Ether & Elephants

by Cindy Spencer Pape

  Finally, the time arrived. Nell made her way through the throng to find the vicereine waiting for her. “The others are already in the study,” she said. “Come along, dear. I know this is bound to be difficult.”

  “It is that,” Nell confessed. “I hadn’t realized he’d be so wealthy. I hope he doesn’t believe I’m some gold-digging imposter.”

  “I’m familiar with the Hadrian family,” Lady Elgin replied with a touch of humor. “I think we can convince him money is not your objective.”

  “Well, there is that.” Even Nell sometimes forgot how wealthy her family was, since they weren’t prone to flaunting it.

  A native footman admitted them to the library, where Tom stood, leaning on a windowsill, while the viceroy and Sir Vivek occupied comfortable chairs in the center of the room. They both stood as the women entered, and the viceroy motioned to a dainty sofa across from the chairs. “Ladies.”

  Tom joined the group, taking the third chair, placed at a right angle between Sir Vivek and Nell’s place on the sofa.

  Sir Vivek turned to the viceroy. “Sir, I believe you have something of personal importance to discuss with me?” He gave Nell a reassuring smile.

  “I’ll leave that to our young friends,” Lord Elgin said.

  “Thank you.” The nawab bowed his head. “If you would leave us, please? I assure you, the young lady is in no need of a chaperone in the presence of her brother and an old man like myself.”

  He wasn’t that old, but he was, likely, her father. The Elgins looked to Nell, then when she nodded, they rose to their feet and left.

  “Sir Vivek,” Nell began, her hand pleating the silk of her skirt, her eyes downcast. “I’d like to ask about your travels as a young man, if I may. It’s…terribly indelicate, but when you were in England, did you ever meet a woman called Fanny Jenkins?”

  “I would not have recalled the name,” he said gently. “But the face, yes, that I remembered. You are her daughter, are you not? Hers and mine?”

  Nell tilted her head. “However did you guess?”

  “Because she is standing directly behind your left shoulder.”

  Nell gasped and spun. “Mum?”

  Sure enough, there stood the translucent form of Fanny Jenkins. “’Allo, dearie. ’Tis me, back again.”

  Sir Vivek sighed. “I believe you and I share a certain…gift, Miss Hadrian. I would need no further proof.”

  “Nell.” It seemed absurd for the man who’d given her life to keep calling her “Miss.” She continued to look at her mother’s ghost. “All these years, Mum, where have you been?”

  “You needed to be wit’ your new family, not thinkin’ of me,” the ghost said. “So I went away. Today, I came to see ’im. Still a looker, ain’t ’e? Now you see why I di’n’t turn ’im away for bein’ dark.”

  “I suppose it’s a good thing you didn’t, since I wouldn’t be here otherwise.” Nell felt an utterly inappropriate giggle about to burst forth.

  “I’m guessing there’s a ghost in the room,” Tom said to no one in particular. “I hate missing half the conversation.”

  “There is.” Nell didn’t even glance at Tom. “Get over it, chum. You ought to be used to it by now.” She turned to Sir Vivek. “You can see her?”

  He chuckled. “And hear her. Might I say, daughter, that your lyrical tone isn’t something you inherited from either of your parents. My mother, however, had a magnificent voice.”

  “All hoity-toity now that ’e’s a lord,” the ghost grumbled. “Weren’t so snooty when ’e were just a sailor. Pay attention, man. She’s got good folks in England, but she’s yours, too, you old coot. See you take care of ’er.”

  “I shall.” Sir Vivek bowed to Fanny. “Thank you for your…assistance in clarifying this matter.”

  Fanny snorted. “Whatever you say.” She turned back to Nell. “Anyway, my work ’ere is done. Give Piers my love, Nelly, and don’t you give up on this young blaggard, not yet.” She jerked her thumb toward Tom, then vanished.

  “I have a daughter.” Sir Vivek reached across the gap between them and Nell met his hands with her own. “My gods, I have a daughter, and she’s radiantly lovely.”

  “Thank you.” The giggle erupted, for no reason whatsoever. “I’m sorry. This isn’t funny, but…the ghosts. I’ve never met anyone else who could see them, especially her. Not even my brother, er, half brother, Piers.”

