P N Elrod - Barrett 3 - Death Masque

by Death Masque(Lit)

  "Oliver, have you any news of Nora Jones?" By his initial expression I saw that he had none. He glanced once at Elizabeth and shifted as if uncomfortable. She correctly understood what troubled him. "It's all right, Jonathan's told me everything about his relationship with Miss Jones."

  "Oh-uh-has he, now?" "So you may speak freely before us both." With that obstacle removed, Oliver squared his shoulders and plunged forward, addressing me with a solemn face. "Sorry, but I've not heard a word on the lady. I've asked all around for you, called on everyone who'd ever known her or had her to a party, but nothing. The Warburtons saw her last and that was just before they left Italy to come home for the summer. She was a frequent visitor with them while they were there; they had quite a high regard for her. Seems she was always very kind to poor Tony, spent time with him and read to him a lot, which went very well with his mother. She said he was often a bit improved afterward." "But they'd no idea of her whereabouts?" "Mrs. Warburton had reckoned that Miss Jones would be returning to England as well and was surprised as any when she did not, what with her attachment to Tony and all."

  Not the news I'd been hoping for, but not unexpected after my exploration of her empty house. "Have you talked to her neighbors lately?"

  "I took supper with the Everitts only last week-they live next door on the left-and they've not had the least sight of her. Even spoke to one of their footmen when I'd learned she'd given him a special vale to keep the lamp in front of her house charged with oil and lighted after dark. He had nothing to say, either."

  "Probably because he's been lax in his duty." "Eh?"

  "I went by there last night and found it singularly deserted. I'd have noticed a lighted lamp."

  "So that's where you'd got to," said Elizabeth. "Jericho told me that you'd made some sort of expedition, but he couldn't guess as to how your clothes had gotten into such a state."

  "Oh, ho," said Oliver. "Having adventures, were you?" "Misadventures, more like," I answered. "I happened to have gotten splashed with beer by a careless drunkard, that's all. Next time I'll hire a sedan chair if I want to go anywhere. You said Tony was improved?" Another glance at Elizabeth.

  "I'm also acquainted with Mr. Warburton's plight," she assured him.

  He gave a self-deprecating shrug and continued. "Yes, much better than before. The Italian holiday must have helped. He still drifts off while you're talking to him, but not as much as before. Sometimes he can even hold a conversation, as long as it's brief and fairly simple. He enjoys a carriage ride when the weather's nice, and going to St. James's Park. His body's healthy enough, but his mind... a most curious case. I'm his physician now, you know; I've got a keen interest in nervous disorders, and Tony is my favorite patient."

  "I'm happy to know he's in your capable hands," I said. "The poor fellow didn't ask for what happened to him, whatever that was." Though he'd certainly brought it upon himself with his murderous attack on Nora and me. He'd failed only because of Nora's extranatural abilities, but she'd lost control of her temper and that had resulted in his present condition. Nora had regretted her action against him and had no doubt sought to make amends, but where was she now? Why had she ceased to see Tony when he was apparently recovering a little? Was she afraid of that recovery? I couldn't imagine her to be afraid of anything.

  "I'm thinking of trying a course of electrics on Tony," Oliver was saying.

  "But I thought such things were for parlor games," said Elizabeth.

  "There's use and misuse of anything in the scientific arts. Heaven knows the town is full of quacks, but I've seen favorable results on many hopeless cases by the use of electricity. I've almost got his mother talked into it. A few years ago she was eager enough to try earth baths for Tony, but now when I come along with something that may really help, she becomes the soul of caution. I suppose it's because she remembers me during all those times Tony and I dragged ourselves home at dawn drunk as two lords." Elizabeth wrinkled her nose. "Earth baths?" "Oh, yes, it's still very popular, supposed to draw out bodily impurities or something like that. I went to one establishment to see for myself, but the moment they found out I was a doctor, they refused me admittance. Claimed that I'd be stealing their secrets. I might well have done so, if they'd been worth the taking. What I did was simply to go to another place offering the service, claim an imposition, and go inside for a treatment."

  "Which involves... ?"

  "They have you in a state of nature and then bury you up to your neck in earth for as long as is necessary for your complaint. It's quite an elaborate operation, I must say. You don't expect to go into an otherwise respectable-looking house to discover several of the rooms looking like a street after the ditch diggers have had their way with it. Imagine whole chambers piled high with ordinary dirt. Thought I'd walked into some kind of a gardener's haven. Wonder what their landlord makes of it, though they probably pay him well. The only evidence I saw of any kind of 'drawing off was how they drew off money from their patients."

  "And you expect your electrics to be superior?"

  "Most anything would be, but yes, I have great confidence that a judicious application of electricity in this case would effect a change for the better."

  "One can hope and pray so," Elizabeth said. She looked at me.

  "Oh, yes, absolutely," I added. I hardly sounded believable in my own ears or to hers since she knew the truth of what had happened to Tony, but Oliver accepted it well enough.

  Their food began to arrive and our talk moved on to other subjects.

