'Are you faithful to the brethren?

'Aye, we are.

'Would you lay down your life for a brother?

'Aye, and our soul if called.

'Will you walk in silence from this place?

'Aye, and to the grave.

'It is finished.

The church was peaceful for a moment and then the voice that led the chanting came again.

'And so, at last, the newest of our number has come among us. I felt nearly a dozen pairs of eyes turn upon me.

'Come forward. Your place is to the right the darkened space. It will remain shadowed this evening until you are proven. Take your position.

I paused for a moment not understanding where I should go. The man whod dialled me first moved his taper a little, inclining it towards a dark archway just down from the altar. I nodded to him at least he seemed friendly and walked up the centre of the aisle.

They watched in silence.

I dont know what I expected the Barons to look like. I hadnt imagined any of them to be my age, thats for certain. Mostly they were ancient bald heads, grey heads, hair in unlikely places. Shrivelled and bent, with eyes like jack stones held in string pouches eyes that scraped my body from the top of my hat to the hem of my skirt.

But one of them, standing three arches along from the first man to notice me, was a good deal younger than the rest. He was tall, dark and not five years older than me, Id say. He nodded as I passed and I felt his eyes on my back as I carried on.

Two men stood beneath the next arch on the left. I paused for a moment. We were to come alone, werent we? Then why . . .

'Proceed to your place. The voice echoed again.

I quickened my step, aware of a wheezing sound as I passed the final arch before my allotted space. The air was suddenly foul thick with sweat and worse. I glanced to the right. The man sitting, rather than standing there, almost filled the gap.

I say man, but he was more like a mound of flesh. He was so vast he couldnt even wear normal gear. Instead, his body seemed to burst from a dark gown that pooled on the stones around him. His head looked ridiculous balanced on a roll of pallid flesh that had once been a neck. He was so wide that his arms stuck out at an odd angle, propped aside on obscene ridges of fat. Like his head, the arms looked absurdly small. A lighted taper was clutched in a child-like fist at the end of one of them. He smiled at me and his eyes almost disappeared into the folds of his face.

I looked away and took up my place. I stood in the shadow, trying to block my nose to the stench rolling off the walrus. I could still hear him breathing, though. It sounded wet, like he was slurping soup from a saucer. If I could hear him, I was sure he could hear me. My heart was beating so fast and so hard that I could feel it flutter in my throat.

'We will begin the parables.

There was a movement behind the altar and a man backed into view.

I couldnt quite make him out because of the stone table in the way. He stretched his arms into the shadows and another man stepped out. Still with his back to me, the first man led the second round the altar table, guiding him down the steps, until they were both at the centre of the nave. The first man, tall he was and broad with it, bent to whisper something and ducked to the side. I watched him disappear behind the altar again and into the arched shadows.

Now I saw why the second man needed guiding. He was blind as a stone his eyes glazed over with a milky film. He stood completely still for a moment and then he turned slowly towards me, like he knew exactly where I was. He seemed to stare at me, although I knew that couldnt be true. The angular face was carved like a marble statue on an old church monument. It was completely still, too bland and expressionless like one of them plaster masks that still hung over the arch above the stage of The Comet.

The mans narrow nose was crooked and his high forehead was interrupted in the middle by a pointed widows peak that carried his thick hair off to the right in a blunted wave that curled below his ear.

Excepting for his sleek black coat, there was no colour to him at all. His skin and his hair were like bleached cotton.

He nodded at me. 'Greetings, brother. We would not expect you to lead the parables tonight.

I realised it was the man who led the chanting Id heard at the beginning. He turned back to the church and raised his hands, spreading them wide.

'I, Lord Kite . . .

I started as the Beetles words scuttled through my head The most dangerous among them is Lord Kite remember that, Kitty.

'. . . of Temple, first of the chapters of London, do offer my parable prepared in good faith for this day, the first of May, 1881, the Vernal session . . .

Chapter Thirty-five.

As I finished up, I knew Id done well. My grandmother and the Beetle might even have been proud, I thought, as I scanned the faces turned towards me. I had the lingo now. Id heard it over eleven times, enough to take in all the patter.

The bastards.

Truly, I never knew such evil was walking the streets of London until I heard the Barons listing their assets and running through their business like they were checking the stock in a smart haberdashery. Murder to order, children, violence, beatings, robberies, blackmail, arson, even treason name a crime and at least one of them was happy to reel it off like he was offering his grandmothers recipe for elderflower cordial.

