Murder by Sarah Pinborough Page A

James. A dark head brokethe surface for the briefest moment and then Kane was gone again, searching the depths. Although they were close to the bank, the river’s currents were not gentle and the bed was full of weeds to snarl a boy’s legs in.
    As we waited with baited breath, I could not help but think of the fantastical
Upir
, thrown back into the river after Harrington’s death. It did not exist.
It did not
– and yet I felt a shiver of dread that left me trembling almost as much as Juliana was.
    ‘He has him!’ Hebbert shouted up from below. ‘
He has him
.’
    Juliana broke free of my arms and ran down to the bank, Andrews right behind her. Kane was swimming towards Hebbert, dragging the boy on his back behind him. He staggered onto the filthy mud and lay the boy down and Hebbert and Andrews were on their knees instantly, pumping at his chest and blowing into his small mouth.
    I did not move. I knew I should. I was a medical doctor – I had served on battlefields. It should have been me there in Andrews’ place, fighting alongside Hebbert to get the stinking water from the boy’s lungs, but I could not bring myself to go to the river’s edge.
    Even from where I stood I could see that James was deathly pale. Strands of green slime coloured his blond hair and I could not help but wonder how far he had sunk into those murky depths. The idea of placing my mouth over his revolted me. The river had been
inside
him. What else had reached for him as he sank? I could not help myself: I thought of an ancient creature with red eyes and sharp teeth waiting on the riverbed for a new host.
    James finally retched and coughed and a blast of water ejected itself from his lungs. As he opened his eyes he lookeddazed, struggling to remember where and with whom he was. His mother fell to her knees and smothered him with hugs and kisses, her tears washing away the stench.
    Beside me, the Barkers gasped with relief and clutched at each other. I alone remained unmoved.
    Kane, drenched and filthy, scooped the boy up and brought him up the stairs as Andrews pulled the boat to the bank and retrieved the American’s coat. It was only now, as the group hurried back inside the house, that I was able to shake off my stupor and join them, trying to ignore my overwhelming disgust and fear.
    *
    The Barkers departed shortly after that, having ascertained little James was alive and would be well. They were not part of the family like the rest of us, Kane included these days, and they let us get on with looking after James. The housekeeper started boiling water for a hot bath as Juliana and Hebbert stripped the shivering child of his sodden clothes and within an hour he was tucked up in bed and trying to eat the beef broth his mother was forcefully feeding him. I loitered in the doorway and watched for a moment before heading downstairs. Was it my imagination, or had red blotches begun to appear on his pale cheeks? Or was it simply my tiredness playing tricks on me? I had never liked the boy, but I could not help that, for I knew what his father had become, and that his birth had been so difficult as to be almost unnatural. It had always been hard for me to put those things to one side in my mind.
    ‘He will be just fine,’ Hebbert said, handing Kane a brandy. The American was wrapped in a blanket himself and sitting by a hastily lit fire. ‘Children are hardy. His mother thinkshe is fragile, but I’ve seen children with far more serious complaints than his occasional coughs and colds. His father had a weak chest and I don’t doubt he’s inherited it, but more fresh air will no doubt sort that out.’
    I poured myself a brandy and saw my hand was shaking slightly. What else had the boy inherited from his father? Could it be Fate that had forced him into the water? Had something been waiting for him under there? My jaw tightened and I cursed my dreams and my memories.
There were no monsters
. I would not believe it.
    ‘What happened to