European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club Book 2)

by Theodora Goss

  JUSTINE: She chose. We did not choose. We did not get the opportunity to choose what we are.

  MARY: I know, and you can keep telling us that as often as you like. But it’s not going to convince Ayesha, is it?

  CHAPTER XXVII

  Evening in Budapest

  That night, the Athena Club held an emergency meeting in Mina’s office. Present were Mary Jekyll, Diana Hyde, Catherine Moreau, Beatrice Rappaccini, and Justine Frankenstein, together again as we had been in London. We were sitting in armchairs or on the floor, with no sense of ceremony or decorum, exactly the way we would have sat at 11 Park Terrace. Mary had not bothered to turn up the gas, but there was a fire in the fireplace, which gave enough light for us to see each other.

  What were the members of the club thinking that night, after all that had happened—the travels, the adventures, the adversities we had endured? Mary was thinking of the letter she had received that morning. There had been no time earlier in the day, but tonight, after this meeting, she would have to tell Justine about Adam’s death. Catherine was trying not to think about Edward Prendick. She did not know how to feel about what he had done, sacrificing his life for her. Did it wipe out all the cowardice he had shown before? She could not help feeling a great sadness that he was gone. He was the only person in the world who had known her as a puma. With his death, she had lost a part of herself. And yet, she could not entirely let go of her anger toward him. It was a complicated feeling, and she did not like complicated feelings. Beatrice was thinking about Clarence, who was going to be in Budapest in a couple of days. She needed to make a decision about him, and she did not know how. Once before, she had been selfish—she had loved Giovanni and wanted to be with him. She had not thought of the consequences, and he had died. Did she want to risk that happening again? Diana was thinking through various schemes to bring Hóvirág back to England. And Justine was longing for the estate in Cornwall where she had lived alone for a hundred years. She did not often long to be alone again—she valued the friendships she had gained, although sometimes she found the other members of the Athena Club a little overwhelming. But tonight she felt sick in her soul, and would not have minded being there again, on the cliffs by that restless, eternal sea.

  “First order of business,” said Mary. “Does anyone want to talk about what happened yesterday?”

  “I was awesome!” said Diana. “You should have seen the way I jumped down from that balcony. I landed on someone—I don’t know who, but anyway I saw that vampire trying to escape out the door and stuck my knife into him, and he turned around and was about to bite me but Ayesha got him from behind. How does she do that, anyway? It was like she just reached out and he fell over. He had these red marks on his face, as though she had burned him with her fingers. I want to be able to do that.”

  “Anyone else want to talk about these events?” asked Mary. But everyone else was silent. Finally, Justine said, “Fighting is so romantic in poetry, but in real life it is always ugly and complicated. I’m simply glad that Lucinda is safe and Professor Van Helsing has been captured.”

  “Right,” said Mary. “We stopped Van Helsing, and he won’t be able to kill any more girls, or their mothers, to advance the progress of mankind.” Her tone was as sarcastic as we had ever heard from Mary. “Seward is still out there—I doubt we’ve heard the last of him, but there’s nothing we can do about that right now. Second order of business: Ayesha refuses to stop the experiments. What can we do about that? Anything? Also, she offered us membership in the Alchemical Society. Anyone want to take her up on that offer?” Ah, now that was the most sarcastic. We had not previously noticed Mary’s talent for sarcasm, but we were certainly noticing it tonight. At least, Catherine certainly was. “Anyone want to join the Alchemical Society? Let’s see a show of hands.”

  Clearly, Mary was expecting none, and was surprised to see one hand raised: Beatrice’s.

  “Are you serious?” she said. “No, let me rephrase that, borrowing one of Diana’s favorite words: Are you bloody serious?”

  Beatrice, who was sitting on the floor, put her arms around her knees and said, in her usual gentle tone, “We cannot force Ayesha to do as we wish—she is clearly more powerful than any of us. But we have not yet started trying to convince her. Our meeting with her this afternoon need not be our final meeting with her, and her refusal need not be the final word on the matter. I have been thinking—like a scientist, as my father trained me, and I have an idea. It is not fully developed yet, and I do not wish to present it before I have considered all its consequences. Furthermore, it may come to nothing. Mary, I understand why you and the others may not wish to join. The Société has caused considerable harm. But consider—the Athena Club would have a voice in the Société des Alchimistes.”

