Page 66 of The Housebreaker's Assistant
Penny couldn’t have agreed more.
In a wild mission that had nearly seen them killed a time or two and where so much had depended on luck favoring them, the biggest stroke of luck they had was the train jerking, then slowly rolling forward as it left the station. Penny pulled the blind aside to look out onto the platform along with Greer.
The last sight of Newquay Station that he saw was Hammond and the guard conversing with two of the porters. If the porters recognized them from Hammond’s description, they could wire ahead to stations along the line to have the police waiting for them, but Penny doubted Hammond would do any such thing. He was as guilty of crime as Penny and Greer were. Hammond didn’t strike him as the kind who would court trouble that way.
Which meant there was a very good chance that Penny and Greer had gotten away. They’d been sent on an impossible mission, and they’d succeeded.
Chapter Twenty
Greer did not believe for a second that just because the train departed Newquay Station without incident that he, Penny, and Lord Fabian were out of the woods.
“There’s no need to keep yourself tied in knots,” Penny told him once they were well away from the seaside town, the Cornish countryside flying past the windows, whose blinds Penny had opened. “Hammond won’t pursue us from here.”
Greer crossed his arms and grunted. “He might not pursue us immediately, but he’ll continue to search for us, and for Lord Fabian.”
Both Greer and Penny glanced to Lord Fabian, who had curled into a ball on the seat beside Penny. The tragic young man hugged himself tightly, but still trembled like he was exposed in the middle of winter.
Now that rescue was no longer their first and only priority, Greer began to notice things about the young man. His features were fine and patrician, but he was severely undernourished. He might have always been slight, but as the flickering dawn light bathed him, Greer couldn’t help but worry the young man looked almost corpse-like. His skin was sickeningly pale, and noteven the clothing Penny had stolen for him could entirely hide the bruises around his wrists and ankles.
The wound around the young man’s ankle was particularly worrying. It stood out starkly over the top of the ill-fitting shoes Penny had found for him. The area was so red and sore that Lord Fabian hadn’t been able to tolerate putting on a sock.
But Greer suspected the pain from the young man’s ankle was the least of the things that were causing his face to contort with pain.
“How long has Dalhurst been dosing you with opium?” Greer asked as kindly as he could.
Lord Fabian didn’t answer. That in itself spoke volumes. All of it taken together, the shaking, the pale, clammy skin, the way Lord Fabian gripped himself, particularly his stomach, the insensibility…all if it told Greer that the man was in the throes of delirium tremens. There was no way to tell when was the last time he’d been given opium, but Greer was willing to bet it was long enough ago to hurt the poor young man.
Greer and Penny watched Lord Fabian for several long minutes, waiting to see if he would answer, or even seem more aware of his surroundings. Those signs never materialized.
“What do you suppose Brutus and Titus will do with him?” Penny asked quietly as the mood in the compartment grew heavier and heavier.
Greer shook his head and shrugged. “I couldn’t say.”
“Surely, there must be a way to cure someone of an addiction to opium,” Penny said, voice hollow.
He glanced over and met Greer’s eyes. The understanding Penny’s green eyes held pierced like an arrow in Greer’s heart. He didn’t know a single soul who had ever completely recovered from opium addiction.
“Brutus and Titus would not have charged us with rescuing the man if they did not have plans in place for his rehabilitation,” he said, though he wasn’t entirely confident in that.
His confidence sank farther once they actually made it back to London and The Zagreus Den. The journey itself was mostly uneventful, but coaxing Lord Fabian out of the train and through the station to a hired hack ended up being a harrowing event.
“No,” Lord Fabian mumbled and struggled against Penny as he tried to pull the man away from his seat. “No, I don’t want to go. Help me! Help!”
“It’s alright, my lord,” Penny tried in vain to reassure him. “We’re taking you someplace safe.”
“Please, please, no,” Lord Fabian wept once Penny finally wrestled him out of the train.
“He’s not well,” Greer explained to the startled bystanders who witnessed Lord Fabian’s sobbing. “We’re taking him to hospital.”
The lie brought compassion from some quarters but sneers and avoidance from others. Greer wouldn’t have minded either way, but there was a risk that someone in the station would recognize the young lordling, or that the police would be called.
“If we can just get him into a carriage, we’ll be fine,” Penny said with a smile, partly for Greer, partly for the people who looked on, and partly in an attempt to soothe Lord Fabian.
They managed to escort him slowly through the station and out to the street, but they gained far too much attention in doing so. On top of that, the first two carriages for hire refused to take them, since Lord Fabian had turned hysterical.
“No! Let go of me! I want to go home! Please!” he shouted, struggling against Penny and Greer.
“He’s not well,” Greer explained again to the startled people who passed them, frightened or pitying.
