Acceptable Risk

by Robin Cook

  The heavyset man introduced himself as Mark Stevens and the muscular man as George Harris. Kim shook hands with both of them.

  Kim unlocked the gate and got back into her car. With her in the lead, they drove to the old house. They all climbed out of their vehicles in unison.

  “This is fabulous,” Mark said. He was mesmerized by the building.

  “Do you like it?” Kim asked. She was pleased by his response.

  “I love it,” Mark said.

  The first thing they did was walk around the house to examine the exterior. Kim explained the idea of putting a new kitchen and bathroom in the lean-to portion and leaving the main part of the building essentially unchanged.

  “You’ll need heat and air conditioning,” Mark said. “But that should be no problem.”

  After touring the exterior they all went inside. Kim showed them the whole house, even the cellar. The men were particularly impressed with the way the main beams and joists were joined.

  “It’s a solid, well-built structure,” Mark said.

  “What kind of job would it be renovating it?” Kim asked.

  “There wouldn’t be any problem,” Mark said. He looked at George, who nodded in agreement.

  “I think it will be a fantastic little house,” George said. “I’m psyched.”

  “Can it be done without damaging the historical aspect of the building?” Kim asked.

  “Absolutely,” Mark said. “We can hide all the ductwork, piping, and electric in the lean-to and in the cellar. You won’t see it.”

  “We’ll dig a deep trench to bring in utilities,” George said. “They’ll come in beneath the existing foundation so we will not have to disturb it. The only thing I’d recommend is pouring a concrete basement floor.”

  “Can the job be done by September first?” Kim asked.

  Mark looked at George. George nodded and said it wouldn’t be a problem as long as they used custom cabinetry.

  “I have one suggestion,” Mark said. “The main bathroom is best situated in the lean-to as you have suggested. But we could also put a small half-bath on the second floor between the two bedrooms without causing any damage. I think it would be convenient.”

  “Sounds good,” Kim said. “When could you start?”

  “Immediately,” George said. “In fact, to get it done by the first of September we’ll have to start tomorrow.”

  “We’ve done a lot of work for your father,” Mark said. “We could run this job just like we’ve done the others. We’ll bill you for time and materials plus profit.”

  “I want to do it,” Kim said with newfound resolve. “Your enthusiasm has overcome any of my reservations. What do we have to do to get started?”

  “We’ll start right away on a verbal agreement,” Mark said. “We’ll draw up contracts that can be signed later.”

  “Fine,” Kim said. She stuck out her hand and shook hands with both men.

  “We’ll have to stay for a while to get measurements,” Mark said.

  “Be my guest,” Kim said. “As for the contents of the house, they can be stored up at the garage of the main house. The garage is open.”

  “What about the gate?” George asked.

  “If you are starting right away, let’s leave it unlocked,” Kim said.

  While the men were busy with their tape measures, Kim wandered outside. From fifty feet away she looked at the house and acknowledged that it was indeed darling. Immediately she began to think about the fun of decorating it and debated with herself what colors to paint the bedrooms. Such details excited her about the project, but the excitement immediately conjured up Elizabeth’s name. All at once Kim found herself wondering how Elizabeth had felt when she first saw the house and when she first moved into it. She wondered if Elizabeth had been equally as excited.

  Returning back inside, Kim told Mark and George that she would be up in the main house if they needed her.

  “We have plenty to keep us busy for the moment,” Mark said. “But I’ll have to talk with you tomorrow. Could you give me your phone number?”

  Kim gave both her apartment and work numbers. Then she left the old house, climbed in her car, and drove up to the castle. Thinking about Elizabeth had stimulated her to spend a little time looking through the old papers.

  Kim opened the front door and left it slightly ajar in case Mark or George came looking for her. Inside she debated between the attic and the wine cellar. Remembering the seventeenth-century bill of lading she’d found on Saturday in the wine cellar, she decided to return there.

  Striding through the great room and traversing the dining room, Kim pulled open the heavy oak door. As she started down the granite steps she became aware that the door had closed with a dull thud behind her.

  Kim stopped. She had the sudden realization that it was far different being alone in the huge old house than it had been with Edward. She heard distant creaks and groans as the house adjusted to the heat of the day. Turning around, Kim looked up at the door with the irrational fear that it had somehow locked, trapping her in the basement.

  “You’re being ridiculous,” Kim said out loud. Yet she couldn’t shake the concern about the door. Finally she mounted the stairs. She leaned against the door, and as she expected, it opened. She let it close again.

  Chiding herself for her overly active imagination, Kim descended and strode into the depths of the wine cellar. She hummed a favorite tune, but her equanimity was a façade. Despite efforts to the contrary, she was still spooked by the surroundings. The massive house seemed to make the air heavy and breathing difficult. And as she’d already noticed, it was far from silent.

  Kim forced herself to ignore her discomfiture. Still humming the same song, she entered the cell where she’d found the seventeenth-century bill of lading. On Saturday she’d searched through the drawer where she’d found the document, but now she began to search through the rest of the file cabinet.

