Jane thanked Alice and returned to the room where she was sharing a bed with Doctor Porter. The woman was asleep, snoring gently, and now Jane was tired too. She slipped under the blanket and slept soundly, but her dreams were riddled with frenzied, red-eyed monsters.
When she awoke next, the day had passed, and the bed beside her was empty. It sounded like everyone was downstairs, so she quickly washed and joined them.
The entire family was sitting around the dining table. Alice had made soup, and everyone was tucking into bowls of it. Doctor Porter was regaling them with a raucous story.
'…and then I said one leech won't work,' she said. 'I said, you'll need a dozen to make that smaller!'
The whole family roared with laughter. Jane wasn't sure what the joke was about, but she was sure it could never be shared with the austere Reverend George Austen or his congregation.
Doctor Porter glanced up and saw Jane. 'Sleeping Beauty has joined us. Some soup, Jane?'
'No, thank you,' Jane said. She really wasn't hungry. 'Perhaps we'd best get moving.'
Porter extracted a watch from her voluminous jacket. 'You're right,' she said. 'He should be there by now.'
The doctor and Eddy finished eating. The doctor headed upstairs and returned with a small jar of liquid. Pouring three small portions into tiny cups, she and Eddy drank two of them. The third, Porter handed to Jane.
'What's this?' Jane asked.
'I call it Porter's Potent Panacea,' the doctor said. 'It'll keep away the pox, dropsy, and demons from Hell.'
'Really?'
'Trust me. I'm a doctor.'
Jane gingerly tasted the medicine. It was almost tasteless apart from a faint metallic odour. She downed the rest of it.
Heading out to the footpath, Jane saw that it was almost night. The last light of day was casting crimson shards across the sky.
They thanked Harry and Alice for their hospitality.
'I don't know when we'll be back,' Doctor Porter said.
'Come back anytime,' Harry said.
Alice fixed Jane with a look. 'And good luck with your sister,' she said. 'You'll be in my prayers.'
Jane was not one to show affection, but she couldn't stop herself. Giving Alice a quick hug, Jane perched on the driver's box next to Eddy, leaving the interior to the doctor. Soon, Eddy was smoking his clay pipe as he manoeuvred the Fruitful Vine through the crowded London streets.
They were like nothing Jane had ever experienced. Despite the fall of night, the city seemed to throb with more life than ever. There were taverns on every street. People were either about to drink, already drinking or falling down drunk. It seemed strange to Jane that the night seemed to dissolve the borders between the classes.
Many of those of the lower class walked the streets, but there were many of the middling sort, as well as the upper classes, doing the same. They seemed to each accept their role in life and live accordingly. Jane peered about with interest as people hung out their windows, talking to each other across narrow laneways. Glancing into one lane, Jane was shocked to see people carousing in various shameful states of undress. A woman was pushed up against a wall, her dress pushed up around her waist, and a man was grinding furiously against her.
Goodness, Jane thought. The whole city's a bordello!
Steventon was nothing like this. At night, it was not unlike a graveyard—a comparison a visitor from Bath had once jokingly extended to its daylight hours as well
'Must all be a bit different to your home,' Eddy commented, almost reading her mind.
'Somewhat,' she said.
'There are all kinds of people who make up London. Rich. Poor. Everything in between. We're all much the same when you come down to it, though.'
Jane thought about Doctor Porter. She was such an unusual woman. 'How did you meet the doctor?' she asked.
'I was in a carriage accident,' he said. 'I've worked with horses from the time I was a boy. I was driving for a judge north of London when highwaymen tried to rob us. The judge was killed, and I was shot. The carriage took off with me injured and at the reins. It turned over, and I was pinned underneath.'
He guided the Fruitful Vine around a drunk sprawled on the road.
'Doctor Porter turned up out of nowhere,' he continued. 'She got the carriage off me and then used her doctoring skills to save my life. I would have been dead if not for her.'
'Do you have any family?'
'My wife died from convulsions. My daughter Susan—' He stopped, and Jane was alarmed to see his eyes were moist. 'I came home one night and found Susan missing. By then, I was the doctor's driver. We searched and searched for her, but she was gone.'
'You don't know what happened to her?'
Eddy's eyes grew hard. 'Oh,' he said. 'We knew. You see, there was blood in the house. Lots of it. Like a slaughterhouse, it was. We followed the trail to a neighbouring building. That's where we found the vampire.' He nodded. 'And that's where we killed it.'
They drove in silence.
'And Susan?' Jane asked.
'We never found her.' He didn't speak for a moment. 'There are a lot of people who go missing. Even that Lincoln Bradshaw fellow, the engineer, disappeared off the face of the Earth. The doctor thinks the ones the vampires don't turn get discarded at sea.'
They reached the Thames and crossed Blackfriars Bridge. There were small ships in the river, even at this time. When they reached the midpoint, Eddy gestured to the turbid, swirling waters below.
'I think of Susan whenever I see the water,' he said. 'Always reminds me of her.'
'And that's why you help the doctor to track down vampires?' Jane said. 'It's a perilous trade.'
Eddy smiled grimly. 'There's no risk when you lose everything you've loved,' he said. 'I won't give up till I've tracked down and killed every vampire in England.'
Jane wondered about Doctor Porter.
Why is she on this quest?
They continued through the streets into the East End. This was the theatre district with dozens of playhouses everywhere. Some were quite large, but most were small. Eddy steered the coach down darkened streets, finally turning onto a small lane with a busy theatre at the end. The name of the place was the Flank Street Theatre, but what took more prominence was the eerie sulphurous sign over the main entrance:
Phantasmagoria
Eddy stopped the coach, and they climbed down. Doctor Porter joined them on the pavement.
'What is it?' Jane asked her.
'You'll see,' the doctor said mysteriously.
They paid a small fee at the door, shuffled into a tiny lobby, and then up a flight of stairs to the theatre. The room had about fifty seats, with no balcony or box seating. The stage lay in darkness, but Jane could see that a single round table surrounded by seats was erected on it.
Jane and the others squeezed into a cramped velvet-lined row near the front. Doctor Porter turned to the woman she'd sat next to.
'Betty!' she said.
The woman turned in surprise.
Is her face reddening? Jane wondered.
'Er,' the woman said. 'I don't think we've met.'
Smiling, Doctor Porter offered a small roll of her eyes. 'I think we have,' she said. 'Do you still visit the Market?'
'No. I mean…I don't know what you mean.'
'What's your husband's name again? Stanley?'
Betty's chin grew firm. 'Yes.'
'Give him my regards.'
Betty turned away. 'I will.'
Porter turned to Jane and raised an eyebrow. 'The people you meet,' she said.
Jane nodded. The doctor obviously knew this woman from one of the many markets around London, but where the doctor satisfied her appetite wasn't Jane's concern. Her mind was focused on finding Cassandra.
Looking around, Jane couldn't help but wonder why they had come to such a place.
We need to find Cassandra! Not visit the theatre!
The lights at the side dimmed. It looked like the show was about to commence.
'Doctor,' Jane murmured. 'Why are we here?'
The lights grew dark as the doctor peered into Jane's eyes.
'To save the living,' Porter whispered, 'we sometimes have to spend time with the dead.'