‘I want to be able to talk, to eat, to kiss my wife, to laugh and to enjoy the time I have left as much as I can. But when that is no longer possible … I see no point in prolonging the inevitable.’

An image of Archie kissing Sarah was suddenly all that Raven could see, and he cursed himself for his shallow selfishness. A dying man was taking him into his confidence, and yet he could not fully banish his own desires.

‘That is why I hope I can count on your assistance.’

‘Assistance? With what?’

Their eyes locked, the intensity of Archie’s gaze conveying the gravity of his request.

‘I do not wish to wait helplessly for the end.’

Raven’s mouth dried. He tried to grasp what Archie meant, his mind struggling to acknowledge what was being said. Was he asking Raven to ease his passing, smooth his pathway to the grave, or was he suggesting something more deliberate, something anticipatory? Was this man, his rival for Sarah’s affections, asking Raven to kill him? Coming so soon after his intervention with the dying Alec, it was as though the gods were toying with him. His facetious thought about a duel at dawn returned to mock him, then to make matters worse, propelled him back to Berlin.

He saw the pistol aimed at his head, loaded quicker than he could have anticipated. He saw the spray of blood hit the wall as he opened the gunman’s throat. He had cheated death then by taking a life, using a surgeon’s blade designed for acts of mercy. Was there some perverse price to be paid for evading his destiny in that alleyway? Was he now fated to end lives rather than to save them?

I do not wish to wait helplessly for the end.

Sleep now, Alec.

‘I understand you might wish to think about it,’ Archie said, interrupting Raven’s tormenting thoughts. ‘How best it might be achieved.’

Archie glanced towards the bottle of chloroform. Or at least Raven thought that he did. He was beginning to feel dizzy, an unpleasant vertigo settling upon him, as though he had been inhaling the stuff himself.

Archie swallowed.

‘That is not all. I have a further request.’

Raven reasoned that nothing he might ask for now could possibly trump what had been asked for already, but was wary of making assumptions.

‘After I am gone, I will need someone to look after Sarah. I have seen to it that she will be provided for financially, but there are things she will need other than money. She is a strong woman, a remarkable woman, but I am under no illusions about how difficult life will be for her. She will need a man’s protection.’

Raven thought that Sarah may well disagree with this statement.

‘What about the child?’ he asked, thinking it best that everything be brought out into the open.

‘She told you?’

‘No. My deduction.’