  “Considerable harm!” Mary looked flabbergasted, which is not an expression we are accustomed to seeing on her face. “All these scientists, these alchemists—including your father and mine—were conducting their experiments as members of the Alchemical Society. They presented their ideas at its conferences, published in its journal—even when their research wasn’t authorized, like Van Helsing’s, their ideas originated in the society. You know what they’re responsible for? Turning you poisonous, among other things. Even after seeing Lucinda and hearing her story, Ayesha refuses to stop. Do you really think you would have any influence as a member?”

  “If you think I’m joining the society that allowed Moreau to create Beast Men . . . ,” said Catherine. “Ayesha authorized those experiments. Personally.”

  Justine shook her head. “Forgive me, Beatrice—I understand your logic. But I could not bring myself to join.”

  “No,” said Mary. “Just no. I could not bring myself to do it either. The society has been spying on me for years—do you think it will stop spying on on us now? Diana, what do you say?”

  “Not bloody likely!” came the response. “Anyway, who wants to go to their stupid meetings, to be bored to death by scientific papers or bitten by vampires?”

  “I see,” said Beatrice. “Then I too will refuse her offer. I am, first and foremost, a member of the Athena Club, and I will abide by what the majority wishes.”

  “Actually, I think you should join,” said Catherine. “The fact that we don’t want to doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. As far as I’m concerned, they’re a lot of bloody murderers. However, if we want a voice in the Alchemical Society, you could be that voice. I don’t believe you would change anything, any more than Mary does—why should Ayesha listen to you? But at least you could tell us if there were any more experiments going on. If they’re going to spy on us, we should spy on them—and a spy on the inside is the best kind.”

  Beatrice looked around at their faces in the firelight. “What do you all think of Catherine’s position? Do you agree that I should join the society? Of course I would do it on behalf of the Athena Club.”

  Mary looked undecided, but said, “Catherine does make a good point. It’s really your decision, Bea. I mean, we don’t have any rules about that sort of thing. We don’t have any rules, actually, except the one about never waking up Diana.”

  DIANA: Is that actually a rule? Seriously, is it?

  Beatrice nodded. “Let me think about it tonight, and I shall decide tomorrow. What about Ayesha’s offer concerning the archives?”

  “I think we should send a message to Nurse Adams—I mean Frau Gottleib—tomorrow morning,” said Mary. She still could not believe that Nurse Adams had lived with her for seven years as a spy for the society. Betrayal and deception, that’s what the Société des Alchimistes was all about. “I would certainly like to see what’s in the archives. Anyone else?”

  Justine and Beatrice said “Yes” and “I would” simultaneously. Catherine shook her head. “I couldn’t care less what Moreau wrote about me.” Diana just said “Boooring!”

  “Third order of business,” said Mary. “I think we should offer Lucinda membership in the Athena Club. We’ve never
decided on a criteria for membership—we’ve never had to. But I think she meets it. I mean, she’s like us—”

  “A monster,” said Catherine.

  “—a young woman affected by experiments of various sorts,” said Mary pointedly. “Those experiments have altered her physically and psychologically. She will never entirely recover from them.”

  “So?” said Diana. “We barely even know her. What’s the point of letting Loony Lucinda into the club?”

  “The point is, we can help her,” said Mary. “Isn’t that what the club is for, so we can all help each other? Consider: she has lost her parents and her home. We do not know if she has any source of income. She needs a place to live, and friends to care for her so she can recover as fully as possible from what her father did to her. We can be those friends.”

  “I second the motion,” said Justine. “This is, as Mary says, why we founded the Athena Club—to help one another. Why else did we come all this way to rescue Lucinda?”

  “Third,” said Beatrice. “She’s a trained pianist. Perhaps she can give lessons, once she is more recovered from her ordeal. That could be her contribution to our common fund. It would not be expensive to purchase a piano that had been used by a church or music hall.”

