Chapters (37)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Part I
- Jessie MacRae (21) the arrival
- Flora (33) the drag ball
- Levi (31) the bone library
- Jessie MacRae (21) the second day
- Flora (33) After – everyone arrives
- Levi (32) the four horsemen of the apocalypse
- Jessie MacRae (24) the conclusion
- Flora (33) It’s not my cage
- Levi (32) fear fir the mermaid
- Part II
- Ivy Proudfoot (17) the night witches
- Agnes Campbell (63) the fraudulent mediums act
- William Burroughs (49) the basement
- Ivy Proudfoot (17) cupid’s corner
- Agnes Campbell (63) the sisters
- William Burroughs (49) take me to your word maker so I can plead for my pitiful life
- Ivy Proudfoot (17) the palais
- Agnes Campbell (63) the devil’s daughter, her lover and the child
- William Burroughs (49) this building is a psychic vampire
- Part III
- Queen Bee (21) the red room
- Ivor (37) deathwatch beetles
- Dot (27) the death of all the secrets
- Queen Bee (21) triads vs rebels
- Ivor (37) after all these years
- Dot (27) the long walk home
- Queen Bee (21) Santa baby, please put a sable under the tree, for me
- Ivor (37) ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone
- Dot (27) i’m going to leave this city one last time
- Epilogue
- About the Author
- Also by Jenni Fagan
When you think about it horses were the very first animal to give us our personal freedom and what happens to them? I sat with my horse skeleton most of the night and I cried, Leo. Something in this place is getting to me. Since I moved into No. 10 Luckenbooth Close I have gradually felt more and more weak. I thought about my horse getting up and galloping across this city, I thought about my ghost riding her over to the other side, I thought about how our animal instinct is something any horse can smell, how we can’t hide our fear from them and how they recognize it on sight.
My boy is a Trojan horse.
I found out that they used to call trains curious little fire horses!
We calibrate our machines in horsepower.
How much weight can a steam engine pull?
What is its horsepower?
A long time ago people could only date someone on their road. Or a village they could walk to, or across town on foot.
It was only when the first wild horses were tamed – that love and humanity and all the humans in the world opened up a much wider map. The circle of our hearts’ hope grew exponentially.
I have traveled far.
Perhaps it is because my person was not anywhere near our home.
She is waiting for me.
It was our ability to travel on horses that allowed us to lay in places far and wide. The DNA of the human race began to change. They dragged us into the future.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are coming, my dearest brother.
They have set divine judgement on the world and show us the apocalypse and how it will begin. We are already there, are we not? Right at the start of it? The prophecy said each horseman represented one part of the apocalypse. There was Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death. A white horse whose rider spoke of people in constant war. A red horse whose rider had the power to make men slay each other. A black horse whose rider spoke of famine. A pale horse and its rider was Death. Hades was behind him. He spoke of plague upon the wild beasts of the earth. What plague is coming? Is it one we ourselves are setting in motion now? I told you that a girl who works in reception here has begun to talk to me. It turns out she lives upstairs at No. 10 Luckenbooth Close. I don’t know why but I want to tell her about all of this.