was this woman, that she had such an effect on me, could order me about, and have me obey like the veriest slave? As we passed a common-room downstairs voices floated out.
“Oh, tell me another! What use would that stinkin’ sodomite Marlowe behavin’ for a wench?” I felt my blood turn to ice then rush burning hot to my face as I recognized the voice—Nicholas Skeres, a crony of my great enemy, Frizer. He was lurking here for no other reason than to taunt and torment me, I was certain. A red haze clouded my sight as I shook off Rózsa’s restraining hand and slipped into the room. “He’s far more interested in a boy’s backside,” the coarse voice continued over a chorus of guffaws.
“Or either side of pretty Thomas Walsingham, eh Skeres?” another voice gibed.
“Oh, aye, I’d bet he bends over right enough for our Tommy!” I was standing behind the drunken Skeres; close enough to watch the progress of a louse through his thinning, filthy hair. As he reached his right hand up to scratch, I grasped it, twisting it up behind his back as I tugged his dagger from its sheath. The big man started to push himself up off his stool, his left hand flat upon the table. I promptly leaned over and plunged the knife through his hand and a good inch into the oak beneath. I then stood racked with vicious laughter at his frantic efforts to free himself.
“I cry you mercy, Nick, but I mistook it for a rat,” I cried, almost choking between rage and glee. Only one of his companions was sober enough to stumble from his seat and charge me—he ran into the heel of my hand and crumpled to the floor, spattering the rushes with blood from his broken nose. I landed two solid kicks to the fallen man’s ribs before Rózsa stopped me. She paused to glance scornfully at the bedlam and toss a couple of gold coins into the blood pooling on the table top, then pulled me from the smoky room. The roars of outrage and pain followed us into the yard where two horses stood, one innocent white, and the other black as sin, held by a starveling street boy. I found myself still shaking with rage and unable to look at Rózsa. I had never learned to curb my violent impulses, rather the opposite, brawling for sport. Though I had been warned often enough my temper would bring me disgrace, this was the first time that I felt ashamed. She waited until I heaved myself onto the white horse’s back then swung lightly onto the black. “You are impetuous, Kit,” was all she said.
Chapter 2
A small shadow, a child-sized man, slipped from the alley to follow the man and boy, pausing for a moment to listen to the howls still coming from within. It was not difficult to keep his quarry insight as the riders let the horses pick their own way through the muddy, mucky streets of Norton Folgate. They entered the City, where they soon reached Crosby Place, handed the reins to a waiting groom, and vanished indoors. He sidled up to the serving-man, showing a coin and asking a few hurried questions. The answers seemed to satisfy him. He pressed the coin and its brother into the waiting hand before scurrying away into the dark.
The little man made his way quickly to Aldgate, to one of the many cottages that subdivided what had once been Northumberland House. He stumbled to the little brazier that served to heat the room, and finally managed to calm his breathing enough to blow the embers into life and light a candle.
“Doctor Montague,” a colorless voice spoke from the shadows, startling the little man so that he almost dropped the light. The candle flickered wildly for a moment and the little man set it hastily on the dirty table.
“My lord earl,” he said, in a voice as shaky as his hands. “You startled me.”
“You told me that you held the secret of immortality in your hand, Doctor. Was that an idle boast?”
“I may say that it is within my grasp, my lord. Have you heard of the undead? The vampire?” His voice sank into a whisper and the two heads, one sandy and one dark, almost touched as the nobleman leaned close to catch the commoner’s words.
Chapter 3
I followed Rózsa into a small study off the main hall where her guardian awaited us. A table had