“A bit low, that, pulling a knife. He was, of course, terrified of you and about to die, but still.” Daniel shook his head and said, with some satisfaction, and in a creditable impression of Holt’s tones, “Damned dirty dago trick.”
“That’s what I thought!” Curtis exclaimed, and felt Daniel shake with silent laughter against him. They were more or less reclining against one another now, Curtis on his back and Daniel on his side, which would have been pleasant if Curtis’s spine hadn’t been objecting so strenuously.
“I need to sit up,” he said with regret.
Daniel rolled away. Curtis had no idea what to say to bring him back. He sat up, legs apart with knees bent, and managed, “It’s jolly cold.”
“Should we huddle together for warmth?” enquired Daniel, moving as he spoke to position himself with his back to Curtis, leaning on his chest, seated between his legs. Curtis, heart beating a little too strongly, draped his arms over Daniel’s shoulders, and allowed himself to luxuriate in the closeness.
“Why did you go to Heidelberg for your MA?” he asked, for something to say. “I mean, why Germany?”
“Various reasons,” Daniel said, and after a moment, “I was kicked out of Cambridge.”
“Oh.” That was something of a facer. “For your, er, personal life?”
“In its way.” Daniel tilted his head back. “There was a young Adonis from the boating crew. One of the golden lads, you know. Clean-limbed noble English youth. The stuff that dreams are made on, for a ragamuffin from the East End. I was utterly besotted, and he—returned my interest, and there was one charmed, sun-drenched Easter term, and then we were caught in the boathouse by the rowing crew. And then there was the talk, the whispers. So my beloved decided to explain things away by going to the Dean to accuse me of indecent assault.”
“What?”
“Oh, he’d reasoned it all out.” Daniel didn’t look round. “He was the second son of a duke, you see, he had a social position to lose. Whereas my father’s a Spitalfields locksmith, my entire family had had to scrape together the pennies to fund my place at Cambridge. He belonged there. I didn’t. And thus, I had far less to lose than he did by being thrown out in disgrace. He was quite sure of that.”
Curtis swallowed. He found it hard to keep his voice level. “Christ, Daniel. That’s…” He tailed off, lost for words.
“It was fairly bad,” Daniel said. “Of course, the Dean knew it was so much hot air, but he took the same view as my erstwhile lover on our relative importance. At least he was sufficiently embarrassed to seal the records on the incident, so it didn’t blight my career quite so much as it might have. As it happens, I took a full scholarship to Heidelberg not long afterwards, which put paid to the family recriminations, so from that perspective it was doubtless for the best. I should probably have thanked him.”
“The selfish shitlouse.”
“It did him no good. He was arrested two years later—pure chance, a police raid on a Cleveland Street molly house, he was just one of many picked up. He shot himself after he was released.”
“Oh God.” Curtis had no idea what to say to a story like that. He’d heard so often that “men like that should shoot themselves”. This was the first time it had struck home that they did.
“Yes.” Daniel was silent a moment. “Well. Enough of that. I don’t know why I bored you with that unedifying tale.”
“I’m glad you told me.” Curtis frowned, thinking about it. “You are careful, aren’t you? That is, might you not find yourself in trouble too?”
Daniel paused for a second. “By trouble, do you mean spending a day tied to a rock waiting to be murdered?”
“No, I mean with the police.”
“Yes, my dear, I know, I’m just amazed by your perspective on life. In fact, I am very cautious, little though you may think it.”
Curtis didn’t think it at all, and he found himself seized with alarm at this threat to Daniel, which he had somehow never considered before. “You’re nothing of the kind,” he objected. “You make it very plain—”
“I may do, but that’s not illegal. One has to be caught in the act, as it were, they don’t arrest one for being campish quite yet. Really, don’t worry. I know what I’m about.”
That was more than Curtis did, and Daniel’s light tone had a hint of steel that warned him to drop the subject. “Well, if you say so.” He ran his hand down the crumpled linen instead, smoothing it over the warm skin beneath. “So how did you come to work for my uncle? You, er, don’t strike me as the type.”
“My dear chap, I open locks, move quietly, have few qualms about gentlemanly behaviour, and speak the language of one of our major European rivals. I’m precisely the type, and there are people who keep their eyes open for such things.”
“Even with the, er…”
“Especially with the ‘er’. Your revered uncle told me once that he found it convenient to have a few queers he could call on when necessary. I assured him I felt the same.”
“You did not.”