  “Fourth,” said Catherine. “I can set up the typewriter in my room so she can have the old governess’s room. Or I could use the study downstairs? It’s not as though I absolutely need a writing room. I mean, Justine needs the studio for her painting, but I can write anywhere, as long as I can shut the door so Diana doesn’t bother me.”

  “Good,” said Mary. “If there are no objections—”

  “I object!” said Diana. “She drinks blood. Are you going to find blood for her in London? Because I don’t think Mrs. Poole is going to do it!”

  MRS. POOLE: You girls have asked me to find you a lot of strange things since you moved in together and began these adventures of yours, but blood! Going down to the slaughterhouses like an anemic with a bottle to fill . . .

  BEATRICE: And yet you did just that, Mrs. Poole, when Lucinda came to visit us. Really, I think you’re a treasure. What would we do without you?

  MRS. POOLE: Well, someone’s got to take care of things, with all the gallivanting you do!

  “Diana,” said Mary, “are you seriously going to object to letting Lucinda join, after all we’ve been through together? We’ve never voted on membership before, but I think adding a new member should require unanimous approval. So you can stop the Athena Club from offering her membership—do you want to?”

  Diana frowned and put her chin in her hands, looking as recalcitrant as possible. Would she really object to Lucinda joining? Then she said, “Oh, all right! No, I guess not. But if she bites me, I’m biting back!”

  “Fourth order of business,” said Catherine. “I think Mary should become the president of the Athena Club. If we’re going to deal with an organization like the Alchemical Society, we need an official spokeswoman. Mary’s been doing that anyway—I think we should let her continue.”

  “Second,” said Beatrice and Justine simultaneously.

  “You have got to be kidding,” said Diana. “That’s just going to make her even more annoying.”

  “But I don’t want to be president,” said Mary. She looked at all of them, startled by Catherine’s proposal. Where in the world had it come from? She had never expressed a desire to lead the club in any official capacity. “I thought we agreed that we would not have a president. I appreciate your confidence in me, Catherine, but that’s a lot of responsibility. I don’t feel as though—”

  “Oh, she doesn’t want to do it,” said Diana. “Third! Mary for president.”

  “Sorry, Mary,” said Catherine. “I think the motion has carried by majority vote.”

  DIANA: I told you it would make her more annoying.

  JUSTINE: But it is also a great deal of work for Mary, arranging everything, being responsible for the running of the club. I’m sure she’s very tired of being president sometimes.

  DIANA: That’s what makes it worth the annoyingness!

  It was a busy week for the Athena Club. The next day, Mary, Beatrice, and Justine went to the Academy of Sciences, by arrangement with Frau Gottleib. At the last moment, Lucinda asked if she could go with them.

  Mary looked at her, startled. “Why, Lucinda? We’re just going to work in the archives, although Beatrice has a scheme of some sort that she won’t explain to us. . . .”

  “I wish to speak with my father,” said Lucinda. She looked pale and tired, but composed. She had not said anything yet that day that sounded mad or even unusual—until this request.

  “Surely that is unwise,” said Justine, looking concerned. “You are still not very strong. Such a confrontation . . .”

  “I wish to speak with my father,” she repeated again. She sounded determined.

  Mary looked at Justine and Beatrice with an expression that clearly said, What should I do?

  “This may be necessary for her,” said Beatrice. “It was necessary for me to confront my father after Giovanni’s death. Sometimes we cannot heal until we have confronted those who have harmed us.”

  Mary was still not sure it was a good idea—but Lucinda had the right to make her own decisions. Would she decide to join the Athena Club? When Mary had asked her that morning, she had looked a little frightened, as she often did, and said that she did not know. Well, that too was hers to decide, and Mary would not press her on it.

  At the Academy of Sciences, they were met at the front desk by Lady Crowe, who took them up to Ayesha’s office on the third floor. As they crossed the lobby and went up the stairs, they passed men and women arguing, or perhaps just conversing vehemently, about scientific ideas in a variety of languages. Apparently, the chaos of the general meeting had not affected the annual conference of the Alchemical Society.

