Part 4 (1/2)

Gaddis and Dobbs exchanged glances. 'The Professor is more the scientist than I am,' Gaddis admitted. 'But I trust we shall alleviate your fears nonetheless. While we are here, at least.'

s...o...b..ld sensed there was a tension between the men, something unspoken. He had an idea what it might be. 'I am also relieved,' he said slowly, 'that Lord Urton still extends his invitation to you both. He has been of late somewhat capricious.'

'Capricious?' Dobbs's anger was evident in the way the word exploded from him.

It was a similar exorcism, s...o...b..ld reflected, to the way the heat of the atmosphere had been abruptly vented. 'You have found him so as well?' he hazarded.

'He tells us,' Gaddis explained more calmly, 'that there is regrettably no room for us at his house. That our engagement and invitation here is in effect terminated. Forthwith.'

'Fortunately,' Dobbs said, recovering something of his composure, 'Lady Urton seems more aware of her social duties and manners.'

s...o...b..ld sighed. Here was yet more evidence that Lord Urton was not himself. He had yet to meet the mysterious Roger Nepath, but he fancied that here lay the root cause of the problems he had himself observed. 'And how did you find Lord Urton?' he asked. 'Was he civil? Lucid?'

Decidedly lucid, and extremely uncivil I should say,' Dobbs replied.

'Yet...' Gaddis started. They both waited for him to continue. After a while he said: 'I did not get the impression that he set out to anger or annoy us. There was little emotion in his arguments, merely statement of his position and his intentions.' He glanced at Dobbs again, as if for approval, before saying to s...o...b..ld: 'I can usually gauge the emotions of a person, determine whether their outward demeanour and inward sentiments are in agreement.'

Dobbs snorted, but his reply was good natured. 'Load of mumbo*jumbo rubbish if you ask me. Completely unscientific. But,' he conceded, 'Mr Gaddis is usually proved correct in his diagnoses.'

A gong sounded in the distance, and s...o...b..ld looked to the clock on the mantelpiece. Eight o'clock exactly. Some things at least remained constant.

'And how did you gauge Lord Urton's inner emotions?' he asked Gaddis as he showed them the way to the dining room. 'Did you get the impression that he is under some stress, perhaps?'

Gaddis paused in the doorway to the dining room as he answered. 'I got nothing,' he said simply. 'No impression at all. No emotions, no feelings.' He shook his head, as if still unable to credit it. 'Nothing,' he said again, his voice a hushed whisper.

Unusually, s...o...b..ld noticed, a fire had been set in the dining room. Normally the grate was bare, a screen in front. But today, perhaps due to the reversion to the cold weather, a good fire was burning. s...o...b..ld walked past it, and stood behind his accustomed chair. Dobbs and Gaddis also stood waiting on the opposite side of the table.

'Gentlemen, please do be seated.' To s...o...b..ld, Lord Urton looked his old self. He was smiling, welcoming, as he strode into the room and took his own seat at the head of the table.

Lady Urton followed him in and sat beside her husband. Normally, she sat at the other end of the table, but s...o...b..ld made no comment. He smiled at his friends.

'I have been making the acquaintance of Professor Dobbs and Mr Gaddis here,' he said. 'They were explaining to me how you had invited them to help investigate the somewhat uncommon phenomena of the last months.'

Urton sniffed. 'No doubt they also appraised you of the fact that we have no room for them here, and that I have suggested they remove themselves to the Midland Hotel if they wish to remain in the area,' he said. 'As for these uncommon phenomena as you refer to them, as a man of the Church I would a.s.sume you were able to distinguish between such things and the vagaries of the weather.'

'You put this fissure that has opened up across the moorland down to the weather, Robert?' s...o...b..ld chided gently. He smiled to mitigate the comment. He was aware of a bell jangling deep within the house, but neither Lord Urton nor his wife seemed to remark it. Nor did they reply. Urton's eyes were wide as he stared at s...o...b..ld. There was a light in them, something moving within or behind them. It took him a moment to realise that it must be the reflection of the fire. It was in Lady Urton's eyes too, he noticed. Dancing yellow and orange across the iris.

'You mentioned, Lady Urton, that you might possibly be able to find some s.p.a.ce for us to lodge here after all,' Gaddis said politely into the awkward silence.

Her eyes snapped from s...o...b..ld to look at Gaddis. 'No,' she said. Her voice was a level monotone, no hint of regret or sympathy. 'That has not been possible.'

Gaddis frowned at the reply. His mouth opened, then closed again without comment. He looked at s...o...b..ld, who had the impression that the man was trying to tell him something. But before their unspoken communication could proceed further, the dining room door opened again.

Mrs Webber ushered two men into the room. One entered without comment, taking the seat beside s...o...b..ld, smiling a mixture of greeting and apology as he took his place amongst them.

But it was the other man who drew their attention. He was a large man, which accounted in part for the sudden sense of presence as he entered. But it was due to more than that. His eyes were bright and alert. His suit was immaculate down to the ruby*red cufflink studs visible at his wrists. His hair was grey but it was impossible to discern his age. His face was craggy, as if hewn from rock. His lips were pale, almost as grey as his hair, and drawn back over perfectly white teeth in a smile which owed more to the skull beneath than to his apparent demeanour.

