All That Glitters: A Maggie Power Adventure (Maggie Power #2) *Unedited version*

Chapter 2

Indeed, without Blake's help, Father may have been apprehended long ago and, I'm sure, would have now departed this world via the gallows.

"That would be the avenue I would pursue, Samuel: the violent terrorizers!" continued Emily unaware. "You should immediately be put on the case, too. Heaven knows you're the best man they have!" She smiled towards her younger brother with an exaggerated sense of pride.

Within a second or two, however – after a brief, awkward silence – she realised something unspoken had passed between Blake and I.

"I'm sorry, Margaret, but that's the way I feel. I know you have been through a great ordeal recently, but it needs to said that these people are destroying the country."

I wanted to reply that she should read the newspapers a little more closely, perhaps then she'd realise that many of the Chartist leaders were now behind bars, facing serious charges, and long terms in prison. I wanted to remind her that the strikes in the north were over and that many more men were in hiding, fearing what was to become of them. Why would they do something so reckless, something which would merely bring down the authorities even harder upon them?

"If there are indeed terrorists behind this act, Emily, why have they made no demands yet?" I asked her. "Why haven't they announced that they have abducted or killed Mr Templeton-Wells? And what do Chartists have to gain from harming such a man?"

"Gain!" she shrieked. "Gain! My dear, surely you are not so naïve as to believe that these people think about the effects their violence has on others? It's pure savagery. Nothing but pure savagery motivates them to act in the manner in which they do. It's the sort of savagery which saw my poor..." She tailed off, began to weep and I realised I should have bitten my tongue, remained silent and let her and Blake continue with their pointless discussion.

"Now, now, my dear," intervened Blake. "You shouldn't let yourself be upset by such matters. Maggie was not trying to suggest that whoever's taken Mr Templeton-Wells isn't a cruel and villainous scoundrel; on the contrary. But evidence for Chartist involvement in this whole episode is very weak. That is all she is suggesting, my dear."

Blake had moved to his sister's side and she in turn sobbed into his chest.

In the short time I had lived under Emily's roof, I could not recall a day to pass without seeing a tear sneak its way down her face. She would often sit and stare emptily into space, her mind adrift in a world of absolute loss, I supposed.

Her husband, Jonathon, was killed during his first month of duty as a beat copper. He had been a successful soldier, and won honours pacifying the Afghanis, while capturing Kabul for Queen and Country under General Sir John Keane. That success was to be his last action. On his return to London he married Emily, as he had promised to do, and – with Blake's help – he joined the Metropolitan Police.

Yet during his first weeks on duty, he was fatally stabbed through the heart while attempting to halt a daring robbery at a jewellers in Soho.

The perpetrators were ex-military, too. At the trial, the reason one of the accused gave for stabbing Jonathon was that he had recognised another member of the gang, a man from the very same regiment as Jonathon's.

Another hero of Kabul.

During the subsequent weeks, Blake – whether officially on duty or not – went about the streets free of his uniform and tracked the men across London; he located them one by one and recovered many of the stolen valuables, too. Most of the dead man's colleagues believed Blake should have dispensed with the courtroom and administered justice there and then, once he had found them out.

Once all were arrested, they were brought to trial; and the hangman soon saw that justice was done.

His superiors at the Metropolitan Police saw things differently to the majority of beat officers, and Blake's handling of the case hastened his promotion to sergeant and made him an ideal candidate for the new detective force, which was being discussed at the time.