  It didn’t take her long to grasp how difficult searching through the Stewart papers was to be. She was dealing with one file cabinet out of literally scores. Each drawer was completely full, and she painstakingly had to go through document by document. Many of the papers were entirely written by hand and some were difficult to decipher. On others it was impossible to find a date. To make things worse, the light from the torchlike sconces was far from adequate. Kim resolved that on future forays to the wine cellar she’d bring additional lighting.

  After only going through a single drawer, Kim gave up. Most of the documents where she could find a date were from the late eighteenth century. Hoping there might be some order to the mess, she began randomly opening drawers and sampling, looking for something significantly older. It was in the top drawer of a bureau near the door to the hall that she made her first find.

  What got her attention initially were scattered bills of lading from the seventeenth century: each a little older than the one she’d shown to Edward on Saturday. Then she found a whole packet of them tied with a string. Although they were handwritten, the script was graceful and clear, and all of them had dates. They dealt mostly with furs, timber, fish, rum, sugar, and grain. In the middle of the packet was an envelope. It was addressed to Ronald Stewart. The handwriting was different; it was stiff and erratic.

  Kim carried the envelope out into the hall where the light was better. She slid the letter out and unfolded it. It was dated y 21st June 1679. It was difficult to read.

  Sir:

  There hath been several days synce your letter hath arrived. I hath had much discourse with y family over your fancy for our beloved daughter Elizabeth who is a high spirited gyrl. If it be God’s will ye shall have her hand in marriage provided ye shall give me work and move y family to Salem Town. Y threat of Indian raids hath made it a hazard to our lyves here in Andover and caused us much Disquietude. Ye humble servant,

  James Flanagan.

  Kim slowly slipped the letter back into the envelope. She was dismayed, even shocked. She didn’t
think of herself as a feminist, yet this letter offended her and made her feel like one. Elizabeth had been chattel to be bargained away. Kim’s sympathy for her forebear, which had been on the rise, now soared.

  Returning to the cell, Kim put the letter on top of the bureau where she’d found it and began looking more carefully through the drawer. Oblivious to the time and her surroundings, she went through every slip of paper. Although she found a few more contemporary bills of lading, she found no more letters. Undaunted, she started on the second drawer. It was then that she heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps above her.

  Kim froze. The vague fear she’d experienced when she’d first descended into the wine cellar came back with a vengeance. Only now it was fueled by more than just the spookiness of the huge, empty house. Now it was compounded by the guilt of trespassing into a forbidden and troubled past.

  Consequently, her imagination ran wild, and as the footsteps passed directly overhead, her mental image was of some fearful ghost. She thought it might even be her dead grandfather, coming to exact revenge for her insolent and presumptuous attempt to uncover guarded secrets.

  The sound of the footsteps receded then merged with the house’s creaks and groans. Kim was beset by two conflicting impulses: one was to flee blindly from the wine cellar; the other was to hide among the file cabinets and bureaus. Unable to decide, she did neither. Instead she stepped silently to the door of the cell and peeked around the jamb, looking down the long corridor toward the granite steps. At that moment she heard the door to the wine cellar creak open. She couldn’t see the door, but she was sure it was what she’d heard.

  Paralyzed with fear, Kim helplessly watched as black shoes and trousers appeared and came relentlessly down the steps. Halfway they stopped. Then a figure bent down and a backlit, featureless face appeared.

  “Kim?” Edward called. “Are you down here?”

  Kim’s first response was to let out a sigh. Until then, she hadn’t been aware she’d been holding her breath. Leaning against the wall of the cell for support, since her legs felt tremulous, she called out to Edward to let him know where she was. In a few moments his large frame filled the doorway.

  “You scared me,” Kim said as calmly as she could manage. Now that she knew it was Edward, she was acutely embarrassed by the extent of her terror.

  “I’m sorry,” Edward said falteringly. “I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

  “Why didn’t you call out sooner?” Kim asked.

  “I did,” Edward said. “Several times. First when I came through the front door and again in the great room. I think the wine cellar must be insulated.”

  “I suppose it is,” Kim said. “What are you doing here, anyway? I certainly didn’t expect you.”

  “I tried to call you at your apartment,” Edward said. “Marsha told me you drove out here with the idea of fixing up the old house. On the spur of the moment I decided to come. I feel responsible since I was the one who suggested it.”

  “That was considerate,” Kim said. Her pulse was still racing.

  “I’m really sorry for having scared you,” Edward said.

  “Never mind,” Kim said. “It’s my fault for letting my stupid imagination take over. I heard your footsteps and thought you were a ghost.”

  Edward made an evil face and turned his hands into claws. Kim playfully socked him in the shoulder and told him he wasn’t funny.

  They both felt relieved. The tension that existed evaporated.

  “So you’ve started on the Elizabeth Stewart search,” Edward said. He eyed the open drawer of the bureau. “Did you find anything?”

  “As a matter of fact I have,” Kim said. She stepped over to the bureau and handed Edward James Flanagan’s letter to Ronald Stewart.

  Edward carefully slipped the note from the envelope. He held it close to the light. It took him as much time to read it as it had taken Kim.

  “Indian raids in Andover!” Edward commented. “Can you imagine? Life certainly was different back then.”

