The Last Suitor. A J McMahon
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efforts to free themselves. Angela was making insistent noises through her gag; Nicholas ungagged her to learn that she was very eager to answer a loud call of nature. Nicholas untied her but at the same time fastened a wand to the back of her lower skirts. He then brought her to her feet and led her away to the bathroom where he left her alone. He then monitored the location of the wand in the bathroom — after being stationary for a while as Angela went about her business, it then moved in such a way as to take it beyond the physical space of the bathroom in a diagonally sloping trajectory. Nicholas, waiting outside the bathroom by a window, opened this window and jumped outside, landing gently on the ground and leaning back against the wall. Angela emerged cautiously from a secret opening in the wall, the very bricks moving aside to form an exit from which her head and shoulders emerged, followed by the rest of her as she tumbled onto the ground. She rose to her feet and brushed herself off and then caught sight of Nicholas and froze in shock, her mouth and eyes wide open. With a wave of his wand Nicholas had the bricks back in place; with another wave of his wand he flipped Angela up and through the open window; with another wave of his wand he flipped himself back up through the open window, which he then closed. Turning Angela around he took back the wand he had attached to her and shepherded her back to the living room where his other prisoners awaited.
Nicholas tied and gagged Angela again; Hugo was making insistent noises through his gag so Nicholas ungagged him only to learn that Hugo was very keen to answer his own call of nature; Nicholas gagged him again and ignored his request, but it gave him an idea which he was later to put to use. He untied Jolly and his five men from their chairs but left them bound. Applying his wand combinations to the karns by which they were tied, he took them to Angela’s carriage in a succession of stages by throwing them along the ground, down the stairs and out into the garden to where the carriage was parked. He returned to Angela’s living room, checked that Angela and Hugo were tied securely to their chairs then left, locking Angela’s front door with a combination that would not be easily unlocked and then flew Angela’s carriage back to the Burke Tavern.
Like a bucket with a hole slowly losing water, Jolly’s temper was ebbing away as a sense of his predicament began to sink in. It was clear to him that Nicholas had not gone to the authorities; it was clear to him that Nicholas had some idea of what he was about given his purposeful behaviour, and it was clear to him that Nicholas had no intention of making peace with Jolly given the way he was throwing Jolly around like a sack of potatoes. Furthermore, the physical restraints which Jolly had laboured under all this time had by now become real; that is to say, Jolly could no longer ignore the all-too-obvious fact that he was a prisoner. Jolly no longer felt like a king but all too much like a subject of speculation.
Nicholas landed Angela’s carriage between the river and Jolly’s quarters in the Burke Tavern, entered Jolly’s quarters by a side door, checked that Tagalong was still in place and that all was as it should be, then brought Jolly in and tied him to a chair with a deft wand combination. There was only Tagalong and Jolly there to see what he was doing as Nicholas took a jug of water and carefully poured it about Jolly’s lower person to make it appear as if Jolly had wet himself (this was the idea which Hugo had inadvertently given him earlier). Jolly protested this treatment through his gag while Tagalong watched everything that was going on with a frightened look of erratic calculation in his sideways looking eyes. Nicholas brought the other five men into Jolly’s room and sat them down on the floor along the wall, still tied up. In the meantime Jolly had seen the wide open door of his empty safe; by now his temper had completely drained away and for the first time he began to feel faintly fearful. He tried to attract Nicholas’s attention as Nicholas closed the side door but without success; Nicholas ignored him. It was to Tagalong that Nicholas now turned his attention.
8:45 PM, Saturday 7 May 1544 A.F.
‘Now is the time for you to make your choice, Mr Longman,’ he told Tagalong after having removed his gag. ‘You may decide to continue to be loyal to Jolly, in which case I will remove you to the kitchen, where you will play no further role in this matter, and you will certainly receive no profit, no matter what the outcome, or you may choose to consider yourself to be no longer subject to the command of Jolly, in which case you may remain here and profit accordingly. Now make your choice, Mr Longman: are you still loyal to Jolly, or are you not?’
Tagalong looked anything but talkative at that moment. All too aware of Jolly’s eyes burning into his face, he licked his dry and cracked lips and said, ‘I would hope for an outcome that may suit us all, Mr Raspero.’
‘You are to be commended for your loyalty to Jolly even at the very end,’ Nicholas told him. ‘I will now take you to the kitchen, where you will remain until you learn what the outcome has been from whoever comes to free you from your bonds.’
‘No!’ Tagalong said as Nicholas began to untie the strips of cloth that held his chair in place, ‘I will stay, Mr Raspero, in the hope that —’
Nicholas gagged him then and continued with his task. Tagalong’s protests, while muffled, were insistent and desperate. Nicholas paused, looked at him and said, ‘I will ungag you and you will have one last chance. If you understand me blink your eyes.’
Tagalong blinked his eyes furiously.
‘You will say that you are no longer loyal to Jolly, or you will go to the kitchen. Now: make your choice.’ Nicholas ungagged him.
‘I am no longer loyal to Jolly,’ Tagalong said loudly, clearly and defiantly.
‘Then there is no longer a need to restrain you,’ Nicholas said and unbound Tagalong, who regained his freedom as if he didn’t know whether to make a run for it or not. Jolly made muffled noises through his gag, but Nicholas ignored him. ‘We have already discussed how this shall continue,’ Nicholas said to Tagalong, whose eyes flickered toward Jolly, ‘and now you shall act accordingly. You will go out into the tavern and find three or four men who might well be capable of being successors to Jolly. You will bring them in here so that we can all discuss the matter further.’ Nicholas returned Tagalong’s wand to him. ‘Now go!’ He pointed his wand out the doorway and opened the door when Tagalong reached it, then closed it behind him.
Jolly was making insistent noises through his gag but Nicholas continued to ignore him. He tracked the progress of Tagalong’s wand, and tracked the return of Tagalong with three wands accompanying him. Nicholas flipped himself up to stand with his feet on the transom above the door frame; as the transom was a wooden strip only a few inches wide Nicholas turned sideways to line up along the wall. Tagalong entered below his feet, followed by three men who moved out through the room looking at Jolly, then back at Tagalong. What followed was not so much of a fight as a slightly confused melee: Nicholas dropped down behind them, all three of their wands sailing through the air into his left hand. Their own cords jumped out of their pockets and wrapped themselves around their wrists and ankles even while they found themselves sitting down heavily, their backs against the wall, still trying to catch up with what was going on. Tagalong had remained motionless with his hands raised slightly and spread out above waist level to signify his non-fighting capacity. Nicholas moved out into the centre of the room and contemplated his latest captives.
‘Who are these men, Mr Longman?’
‘This is Pay, Kassie, Pastime,’ Tagalong replied, gesturing towards each man in turn. ‘No Tin here might do as well,’ he suggested, pointing to one of the five men who had been with Jolly at Angela’s apartment.
Nicholas dragged each of the four men who had been named to their feet one by one. He untied them but kept their wands. They kept looking across at Jolly with an air of disbelief; it was not yet a case of seeing is believing for the sight of their dreaded chief, bound and gagged, was clearly a sight that they could not believe.
‘Pay attention, everyone,’ Nicholas declared loudly like the master of proceedings at a circus. ‘This is going to be interesting.’ He then drew back the tapestry which lay over Jolly’s treasure on the table, exposing to their lustful gaze the intimacies of Jolly’s personal and very private riches.
These men did not avert their eyes from the sight; quite the contrary. Pay and No Tin even licked their lips. They feasted their eyes on the strada bank notes,