Felicity Maddox is standing in the doorway, a nightmare come to life. She’s still wearing her blue ball gown, now dripping wet and covered in mud, her make-up running down pale cheeks scratched by her hurried flight through the trees. Her lipstick is smeared, her hair wild, the black revolver steady in her hand.
She throws us a quick glance, but I doubt she sees us. Rage has left her half mad. Pointing the revolver at Evelyn’s stomach, she pulls the trigger, the shot so loud I have to cover my ears as blood splashes across the wallpaper. Not satisfied, she fires again, Evelyn collapsing on the floor.
Walking over to her, Felicity empties the last of her bullets into Evelyn’s lifeless body.
60
Anna’s face is pressed against my chest, but I can’t look away from Felicity. I don’t know if this is justice or not, but I’m desperately grateful for it all the same. Anna’s sacrifice would have set me free, but the guilt would never have let me go.
Her death would have made me a stranger to myself.
Felicity saved me.
Her revolver’s empty, but she’s still pressing the trigger, burying Evelyn in a chorus of hollow clicks. I think she would go on forever, but she’s interrupted by the Plague Doctor’s arrival. He gently takes the weapon from her hand and as if a spell’s been broken, her eyes clear, life coming into her limbs. She looks bone-tired and emptied out, pushed beyond thought.
With a last lingering look at Evelyn’s body, she nods to the Plague Doctor, before brushing by him and disappearing outside, not even a lantern to guide her way. A moment later, the front door opens, the sound of pounding rain filling the air.
I let Anna go and slump onto the carpet, holding my head in my hands.
‘You told Felicity we were here, didn’t you?’ I say through my fingers.
It comes out as an accusation, though I’m certain I’d meant to signal my gratitude. At this point, with all that’s happened, perhaps there’s no untangling the two.
‘I gave her a choice,’ he says, kneeling down to close Evelyn’s still-open eyes. ‘Her nature took care of the rest, as did yours.’
He’s looking at Anna as he says this, but his gaze soon passes over her, roaming the blood-splattered walls, before returning to the body lying at his feet. Part of me wonders if he isn’t admiring his own work, the indirect ruin of a human being.
‘How long have you known who the real Evelyn was?’ asks Anna, who’s looking the Plague Doctor up and down, examining him with a child’s wonder.
‘At precisely the same moment you did,’ he says. ‘I came to the lake as requested, and witnessed her unmasking first hand. When it became apparent where she was leading you, I returned to Blackheath to relay the information to the actress.’
‘But why help us?’ asks Anna.
‘Justice,’ he says simply, the beak mask turning in her direction. ‘Evelyn deserved to die and Felicity deserved to kill her. You two have proven that you deserve your freedom, and I would not have you falter at the final hurdle.’
‘Is this it, are we really done?’ I ask, my voice trembling.
‘Almost,’ he says. ‘I still need Anna to formally answer the question of who killed Evelyn Hardcastle.’
‘And what about Aiden?’ she asks, placing a hand on my shoulder. ‘He blamed Michael.’
‘Mr Bishop solved the murders of Michael, Peter and Helena Hardcastle, and the attempted murder of Felicity Maddox, a crime so cleverly concealed it was entirely unknown to myself and my superiors,’ says the Plague Doctor. ‘I cannot fault him for answering questions we never thought to ask, nor will I punish a man who risked so much to save somebody else’s life. His answer stands. Now I need yours. Who killed Evelyn Hardcastle, Anna?’
‘You didn’t say anything about Aiden’s other hosts,’ she says, stubbornly. ‘Will you let them go, as well? Some of them are still alive. If we go now, we can probably still save the butler. And what about poor Sebastian Bell. He only woke up this morning. What will he do without me to help him?’
‘Aiden is the Sebastian Bell who woke up this morning,’ says the Plague Doctor, kindly. ‘They were never anything more than a trick of the light, Anna. Shadows cast on a wall. Now you get to walk away with the flame that casts them, and once that happens, they’ll vanish.’
She blinks at him.
‘Trust me, Anna.’ He says. ‘Tell me who killed Evelyn Hardcastle and everybody is freed. One way or another.’
‘Aiden?’
She glances at me uncertainly, waiting for my approval. I can only nod. A flood of emotion is welling up inside of me, waiting for release.
‘Felicity Maddox,’ she declares.
‘You’re free,’ he says, standing up. ‘Blackheath won’t cling to either of you any longer.’
My shoulders are shaking. Unable to hold it in, I begin sobbing wretchedly, eight days of misery and fear pouring out like poison. Anna takes hold of me, but I can’t stop. I’m on the edge of my nerves, relieved and exhausted, terrified we’re being tricked.
Everything else in Blackheath was a lie, why not this as well?
I stare at Evelyn’s body, and see Michael thrashing in the Sun Room, and Stanwin’s baffled expression when Daniel shot him in the forest. Peter and Helena, Jonathan and Millicent, Dance, Davies, Rashton. The footman and Coleridge. The dead piled up.
How does somebody escape all this?
By saying a name...
‘Anna,’ I mutter.
‘I’m here,’ she says, clutching me fiercely. ‘We’re going home, Aiden. You did it, you kept your promise.’
She gazes at me, not a drop of doubt anywhere in her eyes. She’s smiling, jubilant. One day and one life, I thought it wouldn’t be enough to escape this place, but perhaps it’s the only way to escape this place.
Keeping tight hold of me, she looks up at the Plague Doctor.
‘What happens next?’ she asks. ‘I still can’t remember anything before this morning.’
‘You will,’ says the Plague Doctor. ‘You’ve served your sentence so all possessions will be returned to you, including your memories. If you wish. Most choose to leave them behind, and go on as they are. It may be something worth considering.’
Anna digests this, and I realise she still doesn’t know who she is, or what she did. That’s going to be a difficult conversation, but it’s not one I have the strength to face right now. I need to pack Blackheath away, deep in the dark, where my nightmares live, and I’m not going to be free of it for a very long time. If I can spare Anna similar suffering, even for a little while, I will.
‘You should go,’ says the Plague Doctor. ‘I think you’ve lingered here long enough.’
‘Are you ready?’ asks Anna.
‘I am,’ I say, letting her help me to my feet.
‘Thank you for everything,’ she says to the Plague Doctor, curtsying before leaving the house.
He watches her depart, then hands me Evelyn’s lantern.
‘They’ll be looking for her, Aiden,’ he whispers. ‘Don’t trust anybody, and don’t let yourselves remember. At best the memories will cripple you, at worst...’ He lets that hang. ‘Once you’re released, start running and don’t stop. That’s your only chance.’
‘What’s going to happen to you?’ I ask. ‘I doubt your superiors will be happy when they find out what you’ve done.’
‘Oh, they’ll be furious,’ he says cheerfully. ‘But today feels like a good day, and Blackheath hasn’t seen one of those for a very long time. I think I’ll enjoy it for a while and worry about the cost tomorrow. It will come soon enough, it always does.’
He holds out his hand. ‘Good luck, Aiden.’
‘You too,’ I say, shaking it and passing outside into the storm.
Anna’s waiting on the road, her eyes fixed on Blackheath. She looks so young, so carefree, but it’s a mask. There’s another face beneath this one, a woman hated by half the world, and I’ve helped free her. Uncertainty flickers within me, but whatever she’s done, whatever’s waiting, we’ll overcome it together. Here and now, that’s all that matters to me.
‘Where should we go?’ asks Anna, as I sweep the dark forest with the lantern’s warm light.
‘I don’t know,’ I say. ‘I don’t think it matters.’
She takes my hand, squeezing it gently.
‘Then let’s start walking and see where we end up.’