might or might not have been responsible for. I wanted to kill him. I was looking for some excuse to kill the man who killed the Regent of Shadows before I even had the chance to get to know my grandfather properly. I killed Marcus Turner because I could. Because I wanted to. And I don’t think . . . I should be able to do that.”
“Eddie . . .”
“How’s Maggie settling in as the new Matriarch?” I said. Because although I was ready to talk to the Armourer about what I’d done, I wasn’t ready to hear him talk about it. He saw the look in my eyes, and went along with the change in subject.
“She’s doing surprisingly well. I suppose bullying all those gardeners for years was actually special training for running the family. She’s showing a real aptitude for getting people to work together. Something about the position always seems to sober the person who assumes it. Much like your grandmother, Eddie. I’m told she was quite the bright young thing in her day. Always dancing and drinking and laughing . . . Yes, I know. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? The position, its duties and responsibilities, does take its toll.”
“Being a Drood takes its toll,” I said.
“Yes. It does,” said the Armourer. “But I still wouldn’t swap it for anything. No one else gets to lead the kind of life we do.”
“Which is sometimes good, and sometimes bad,” I said.
“But always glorious,” said the Armourer.
We shared a smile.
“Maxwell and Victoria, Uncle Jack?” I said. “Really? They’re your best bet for replacing you as Armourer?”
“They both have first-class minds,” the Armourer said firmly. “Underneath . . . And they’re certainly a lot better at organising this place than I ever was. Look around you! We haven’t had a major fire or an unfortunate transformation in weeks . . . And at least they’ve got each other. That’s important. They won’t end up married to the place, and the job. Like I did.”
“You’ve had a life, outside the Armoury,” I said. “Even though you weren’t supposed to. I know all about your little trips to the Nightside and what you got up to there.”
“No, you don’t,” said the Armourer. “Or you wouldn’t be talking about it so casually. But, yes, I did get around . . . for all the good it did me.”
He looked away from me, and his gaze fell upon a piece of discarded tech, lying on his work-bench. He scowled fiercely at it.
“There! You see? Look at that! That’s what I’m talking about! Do you know what that is? Neither do I . . . I know I put the damned thing there, but I don’t have a single clue as to what it is or what it’s for. I must have known what it was when I put it there to work on, but now . . . I can’t remember. There’s so much I don’t remember these days . . . And I just can’t seem to give a damn any longer. When the family Armourer doesn’t care, Eddie, it is definitely time to find a new Armourer.”
“You’ve got years in you yet, Uncle Jack,” I said.
“Perhaps. But not as Armourer. I’ve stretched myself too thin, boy, gone on too long. Extended my working life through questionable choices . . . There’s always a price to be paid for such decisions. And the longer you put off paying it . . .”
I decided to change the subject again. If only because the Armourer looked seriously close to feeling sorry for himself.
“There’s something important we need to talk about, Uncle Jack.”
“Oh dear,” said the Armourer, fixing me with a steady gaze from under his bushy white eyebrows. “That sounds serious. Did I forget your birthday again? I’m sorry, but I’m not good with birthdays. I don’t even remember my own. Of course, at my age you don’t celebrate birthdays—you survive them.”
I waited patiently for him to run down, and then pressed on. “This isn’t about me. It’s about Molly, and her parents, and what happened to them. We need to talk about what you know, Uncle Jack. About the family’s really secret agents. The ones who take on the kinds of missions the family can’t officially acknowledge. Because we might be ashamed of them.”
“Sometimes that kind of thing can be necessary,” the Armourer said steadily. “I learned that the hard way, during the Cold War. You have to be prepared to make the