9

A Candle at the Window

But Aiden Fraiser did have a choice, and he exercised it.

By the time we reached the Albemarle Club it was gone midnight. The front door was locked and the windows looking onto the street were in darkness, but Oscar rang the bell nevertheless. Almost instantaneously, Hubbard swung open the door and stepped back, obsequiously, to admit us, murmuring as he did so, “You’ll be wanting a nightcap, Mr Wilde?”

“Thank you,” said Oscar, pressing a coin into the servant’s hand, “you deserve one, too.” (I never saw Oscar fumbling in his pockets for change. Effortlessly, like a professional prestidigitator, he appeared always to have precisely the appropriate coin ready between his fingers at the exact moment required.) “You’re closing up, I know. We’ll just perch in Keppel Corner. We’ll not keep you late, I promise. Any messages for me?”

“Four telegrams, sir,” said Hubbard, with satisfaction. “I’ll bring them to you directly, sir, with the champagne.”

The Albemarle had not yet been equipped with electric light. We sat, in sepulchral gloom, beneath a single gasolier, in Keppel Corner, an alcove adjacent to the club’s main staircase. The alcove took its name from the handsome youth—with amused eyes and a pleasing mouth—whose fine portrait, said to be by Sir Godfrey Kneller, adorned the back wall. Aged just nineteen, Arnold Joost van Keppel was brought to England from Holland in the retinue of King William III. He was the king’s catamite—reputedly. Certainly, he was one of the sovereign’s favourites. Aged twenty-six, in 1696, he was created 1st Earl of Albemarle. Whenever he saw the portrait, Oscar would offer up a small sigh and whisper, “I was adored once, too.”

Hubbard brought the champagne and the telegrams. Oscar examined the envelopes in turn. “We shall start with this one, I think,” he said, tearing open an envelope. “It is indeed from our friend—if that is how we should view him.” Oscar passed the telegram to me. I read it with some incredulity: MUCH REGRET CANNOT SEE YOU IMMEDIATELY. WILL MAKE CONTACT IN DUE COURSE. REGARDS FRASER.

“What is the meaning of it?” I asked.

“And what is the meaning of this?” countered Oscar. He had opened the second envelope. “A second communication from Inspector Fraser—this one, it seems, despatched exactly an hour after the first.”

“He’s had second thoughts?”

“A further thought, in any event,” said Oscar, reading out the policeman’s second wire: REST ASSURED YOU WILL UNDERSTAND ONCE I EXPLAIN. FRASER.

“He wishes to reassure us,” said Oscar. “I wonder why?”

“He fails to reassure us,” I exclaimed, “utterly! Edward O’Donnell is on the loose. He could commit a further atrocity.”

Oscar put down his glass and gazed at me, wide-eyed.

“O’Donnell is not our murderer, Robert.” He laughed.

“Come now, man, you cannot think that?”

“But I do,” I protested. “We have seen him. We know what he is like. We have heard Mrs Wood’s story—”

“O’Donnell is a brute and a drunkard.”

“Precisely.”

“Robert, whoever murdered Billy Wood was not a drunkard. I found Billy’s body lying neatly on the floor, his arms folded across his chest, guttering candles arranged around him. Not twenty-four hours later you visited the scene of the crime yourself—and smelt the beeswax polish on the floor. The body was gone—there was order in the room, cleanliness, and not a shred of evidence to be found, bar the fleck of blood that Arthur discovered high up on the wall. None of this could have been the work of a shambling drunkard such as Edward O’Donnell.”

“But Mrs Wood said he was responsible—”

“Indirectly, perhaps. He may have brought the boy to London on the fatal day. Yes, Robert, O’Donnell may help lead us to the guilty party, but he is not the murderer himself: of that I’m certain.”

“Mrs Wood said it was O’Donnell who had introduced Billy to Bellotti and—”

“Yes,” said Oscar, interrupting, “I was intrigued by that because Bellotti, you will recall, told us that he had met Billy two years ago when he stayed at The Castle. Do you think Mrs Wood had forgotten Mr Bellotti’s summer sojourn at her hotel?”

