TW: Mentions of child abuse.
~.~
It took a bit of convincing, a bit of Sunday dinner at the Red Lion, and quite a bit of alcohol to get Henry to agree to host a weekend at his estate.
"I don't know," Henry said, as he slowly rotated his wineglass on the polished wood table, "I've not had company at the Hall—except for Gilbert, who's not really company—since Karenna died." He pushed his empty plate to the table's edge.
"All the more reason to, Henry," Gilbert said. "It's been over two years. It's perfectly all right to still grieve for her, but I know Karenna would not be happy to see you living like this."
Joseph caught Gilbert's glance, and he gave a tiny nod to the unspoken agreement that passed between them. He refilled Henry's glass. "You're still alive, mate, time to start act acting that way."
Henry eyed them with a narrowed gaze. "You're ganging up on me," he said. "Both of you."
"Your powers of observation are amazing," Gilbert said.
Joseph poked Henry's arm. "Look, you should be happy that Gilbert and I are agreeing on something."
"You're both horrid."
"Ah, well, that's not the worst thing I've been called," Joseph said with a chuckle. "Look, Henry, aside from the fact that it would do you a world of good to get your house full of people, Gilbert tells me your ballroom is almost twice the size of his aunt's."
"Well, I would think it's larger," Henry said, as he drank some more wine. "I could fit her entire London home into my east wing at Hakken Hall."
"There you go," Joseph said. "Perfect for our needs."
Henry gazed morosely at his almost-empty glass. "But there will be all those women there, flirting with me, all wanting to be the next Countess of Choughton."
It was Gilbert's turn to fill Henry's glass. "Henry, you have to admit, you make fantastic bait to lure all of Aunt Constance's circle to come see Joseph debunk Doctor Lee."
"Well, yes."
"And nobody's saying you have to marry any of these girls, just be charming and nice to them."
Henry pointed a decidedly unsteady finger at Gilbert. "If I have to be charming and nice to the ladies, so do you. The fact that you prefer men is not an excuse."
The look on Gilbert's face almost made Joseph choke on his mouthful of wine.
Gilbert turned a baleful expression on Joseph. "Perhaps we should include Joseph in that directive, too," he said. "He has a modest fortune now, and when we were in sixth form we learned that he likes women well enough."
"I won't deny it," Joseph replied, keeping his gaze on Gilbert, "I like pretty things." The prettiest of them all sat across from him now; his mouth thinned to a grim line, nostrils flared, with splashes of pink on his high cheekbones. Joseph savored the heat that sparked in his groin at the sight.
"All right, then," Henry said, ignoring both of them, "we all have to be charming and nice."
Joseph touched his glass. "All right, mate, I can do that just fine."
"And no-one has to marry anyone."
"Amen to that," Gilbert said, and he touched Henry's glass.
Henry drained his glass, and then he took each of their hands in his. "I can't tell you how much it pleases me that we are all friends again," he said, with the extreme seriousness of the truly drunk.
Joseph's chest shook with silent laughter at the way Henry squeezed Gilbert's hand to forestall any denial.
"I think Gilbert needs to get you home," Joseph said, rising from the table. "Goran and I will come down Friday evening, after our matinee show. Here's a list of what we'll need." He handed a folded note to Gilbert, and then continued, "We'll set up Saturday morning, and then start our presentation after dinner, say seven? If your company arrives on Saturday around three, Henry, that should limit your exposure to the little money-grubbers."
"I still have to deal with them on Sunday," Henry said.
Gilbert helped Henry to his feet. "It'll be fine," he said. "Most people will leave after luncheon."
"You both have to stay until they're all gone."
Joseph laughed, and then he helped Gilbert get Henry downstairs and into their carriage.
The week was a busy one; he and Goran had a full schedule of shows, and during their down time the two men worked out the details for the upcoming weekend.
"It won't take us too long to set up at all, especially with the glass and mirrors being there already," Goran said, eyeing a drawing Gilbert had provided of Henry's ballroom. They had set up a small model on the table in their shared sitting room, and Goran now placed pieces of cardboard in several places on the model. "Here's where I'd put the the glass panels." He looked up at Joseph. "I do feel a bit strange that we're not bringing our own glass and curtains."
