Maskerade. Part 23

"She sings a bit. Big girl. Voice with double joints in it. Wears black."

"You don't mean Perdita?"

"Perdita? Oh, yes. That'd be her all right."

"I think she's seeing to Christine. They're in Mr. Salzella's office."

"Would Christine be the thin girl in white?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And I expect you're going to show me where this Mr. Salzella's office is?"

"Er, am I-Er, yes. It's just along the stage there, first door on the right."

"What a good boy to help an old lady," said Nanny. Her grip increased to a few ounces short of cutting off circulation. "And wouldn't it be a good idea if you helped young Walter back there do something respectful for the poor dead man?"

"Back where?"

Nanny turned around. The late Dr. Undershaft had gone nowhere, but Walter had vanished.

"Poor chap was a bit upset, I shouldn't wonder," said Nanny. "Only to be expected. So...how about if you got another strapping young lad to help you out instead?"

"Er...yes."

"What a good boy," Nanny repeated.

It was mid-evening. Granny and Mrs. Plinge pushed their way through the crowds toward the Shades, a part of the city that was as thronged as a rookery, fragrant as a cesspit, and vice versa.

"So," said Granny, as they entered the network of fetid alleys, "your boy Walter usually sees you home, does he?"

"He's a good boy, Mistress Weatherwax," said Mrs. Plinge defensively.

"I'm sure you're grateful for a strong lad to lean on," said Granny.

Mrs. Plinge looked up. Looking into Granny's eyes was like looking into a mirror. What you saw looking back at you was yourself, and there was no hiding place.

"They torment him so," she mumbled. "They poke at him and hide his broom. They're not bad boys round here, but they will torment him."

"He brings his broom home, does he?"

"He looks after his things," said Mrs. Plinge. "I've always brought him up to look after his things and not be a trouble. But they will poke the poor soul and call him such names..."

The alleyway opened into a yard, like a well between the high buildings. Washing lines crisscrossed the rectangle of moonlit sky.

"I'm just in here," said Mrs. Plinge. "Much obliged to you."

"How does Walter get home without you?" said Granny.

"Oh, there's plenty of places to sleep in the Opera House. He knows that if I don't come for him he's to stop there for the night. He does what he's told, Mistress Weatherwax. He's never any trouble."

"I never said he was."

Mrs. Plinge fumbled in her purse, as much to escape Granny's stare as to look for the key.

"I expect your Walter sees most of what goes on in the Opera House," said Granny, taking one of Mrs. Plinge's wrists in her hand. "I wonder what your Walter...saw?"

The pulse jumped at the same time as the thieves did. Shadows unfolded themselves. There was the sc.r.a.pe of metal.

A low voice said, "There's two of you, ladies, and there's six of us. There's no use in screaming."

"Oh, deary deary me," said Granny.

Mrs. Plinge dropped to her knees. "Oh, please don't hurt us, kind sirs, we are harmless old ladies! Haven't you got mothers?"

Granny rolled her eyes. d.a.m.n, d.a.m.n and blast. She was a good witch. That was her role in life. That was the burden she had to bear. Good and Evil were quite superfluous when you'd grown up with a highly developed sense of Right and Wrong. She hoped, oh she hoped, that young though these were, they were dyed-in-the-wool criminals...

"I 'ad a mother once," said the nearest thief. "Only I think I must of et 'er..."

Ah. Top marks. Granny raised both hands to her hat to draw out two long hat pins...

A tile slid off the roof, and splashed into a puddle.

They looked up.

A caped figure was visible for a moment against the moonlight. It thrust out a sword at arm's length. Then it dropped, landing lightly in front of one astonished man.

The sword whirled.

The first thief spun and thrust at the shadowy shape in front of him, which turned out to be another thief, whose arm jerked up and dragged its own knife along the rib cage of the thief beside him.

The masked figure danced among the gang, his sword almost leaving trails in the air. It occurred to Granny later that it never actually made contact, but then, it never needed to-when six are against one in a melee in the shadows, and especially if those six aren't used to a target that is harder to hit than a wasp, and even more so if they got all their ideas of knife fighting from other amateurs, then there's six chances in seven that they'll stab a crony and about one chance in twelve that they'll nick their own earlobe.

The two that remained uninjured after ten seconds looked at one another, turned, and ran.

And then it was over.

The surviving vertical figure bowed low in front of Granny Weatherwax. "Ah. Bella Bella Donna!" Donna!"

There was a swirl of black cloak and red silk, and it too was gone. For a moment soft footsteps could be heard skimming over the cobbles.

Granny's hand was still halfway to her hat.

"Well I never!" she said.

She looked down. Various bodies were groaning or making soft bubbling noises.

"Deary deary me," she said. Then she pulled herself together.

"I reckon we're going to need some nice hot water and some bits of bandage, and a good sharp needle for the st.i.tching, Mrs. Plinge," she said. "We can't let these poor men bleed to death now, can we, even if they do try to rob old ladies..."

Mrs. Plinge looked horrified.

"We've got to be charitable, Mrs. Plinge," Granny insisted.