“Possibly,” I ventured.

Oscar laughed. “I think not, Robert. A presence like Mr Bellotti’s is neither easily overlooked nor quickly forgotten.”

“Are you saying that Mrs Wood was lying to us?” I asked, incredulous.

“I am saying, Robert, that in the matter of murder no one is to be trusted. As the plot thickens, remember that—above all else. Deception is the order of the day. Why, look at me! I took that wedding band from Billy’s lifeless finger within minutes of his murder—his hand was still warm, his fingers still soft and pliable. Did I tell Conan Doyle about the ring? Did I mention it to Fraser?”

“You had your reasons,” I said. “Mrs Wood might not have believed that Billy was dead if you had not produced the ring.”

“Indeed,” said Oscar. “I had my reasons—just as Susannah Wood has her reasons for telling us it was Edward O’Donnell and not she who introduced her unfortunate son to Gerard Bellotti.”

“We will return to Bellotti, I presume?” I asked. “We will question him further?”

“In due course,” replied my friend, casually.

“And should we not interview O’Donnell ourselves if Fraser will not?”

Oscar smiled and, languidly, raised his glass of champagne in my direction. “I do not believe that you or I, Robert—robust as we are—would get very far interrogating a brute such as Edward O’Donnell.”

“Well then,” I said, “who is your third telegram from? Perhaps Inspector Fraser has decided to come to our aid after all.”

Oscar tore open the third envelope. “No,” he said, perusing the contents, “this is from Stoddart—my American publisher. He wants me to write a hundred thousand words—by November! He is absurd. There are not a hundred thousand beautiful words in the English language.”

“Will you do it?” I asked.

“I must,” he sighed. “I need the money.” He leant towards me with the bottle of champagne and topped up my glass. “Work, Robert, is the curse of the drinking classes. We must pay for our pleasures. Mr Stoddart is offering me an advance of a hundred pounds.”

I was impressed, but I was envious, too. (I was then working on my study of Emile Zola and was expecting a total fee for my labours in the region of ten to fifteen pounds.)

“I shall start on Stoddart’s story tomorrow. I am going to visit my Aunt Jane. I shall take my notebook and sit at the bottom of her garden, beneath the ilex tree.”

“Oscar,” I said, smiling, “you do not have an Aunt Jane.”

“She is very old,” said Oscar, peering into his glass. “Come to think of it, she is dead. She died of neglect. People like you never believed in her. The young are so heartless. As I cannot go to stay with Aunt Jane, I shall go to Oxford instead.”

As I came to know, Oxford was a special place to Oscar. In times of travail, when he sought refuge, or comfort, or consolation, and when he felt the need for distraction, or wanted inspiration, he turned to Oxford. It was where, in the 1870s, as a dazzling undergraduate, he had first heard the tunes of glory and tasted the bittersweet fruit of national notoriety. Oxford was the well-spring of the myth of Oscar Wilde. Oscar knew it and never forgot it.

What I never forget is that Oscar, while a gentleman, was not an Englishman. He was Irish. He understood English ways (none better!) and spoke the English language as only an Irishman can, but he was not educated at an English public school; he did not have the English feeling for Dickens; he did not play rugby (imagine if he had!) or care for cricket; he neither rode to hounds nor shot nor fished. He did not wear an old-school tie. In England, overall, Oscar was an outsider. In Oxford, uniquely, he felt at ease; he was at home. He liked to say: “Oxford is the capital of Romance, in its own way as memorable as Athens.” I teased him and told him that he was sentimental about Oxford only because it was where—aged twenty—he had sowed his wild oats. With playful indignation, he reproved me: “Robert, I have never sowed wild oats. I have planted a few orchids, that is all.”

