11
"Have I done wrong?" Alice asks.
"Not at all. Please tell him I'll see him directly."
Alice goes.
Jack looks at Ianto "Oh Ianto - Ianto. This is a blow."
"Can I help you sir?"
In the drawing room, Gwen's prelude finishes to enthusiastic applause. Jack has Ianto's hand. "Ianto, if all those people came and spat at me, what would you do?"
"Turn them out of the room sir, if I could." Ianto bristles at the very thought.
Jack whispers "And if they cast you out for adhering to me?"
"I should care nothing about it."
"You'd dare censure for my sake?" Jack is so close now.
Ianto is frightened of his passion. "For the sake of any friend who deserved it."
Jack lets his hand go. He steps back. He goes to the morning room. Ianto peers through the door, worrying how his last words have given offence.
He sees a man rising to meet Jack; handsome but gaunt and painfully thin. His smile doesn't reach his eyes – as if his soul is not quite his own.
"Harkness..."
"John. How the devil are you?"
They embrace, Jack doing a fine impression of delight
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Ianto is standing on the pedestal of infamy, ten years old. Kai Burns is walking towards him with something in her arms. The rising sun is all around him.
"He is yours."
Ianto looks down at the bundle. In it, is a newborn boy. Ianto looks up to ask Kai for help. But Kai has gone. Ianto alone with his burden, teeters on the stool. The baby starts to cry. Ianto panics.
The crying becomes deafening, terrifying. It is not a baby's cry but a human scream.
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Ianto wakes, hearing a savage, sharp shriek of such power and intensity it seems to tear the night in two.
Overhead, the sounds of a struggle begin - a deadly one. Ianto hears footsteps rush past his door. He starts to pull on his clothes. He hears a man's voice from above Hart screaming "Help! Jack, for God's sake come!"
A great stamp on the floor above; something falls with a thud; silence. Ianto grabs his candle and leaves his room.
The guests likewise are all issuing from their rooms; some with candles, some stumbling into the dark. The gallery is filling with terrified ladies and shocked gentlemen. Their shadows dance grotesquely on the walls.
"Oh what is it?" Lady Cooper cries.
"Who is hurt?" Gwen is more demanding.
Lord Cooper is also demanding "Where the devil is Jack?"
Jack comes forth from the door at the end of the gallery, holding a candelabra. "I'm here, be composed."
Gwen flies towards him like a banshee. "What awful event has taken place?"
She embraces him. Jack patiently removes her.
"A servant has had a nightmare, that's all. She's an excitable, nervous person and has taken a fit with fright." Jack explains. Ianto, the only person behind Jack, sees by the light of his candle that his dressing gown is trailing blood. Jack continues to speak calmly "Now I must see you back into your rooms because until the house is settled, she can't be properly looked after."
"Is there anything I might do?" Gwen offers with a look of total devotion.
"Miss Cooper, ladies, please return to your nests like the doves that you are. You'll take cold for certain if you stay in this cold."
The candles flicker and fade as the guests make their way back to their rooms. Jack sees Ianto. "Come this way. Make no noise."
Ianto is led to the third floor. Jack stops by a low door. He puts a key in the lock. "Be steady. I need you."
He unlocks it. A room hung with tapestries; a four poster bed with its curtains half drawn. One part of the tapestry is hooked up over a hidden door - which lies open to an inner chamber. A dull, sickly light shines out.
"Wait." Jack demands. He goes to the inner chamber. A grim laugh greets him. "Thank you, Mrs Poole."
He locks the door. Ianto shudders. He goes to the bed.
"Here. Bring the candle."
Ianto obeys. John Hart is lying, one arm and all the linen soaked in blood. Ianto controls his reaction and makes himself useful. Jack is cleaning the wound.
"Am I dying?" Hart whimpers.
"No." Jack replies without looking up.
"She bit me - while the knife was in - Bit me"
"It was folly to attempt the interview tonight and alone." Jack scolds.
"I…" Hart gasps "… thought I might have done some good."
Jack snarls "It makes me impatient to hear you."
"She sucked the blood. Said she'd drain me - like a vampire" Hart is in shock.
"Think of her as dead" Jack demands "dead and buried. Say nothing!"