  Edward finished the letter and handed it back to Kim. “Fascinating,” he said.

  “Doesn’t it upset you at all?” Kim asked.

  “Not particularly,” Edward said. “Should it?”

  “It upset me,” Kim said. “Poor Elizabeth had even less say about her tragic fate than I’d imagined. Her father was using her as a bargaining chip in a business deal. It’s deplorable.”

  “I think you might be jumping to conclusions,” Edward said. “Opportunity as we know it didn’t exist in the seventeenth century. Life was harsher and more tenuous. People had to team up just to survive. Individual interests weren’t a high priority.”

  “That doesn’t warrant making a deal with your daughter’s life,” Kim said. “It sounds as if her father were treating her like a cow or some other piece of property.”

  “I still think you could be reading too much into it,” Edward said. “Just because there was a deal between James and Ronald doesn’t necessarily mean that Elizabeth didn’t have any say whether she wanted to marry Ronald or not. Also, you have to consider that it might have been a great source of comfort and satisfaction for her to know that she was providing for the rest of her family.”

  “Well, maybe so,” Kim said. “Trouble is, I know what ultimately happened to her.”

  “You still don’t know for sure if she was hanged or not,” Edward reminded her.

  “That’s true,” Kim said. “But this letter at least suggests one reason she might have been vulnerable to being accused as a witch. From the reading I’ve done, people in Puritan times were not supposed to change their station in life, and if they did, they were automatically suspected of not following God’s will. Elizabeth’s sudden rise from a poor farmer’s daughter to a comparatively wealthy merchant’s wife certainly fits that category.”

  “Vulnerability and actually being accused are two different things,” Edward said. “Since I haven’t seen her name in any of the books, I’m dubious.”

  “My mother suggested that the reason she’s not mentioned is because the family went to great lengths to keep her name out of it. She even implied the reason was because the family considered Elizabeth guilty.”

  “That’s a new twist,” Edward said. “But it makes sense in one regard. People in the seventeenth century believed in witchcraft. Maybe Elizabeth practiced it.”

  “Wait a second,” Kim said. “Are you suggesting Elizabeth was a witch? My idea was that she was guilty of something, like changing her status, but certainly not that she considered herself a sorceress.”

  “I mean maybe she practiced magic,” Edward said. “Back then there was white magic and black magic. The difference was that white magic was for good things, like curing a person or an animal. Black magic, on the other hand, had a malicious intent and was called witchcraft. Obviously there could have been times when it was a matter of opinion if some potion or charm represented white magic or black magic.”

  “Well, maybe you have a point,” Kim said. She thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t buy it. My intuition tells me otherwise. I have a feeling Elizabeth was an entirely innocent person caught in a terrible tragedy by some insidious trick of fate. Whatever the trick was, it must have been awful, and the fact that her memory has been treated so dreadfully just compounds the injustice.” Kim glanced around at the file cabinets, bureaus, and boxes. “The question is: could the explanation of whatever it was lie in this sea of documents?”

  “I’d say that finding this personal letter is auspicious,” Edward said. “If there’s one, there’s got to be more. If you’re going to find the answer it will most likely be in personal correspondence.”

  “I just wish there were some chronological order to these papers,” Kim said.

  “What about the old house?” Edward asked. “Did you make any decisions about fixing it up?”

  “I did,” Kim said. “Come on, I’ll explain it to you.”

  Leaving Edward’s car pa
rked at the castle, they drove over to the old house in Kim’s. With great enthusiasm Kim took Edward on a tour and explained that she was going to follow his original suggestion of putting the modern conveniences in the lean-to portion. The most important bit of new information was the placement of a half-bath between the bedrooms.

  “I think it will be marvelous house,” Edward said as they exited the building. “I’m jealous.”

  “I’m excited about it,” Kim said. “What I’m really looking forward to is the decorating. I think I’ll arrange to take some vacation time and even personal time off in September to devote full time to it.”

  “You’ll do it all by yourself?” Edward asked.

  “Absolutely,” Kim said.

  “Admirable,” Edward said. “I know I couldn’t do it.”

  They climbed into Kim’s car. Kim hesitated starting the engine. They could see the house through the front windshield.

  “Actually I’ve always wanted to be an interior decorator,” Kim said wistfully.

  “No kidding?” Edward said.

  “It was a missed opportunity,” Kim said. “My main interest when I was growing up was always art in some form or fashion, especially in high school. Back then, I’d have to say, I was a whimsical artist type and hardly a member of the in-group.”

  “I certainly wasn’t part of the in-group either,” Edward said.

  Kim started the car and turned it around. They headed for the castle.

  “Why didn’t you become an interior decorator?” Edward asked.

  “My parents talked me out of it,” Kim said. “Particularly my father.”

  “I’m confused,” Edward said. “Friday at dinner you said you and your father were never close.”

  “We weren’t close, but he still had a big effect on me,” Kim said. “I thought it was my fault we weren’t close. So I spent a lot of effort trying to please him, even to the point of going into nursing. He wanted me to go into nursing or teaching because he felt they were ‘appropriate.’ He certainly didn’t think interior design was appropriate.”