  The evening was highly successful. Elizabeth took to Oliver as if he were a long misplaced brother and not a first cousin she'd never seen before. He had her laughing over his jokes and dozens of amusing stories and gossip of the town, for which I was exceedingly grateful. I hadn't seen her sparkle with such an inner light for so long I'd forgotten what she'd been like before tragedy had crashed into her life.

  We kept our revels going as long as we were able, but the wine and excitement had its way with them. The signs of fatigue had set in, and not long after midnight Oliver said he needed a bed more than another bottle of port. Elizabeth also announced her desire to sleep, and we gave her escort upstairs, bidding her good night at her door, then going across to my own room.

  Jericho had taken pains to do some cleaning, or to have it done, so despite the intrusion of our baggage into every corner, the chamber was more livable than before. I made introductions and he gravely bowed, assuming the near-royal dignity he wore as easily as his coat. Oliver was highly impressed, which was a relief to me. As we were intending soon to encroach ourselves upon him, it was important that everyone, including the servants, got along with one another. I told Jericho what had been planned, then asked my cousin if there would be a possible problem between his valet and mine.

  "Don't see how there can be since I threw the chap out last week," he responded.

  "Heavens, what did he do?"

  "What didn't he do, you mean. Said he knew how to barber, but he was the ruin of two of my best wigs. Told him to give my favorite yellow velvet coat a brushing, and the fool washed it in vinegar. 'Enough of you,' I said, and out he went. He had a confident manner about him, that's why I took him into service, acted like he knew everything, but he had less brains than a hedgehog."

  Jericho nodded sympathetically, his eyes sliding toward mine with one brow rising slightly for but a second.

  "Perhaps Jericho can fill his place until you can secure another," I said, obedient to this silent prompting.

  "That would be damned kind of you. You don't mind?"

  I professed that I did not.

  "As matters stand, I could use a bit of help. I've only got the one scullery and a lad who comes in with the coal," he confessed.

  "What?"

  "Well, it's bloody hard to get good help, though the city's full of servants if you can believe the notices they post. But I'm busy with my calls all day and haven't the time. I was rather hoping your sister would take things in
hand and get me set up, if she had no objection."

  "I'm sure she won't, but how long have you been without a household?"

  "Couldn't really say," he airily evaded. "You know how it is."

  No, but I could deduce what had happened. On his own for the first time he'd found it difficult to get fully established and dared not ask for help from his family or any friends. Word would filter back to to his mother, and she'd upbraid him for incompetence in addition to all the thousand other things she upbraided him for on a regular basis. In our four years of correspondence, he had also filled quite a lot of paper up on the topic of maternal woes.

  "Yes, I know," I said. "But we'll have things sorted out soon enough."

  "Excellent!" He dropped into a chair and propped his feet on the table. I followed his example and we grinned at one another for a moment. "God, but I've missed your company, can't wait to go drinking and whoring with you again-that is, if it won't interfere with your search for Miss Jones."

  "We'll sort that out, too. Perhaps if you found her bankers..."

  "Already tried that. She hasn't any." "No bankers?"

  "Went to everyone in this city and Cambridge. No one had ever heard of her. I also tried the agent who had sold her the London house. She'd paid him directly in cash, no bank draft. Then I asked around for her solicitor and finally found him last spring, but he had no knowledge of her whereabouts or how to contact her."

  "Good God, but her solicitor must know of all people," I said.

  "Apparently not. I did leave a letter with him to forward to her. I also wrote care of the Warburtons, but they said they never got it. The Italian post, if there is such a thing, would likely explain that. I am sorry, I know this must be frightfully important to you." "You did your best."

  "There's good reason to hope that she'll turn up soon enough." "Indeed?"

  "The coming holidays. There's going to be all sorts of fetes going on next month and for the new year, and you know how she enjoyed going to a good party." I had to laugh. His unabashed optimism was enough to infuse me with a bit of fresh hope as well. "You may be right."

  "Now I've a few questions to pose," he said, raising his chin to an imperious height so he might look down his nose.

  "Question away, Cousin."

  "About Elizabeth, don't you know, and this Norwood business. My mother had gotten a letter from yours saying that Elizabeth had married the fellow and was now Lady Norwood, but she can't be because there is no Lord Norwood, and all I know about it is the chap was killed and in your last letter you told me for God's sake not to ask her about it or refer to it in any way, that it was very complicated and you'd tell me everything once you were here. I am awaiting enlightenment." "But it's a long tale and you're sleepy." "I'm only a little drunk; there's a difference." True. He looked quite awake and expectant. "I hardly know where to begin...." But I eventually determined a place and filled his ears with the whole miserable story. Jericho brought in tea halfway through, but Oliver was so engrossed he never touched it.

  "My God," he said when I'd finished. "No wonder you wanted it kept quiet. The scandal would be horrible."

  "The facts are horrible enough without worrying about any trivial gossip, but for Elizabeth's sake we decided to be less than truthful about them. What did my mother write to yours?"

  "Only that Norwood had died an honorable death fighting the rebels. From her manner I got the impression she wholly believed it."