Hart is silenced. Jack puts the bloody sponge into Ianto's hand. "I am going for a doctor. I must leave you here with him. Sponge the blood away when it returns. Give him water if he wants it. Do not speak to him for any reason. And John - on pain of death - do not speak to Ianto!"
Jack takes the candelabra. He is gone. Hart is staring at Ianto. There is something about the pupils in his eyes that he finds deadly, chilling.
He dips the sponge in the bloody water and wipes away the trickling gore.
He hears a low moan. he looks over at the door to the inner chamber, aching to know the mystery behind it. Hart makes him start by taking his wrist. He is trying to say something. Ianto puts a finger to his lips. He is begging him not to speak.
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Jack and Dr Carter are carrying Hart down the stairs.
"I only wish I could have got here sooner. He'd not have bled so much." The Doctor says softly.
"Ianto, make sure the way is clear." Jack orders.
Ianto looks out on to the gallery. He is pale, drawn.
A carriage waits. Jack lifts Hart in to Dr Carter. Ianto hands in Hart's coat. Ianto stands back.
"I'll ride over tomorrow to see how you do. Goodbye, John."
John reaches out to seize Jack's wrist "Harkness - Let her be treated as tenderly as may be"
"I do my best and have done it and will do it!"
The carriage goes. Ianto prepares to go inside but Jack walks him towards the orchard. "Come, Ianto. That house is a dungeon, don't you feel it?"
"It seems to me a splendid mansion, sir."
"It is slime and cobwebs."
The orchard is a different world; the dawn light illuminating dewy trees. Jack is silent. Ianto is trying to fathom him. "Will Grace Poole stay here now?"
Jack seems confused by the question "yes, don't trouble your head about her."
"But sir…"
"Grace Poole is not the danger." He walks off, pulling the heads off flowers as he passes. "You've noticed my tender feelings for Miss Cooper?"
"Yes sir."
"Keep vigil with me again, the night before I marry. For now you've met my lovely one and you know her. She's a rare one, isn't she?" Jack snorts.
"Yes sir."
"A strapper, a real strapper; big and buxom..." Jack seems …. Angry. He throws a cankered rose across the orchard.
Ianto manages to articulate his anxiety. "I'd do anything for you sir, anything that was right."
Jack gently sighs "And if I ever bid you do what was wrong, you'd turn to me, quiet and pale and say 'I cannot do it.' And you'd be as immutable as a fixed star."
Jack, gazing at him, seems to have decided something. He turns a corner and is gone. Ianto is left alone.
We hear the sound of a blow.
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The brutal face of John Reid, aged fourteen, triumphant after hitting Ianto.
"That's for the look you had on your face."
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Ianto enters as Jack helps Gwen to line up a shot. He is leaning intimately over her. She coyly permits him.
"Excuse me, sir."
"Ianto has ruined Gwen's shot."
"Does that creeping creature want you?" she sneers.
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Jack has followed Ianto out of the billiard room.
"If you please, I want leave of absence for a week or two."
"What to do?"
Ianto shows him the letter. "This is from my old nurse, Bessie. She says my cousin John Reid is dead. He ruined himself and has committed suicide. The news has so shocked his mother, my Aunt, that it's brought on a stroke."
"What good can you do her?"
Ianto shrugs "She's been asking for me. I parted from her very badly and I can't neglect her wishes now."
"Promise me you won't stay long."
"Sir, it seems you are soon to be married."
"What of it?" Jack frowns.
"Toshiko should go to school."
"To get her out of my bride's way who might otherwise trample her?" Jack guesses.
"And I must seek another situation." Ianto agrees "I intend to advertise."
"At your peril you advertise. Trust it to me. I'll find you a good situation in time." Jack seems annoyed and upset. He is on the point of returning to the billiard room.
"And sir?" Ianto feel wretched saying so "Forgive me but I have had no wages as yet."
"How much do I owe you?"
"Fifteen pounds."
Jack looks in his wallet. "Here's fifty."
"That's too much."
"Take your wages." Jack waves it at him.
"I cannot."
"Then I only have a ten."
"Now you owe me five." Ianto mutters as he accepts the money, their fingers brushing for a moment.
"Just so. Come back for it quickly. Meantime, I shall safeguard it in here." He taps the wallet, which is in his breast pocket. "Do you trust me to keep it, Ianto?"
"Not a whit, sir. You are not to be trusted at all."
Jack strides away, grinning.