"I'm sorry, sir, but money is not the issue. I need to honour the patrons who have already reserved their table. It would be unfair for me to just give it away."
At this interval, I turned around to the restaurant customers who waited in line behind me. I asked them their names and asked if they had a reservation and when they confirmed that they did I offered to buy the reserved table from them. Initially, the customers, a man and a woman who looked comfortably married, refused such an offer but once I removed several coins from my pocket and they knew the extent of the money I was willing to part with, they gladly accepted the exchange. The waiter was less than pleased by the transaction, but he decided that it was not an issue worth pursuing.
Reluctantly, the waiter then brought me to the reserved table that I had just commandeered. He told me the food that was on the restaurant's menu and what was available to order. I said that to begin with, I would like just a drink of the finest wine the restaurant offered. I would need some additional time to ponder over what food I would eat.
When the waiter returned with the wine I thanked him and told him I would need several more minutes to consider my choices. He eyed me eerily but didn't comment. Everything I had done thus far in his presence had been peculiar so he seemed to just shake this latest oddity off too.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," I shouted as I stood up from the table where I was placed. I had the wine glass in my right hand and a piece of silverware in my left. I tapped the cutlery off the wine glass to make a distinctive noise so that all heads turned in my direction.
"My name is Monsieur Olivier Levasseur. I am from Paris and I have just arrived in your beautiful city today. Please allow me the honour of introducing myself so that I can make an acquaintance with all you fine people. I will order the most expensive champagne and let us all toast to London and Paris and everything great in this world. Money is no object when friendships can be made."
The stunts that I pulled in the restaurant, first paying for a table and then announcing my presence to the whole restaurant, left a disappointing feeling inside of me. If I had been an observer instead of the participant then I would have been sickened by the spectacle. It was a man bragging of possessing a fortune and then misspending some of that money that could have been much better spent. Regardless of the disdain that I felt for myself, most of the customers accepted the champagne warmly, and then shook my hand, thanked me and then asked me to repeat my name.
"It's a necessary evil. Don't be distracted from the objective," I ended up telling myself on more than one occasion so that I was able to bare my overindulgent behaviour.
The advice that I repeated to myself proved useful as I carried out the same stunt in several different high-end locations throughout the centre of London before the night was finished. I visited many different restaurants and ordered champagne for all the tables, though I never ate in any of the restaurants. I must have visited at least nine or ten different establishments, which I thought was a satisfactory number. I shook hands with hundreds of people and was introduced to many more than that. If there was going to be any commotion or gossip spread around the city of London about one man that night, then I knew that everyone would be talking about Monsieur Levasseur.
Chapter 13 - The Heart of Darkness
With the first day in London complete and my task for the evening accomplished, I had nothing else to do but to relax and enjoy the foundations of my well-thought-out plan that I had begun to lay. Monsieur Levasseur would soon be a well-known name and person, all people of fortune who were in the richest of social circles would be familiar with the reputation of him. That includes the three wrongdoers who had tried to kill me. The treasure they had found would have elevated their reputation and position to the highest circles of society, and my stunt tonight was a way to ensure that I entered those circles too. Once I was in those circles then I was certain that getting access to the three sinners would be easily achieved.
Directly after returning to the hotel from the several establishments that I visited, I began counting all the money I possessed. I was anxious that I had been too carefree and given away my money too easily. It was true that Francis Farewell had given me an abundance of money, but he had not given me an endless supply. I reprimanded myself for my actions and after I counted the total value that remained in my possession I started to calculate my costs and expenditures. I had done such calculations once before, but they did not consider my night's actions. Fortunately, I still retained a large sum and before my energy was sapped, due to the eventful day, I made sure that I created a budget for myself that I would need to abide by. I wrote the budget down on paper at the back of my leather notebook and said to myself that it was imperative I stick to the agreed figures.
Thinking over the day's events to myself, I was pleased. I had made a plan of action and I had completed it. I had worried about my finances and then instead of shying away from the issue I faced it head-on and made a plan that would ensure I needn't waste a moment of discomfort in thought about my money. If every day for the rest of my life was as successful then I thought that I would be one of the happiest and most accomplished men in history. All of these thoughts ran through my head with tremendous velocity and excitement.
Even though I was pleased with my productivity throughout my first day in London when I eventually put my head down to sleep that night I couldn't get comfortable. I sat lying on the bed for hours waiting to fall into a slumber, but it never happened. I heard occasional footsteps and the noise of water pipes or something in the walls. I also heard and felt the pulse of my heart beating at a mild pace as well as hearing the sound of meowing from the neighbourhood cats, but all I wanted to do was to fall asleep. My first full day in London had been successful, and I had already planned how I was going to fill my second and third day in England's Capital. I knew that a good night's sleep was required, but I just couldn’t fall asleep.