At the heart it was all about bodies the quick and the dead traded from London to Timbuktu. People bought and sold like apples on a market stall. If they had a mind to it, theyd turn Paradise and everyone in it inside out without a second thought. Jesus! And Id thought my grandmother was a heartless bitch.

The Barons was toffs, most of them, their accents moulded at the finest schools. Even the walrus spoke like Queen Victoria herself if she was gargling a ladle of dripping, that is.

I had a moment, Ill admit, when the two men Id seen in the shadows shuffled forward to offer their parable. They were joined at the hip and the shoulder. Brothers in a single coat two arms and three legs so far as I could make out.

The Lords Janus came from the travelling people. They didnt speak like the others, but they didnt have to. I reckoned their brains worked faster than anyones there. They quizzed a wizened old git on a point of finance making him go through his figures over again in front of us all. They were right he was wrong. Nearly two thousand times wrong, as it turned out. I saw his hands tremble as he offered his papers to Lord Kite, who deftly took a tinderbox from his pocket, flicked up a flame and burned them.

At the end of their parable each man (except the walrus) went forward, knelt and kissed the back of Lord Kites hand. He was clearly the most notable among them. As they knelt he placed a hand on their head, and pronounced a figure to be prepared and collected within the week from our agents. I supposed that meant Telferman. I made a note to ask him about it.

From my reckoning, between them they had London stitched tight as a corpse in a shroud. Mostly I could work out their particular interests by their name. Lord Kite came from the law, Lord Oak and Lord Iron from the navy and the military respective, Lord Mitre stood for the church and Lord Silver for the money. But some were more difficult to reckon until they got going and even then I found it hard to smoke a couple of them, as Sam might have said.

As I listened, I wondered what hed make of it all.

The tall younger man, Lord Vellum, gave the impression of being very well connected, but I couldnt catch on to some of the terms he used. And the walrus, Lord Fetch, might just as well have been speaking underwater for all the sense he made.

Most of them referred to papers, I noticed, but Lord Kite and Lord Vellum spoke free and they seemed the stronger for it. I knew I could do that. I had it all locked in my head to the last name and number, to the last brass farthing.

'. . . And so in good faith, I humbly request that the brothers accept my first parable, given on this day, the first of May, 1881 on behalf of the chapter of Paradise. I bowed, and went to kneel at Lord Kites feet.

Id been good. I knew it. Id mastered my nerves and spoken clear and accurate. They were terrifying, all of them. Every man there had a soul the Devil himself might think twice about welcoming with open arms, but Id come through and stood my ground. A part of me wondered if perhaps I could do this after all. Give them a performance, thats what shed told me. To my mind this wasnt anywhere near as bad as hanging up in that cage, seventy foot over the punters without a net to catch me.

Lord Kite extended his clenched hand. There was an ugly ring on the first finger. A silver birds head with a cruel curved beak that stretched across the back of the middle finger, ruby studs in the place of the eyes.

I waited. I knew the words now: We accept your parable in gratitude and instruct your agent to make ready the sum of . . .

'You are wrong.

I caught my breath. I hadnt made a mistake, I was certain of it.

As I stared at the back of Lord Kites hand he turned it over and opened his fist. The green glass earring ripped from my flesh that night at The Gaudy was in the middle of his palm. I felt something move under my hat. I didnt realise until that moment that a scalp could actually crawl.

'Stand.

I gathered my skirts together, straightened up and locked my hands in front of me to hide the sudden tremor. I heard the rattle of the beads sewn onto my bag. Lord Kite reached forward to run a hand over my face, probing the set of my eyes, my cheeks and my nose as if he was trying to get a sense of what I looked like. Then, swiftly, he moved to my chin and gripped hard.

'You are wrong to come here, and give such a . . . brazen display. Tell us how you intend to offer a fair wage in Paradise. He turned to the others. 'It seems The Ladys choice has a limited grasp of the laws of equity.

I heard laughter and glanced along the arched rows to the side of us. They were all staring at me like hunting dogs in a kennel waiting for the master to release them. The fingers tightened.

'Tell us how The Gaudy burned to the ground last evening.

'I . . . It was delib- He cut across me.

'Tell us . . . about your brother. A muscle beneath his blind right eye twitched and just for a second I saw the mask drop. He was barely holding on to a fury that could tear the place apart if he let it free.