  “And now you know why.” He withdrew his handkerchief and handed it to her. Only then did Nell realize that tears were rolling down her cheeks. “Now you and your foster brother must come stay with us. If not at the estate, at least at the townhouse here in Calcutta. I must have time to get to know you, and you must get to know Jagganesh and Vidya as well.”

  “Another brother. That makes…goodness, I don’t know how many, depending on who you count.” Nell blew her nose into the handkerchief. “And a sister-in-law. That’s a first, except for maybe Belinda.”

  “This Hadrian family who adopted you must be large.” Sir Vivek looked to Tom. “And you are one of these sort-of-brothers…”

  Tom grimaced. “It’s complicated.”

  Vivek turned back to Nell. “How did they come to take you in? When your mother died?”

  “Much later.” She hiccupped. “Like Tom said, it’s a long story.”

  “Perhaps we can meet again in the morning,” Tom offered. “After you’ve both had some time to think about things. Meanwhile, I’ll let you two speak for a bit while I go let Nell’s other dance partners know she’s retired for the night. Should I also put off Professor Pritchard?”

  “Thank you, Tom.” Nell gave him a blurry glance.

  He stood and held out a hand to Sir Vivek. “I’m pleased to meet you, sir. Nell is a wonderful woman and it means a lot to her to have found you.”

  “Thank you, Sir Thomas. It means a great deal to me, as well.”

  Tom didn’t leave. “Something else I think you should know. Although we were raised together, Nell and I are in no way related. I want you to know I’ve asked her to marry me.”

  “I see.” Vivek straightened and glanced at Nell. “And did you agree?”

  “No. I turned him down.” It was so like Tom to want everything out in the open, but he’d better not even think of using Sir Vivek to pressure her into accepting him. One thing Nell was discovering on this journey was that she was stronger than everyone, including herself, had assumed. She didn’t care how many men agreed; she would make her own decisions from here on out. “That’s a part of that long, complicated story and I’m too overwhelmed to discuss it tonight.”

  “Then we will talk more tomorrow.” He squeezed her hands. “May I tell Jagganesh and Vidya of the new addition to our family? And tell them to expect you early tomorrow?”

  “I’d like that.” Nell lifted her eyes to Tom. “If we don’t have other business, that is.”

  “I think we have a day or two on that, remember?” Tom slipped out of the room.

  “What shall I call you?” Nell asked. “I got used to having a second Mum, but I was young. It would seem strange to suddenly have a second Papa.”

  “Baba is the Bengali term.” Vivek’s voice was thick. “I would be honored for you to use it, Nell.” He said her name softly, testing it.

  “Very well. Baba it is.” She blinked at him through the ridiculous tears. “Oh my goodness, I have to cable Mum and Papa. They’ll be so thrilled.”

  “They will not be concerned? Perhaps afraid I intend to take their places?” He reached over and wiped away a tear.

  Nell got her tears under control. “No. Papa along with my brothers Piers and Tom were the ones who discovered your probable identity. You haven’t asked about that, by the way. How we knew, out of all the Indian sailors, that it was you.”

  “Magick, I would assume.” His smile was remarkably like the one she saw in her mirror every day. “It fairly radiates from your Sir Thomas.”

  “Well.” Nell hadn’t expected that. “You ca
n sense magick?”

  He lifted one steel-gray eyebrow, a gesture he seemed to share with Merrick, which was oddly endearing. “Can’t you? Along with ghosts?”

  “No. Tom can, and Papa, but not me.” She bit her lip, and then blurted, “What about your son? What will he think? Will he believe that I’m your daughter?”

  “I believe Jagganesh will trust my instincts and our shared ghost,” Vivek said. “He is secure in his position as my only son and will not see you as a threat to his future inheritance.”

  Nell smiled, wishing she could be as certain. He was so young, and his wife even younger. Surely Vidya would resent the sudden appearance of the nawab’s daughter.

  “We will leave these worries for tomorrow,” Sir Vivek said, rising. “I will leave you to cable your parents. Yes, by the way, I do believe they are, and always will be your parents, although perhaps they will be willing to share you with another old soul.” He bent and touched his lips to her cheek, the curls of his moustache tickling. “I owe them a great debt for raising you.”