As the hours crawled by, I remained awake. My pleasure at the day's achievements also began to lessen as the minutes went by. I thought inwardly to myself about my activities and wondered if what I was doing was the correct course of action. I pondered about my activities, my plan, and my life. I considered everything because the sleepless night had provided me with enough time to do so. The time I took for self-reflection could have been constructive and therapeutic, but the results it yielded were as black and dark as the night sky. The more I thought about everything, the more I began to question and hate every aspect of it. The happiness and feeling of contentment that I had felt only hours before had now completely vanished and I began to feel a feeling of worthlessness.
In the darkness, I grew more agitated by sudden insomnia and after tossing and turning and trying to make myself feel comfortable while lying on the bed, I threw off the sheets and got up. I thought that if I could not fall asleep then there was no point being horizontal on the bed. I began to pace up and down in the hotel room and again thought over all of the thoughts that I had considered in my head, while I was laying down. I thought them to myself silently and then I began to verbalize them. I hoped that by saying my thoughts out loud I could rationalize and produce a better outlook than the murky one I had given myself. I even began speaking back and forth to myself, asking questions and giving answers.
"What is the point of it all?" I wondered to myself.
"You want to know what the point of it all is, but you know what the point is and why you are doing this. You deserve to have your revenge."
"I don't mean the point of my recent actions, but the point of it all. What is the point of life? What is the point of my life?"
My speech quickened as my thoughts deepened. My heartbeats became faster and I am ashamed to say that I felt myself slip far from the sane world. Perhaps I had consumed too much alcohol at the different restaurants I had visited that night and now the toxicity that had entered my body was reacting badly with the chemicals already inside me.
"It is a fever. I feel a fever com
ing on. That is why I feel so strange and am saying such lunacy. I just need to time and need time to heal and clear this nonsense from my body."
"No, it's not a fever and it's not nonsense. Why go through so much suffering and survive only to become such a worthless thing? Could the money you attained not be better spent on better things such as charity than on yourself?"
"James, Edward and Charles deserve to pay for trying to kill me. They are murderers, or at least they would have been if they had succeeded. They deserve to be treated as such and punished as such. I am working towards doing that and it is a worthwhile exercise."
"You think wasting such a large sum of money is worthwhile? Do you think that other people will agree that it is worthwhile? The actions aren't worthwhile, the motive isn't worthwhile and your life isn't worthwhile. Life has gone on without you and it turns out that you weren't required to bring happiness to those you love. Aunt Tilney still socialises and attends balls and your family has even travelled out of London, no doubt having a joyous time without you. Your absence has not been missed so why go through all this bother now."
My duel conversation went round in circles, but the flow of the conversation and the result was always the same. I tried to rationalize that my acts were righteous and my motive for revenge was good. Although, the second voice in my head told me that everything I did was in vain.
"Why torture your family or be a burden on them when they think you are already dead. Life has continued in your absence. Why do you not just stay dead? Take your revenge, Monsieur Levasseur, and leave," the second voice always seemed to say to me.
I remained awake until the sun arrived the next morning. I paced in my room for the majority of the night in darkness and then stepped back into bed once the night became too cold for me. As the morning got brighter and brighter, and the light of the sun began filling my room, I stared out of the window. I felt the tiredness within me and knew that the next day's planned activity would possibly suffer as a result of lack of sleep. I thought that it would also suffer due to my mentality about the situation since I had spent the best part of the night battling internally with myself about the merit of the route I was taking. I hoped that any doubts about my conquest would evaporate after a few hours of sleep.
Seven hours passed before there was a knock on my bedroom door. I had managed to finally fall asleep and the knock on the door woke me up. I quickly answered the door to find a young maid who wanted to clean the room. I told her that it was unnecessary today, but thanked her nonetheless. She politely bowed and before she said goodbye to me, she told me that a person had been in the hotel earlier that morning enquiring about me. The maid did not know the appearance or characteristics of the person as she had not seen them herself but had been told about it by another member of staff.
"There was a note left for you. It is at the front desk," she told me.
"Someone left a note for me? That is odd," I said aloud.
The maid asked if I wanted her to retrieve the note for me. She said that it would be no hassle at all for her to go to the reception and bring up the note to me, but I said it was unnecessary. It was now close to midday so I thought that it would be best if I got prepared and dressed and went down to the reception to retrieve the note myself. Breakfast was also on my mind.
It only took me ten minutes in my room and a further five minutes in the washroom for me to get ready. I wore one of the three identical suits and shaved the stubble that was growing on my cheeks and pruned the hairs of my moustache and the pointed beard on my chin. Satisfied with my appearance I then made my way to the front desk of the hotel and retrieved the note that had been written for me.
The paper it was written on was folded and concealed inside a white envelope. I opened the letter and began to read it at the reception area, deciding that it would contain nothing of significance or private that could not be seen by other eyes.