"I'll pump up the fire and tear up a sheet," said Mrs. Plinge. "Don't know if I can find a needle..."

"Oh, I 'spect I've got a needle," said Granny, extracting one from the brim of her hat.

She knelt down by a fallen thief. "It's rather rusty and blunt," she added, "but we shall have to do the best we can."

The needle gleamed in the moonlight. His round, frightened eyes focused on it, and then on Granny's face. He whimpered. His shoulder blades tried to dig him into the cobbles.

It was perhaps as well that no one else could see Granny's face in the shadows.

"Let's do some good," she said.

Salzella threw his hands in the air. "Supposing he'd come down in the middle of the act?" he said.

"All right, all right right," said Bucket, who was sitting behind his desk as a man might hide behind a bunker. "I agree. After the show we call in the Watch. No two ways about it. We shall just have to ask them to be discreet."

"Discreet? Have you ever met a Watchman?" said Salzella.

"Not that they'll find anything. He'll have been over the rooftops and away, you may depend upon it. Whoever he is. Poor Dr. Undershaft. He was always so highly strung."

"Never more so than tonight," said Salzella.

"That was tasteless!"

Salzella leaned over the desk. "Tasteless or not, the company are theater people. Superst.i.tious. One little thing like someone being murdered onstage and they go all to pieces."

"He wasn't murdered onstage, he was murdered offstage. And we can't be sure sure it was murder! He'd been very...depressed, lately." it was murder! He'd been very...depressed, lately."

Agnes had been shocked, but it hadn't been shock at Dr. Undershaft's death. She'd been astonished at her own reaction. It had been startling and unpleasant to see the man, but even worse to see herself actually being interested interested in what was happening-in the way people reacted, in the way they moved, in the things they said. It had been as if she'd stood outside herself, watching the whole thing. in what was happening-in the way people reacted, in the way they moved, in the things they said. It had been as if she'd stood outside herself, watching the whole thing.

Christine, on the other hand, had just folded up. So had Dame Timpani. Far more people had fussed over Christine than around the prima donna, despite the fact that Dame Timpani had come around and fainted again quite pointedly several times and had eventually been forced to go for hysterics. No one had a.s.sumed for a minute that Agnes couldn't cope.

Christine had been carried into Salzella's backstage office and put on a couch. Agnes had to fetch a bowl of water and a cloth and was wiping her forehead, for there are some people who are destined to be carried to comfortable couches and some people whose only fate is fetching a bowl of cold water.

"Curtain goes up again in two minutes," said Salzella. "I'd better go and round up the orchestra. They'll all be in the Stab In The Back over the road. The swine can get through half a pint before the applause has died away."

"Are they capable of playing?"

"They never have been, so I don't see why they should start now," said Salzella. "They're musicians musicians, Bucket. The only way a dead body would upset them is if it fell in their beer, and even then they'd play if you offered them Dead Body Money."

Bucket walked over to the rec.u.mbent Christine. "How is she?"

"She keeps mumbling a bit-" Agnes began.

"Cup of tea? Tea? Cup of tea, anyone? Nothing nicer than a cup of tea, well, I tell a lie, but I see the couch is occupied, just my little joke, no offense meant, anyone for a nice cup of tea?"

Agnes looked around in horror.

"Well, I I could certainly do with one," said Bucket, with false joviality. could certainly do with one," said Bucket, with false joviality.

"How about you, miss?" Nanny winked at Agnes.

"Er...no, thank you...do you work work here?" said Agnes. here?" said Agnes.

"I'm just helping out for Mrs. Plinge, who has been taken poorly," said Nanny, giving her another wink. "I'm Mrs. Ogg. Don't mind me."

This seemed to satisfy Bucket, if only because random tea distributors represented the most minor of threats at this point.

"It's more like Grand Guignol Grand Guignol than opera out there tonight," said Nanny. She nudged Bucket. "'S foreign for 'blood all over the stage,'" she said helpfully. than opera out there tonight," said Nanny. She nudged Bucket. "'S foreign for 'blood all over the stage,'" she said helpfully.

"Really."

"Yep. It means...Big Gignol."

Music started in the distance.

"That's the overture to Act Two," said Bucket. "Well, if Christine is still unwell, then..." He looked desperately at Agnes. Well, at a time like this people would understand.

Agnes's chest swelled further with pride. "Yes, Mr. Bucket?"

"Perhaps we could find you a white-"

Christine, her eyes still shut, raised her wrist to her forehead and groaned.

"Oh, dear, what happened?"

Bucket knelt down instantly. "Are you all right? You had a nasty shock! Do you think you could go on for the sake of your art and people not asking for their money back?"

She gave him a brave smile. Unnecessarily brave, it seemed to Agnes.

"I can't disappoint the dear public!" she said.

"Jolly good!" said Bucket. "I should hurry on out there, then. Perdita will help you-won't you, Perdita?" good!" said Bucket. "I should hurry on out there, then. Perdita will help you-won't you, Perdita?"

"Yes. Of course."