TIME QUAKE by Linda Buckley-Archer Read Free Book Online Page B

Blueskin! Where? Tell me, good Mr Featherstone!’
    ‘Why, in Newgate Lane heading east.’
    ‘Was he alone?’
    ‘Joe Carrick walked with him, I believe, though I did not speak to him.’
    Gideon bade farewell to Featherstone and rushed back to Peter and Kate to tell them the good news.
    ‘The Tar Man is but five minutes hence with Joe Carrick. I must run if I am to stand a chance of catching him. Make your way to the meeting place and tell the others there has been a sighting of the Tar Man and that I have gone to Newgate Lane in search of him.’
    ‘I’m coming with you!’ cried Peter. ‘I’m a fast runner! I’ve won prizes – well, one . . .’
    ‘I do not have the time to argue, Master Peter,’ said Gideon. ‘Stay with Mistress Kate. I must fly!’
    Peter turned abruptly to Kate. ‘I
have
to go with Gideon. If the Carrick gang are with the Tar Man he’s going to need help! I’d say that you could come, too, but . . . I just don’t think you’re fit enough to run a long way.’
    Kate looked desperate. ‘No! Please! Don’t leave me alone!’
    Peter turned on her angrily. ‘Kate, don’t give me a hard time about this! I’ve got to go. I won’t be long. Go to the meeting place and tell the others what’s happening.’
    ‘
Peter! Please!
You said you wouldn’t leave me . . .’
    ‘And I meant it! I’m not
going
to leave you! Do you really think I wouldn’t come back for you? Surely you don’t need me to be with you every single second . . . Can’t you see that the sooner we catch the Tar Man, the sooner we can get you home and make you better?’
    Kate watched Peter’s back receding into the distance. Gideon’s blond head had already disappeared from view. How long before she fast-forwarded? The cold, creeping fear that was becoming her constant companion made Kate’s shoulders slump and her head droop towards her chest. Groups of revellers sailed by: poor and rich, young and old, comely and plain – the whole world, it seemed, was in high spirits except for Kate.
    A grimacing fool approached, beating a drum and capering and frolicking about, drawing attention to a mountebank who followed in his wake. The Merry Andrew suddenly threw himself to the ground, performed a perfect somersault and stood up so close to Kate that she could see lice crawling in his coarse hair. In a reflex action she pushed him violently away. The fool staggered back a step then used the momentum to turn a deft back-flip causing the tiny bells sewn to his costume to tinkle. There was laughter and a smattering of applause.
    Kate felt someone brush past her skirts and she took a step forward to give the person behind room to pass. But the person did not pass and she felt the warmth of a physical presence at her back. The next moment she felt a hand on her shoulder. She started in surprise. Then a second hand took hold of her and strong fingers squeezed her flesh until she was held in a vice-like grip. Kate gasped with the shock of it and felt her palms grow cold and clammy and the hairs rise at the back of her neck. A sixth sense told her who it was before she even turned around to look. She peered upwards over her shoulder.
    ‘You!’
    ‘Greetings, Mistress Dyer,’ replied the Tar Man.
    ‘I don’t understand, Gideon—’
    ‘Contrary to what Mr Seymour might believe, he would not be here had
I
not summoned
him
.’
    Kate’s mind raced. Gideon and Peter would be far away by now. The others were at the other side of this huge fair . . . Should she scream? Run? Shout for help? After a moment’s hesitation she craned her neck to one side, sank her teeth into the Tar Man’s hand and ground them into his flesh, clamping her jaws together with every last ounce of her strength.

C HAPTER F IVE

    High Treason

    In which Lord Luxon gets an answer to his
question and Alice encounters a dog with bottom

    No sooner had Lord Luxon commented that he had taken a fancy to observing the New York skyline from the sea, than Mrs