Chapter6

The grandfather clock in Mayfair Houses east wing chimed three times its brass pendulum cutting through the silence like a surgeons blade Lucians wheelchair sat motionless in the shadows its chrome accents catching slivers of moonlight that slipped through heavy drapes Finn Fitzgerald awoke with a start his bare foot brushing against cold metal the shock of it slicing through feverish dreams

He blinked sweat from his lashes taking in the scene the Earl of Wessex asleep in his wheelchair neck bent at an angle that promised tomorrows stiffness one hand still clutching a dossier labeled Harrow Admissions the other dangling perilously close to a spilled tumbler of Macallan The boys fingers remained locked around Lucians wrist the skin beneath mottled red and white from hours of unconscious grip

Finn uncurled his hand with monastic care wiping damp palm prints from alabaster flesh The earl didnt stir his breathing the shallow rhythm of chronic insomniacs Finn hovered uncertainly caught between guilt over trapping the man here all night and something darker more primal the need to preserve this fragile connection

The ensuite bathrooms marble floor chilled his soles as he relieved himself the sound of running water absurdly loud in the tombsilence When he returned Lucian was awake and regarding him with the detached interest of a biologist studying lab specimens

Youre like one of those feral cats Pembroke feeds Lucians voice rasped from disuse all hiss and no claws The boy froze halfway into bed What

The earl rotated his wrist with audible pops The ones that scratch the furniture then expect cream served in Wedgwood

Finns cheeks burned I didnt

Save the protest for your Latin tutor Lucian reached for the wheelchair arms his shoulder muscles bunching beneath cashmere Theres a difference between needing and deserving

The words hung between them sharp as the scalpels in Dr Fenwicks clinic Finn watched the earls laborious transfer from chair to bed every tremor in those aristocratic hands a rebuke When Lucian finally lay propped against monogrammed pillows his breathing slightly uneven Finn dared to ask

Why did you stay

Lucian adjusted his spectacles moonlight etching the scars along his knuckles Someone needs to document your snoring for medical science

They both knew it was a lie The real answer lay in the Polaroid peeking from the admissions file Malcolm at sixteen leaning against an Aston Martin DB5 at Silverstone Finns own face superimposed by time and grief

Dawn found them in the breakfast room parsing schedules over kedgeree and The Times Lucians fountain pen circling items with military precision

Seven AM physiotherapy Eight thirty French conjugations Ten Theres a fencing master at Harrow wholl

Finns spoon clattered against Spode china Im not going back

The earl didnt look up from his annotations The alternative being what precisely Joining Camdens charming knife enthusiasts

They want me in the C stream The words tasted like roof lead The scholarship committee met yesterday

Ah Lucian set down his pen the sound like a cell door slamming So the vultures begin their dance

At Harrow the streams were whispered about in Gothic corridors A for aristocrats B for bankers C for charity cases Finns new designation hung in the air like gallows rope Lucian studied him over steepled fingers

And you presume Id let some jumpedup bursar dictate terms

Its not your decision

Everything in this house is my decision The earls smile held winter sunlight brittle and cold Including whether that plebeian school receives its annual donation

The Daimler glided through Kensington frost etching lace patterns on its windows Finn stared at the leatherbound folder in his lap its embossed crest biting into his palms The transfer papers listed his new dormitory in East Quadrangle where Harrows scholarship students roomed beneath leaky eaves

They passed the Albert Memorial its gilded angels tarnished by decades of pigeon spite Lucian spoke without turning from the window

Youll take my surname

Finns head snapped up What

The Sinclair legacy opens doors The earls reflection showed nothing but marble composure Even for stubborn whelps who kick them

The car pulled into Harrows fabled gates where generations of prime ministers had carved their initials into oak panels A cluster of boys in tailcoats paused their cricket match to stare as Lucians wheelchair unfolded like some mechanized raptor

Headmaster Vaughn greeted them with oiled solicitude Ah Lord Sinclair such an unexpected honor The new science wing

