Wormwood by G.P. Taylor

Author:G.P. Taylor [G. P. Taylor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571269808
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2010-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

15: Timeo Daemones et Donna Ferentes

Sarapuk stuffed the Hand of Glory into his coat pocket and then thrust himself on to the floor of the kitchen as Cadmus woke fitfully from his charmed sleep. A loud crashing in the hallway brought him quickly to his senses as doors slammed and lodgers were roused from their reverie. Mister Manpurdi awoke in a pool of blood. Throughout the house the spell was broken.

Blake smashed his gloved fist against the kitchen door and, seeing it was locked, kicked at the wood. He was watched by a small crowd of tired and bedraggled spectators who had spilled out of the refectory.

‘Hold them back, Isaac!’ Blake shouted as he kicked, trying to batter down the door. ‘If any of that menagerie even move, shoot them like the dogs they are.’

‘Help us,’ cried Sarapuk in the feeblest voice he could find. ‘She’s gone mad, attacked her own father in his sleep and made off into the night!’ Sarapuk then swooned and moaned, hoping that his performance would not go unnoticed and that the door would be broken down before he had to repeat his act.

A tall, fat, wallowing man covered in a thick mat of black hair with gigantic hands and long dirty fingernails pushed his way from the refectory into the hall. He quickly eyed the scene, and upon hearing Sarapuk’s dying eulogy ran the three paces across the stone floor, pushing Bonham and Blake out of the way and smashing into the door like a huge ox.

The door bent in the frame, then sprang back into shape. The man stared at the door, screwing up his eyes and furrowing his brow. He towered over the gathering that waited expectantly for him to strike the door again. He was a giant, orphaned at birth, who now entertained the gentry in Vauxhall Gardens. In his first week of life he was named after the flowers that filled the wicker basket in which he was found and now Campion, the Human Bear, was known for his large size, profuse hair and teeth that he had filed into a row of sharp brown fangs.

‘Do it again!’ shouted Blake to Campion.

‘I have the …’ whined Manpurdi quietly, fumbling with his bandages.

‘By Hermes,’ interrupted Bonham, ‘knock the thing down, man.’

‘… key,’ said Manpurdi, in a way that he knew no one was listening.

Campion growled from the depths of his enormous stomach. His whole frame vibrated as the long moan echoed off the plaster walls. He rushed at the door, jumping the last pace and landing against the wood with a heavy crash. The door shot from its hinges, falling back into the kitchen and crashing against the wooden table.

Sarapuk lay on the floor, entwined around Cadmus like some large snake about to engulf its prey. He moaned and squawked, writhing in false agony. ‘Look what she has done,’ he cried. ‘She’s gone mad, attacked her father and tried to kill me. She’s eloped, run off with the stranger from the attic.

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