Oscar claimed to reverence Oxford for its architecture and its intellectual life, but, in truth, what drew him back there, time and again, was the promise and the prospect of youth. He went to Oxford to spend time with the undergraduates and the younger university dons, to be amused by their conversation, to be charmed by their good looks, to be warmed by their admiration. He admitted as much to me that night at the Albemarle Club. “I see what I want to see of myself reflected in them,” he said. “I look into their faces as into a looking-glass and, for a moment, I feel young again. Youth! Youth, Robert! There is absolutely nothing in the world but youth!”

I laughed. “Forty-eight hours ago, Oscar, there was nothing in the world but justice! As I recall, the day before yesterday, fuelled by Mr Simpson’s fine wines, you were committed to befriending the friendless. You vowed not to rest until you had achieved justice for Billy Wood. Now, it seems youth is everything and justice is to take a sabbatical while you go floating down to Oxford.”

My friend narrowed his eyes and looked at me sternly. “I shall not be floating down to Oxford, Robert. I shall be going by train. And when I get there, justice will not be forgotten. Our investigation will go forward, Robert—even without us. I have my methods, Robert.” He tapped the side of his nose conspiratorially. “I have my spies. Shh.”

Hubbard was hovering. We had finished our champagne. We got to our feet. A touch unsteadily, we left Keppel Corner and made our way across the hallway and out into the street. We stood together in silence on the club’s front steps, absorbing the night, listening as the porter, with a heavy hand, laboriously turned the keys in the locks and bolted the door behind us.

The street before us was dark and unwelcoming. There were precious few street lamps in the byways of Mayfair in those days. There was a chill in the night air; the moon was hidden and the sky was overcast.

Oscar put his arm in mine and said, “Walk me to the cab rank, there’s a good fellow.”

“By all means,” I said.

We came down the steps and turned left into Albemarle Street. Slowly, arm in arm, we made our way towards Piccadilly. It was approaching two o’clock in the morning and such was the all-enveloping darkness that it was difficult to see more than a few steps ahead. The deserted street was as silent as a morgue. We heard our own boots clacking on the pavement, but nothing else. Then, quite suddenly, as we passed the Albemarle Hotel, six doors down from the club, I sensed, without seeing it, the presence of a figure standing in the shadows. Oscar breathed, “Come, Robert, let us walk a little faster.”

We quickened our pace and, as we did so, I heard root-steps behind us. I stopped abruptly; the footsteps stopped also. Immediately, Oscar pulled me forward. “Come!” he hissed. My heart beat faster; my mouth was dry. As we moved on, now half walking, half running, the figure kept pace behind us. I made to turn my head to look over my shoulder, but Oscar muttered “Don’t!” and pulled me on.

Out of the corner of my eye, I had glimpsed a cloaked figure. It was a man of medium height and heavy build. I could swear to no more than that. I wanted to look again, but Oscar stopped me. “Is it O’Donnell?” I whispered.

“No,” said Oscar. “It is no one.”

We had nearly reached Piccadilly. There were lights ahead of us. Oscar’s pace was slackening. “I believe it is O’Donnell,”I persisted.

Oscar stopped in his tracks. “It is no one, Robert,” he said, “no one at all. Look.”

We turned back and stared down the darkened street behind us. There was no one to be seen. The man had disappeared. The street seemed utterly empty and then, suddenly, we heard scampering feet. “What’s that?” I cried.

“Nothing,”said Oscar, “just a boy.”

Running down the road away from us, vanishing into the darkness, was a small figure with a large head. “It’s Bellotti’s dwarf,” I said.

“I think not,” said Oscar, chuckling. “Come, let’s find a cab.”

A young policeman was standing at the corner of Piccadilly and Albemarle Street. He touched his helmet as we approached. Oscar nodded to him: “Goodnight, officer.”

“Goodnight, gentlemen,” said the young constable. “It’s a cold one, for the time of year.”

We crossed Piccadilly to the all-night cab rank that once stood on what is now the site of the Ritz Hotel. As we waited for a cab to appear, Oscar took the sheaf of telegrams from his coat pocket and began to place them neatly inside his wallet. “Tomorrow I shall send a note to Fraser from Oxford,” he said. “I will tell him what we have learnt today from Mrs Wood. I will tell him, too, what we know of Edward O’Donnell. I will omit no detail.”

