The second time he had lashed out in as many weeks. Not good.
I knelt down to help Henry clean up. ‘I thought you said it was a rare occurrence?’
‘Thank you,’ he sniffed. ‘It is. Was. Oh Lilith love, he had good reason this time. I’ve done such a dreadful thing.’
This was the point when I would traditionally leave the room: someone else’s mess, someone else’s problem that I didn’t need, or want, to know about. Time to run away. However at Albermarle Hall I estimated that the furthest I could run in any given direction was considerably less than quarter of a mile. I dropped a disembodied teacup handle into the bag before sitting cross-legged on a kitchen chair. ‘So, what caused it?’
Henry joined me at the table and promptly burst into tears. I tore off a length of paper towel and handed it to him. He wiped at his eyes from under his glasses, noisily blew his nose and finally took a deep breath as if about to pronounce a death sentence. ‘As you’re aware, part of my job is to perform certain secretarial duties for Lady Albermarle.’
It wasn’t the most obvious lead-in to an unspeakable crime. ‘And?’
‘You’ve heard mention of her London establishment? ‘Marley’s’? Several million pounds’ worth of South Kensington real estate that she likes to think of as an exclusive playground for well-heeled hedonists. In truth it’s nothing more than, well...’
‘A brothel?’ I volunteered. ‘Finn’s said something about it. I gather it’s a little more mainstream than this delightful fuck-fest, though.’
‘Just your average, run-of-the-mill whorehouse, as long as your income’s in six figures,’ Henry said acidly. ‘Well, it was until this morning.’ He sighed and fell silent, rolling a corner of kitchen paper between finger and thumb. ‘Over the past few years there have always been requests from clients that Blaine has turned down, either through some vestigial morality, or more likely, excessive risk of exposure. This morning, she sank lower than I thought she could possibly go.’
I thought of what Finn had been through in the few weeks I had spent on the island. ‘Some feat.’
‘Indeed.’ Henry fought tears again. ‘There are two American gentlemen – something big in music production, apparently – who’ve spent the last year petitioning Blaine for a boy who’s still under the age of consent.’
‘Oh no...’
‘Oh yes.’ Henry gave me an infinitely sad little smile. ‘He’s called Jake, he’s a runaway who got picked up in Leicester Square, and he was thirteen last January. I spent a considerable part of this morning on the telephone to London, arranging the logistics of his secure accommodation at the club until those beasts have finished their summer break in the Cayman Islands.’ More shredded kitchen roll was added to the pile on the table. ‘And however unwillingly I performed that task, I can now add pederasty by association to my list of sins.’
‘Henry, I don’t believe for a moment -’
‘You might not, on the basis that you’re an intelligent young woman in full possession of the truth. But let’s face it, to anyone else, I’m just a pathetic old queen doing what all pathetic old queens really want to do.’ Henry brushed the scraps of paper into his hand and dropped them into the bag before starting a fresh pile. ‘I did argue with her, you know. I’ve never spoken to her in the way I did this morning, but it was never going to do much good. All she had to do was merely threaten a call to Mother’s home and I caved. She didn’t even have to pick up the phone. What kind of a monster does that make me, Lilith? ’
Henry sat motionless, waiting for me to pass judgement on him.
Just weeks ago I would have known exactly what it made him, and would have happily told him as we sat there.
Just weeks ago I was living in an altogether different country. Realisation tasted vomit-sharp in my mouth.
‘It makes you the same breed of monster that sits and draws a man who’s being forced to screw a woman who’ll maim him as her therapy. And who patches him up so that he can do exactly the same thing again the next time he’s called.’
Henry shook his head. ‘It’s hardly the same, love,’ he reassured me.
‘It’s exactly the same. We’re both assisting whilst some poor bastard gets fucked for fun. So how did Finn find out?’