The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins - [34]

‘Sam. Enough. Come away.’ The ground was tilting beneath my feet. I could taste blood in the air – a heavy iron tang. I still couldn’t believe that Burden was truly dead. I half expected his corpse to sit up of a sudden and laugh, as if this were all some macabre jest at my expense.

Ned, Judith, Stephen… There was one other possibility of course. ‘Did you do this, Sam?’

He did not seem in the least put out by the question. Had seemed more offended, in fact, when I had accused him of thieving. ‘Why would I kill him?’ he asked, putting a hand to Burden’s ruined chest.

‘That’s not an answer… Oh, good God! Stop that.’

He ignored me, probing each wound with deft fingers. ‘Not gentlemanly?’

‘This is not a game, Sam.’

He gave a soft, secret smile, as if this were the best game in the world. ‘Nine stab wounds.’

I stared at the savage gouges in his chest, the glistening clots of blood. Nine stab wounds. This was not the work of a cool-tempered assassin. Whoever murdered Joseph Burden had acted in a frenzy of hate and fury. He would have been covered head to foot in blood when he was done.

Who had more reason to hate Burden than Alice? And I had left her alone next door while Kitty slept downstairs, with no warning or protection.

It was time to leave.

I took one last look at Burden’s bloody and butchered corpse. He’d wanted me dead – had been prepared to lie on oath to see me hang. My enemy in life – and he still had the power to destroy me in death. God damn it. I would not hang for this. Wherever Burden was now – heaven or hell – I would not give him the satisfaction.

Chapter Nine

I need not have worried about Kitty. When Sam and I returned to his room, she was standing over Alice – with a pistol in her hand.

‘And when did you plan to explain this, Tom?’ Kitty asked, tilting the barrel towards Alice’s bloodstained clothes. ‘Is it true? Is the old bastard dead?’

‘Stabbed through the heart.’

Kitty tapped Alice’s shoulder with the pistol. ‘D’you kill him? If that bloated hog tried to force himself on me, reckon I’d stab him.’

‘I never touched him.’

I closed the door between the attic rooms. Sam slid the hanging back in place.

‘He was stabbed many times,’ I said.

‘Nine,’ Sam clarified.

‘Whoever killed him would be covered in blood…’

We all looked at Alice.

‘I told you, it was dark. I didn’t see the blood until…’ She put her face in her hands and rocked softly. Kitty gritted her teeth, frustrated, while Sam watched them both, unblinking. No doubt he would sketch this, later. The maidservant drenched in her master’s blood and the girl with a pistol in her hand.

‘You must see, Alice, how this seems. You have the very best reason for wanting Burden dead.’

Alice dropped her hands. ‘Save for you, sir.’

There was a short, cold silence. And then a sharp click, as Kitty cocked the pistol. ‘Look at yourself, Alice! Tell me why we should not drag you at once to the magistrate?’

‘I didn’t do it!’ Alice howled, desperate. ‘You must believe me! There’d be no sense in it.’

‘Why not?’

Her shoulders slumped. ‘He was going to marry me.’

We stared at each other in consternation.

‘He announced it while I was serving dinner yesterday. Didn’t bother to ask me first. No warning. No argument. Judith ran outside and puked in the yard. Imagine. Her maid was now her mother.’

Kitty lowered the pistol. ‘You consented?’

‘What choice did I have?’ Alice looked utterly exhausted. ‘At least I’d have some protection. Why – do you think I wanted his rough hands all over me? His fat, sweating belly pressing down so I could scarce breathe? He made me sick. I fought him off the first time. But he said he’d tell the world I’d thieved from him. Who would hire me after that? I’d be on the street and on my back for every pox-ridden bastard with a halfpenny to spend. Mr Hawkins, sir – you know he’d have done it. He told all those lies about you in church.’

‘What’s this?’ Kitty asked sharply.

I frowned, but there was no value in shielding her any more. ‘He was spreading rumours about me. He said that I killed a man, down in Southwark…’

‘He swore an oath to Mr Gonson,’ Alice said. ‘Said he heard you through the wall, confessing to it. He was lying, I know. He hated you both. Because you was happy, I think. Happy and young.’ She paused. ‘I’m glad he’s dead. Bastard. I’d have liked to marry him first, though, just for the money. And the look on Judith’s face. She’ll throw me out on the street now.…’

Kitty paid her no mind. She was staring at me from across the room with a stunned expression, as if the house had collapsed around her. ‘Why did you not tell me? What possessed you…’ She trailed away, staring at the pistol in her hand. ‘Oh, Tom…’

I couldn’t explain my actions in front of Sam and Alice, but I didn’t need to. Kitty understood. If she had known that Burden planned to testify against me, she would have confessed to the murder in a flash, in order to protect me. Just as I had lied to the queen to protect her. The difference was that Kitty had indeed pulled the trigger. One bullet for defence. The other for revenge.