Gormenghast – post IV

As the pages start to mount the ever so clever Steerpike starts to slip and the material is there for those that have the time and moment to put it together, namely the doctor and Flay. The Countess, who you initially suspected as being the person who might sniff Steerpike out is focusing on The Thing, which is rivalling her for attention of the birds.

Bullet points between pages 167 – 247

* The headmaster and Irma declare their feelings for each other in a dark arbour in the garden without either revealing their physical faults and as they head back to the house a laugh out loud moment happens concerning one of the old professors who rushes past them naked and jumps the garden wall to disappear forever

* Steerpike decides it is time to rid the world of his master but he underestimates the stubborn strength of Barquentine and as he tries to burn the old retainer they wrestle and although they fall into the moat and the old man dies Steerpike is not only burnt and scarred but his confidence is undermined

* Meanwhile Titus and Fuchsia head out to meet Flay and tell the old servant what has happened with Barquentine dying and Steerpike taking over but the most important news for Flay is the existence of a tunnel into the castle

* Flay starts coming into the castle, particularly when the castle is snowed in for a month, and he is the last to hear the starving and insane twins lose their fight with life, and he sets out to sniff out the evil in the castle

* Back at the doctor’s house Irma is infatuated with Bellgrove the headmaster while her brother muses on what his patient Steerpike said when he was in a delirium recovering from his burns

“He had been thinking of Steerpike’s accession to the key position that he now occupied. He had also been reflecting upon the way he had behaved as a patient. His fortitude had been matchless and his will to live quite savage. But for the most part, the Doctor was turning over in his mind something that was quite different. It was a phrase, which, at the height of Steerpike’s delirium, had broken loose from the chaos of his ravings – ‘And the Twins will make it five.’ The young man had shouted – ‘and the Twins will make it five.’"

* Titus celebrates his 10th birthday and in the moments when he should be enjoying himself he declares his desire to be free of the constraints if his office being Earl and escape from the castle forever

More tomorrow…