Chorus of the Dead

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Take her up tenderly,

Lift her with care;

Ainsley stepped out into the street to see the last thread of the November sun disappearing from the night sky. It was the hazy dusk before twilight that set the city in an eerie, almost translucent glow. The atmosphere on the streets was nearly frantic as people hurried to make their way home before dark, as if some unseen creature awaited them in the darkness of night. By the time Ainsley would arrive home, there would be few people about and most, at least in his family's neighbourhood, preferred to travel by the relative safety of an unassuming carriage.

The young doctor, however, refused to take a carriage, despite his mother's insistence that she would send one to the hospital at the end of his shift. He enjoyed his evening strolls home. He reassured her that her unease was a woman's perspective on the city, a dark and dangerous place once the gas street lights were lit. As a man he saw the city with a much brighter view at night and relished those half hour jaunts home. In his mind the walk was not nearly long enough.

The gaslights gave poor illumination compared to that of daylight and only served to create pools of darkness that were only somewhat lighter than the shadows beyond. Despite early promises the new invention did little to cure the unease of London at night. Ainsley slipped on his gloves and pulled his coat in around his torso as he made the damp walk to Westminster Bridge. The bridge was swept with a harsh wind as he walked across. The damning cold only abated once he made it to the park grounds that surrounded Buckingham Palace. It was a lovely, near silent walk that allowed Ainsley the luxury of deep thought not permitted in the daytime bustle of city movements. His contemplation was only intermittently interrupted by single passing carriages with neither driver nor occupants paying him much heed. On foot he was just a man making his way home, and not the second son of one of the wealthiest men in the Empire.

Not many people knew this about him. To most he was just a bright young man who had been fortunate enough to have a benefactor paying for his schooling. But in truth, Ainsley wasn't his real name. He decided to use his mother's maiden name when applying to medical school and convinced his father he could be a surgeon and not have his profession affect the family negatively. In effect, he led a double life and only a few people knew he was Peter Marshall, second son and heir to Lord Abraham Marshall. It was better that way. Ainsley could pursue a career in medicine and no one in London society knew his daily tasks consisted of more than what was befitting an independently wealthy gentleman. Assuming his mother's name gave him a freedom he had never thought possible.

His family had owned a house in Belgravia for a few decades though he had spent most of his childhood at the country house with his mother and siblings. Their father preferred the city residence and they did not see him much. It was not an odd arrangement, certainly not to Daniel, himself and Margaret, who grew up with things being so; but now as they all stepped firmly into adulthood the strange marital partnership became hard to ignore. It set the tone for the family which was rife with division. Ainsley, who loathed any miniscule interaction with his overbearing father, preferred the company of their mother, while Daniel, the eldest, gravitated to the man who would pass him the family fortune. Margaret, bless her, remained in the middle not letting her preference known though Ainsley secretly believed she preferred their mother who had been kinder and gentler to them as children when they were not being attended to by their full time governesses.

It was when Ainsley accepted his post at St. Thomas Hospital that he knew he could not escape the city that winter as he had before, not as a professional man. He would be bound to his position and thus be forced to remain in his father's city house far longer than he desired. Luckily the old man remained disinterested and secluded in his study rather than interfere with the daily workings of the house. Ainsley would not have to see him much.