  "Because that's what my mother was told; thank heavens she believed it, too. Only Father, Elizabeth, and of course Jericho know the truth of the matter. And now you."

  Sadly, we had found it necessary to maintain the lie before our neighbors at home. Better that Elizabeth be thought of as the widow of a man who had died defending his family and king, than for her to endure the torment of pointing fingers and whispers if the truth came out. As things were, she'd put up with a certain amount of whispered speculation on why she'd discarded her married for her maiden name, but with our relocation to a new home, perhaps the whole thing could be buried and forgotten along with Norwood. "I shall keep it in the strictest confidence," Oliver vowed. "She'll appreciate that." "She won't mind that you've told me?" "I was instructed to do so by her. She said that since you were the one who discovered the truth of the matter, you were certainly entitled to hear the outcome of the revelation. If not for you, my dear sister would have been hideously murdered by those bastards. We're all very grateful to you."

  Oliver flapped his mouth a bit, overwhelmed. "Well," he said. "Well, well. Glad to have been of service." He cleared his throat. "But tell me one more thing... about this 'Lady Caroline'... you said the shock that she'd been discovered had brought on a fit of apoplexy that left her simpleminded. What has since happened to her?"

  What indeed? Just as Nora had shattered Tony Warbur-ton's mind, so had I broken Caroline's. Like Nora, I'd lost control of my anger while influencing another, but unlike her I had no regrets for the frightening results. Father had been hard shaken by this evidence of the darker side of my new abilities, but placed no blame upon me.

  "It was more than justified, laddie," he'd said. "Perhaps it's for the best. At least this way we're spared the riot of a hanging." Not too surprisingly, he'd asked me to avoid a repetition of the experience. I'd willingly given him my word on that endeavor.

  "She's being cared for by our minister's family," I answered. "His sister runs a house for orphans and foundlings and was persuaded to take Caroline in as well."

  Father had been worried that a creature like Caroline might prove a danger to the children, but that had lasted only until he'd seen she was unaware of them. She was unaware of the world, I thought, though she could respond slowly to any direct request. "Stand up, Caroline.... Caroline, please sit down.... There's your supper, Caroline. Now pick up your fork...." She passed her days sitting with her hands loose in her lap, her eyes quite empty whether staring out a window, into a fire, or at the ceiling, but I had not a single regret and never would.

  "God 'a' mercy," said Oliver, shaking his head. "I suppose it's all just as well. There'd have been the devil to pay otherwise. Is Elizabeth quite recovered? She seemed fine with me, but you never know how deep a wound might run in these matters."

  "She's a woman of great strength, though I can tell you that the voyage was hard on her."

  "Not a good sailor, is she?"

  "Actually, I was the poor sailor. She and Jericho had their hands full with worry about me."

  He cocked a suddenly piercing blue eye in my direction. "Usually a person subject to the seasickness comes away looking like a scarecrow. You look fine now, though, better than fine."

  "They made me eat for my own good."

  He grunted approval. "It'd be a trial to have to get you fattened up first before indulging in the revels to come. What do you say that we ready ourselves for an outing?"

  "At this hour?"

  "It's not that late. This is London, not the rustic wilds of Long Island."

  "I fear I'm still in need of recovery, but you go on if you wish."

  He thought about it and shrugged, shaking his head. "Not as much fun when one is by oneself. Also not as safe-but another night?"

  "My word on it, Cousin."

  With that assurance, he heaved from his chair, suffered to let Jericho relieve him of his coat and shoes, then dropped into bed. His eyelids had been heavy with long-postponed sleep for the last few minutes, and now he finally surrendered to their weight. Soon he was snoring.

  "What shall I do about tomorrow?" Jericho asked. "He will be curious that you are not available."

  "Tell him I had some business to see to and did not confide the details to you. I'm sure Elizabeth can put him off until sunset."

  "Since we are to all live in his house, would it not be fair to let him know about your condition?" "Entirely fair," I agreed. "I'll sort it out, but not just yet."

  Oliver had not been especially fond of or comfortable with Nora. At one time he'd be
en one of the courtiers who supplied her with the blood she needed to live, but she'd sensed his lack of enthusiasm and had let him go his own way-after first persuading him to forget certain things... like the blood drinking. Though she could have influenced him into behavior more to her liking, it would not have been good for him. She preferred her gentlemen to be willing participants, not slaves under duress.

  "I'll be taking a walk," I told Jericho.

  Without a word, he shook out my heavy cape. It still had a faint smell of the vinegar he'd used to combat the beer stink. "You will be careful tonight, sir." It was more of an order than an inquiry.

  "More than careful, as always. Take good care of Oliver, will you? He shouldn't be much trouble, but if he asks for tea, don't waste any time getting it. I think he consumed the landlord's entire supply of port tonight and will be feeling it in the morning."

  With any luck, he'd be in such misery as to not notice my absence for many hours. Hard for my poor cousin, but very much easier for me, I thought as Jericho held the door open, allowing me to slip away into another night.