  “Someday, perhaps you can meet.” Nell didn’t rise to her feet. Tom would join her back here in a few moments and he’d know where the equipment was to cable England.

  “I should like that.” With a deep bow, Vivek slipped through the door and was gone.

  Nell sank back into the sofa. “Mum, are you still here?”

  There was no answer.

  Once again, Fanny was gone, but not until after she’d made sure Nell was in good hands.

  “Well, if you can hear me, thank you. Oh, and you might let me know if the butcher was Piers’s father. Piers seems to think so.”

  “Far as I know, luv.” The whisper could have come from a million miles away, and then it vanished into the air.

  Nell caught her breath on something that was either a giggle or a sob, she wasn’t sure. Trust Fanny to have the last word.

  Chapter Eleven

  Tom paced the library of Government House long after the party guests had gone and nearly everyone else had retired for the night. He’d rather have taken a walk, but while he wasn’t much concerned with bandits or other non-human threats, he wasn’t fully confident about the local wildlife. What kind of city had snakes roaming about that were three times as long as a man, and venomous? Tom was no coward, but the cobras he’d seen in the snake charmers’ baskets were unnerving enough, let alone the idea of them having cousins nearly twenty feet long.

  Nell would be amused by his newfound caution. She was always after him to be more careful. Perhaps, for the first time, he might listen to her. He liked the idea of riding an elephant, though. Likely the bloody damn snakes couldn’t reach a man up that high.

  Nell had finally gone to bed after the cables had come back from Black Heath, with Caro expressing her delight that Nell had found her natural father and that the presence of Fanny’s ghost had put the seal of certainty on the matter. Although Merrick was at sea, she felt free to speak for him as well, like any long-married wife. Sir Vivek had been given a blanket invitation to visit the Hadrians in Britain at any time, with or without his son and daughter-in-law.

  Tom didn’t cable that he’d finally proposed and been rejected, although he’d left the information with Kendall that Polly was unequivocally wed to someone else long before tricking Tom into their semblance of a wedding. Kendall would have sent word along, and they all knew that Tom wouldn’t have wasted any time. Since neither Tom nor Nell had cabled news of an engagement, they would all know that she’d turned him down.

  There were occasions when having a large and close family wasn’t a good thing.

  Distracted though he was, Tom was on a mission and his hearing was still, well, his hearing, so when a door knob on the far end of the library began to turn, he palmed a knife and slipped up against a wall with a good view to said door.

  “Still awake, I see?” Lord Elgin, in a brocade dressing gown and matching fez, strolled into the library. “Worrying about the girl, or the mission?”

  Tom slipped the knife back into the sheath beneath his sleeve. “Both, sir.”

  “Ah, well, fair enough. No sign of the blaggard tonight, eh?” The viceroy clicked a piece of carving on a bookshelf, causing the shelf to slide up and out of sight revealing a well-stocked bar. “One in the office, too. No expenses spared in this place. Peterhoff in Shimla, where we’ll spend the summer, isn’t quite so grand. Better air for the little ones, too.” He poured two drinks and held one out to Tom.

  “No sir, I didn’t see anything suspicious tonight, which is worrying enough in itself.” Tom sipped the gin and tonic. “We can’t be entirely sure the bastard is headed here, and not the Americas or somewhere else entirely.” And they still had no idea if the boy was with them or not, alive or dead.

  “I see.” Elgin swirled the liquid in his glass. “I’d recommend bringing Sir Vivek in on this. If there’s anyone I trust here, including my own staff, it’s him. I’m not saying he likes having his country occupied by foreigners, but he’s convinced that rebellion would serve nothing more than to get his compatriots killed and their land destroyed. He’s also not above importing the latest technology to improve the lives of his peasants. I’ve also seen him, reluctantly, order the execution of a murderer, so I know he won’t want to have any truck with your Alchemist fellow.”

  “With your permission, I might. Having someone who knows the area on our side might make all the difference.” Plus, the man had the ability to see ghosts and sense magick. He could be helpful in any number of ways. “He did seem to quite readily accept Nell as his daughter.”