Is still missing its promised endowment Lucian cut through the platitudes like a saber through fog My ward requires certain accommodations

Vaughns smile stiffened Of course the C stream facilities

The earls glove snapped against the armrest You mistake me Vaughn The Sinclair name has graced your honor roll since Victoria wore mourning crepe This boy Lucians cane pointed at Finns chest Will take his place in A stream where he belongs

The ensuing silence could have frozen the Serpentine Finn watched the power play with detached awe Lucians wealth and lineage against Vaughns bureaucratic pettiness When the headmaster finally acquiesced it was with the grace of a stabbed peacock

Their footsteps echoed through the Clock Courtyard where generations of Sinclairs had etched their hubris into stone Lucian paused beneath an archway weathered by centuries of aristocratic scorn

Theyll test you he said quietly The weak always scent blood

Finn touched the transfer papers now bearing Lucians sprawling signature Let them

The earls approval showed only in the relaxed set of his shoulders Youll need this He produced a silver signet ring its Sinclair crest modified with Fitzgeralds gryphon A hybrid monster for mongrel blood

Finn slipped it on feeling the weight of dynasties The cold metal warmed quickly against his skin

Dismissal bell rang scattering flocks of tailcoated youths across frostbitten lawns Lucian watched them with hooded eyes Your first lesson begins now

He pointed to a lanky boy emerging from the chemistry labs Allister Beaumont Third son of Baronetcy mediocre grades exceptional cruelty

Finns fingers curled around the ring What am I meant to do

Survive Lucians smile held no warmth The car returns at five

The earl left him there amidst the gawking stares and whispered slurs Finn stood straighter feeling the ring bite into flesh A hybrid monster indeed

Beaumonts gang found him at lockers Their laughter echoed off vaulted ceilings Well if it isnt the charity case

Finn turned slowly cataloguing threats Beaumonts cronies two meaty shouldered future backbenchers and a weasel faced heir to some telecom fortune

Your dormitory assignment Beaumont flicked the transfer papers got lost He nodded to East Quadrangle where smoke curled from crumbling chimneys Run along now street rat

The ring left crescent moons in Finns palm He heard Lucians voice cutting through memory Weakness is a scent

With deliberate care he unpacked his satchel arranging Lucians donated textbooks in pristine order The Complete Works of Cicero Oxford Latin Dictionary Principles of Modern Fencing

When Beaumont reached for the dagger sharpened quill Finn moved

Later the headmaster would stare at the security footage in appalled silence the earls ward moving with feral grace born of back alley scraps and cemetery grit The future baronets heir howling as a Latin text broke his nose the telecom princes son tripped into a mud puddle

Finn emerged from the scuffle with split knuckles and a torn blazer His new classmates parted like the Red Sea as he retrieved the signet ring from where it had flown during the melee

He found Lucian waiting by the Daimler its engine purring like a contented tiger The earl took in the bloodied uniform and smirked

I see youve decorated

Finn tossed the ring catching afternoon light in its crest They started it

Naturally Lucian produced a flask of single malt The question is did you finish it

As the car pulled through wrought iron gates Finn watched Beaumonts gang skulk past the headmasters office Their eyes held the wary respect predators grant dangerous prey

He sipped whiskey feeling its fire trail down to the cold pit of his stomach The hybrid monster had found its teeth

The streets of Mayfair blurred past each Georgian facade a chess piece in Lucians endless game Finn studied the earls profile carved from ice and ancestral pride

Why the ring

Lucians fingers brushed the matching crest on his own hand Every monster needs its collar

They both knew it wasnt the truth The real answer lay in the way the earls thumb had lingered over Malcolms inscription in the family bible the night before Another hybrid another chance

The Daimler turned onto Grosvenor Square where winter stars began piercing the smog Finn pressed his forehead to cold glass watching their reflection merge in the darkening pane A lord and his mongrel two sides of Britains tarnished coin

Somewhere between Harrows spires and Mayfairs gilded cages the boy who wasnt Malcolm began to take root