Joseph adjusted the angle of one of the pieces. "It's a better move all around, mate; we don't have to worry about carting anything around—or worse, breaking something on those bumpy country roads."
"Oh yeah, didn't think about that," Goran said. "This will be the first time I've ever been to a fancy house in the country. Were you ever at Henry's house, Joe?"
"Once," Joseph said, "when Henry's parents passed away, Sir Corman brought me and Gilbert to Hakken Hall for the funeral. We were thirteen, and it was our first year of being friends. After that, Sir Corman always had both me and Henry with him and Gilbert during the holidays—London in the winter, and River's End in the summer."
"Gilbert's da sounds like he was a nice fellow," Goran said.
"He was the best, mate," Joseph said.
"Gilbert's nice, too," Goran added. "He just don't want anyone to know."
Joseph laughed. "How is it that you can see how people are so quickly? You've only known him a few weeks, but you're bang on."
"Gypsy magic," Goran said, and he wiggled his fingers.
The rest of the week slipped by, and so did any opportunity to return to Lee's warehouse, which Joseph found extremely frustrating. He and Goran finished their matinee show on Friday afternoon, and while he and Goran stowed their bags in the boot of one of Henry's carriages, Joseph made a decision.
"I want us to swing by Thrawl Street before we head out," he said. "I want to get a look inside that warehouse of Lee's."
Goran glanced at him. "That's not exactly on our way, mate. It can't wait until next week?"
"I want to see what's there, so we can tell all those toffs about how Lee has cheated them." Joseph hoisted the last case into the carriage's boot. "We have plenty of time, and plenty of light."
Goran shrugged, although a small frown creased his brow. "All right," he said, "but we don't go there empty-handed." He pointed at the gleaming black carriage. "And we'd better muss this up a bit."
Joseph was grateful for Goran's common sense an hour later, as they drove the now-muddied carriage along Commercial Street. They were eyed more than once, but more as a nuisance than a target, although Joseph was glad that the carriage's boot had a lock, and that they both carried knives, just in case.
The building looked smaller in the stark afternoon light, the faded blue paint incongruously bright against the dingy red brick. He guided the carriage just around a bend in the road, and he left Goran there to keep watch while he jogged back down the narrow street.
Good thing I'm not dressed nice, Joseph thought. The street appeared empty, but he knew appearances could be deceiving.
His goal was one of the windows, a little higher up on one side, above a mess of discarded crates. One of the painted panes was broken, and when Joseph carefully climbed to the top of the heap and hauled himself up to the small, arched window, he had a clear view of the building's interior. He smiled in grim triumph when he saw the backs of the framed panels, their coverings removed to reveal panes of glass. Hanging nearby was an apparatus of hinged metal and leather straps that Joseph knew was used in many sleight-of-hand tricks; he had a similar one packed in the carriage.
He saw movement in the rear of the building, and Joseph's pulse raced when he saw Lee and Naka standing by a tall cabinet that was supported on a pair of sawhorses. The cabinet had a single door with a round hole in the middle, and Joseph watched while Lee bound Naka's hands and pushed him inside the cabinet.
They were trying to do a spirit cabinet, Joseph realized. The trick was all the rage among the spiritualists in London, where one or both mediums would be bound and locked in the cabinet, yet still be able to perform 'ghostly manifestations'. Joseph knew of a few variations on the routine, but they all required the ability to escape those bonds quickly and quietly.
Naka didn't appear to be able to do that—or do it quickly enough for Lee, judging from the way that Lee pounded on the cabinet, and unleashed a stream of angry Chinese at his son.
Joseph's heart pounded while he watched Lee drag his still-bound son from the cabinet.
I'm sorry
Naka tried to move away, but having his wrists bound unbalanced him, and he fell to the dirt floor.
I'm sorry, mum, I won't do it again, whatever it was I did
Lee grabbed his cane and raised it above his head—
Please, mum, don't
—and Joseph's world went red, red as the rage in his heart, and red as the blood on his hand as he broke the rest of the window and went inside.