'Gentlemen,' he acknowledged as he took the place at the end of the table. 'Lady Urton.' He busied himself with his napkin and glanced impatiently at Mrs Webber as she wheeled a trolley beside his chair and served him first with the soup.

'Mr Nepath, I presume,' s...o...b..ld said quietly.

'You presume, do you?' the man demanded without looking up from his bowl. He signalled with a dismissive flick of his hand that he had sufficient soup. 'I am Roger Nepath.' Now he did look up, and despite himself s...o...b..ld felt the force of the man's stare press him back into his seat. 'And you, sir, are the Reverend Matthew s...o...b..ld, doctor of divinity.' Nepath laid down his soup spoon and sat back in his chair, teeth glinting. 'I count it no surprise that you appear to have taken the opposite seat from our friends of the scientific world.' He glanced at the man sitting beside s...o...b..ld. Whether this was intended to include him in the comment or to chide him for his choice of seat, s...o...b..ld was unsure.

'You think there is no place for science in religion?' s...o...b..ld asked.

'I take it that by religion you mean Christianity,' Nepath replied. 'I understand that science offers rationalisations for those matters for which Christianity will brook no explanation.'

'I would not presume to limit my reference to Christianity,' s...o...b..ld said. He smiled to show that he meant no ill will toward the man. 'I have knowledge of many religions, and some understanding of science.'

'Have you really?' Nepath, for the first time in the conversation, seemed interested.

s...o...b..ld leaned back to allow Mrs Webber to serve him. 'I a.s.sume that you believe the ideal of Mr Darwin conflict with the Christian view of the world. That your understanding of Christianity a.s.sumes that it is a narrow church with no room for the beliefs of others.'

'Enlighten me,' Nepath said. His voice was hardly more than a whisper, his eyes glinting with interest.

'Darwin's theories are not incompatible with the main tenets of my own beliefs,' s...o...b..ld said. 'There are those of us who do not view the entirety of the Bible, complete with its own infernal contradictions, as literal truth. If Darwin offers a scientific basis for the world that we interpret through the teachings and ministry of Christ, then so be it.'

'And the garden of Eden?' Dobbs asked.

'A parable or a literal truth.' s...o...b..ld shrugged. 'Just between us here, it matters not either way. You talk of science offering an explanation,' he said to Nepath. 'But it is meaning meaning that is important.' that is important.'

'Well put,' the man beside s...o...b..ld murmured, drawing a glare from Nepath.

'Thank you. This soup is excellent, Mrs Webber,' s...o...b..ld said as he tasted it. The woman half*smiled back as she withdrew from the room. 'And as for other religions,' s...o...b..ld went on, beginning to enjoy himself, 'some are obviously primitive attempts to interpret the world that merit little attention. But those religions that believe in a single altruistic G.o.d may all stem from the same divine inspiration. Whatever we choose to call our Father, He remains the same. It is, if you will, the spirit rather than the letter of Christianity that is important.'

'You have studied other religions, you said,' Gaddis said to s...o...b..ld.

'Some,' s...o...b..ld confirmed. 'Though I am sure that my researches scarcely do them justice. There is a limit to what you can learn from books and libraries.'

'Indeed there is,' Nepath said. His lips were curled into a sneer. 'There is no subst.i.tute for first hand knowledge. For travel.'

'I take it that you have travelled?' Dobbs asked.

'Extensively.'

'And what is your opinion?' s...o...b..ld's neighbour asked.

'My opinion?'

'You seem ready to disagree with others, I a.s.sume it is because you have formulated a contrary opinion from your own experience rather than out of...' he shrugged.

'Caprice?' Nepath suggested. He was staring at s...o...b..ld as he spoke. 'I have travelled further than you can imagine.' His voice was low, husky. His gaze slipped away from s...o...b..ld, and he appeared to be staring into the distance as he spoke. 'I have seen such things in my search for... enlightenment.'

'And have you found it?'

'I have found many things. Many pieces. Enough to know that the notion of a single all*encompa.s.sing G.o.d is the easiest of belief structures. How much more imaginative, how much more scientific, to a.s.sociate an explanation, a G.o.d, with each phenomenon.'

'You do not, then, see an organising principle behind the universe?' s...o...b..ld asked.

Nepath blinked, a sudden convulsive movement as if he had been jolted back to reality. 'There are more things in this world,' he said slowly, 'than our tiny minds can comprehend. Science may offer paltry explanations to nugatory questions. But the great debates of life and of the world continue despite it.' He leaned forward, elbows on the table. 'I have seen sights that you could never imagine let alone comprehend. I have made discoveries that science cannot and never will explain, sir.' He pointed at Dobbs and Gaddis, a gesture that was almost violent it was so sudden. 'You are the worst of them,' he said, his voice heavy with contempt. 'You seek to explain the inexplicable, to a.s.sign meaning to that which is beyond meaning, to trivialise with science that which transcends such human concepts and boundaries.'