  On the way up, Lady Crowe said to Beatrice, in her aristocratic English accent, “My dear Miss Rappaccini, Sasha tells me his theft of the telegram has been detected—apparently, a Zulu Prince and a Madam Zora are very angry with him. I think if you knew the circumstances, you would forgive him, as would they. You see, as a child, Sasha was sent to me in London. His father was a drunkard and his mother could not support the family. The other children did not share Sasha’s and his father’s hirsutism—they were taken by orphanages or, if old enough, trained for service. But no one wanted Sasha. He was living on the streets of St. Petersburg, eating whatever scraps he could beg or scavenge. A fellow member of the Alchemical Society noticed him and immediately thought of me—he knew that I was interested in congenital abnormalities. He paid for Sasha’s passage to England. I took Sasha in—he lived with me until he was old enough to join the circus. Unfortunately, I was not able to cure his condition, which remains beyond the reach of the alchemical sciences. But he has always been loyal to me. When Ayesha learned that you and Miss Moreau were traveling with the Circus of Marvels and Delights, I remembered that Sasha had mentioned working for Lorenzo, and asked him to investigate. It seemed a fortunate coincidence. I hope you will forgive him and speak for him to the other members of the circus. It sounds as though Madam Zora may feed him to her snakes!”

  “And Jimmy Bucket?” asked Beatrice. “What of him? You know the Baker Street boys have found him out.” She looked at Lady Crowe accusingly.

  “Ah yes,” she said, with no sign of guilt or shame. “That was a simple matter of bribery. Young Jimmy has been keeping the Jekyll ménage under observation since shortly after Nurse Adams, that is Frau Gottleib, left. His family is very poor, and his sister’s treatments are expensive.”

  “And is anyone else spying on us for the Alchemical Society?” asked Mary. Unlike Beatrice, she did not feel particularly inclined to forgive Jimmy Bucket. Were there other Jimmy Buckets keeping watch over them? The thought made her angry.

  Lady Crowe smiled at her. It was a sweet, grandmotherly smile. “Here we are, Miss Jekyll. Ayesha is expecting you. An
d if you have time later, do stop by and have tea with me. I’m coordinating events in the general assembly room. We still have a conference to run, you know! But I am always interested in anomalies, abnormalities—monsters of nature, if you will. I would love to chat further with such interesting young women.”

  Mary stared at her back as she walked down the stairs. She had not necessarily expected Lady Crowe to answer her question, but to ignore it in such an obvious way? And then ask her to tea, smiling just like the kindly Madame Corbeau? Well, she thought. Appearances certainly are deceiving!

  JUSTINE: Perhaps she simply forgot to answer your question?

  MARY: Do you seriously believe that?

  Just then the office door opened. Standing in the doorway was Leo Vincey. “Please come in,” he said, in a not very pleased tone.

  Ayesha’s office was more functional than Mary had expected, with a large writing desk, glass-fronted bookshelves, a typewriter on a typing stand, presumably for a secretary—the usual accoutrements of a business office. Somehow, she had imagined the president of the Alchemical Society in a grander space. However, a large window provided a magnificent view of the Danube and the hills of Buda beyond. Ayesha was seated at a round conference table. Today she was wearing a dress the color of marigolds, with black embroidery on the collar and cuffs. Professor Holly, who was seated to one side of her, rose as they entered. “Ladies,” he said, rather as one might say “wild animals.” “Leo and I would like to beg your pardon for disbelieving you. We were mistaken, and I have been informed that I was rude. I find that I often am without realizing it—the peril of being an old bachelor.”

  “Although I think the mistake was understandable, under the circumstances,” said Leo, with a smile that he probably thought was charming. Oh, Mary did not like him! He might be handsome, but he was too arrogant by half, as Mrs. Poole might say.

  “Thank you, Professor Holly,” she said in her most dignified tone. “Your apology is accepted. Madam President?” As the president of the Athena Club, she would act as spokeswoman—one president to another.