Monsieur Levasseur,
I am glad to hear that you have arrived safely in London without interruption or threat of another roadside marauder. I was a little unsure whether we would have the pleasure of seeing you in London before your business matters were concluded, but I am glad to find out that you are still here in our fine capital. We have just returned from our pleasant stay in Bath and we would like to invite you to come and dine with us one evening this week. Our servant shall return tonight at eight o'clock to collect your response.
Your dear and warm friend
Mr. Arthur Campbell
I folded the paper and put it in my pocket. I was unsure how Mr. and Mrs. Campbell had found me in this hotel, especially considering the vast number of hotels that there were in London, but the letter warmed me and I was pleased that Mr. Campbell wanted to continue the acquaintance. I would respond to the note and meet the servant that evening at the prearranged time. After reading the letter and storing the paper in my pocket, I decided to leave the hotel in search of a small establishment to get a hearty breakfast, or afternoon lunch, for the day ahead.
Stepping out onto the street and then finding a restaurant and consuming the contents of a large plate of sausages, eggs, mushrooms and much more, I began to feel good. The thoughts of inadequacy and the dark feelings that I had thought and verbalised throughout the night were now gone. They belonged to the dark corners of the night and the shadows of my heart. In the daylight, there was no place for such thoughts to exist. I settled the bill for breakfast and left a tip. Then I started to carry out the plans that I had previously conceived for my second full day in London. I walked away from the restaurant and to my destination with a quickened pace as I had misspent the precious hours of the morning in slumber due to my poor night's sleep. I needed to make up for the time that I had lost.
Chapter 14 - Dinner with the Campbell's
Six days passed since the misery night when the darkness had allowed me to doubt myself, and I was productive on each of those days. I went to the library to look at the archived newspapers, I continued to visit restaurants and drinking establishments each evening to build my reputation, and in the daytime, I partook in various activities that would help me achieve my goals. Every action I took felt like a step closer to my end-goal.
There was a lot of planning and thought put into each activity I carried out, but over the six days, I sometimes found myself doing nothing productive but still managed to yield great results. For example, near my hotel, there was Hyde Park which was a popular park with lakes and fountains and large spaces of greenery and pockets of well-maintained flower beds. One afternoon not long after I had finished doing some research in the library I took a walk through the park and found a row of benches to sit at and enjoy the warm sun. I read a newspaper and relaxed in the fresh air. On another park bench sat a man and two women who gossiped about the news of the day around London. By how they spoke and the places and people they spoke about, I could deduce that they were people in good social standing and that they moved in the highest circles of society which I was successfully elevating myself into. I heard them mention my name which I found was pleasing as it showed that my scheme was working. However, more satisfactory than having them say my name was hearing the group say the name 'James Cromwell' who was one of the wrongdoers who had thrown me into the sea to die. At the sound of his name my ears perked up and I heard the man and the two women speaking about how he was soon returning to London from some unknown location. They also said that he was expected to attend a ball being hosted by a man named Alexander on the night of his return.
James Cromwell had been a rival of mine for a long time throughout our years of study and we had always competed with each other. When he joined the navy, I continued studying and was attending and beginning to lecture at some of the best institutes in the country. We were friends throughout the years but we first and foremost were rivals and we were always in competition with each other right up until the moment he and the two others threw me overboard. James had always been an arrogant person so he probably though
t that with my death he had won in our rivalry.
Apart from the lucky encounter that I experienced while sitting in the park I was fortunate to find a librarian that had a lot of knowledge about seemingly everything and had a loose mouth. I went to the library on three separate days and researched all the articles that were printed about the uncovering of the treasure. There were numerous articles, interviews and history pieces written about the treasure, the clue and where it was buried. There were even more articles about the three Englishmen that found the buried treasure, with a few pieces of information detailing their fallen comrade who perished while on the quest. I was lucky to have found the old librarian because when I presented an article to the old librarian woman, she was able to tell me about the back-stories of some of the reporters and their locations and even the locations and areas where my three wrongdoers now lived.
As the days went by, the single horrid night when I had tortured and lamented myself about life was quickly turning into a memory that I would hopefully soon erase from my mind. Each successive night following the night of trauma was a silent one where I fell asleep almost as soon as my head touched the pillow and I remained asleep each night until long after dawn had arrived. I contributed my good sleep down to the fact that I was now working hard at plotting my revenge, and I contributed that irksome night to the fact that I had been travelling for so long before it and a consequence of the draining journey was that my body was physically and mentally exhausted.
The note that had been left for me, by Mr. Campbell, was replied to that same evening and the correspondence between me and the sender took place daily through the communication channels of the sender's servant. The servant would arrive each morning just after breakfast and then once more in the evening just before I always prepared to take myself out to another part of the city and flaunt my wealth in return for prestige and access to the upper levels of society. Mr. Campbell tried to orchestrate a time and place where I could dine with him and his family but it always seemed that there was some prior engagement that stopped them from meeting with me. That was not an issue or anything that I cared about, but the servant always apologised profusely on behalf of his master.
Revenge of an Englishman Page 12