“I’m glad of that,” I said.

“And the moment I get further word from Fraser, have no fear, Robert, I shall let you know.”

I observed that Oscar had left the last of the telegrams unopened. “You have not read the final telegram, Oscar,” I said. “Perhaps it is yet another message from Fraser?”

“No,” he answered, holding up the unopened envelope. “This comes from Yorkshire. It is from Constance.”

“You have not opened it.”

“There is no need. I can read her thoughts.”

Playfully, I took the envelope from him. “What does it say then?” I asked.

“If you must know, Robert, it says, “I love you, always.””

“May I?” I enquired. He smiled and nodded. I tore open the telegram. It read precisely as Oscar had predicted:

I LOVE YOU. ALWAYS.

“‘Always’!” he cried. “That is a dreadful word, Robert, is it not? It makes me shudder when I hear it. Women are so fond of using it. They spoil every romance by trying to make it last for ever.”

A two-wheeler appeared. Oscar pocketed his wallet and clambered in. “Goodnight, Robert,” he said. “It has been an eventful day—even to the last. Note it all in your journal. Remember, you are my Dr Watson now.”

“Goodnight, Oscar,” I said. “Take care!”

As I watched him go, a second cab arrived at the rank and, on the spur of the moment, suddenly fearful for my friend, I decided to follow him, to see him safely home. As I climbed aboard, I said to the driver, “Follow that cab, if you please—but at a distance.”

“Right you are, guv,” said the cabman, without expression, as if trailing other cabs through the West End of London in the early hours of the morning was a routine occurrence. Perhaps it was. He did it expertly. At a discreet distance of around a hundred yards, our hansom followed Oscar’s as it made its way, not, as I had expected, south towards Chelsea, but north, towards Soho. We travelled along Piccadilly, across the circus and into what was then London’s newest thoroughfare: Shaftesbury Avenue. There was little traffic on the road and, on the pavements, not much by way of humanity: a few luckless women of the night, mostly in pairs, still plying their trade; small clusters of what we used to call the ‘Won’t go home till morning boys’ in search of one more drink; the odd, solitary Pall Mall clubman, pondering the possibilities ahead. The gap between our carriages closed a little as we passed the new Lyric Theatre—where the young Marie Tempest was then appearing—and turned sharply left into Frith Street. I began to realise whither we were bound and, as Oscar’s hansom trundled into Soho Square, I called to my cabman, “Whoa! Stop!”

Oscar’s cab halted in the square itself. I watched my friend as he clambered out and stood on the pavement gazing up at a tall, narrow building on the east side of the square. The building was cloaked in darkness, but for one small circle of light that stood out against the black, like a pale carnation in a buttonhole. Up on the third floor there was a window and, standing at it, holding a candle in her hand, was the girl with the disfigured face. In the street below, Oscar stood staring straight towards her. The moment she saw him, she started and then raised her hand in what seemed a kind of greeting. Oscar raised his hand towards her by way of answer, and as he did so, she leant towards the candle and blew it out. The window was in darkness. Immediately, Oscar climbed back into his two-wheeler and set off once more.

“Drive on,” I said to my cabman. “Follow him.” We did—north out of Soho Square, west along Oxford Street, south down Bond Street and into Albemarle Street, to the front door of the Albemarle Hotel, six doors along from the Albemarle Club, which Oscar and I had left together but forty minutes before. Oscar sometimes stayed at the Albemarle Hotel. I knew that, but because I had not anticipated that his cab would come to a halt there, when his hansom stopped, mine, unfortunately, was immediately behind.

Oscar stepped up to the hotel door and rang the bell. A moment later, the door swung open and the night porter admitted him. As he crossed the threshold, Oscar paused, half turned towards the street and called out, “Goodnight, Robert. I am quite safe, as you see.”

The following morning, Oscar went to Oxford and began to write the story that would become The Picture of Dorian Gray. I heard nothing from him for six weeks.