'But I . . . I dont know where my brother- 'Cease. Lord Kite let me go and clicked his fingers. The cloaked man who had guided him down the steps appeared again. As he swept past I caught the scent of him leather, tobacco and spice. My stomach folded over on itself as I recognised that cologne. This was the man who ripped the jewel from my ear in the theatre. The man with the hawk-head cane on the roof at Pearmans Yard. The man who had torn Old Peter apart and draped his insides around the room like bloody Christmas garlands.

'Have you prepared, Matthias? Lord Kite stretched out a hand and the cloaked man took it.

'Everything is ready as you instructed. That voice. I knew it now heavily accented, almost guttural.

Lord Kite nodded. 'Come, brothers. The hour is late. Bartholomew waits.

Chapter Thirty-six.

At the centre of the narrow chapel that ran from the back of the church, a ledgerstone stood upright on its side. It looked as if it had been raised from the floor like the cover of a great old Bible. The blackness under the stone gaped wide. The smell of something putrid rose from deep beneath the chapel. Candles burned at each of the four corners of the hole.

Matthias and Lord Kite had led the way. I thought about running down the aisle and out of the church into the night, but the Barons closed ranks behind me, forcing me to follow the men at the head of our silent procession. They were excited, I could feel it. If I looked to the side or turned around, their eyes slid away from mine, but I knew they were all watching me.

At a gesture from Matthias, Lord Kite stopped and turned to face us as we gathered at the end of the chapel. Matthias shrugged back his hood and blinked. Even in the candlelight I could see the extraordinary blue of his eyes. His hair was a reddish gold blond that threw off a halo. You might almost have taken him for a well-built angel, if you didnt know what he was capable of.

Lord Kite stared direct at me. He seemed to know exactly where I was.

'Before we conclude our gathering this evening we must witness an execution.

He paused and the muscle beneath his eye twitched again before he continued.

'We have not had cause to open the vault for at least a dozen years now. Our newest . . . brother has joined us on a significant occasion. Bring him.

Matthias forced his way past me and through the knot of men gathered at the entrance to the chapel. I stared at the hole in the ground and then at Lord Kite. Why did he ask about Joey? Out of habit I reached to my bodice feeling for the comforting bump of the ring and the Christopher.

I dropped my hand.

There was a shuffling sound from behind. We all turned.

A hooded figure stumbled down the steps. Matthias forced the man forward until he stood just a couple of foot from the open vault. A ball tightened in my chest. I couldnt tell if it was my heart about to burst or the beginning of a scream loud enough to bring every stone tumbling down on our heads.

'Remove the hood, Matthias.

I dropped my eyes to the floor. I didnt want to see him. I didnt want the last sight of my brother to be here, like this. I rifled through every part of my mind, desperate to find something, some way to make this stop.

'Kitty?

My head snapped up.

Oh, thank God!

The moment the words went through my head I regretted them. To this day, I regret thinking them more than anything Ive ever said aloud.

'Danny! I reached out, but Matthias came between us.

'This man has sinned. Lord Kite rubbed his hands. His palms rustled together like dry leaves. 'Tell us how you sinned, Daniel.

Danny stared at me like he couldnt believe I was there. Bruises spread like mould across his face, his nose was crusted with blood and knocked out of line. Around his wrists and bare ankles bracelets of torn skin showed where hed been bound. He opened his swollen lips and I saw the stumps of broken teeth in his bleeding gums. Christ! What had they done to him?

I saw a light flicker in his bloodshot eyes. He tried to twist his wreck of a mouth into a smile.

'Y . . . youve come for me, havent you? Like you came for Peggy. Shes right youre a marvel, Kitty Peck.

My mouth was suddenly dry as the sawdust floor of The Gaudys workshop. This wasnt like that time under the warehouse.

'Tell us your sin, Daniel!

At the command Matthias jerked him forward so that he fell in a heap at Lord Kites feet and then he kicked him in the stomach. Danny cried out and folded into a ball at the edge of the yawning pit.

'Stop this. You cant . . . The words came out before I could master them. It was what they wanted. I heard muttering. The air around us changed as if it was suddenly alive.

Lord Kite smiled. 'You know this man, I believe?

I nodded once.

'He is part of your estate and yet you have not controlled him. Tell us how much you owe, Daniel. I have the exact figure. If you lie, I will know.

Danny tried to pull himself to a kneeling position. He bent double clutching his stomach and I heard him mumble. As he swung his bloodied head and caught sight of the pit at his back he twisted his hand into the tattered cotton of his shirt. I saw his knuckles whiten.