  “My boy, I’ve been a lot of places in my life and seen a lot of things. Knew a werewolf once in Canada and a seer in Japan who could have told me what I had for breakfast on my seventh birthday.” Elgin chortled. “I’ve never seen a vampyre, but I know they’re real, just like electricity or magick. For you, this sort of thing is part of your everyday life, and I think it may be the same for the nawab, so I suppose there was some kind of proof involved that I wouldn’t have seen if it was right under my nose.”

  Tom decided not to mention it was a ghost. He just tipped his head in agreement.

  “Then take it for what it’s worth. The man just found out he has a daughter, one who isn’t a child but a grown woman of what, twenty? Twenty-one? He’s a good man. What else is he going to do but accept her? Wouldn’t you?”

  “She’s twenty-five.” Tom thought back to when he’d first found out Charlie might be his son, the conflict he’d felt, and the disappointment to know it wasn’t so. “I had a grandfather once. Didn’t know I existed until a few months before he died. In those few months, I think he loved me more than some people feel in a whole lifetime. Nell deserves all that, and more.”

  “Then give her time to spend with him by bringing him in on your mission. I wouldn’t ask the son, though. Might be all right in a few years, but right now, he’s a spoiled twit.” Elgin finished his drink and flicked the mechanism to close the bar. “Now get some sleep, son, or you won’t be any good to anyone. I’ll have a carriage waiting for you right after breakfast.”

  “Thank you, sir.” Unable to refuse the older man’s instructions, Tom emptied his glass and preceded his host out of the library. “Do you often come down in the middle of the night, sir?”

  “More than I’d like,” Elgin said as they walked together up the marble stairs. “I’ve a feeling my days on this earth are numbered. So much to do, so little time.”

  “I’m sure you’ll be around for many years to come, Your Excellency,” Tom said, because it was just the thing one said in a situation of this sort.

  “No, I won’t.” Elgin sighed. “Damned Japanese seer. I don’t know the day or year, but my end is coming, faster than I would wish for the sake of my wife and children.”

  “You can’t know that, sir.”

  Elgin shrugged. “And yet I do. Hell, we’re all mortal, even a young man like you. So take my advice. Live your life while you can, my boy.
Don’t go to your grave regretting that you didn’t fight for the things that matter most.”

  Belinda’s words echoed in Tom’s mind. Be the Emperor. Don’t give in to your doubts. He hadn’t known what doubts she meant, but he suspected now that it was his worthiness for Nell. Or perhaps his ability to convince her to give him another chance. Back in his own room, he prepared for bed, thinking about what Elgin had said. Did the man mean he should fight for Nell? Maybe not, but in the end, that’s what his words meant to Tom. Nell was what mattered most. In fact, Elgin’s advice reminded him of what Belinda had said, as well. Trust your instincts. And don’t give up.

  Tom switched off the gaslight and smiled into the darkness. He wasn’t giving up. Not now, not ever. He wasn’t going to her tonight. He wasn’t that dishonorable. But one way or another, he would fight for Nell to the end of his days. And, then, by God, he’d haunt her. Wouldn’t that just chafe her hide?

  The image of his ghost taunting an elderly Nell evoked a bubble of laughter that finally lightened his mood enough to let him sleep. He pulled back the coverlet on his bed and prepared to climb in. Tomorrow would be a long day, fraught with emotion and intrigue. For tonight, he could fall asleep, dreaming about how Nell looked under that rosy gold dress. One of these days, he hoped to find out just how accurate his dreams were.

  Something dark and round uncoiled on the sheet, roughly where his knees would be, had he moved even a moment faster. Without his heightened vision, Tom would have never seen the shape that stretched, forming into a rope perhaps eighteen inches long, the rounded head searching for the source of its disturbance.

  Tom yelled and jumped back from the bed. The snake continued to move about the bedding, looking for something to attack, Tom was sure. Even though the thing was small, it was probably deadly.

  Very carefully, he approached the bureau and picked up the pistol he’d set aside earlier, not wanting to go armed to the ball. His hands shook, but he steadied, lining up his shot.