up at him and run outside the hospital.

Stopped the first cab she saw free and jumped in. She went to his place. No one was there. Dread had started drowning her. A stone stood in her throat. She went back in the taxi which was waiting at the street for her. She gave to the driver her address.

The moment the car turned the road and saw her house from the distance, she saw him. Sitting at her stairs, arms resting on his knees, having his head looking down the ground. He lifted his face when he heard the noise of the car. The taxi stopped and she jumped right out. He gave her a wide smile. He was tired but he could not but stop and admire his woman. She took his breath away. Even with the tears coming down her cheeks.

"Where have you been in my life?" He whispered to her as she run into his arms.

"Why did you leave the hospital Christian?" She said to him. "I got so scared!"

"I couldn't keep away from you any longer." He said to her and kissed her with the passion of a man who had lost his love and had found her again. "Don't cry my love." He asked her, "I'm here."

She put her arm over his waist, his was over her shoulders. They went in her house. "You're burning up." She said to him. "Now that you're by my side, I'm fine." He replied and closed the door behind him.

Terry's car was speeding on the streets of London. The play had finished. He had dropped Marion at her house. Her parents were there and she looked disappointed. He bid her goodnight, looking distant. He hadn't let any other woman play with him as she did. He regretted letting her. Give this woman an inch, she took a mile. To make matters worse, he had regretted everything that had happened between him and Candy. She had been right. He accused her from the word go about kissing indiscriminately where he had forgotten she had walked on him and Marion making out, in the dining room of all places in her house. He felt rotten to his core.

He reached her house. The lights were on. He calmed down his nerves. He was just going to apologise. Archie had advised him to let things cool down, but he hadn't listen. She had to listen. He had to apologise. He went up the stairs. The night had already descended. He knocked at her door. The light in the hall went on. Christian opened the door. He was in pyjama bottoms, his abdomen bandaged up, but apart from that, nothing else.

"Terry!" He exclaimed. "Fancy seeing you here!" He said.

Terry's heart sank. It was as if he run and crashed straight on the wall. Words weren't coming up his lips.

"Something wrong mate?" Christian asked again seeing him struggling to say something.

"When did you come out of the hospital?" Terry asked him.

"I discharged myself mate, couldn't keep apart from her any longer." He said.

So Ca", He said and stopped in his tracks, "Rose is here?"

"She is..." Christian said but he looked puzzled.

"She left very suddenly from the theatre..." Terry said.

Candy showed up from inside. Wearing a kimono style silk robe, she had taken all her make up off. It looked like he had caught them in an intimate time. He wanted to get out of there as fast as he had arrived. Candy told Christian to go back in and lie down. He had been already too tired.

"I'm fine Terry" She said to him when they were the two of them, before he said anything back to her. She went to close the door but he stopped her.

"I am sorry..." He said, meaning it with every fibre in his body. She locked her eyes with his. "For everything..." He added. They stood there for a moment. Two night ago, everything had been so different.

"Me too..." Candy said. "Goodnight Terry." She added and closed the door, leaving him standing there. She brushed off the tears on her face, before heading back inside.