City of Darkness

Chapter THIRTY-EIGHT

9:30 AM





He has decided to flatter her. There are few of us immune to flattery, or to the ambition hidden beneath its husk. Even those who live in a dung heap dream of occupying a higher peak within the heap.

And so perhaps an abortionist fancies herself a medical practitioner, might welcome the chance to commune with a colleague.

He composes a note to her, taking care with the prose. Hoping that, as is so often the case, she can read better than she can write. He has been to the ironmonger, so he is prepared.

The note says that he has studied as a doctor, as she undoubtedly knows. That he sees the financial possibilities in her line of work. That perhaps it would be better if they put aside their differences in order to consider how they might help one another. She has her skills – how it pains him to write this sentence, how it gnaws at his gut – and he has his unique social position, one which brings him into contact with all manner of society including women who might have need of such her unique services. But unlike the Whitechapel wretches with their shillings and farthings, these women are prepared to pay in pounds and sterling.

He need go no further. She is a business woman, greedy to the core. She will see the advantages of such a union. He tells her that he has found a first client already and suggests a place where the three of them might meet. The girl in question is of good family. In a spot of trouble, true, but not willing to show her face in the Pony Pub. They must meet in a more secluded place. But the money will be good, he assures her. Far more than she could ever hope to get shaking the pockets of a working man like him.

He hopes she will believe him. That some combination of vanity and greed will overrun her senses. Convince her to drop all common sense and join league with the devil himself.