by Michael Rigg
We both looked up and saw Savannah running toward us from the shadow of the stables. Her blond ponytail whipped from side to side behind her smiling face all the way into Bryce's arms. I smiled as he lifted her into the air and then held her in a big hug before releasing her giggling body to the ground.
I laughed as she stepped to me and threw her arms around me in a hug. I hugged her and rubbed her back. "Ooh, Savannah, you're going to catch a cold out here," I said before tucking a loose strand of her hair behind an ear and cupping her cool cheek.
I smiled at her, then up to Bryce who was watching me with his little sister.
"Mommy and Daddy say dinner," Savannah announced before turning and running back to the enormous house, its windows glowing with a warm golden glow.
I sighed and smiled at the glamor of the old Louisiana plantation house. "I'll say this, Bryce... It sure is beautiful here.”
"It is, isn't it," Bryce said.
I could tell his eyes were on me.
CHAPTER 22, “House of Cards”
Susanne Norris looked up from the wide desk outside the main conference hall of Thorne & Wolfe and frowned at the woman approaching the counter. She turned on her automatic 'customer service' smile.
"I'm sorry, Miss. It's after hours. The offices are closed."
The woman, dressed in a white Victorian blouse, gray hat with veil, and long gray skirt with a bustle, smiled curtly. "I'm the new girl."
Susanne frowned. "New girl?"
"I am the new girl."
Susanne recalled the rumors that Bradford Thorne actually killed the girls who no longer worked at Thorne & Wolfe. She soured internally at the thought that the beautiful olive-skinned woman with the long black braided hair, meant that her own days were num—
Then her mind went fuzzy. She realized that the woman standing at the counter was more than just a 'new girl,' she was the new girl, the personal secretary of Mr. Thorne.
"You are the new girl," Susanne smiled blankly.
Pandora uncrossed her fingers and returned the smile. "Honest mistake, sweetheart. What's your name?"
"Susanne. Susanne Norris."
"Well, Susanne, is Mr. Thorne or Mr. Wolfe inside?" Pandora asked with a nod toward the door.
Susanne visibly shuddered and spoke in a low voice after pausing. "Mr. Wolfe is no longer with the company."
Pandora looked up at the bronze and gold double-doors and wondered what was up. She glanced over her shoulder toward the small shadowy figure hiding in the dimly-lit lobby. She could barely see Wilco wave at her as if prodding her on. "Um... No longer with the company?"
Susanne cringed. "I'm sorry to tell you this, Miss...?" She inclined her head as she pressed for a name.
Pandora glanced up to the door again. "Brass. Miss Brass."
"Well, Miss Brass, we suffered a tragedy today. I'm afraid Mr. Wolfe retired."
Pandora wasn't up to speed on corporate speak. How a retirement could be thought of as a tragedy perplexed her, but that was okay because Wolfe wasn't the big dog in the company. She asked about Bradford Thorne.
"Oh, Mr. Thorne and Mr. Hearse are out for the evening."
A chill, like a cold lizard, crawled up Pandora's spine. She didn't know what caused the feeling but it was there, interrupting her thoughts as if injected into her veins with a rusty needle. "Hearse?"
"Teivel Hearse, Miss Brass. He's the new partner." Susanne's expression seemed to parallel Pandora's chill. She glanced again over her shoulder toward Wilco in the lobby, then around the conference foyer. It was just her and Susanne. No one else but her father was around. "Um... So, this Mr. Hearse... What's he like?"
Pandora knew Hearse was the ghoul she and her father pursued to New York when the secretary blinked three times in rapid succession before answering. It was a witch tell, a sign that the woman was under some kind of hypnotic suggestion. "Mr. Hearse is a nice man, tall, with a splendid taste in attire."
Pandora glanced back at her father again and nodded with a quick bob of her chin. Wilco came out of the shadows and slowly approached.
When she looked back at Susanne, Pandora pulled back her veil, took off the stupid little hat and gave the girl a wink. "Oh, come now, darlin'. Tell me all about the new guy."
Without missing a heartbeat, Susanne repeated, "Mr. Hearse is a nice man, tall, with a splendid taste in attire."
"All I needed to know."
Pandora crossed her fingers and froze Susanne in time. Wilco came waddling up to her, smirking toward the slack-jawed secretary.
"What is it, Pandy?"
She moved to the doors with her father in tow. "Our ghoul has done away with Mr. Wolfe and moved into the corporation."
Wilco's eyes grew wide. "Then we have to get out of here." He tugged at her arm. "Pandy, we can't stay here."
"I didn't go to all the trouble of putting on a stinkin' skirt just to hightail and run. This is big, Poppa."
"But it's a ghoul—and a powerful one at that. He's moved into a Yankee corporation, Pandora. When has a ghoul ever come out of the dark, let alone spoke with or interacted with mortal people?"
She considered the door. "Never, which is why I'm going in to snoop around."
"Pandy, no!" He pleaded through a harsh whisper.
But it was too late. She kicked open the conference room door.
~~~~~~~
Dinner at Seven Orchards was always a modest affair unless there was company to be entertained. Servants usually waited in the kitchen, out of the way, since Mother Landry, Adeline and Bryce liked to be hands-on with their own meal preparation. Lord Jefferson Landry was always keen to entertain his future partnership by smiling upon the Lady McFerran whenever she agreed to stay for dinner. He wasn't the least bit smiley when it came to the other guest at the table, the Property everyone called Alice.
The wide dining room and adjoining main kitchen were overflowing with the smells of a home-cooked southern meal. Fried chicken and okra, greens, corn on the cob, potatoes and beets, and Cajun dishes with spicy shrimp and rice, all steamed from enormous platters down the center of the long dining room table. Clayton poured glasses of ice water and Bryce did the same from a pitcher of sweet tea.
Adeline and Savannah helped Mother Landry with the platters while Jefferson Landry sat at the head of the table, his dark eyes shifting back and forth between Lydia and Alice.
Bryce took the seat next to Alice, across from his fiancee. Adeline took the seat across from Alice, separating Clayton and Lydia, and little Savannah was more than happy to plop down on the other side of Alice. Plates and platters clinked quietly as the food was passed around, and when Jefferson Landry had seen that everyone's plate was full, he stood and held his hands out toward Bryce and Lydia. Bryce nodded and smiled to Alice who followed suit and joined hands with Savannah, on around until everyone was joined.
Jefferson lowered his head and spoke in a booming voice. "Heavenly Trinity, we call upon you to bless this meal and our company. We ask that you send your blessings to the pending union of my youngest boy, Bryce, and the lovely Lydia McFerran this comin' Yuletide. We ask that you give us strength and arms to beat down the Yankee thieves who would be brazen enough to take Your treasures from those who would appreciate them most. And we ask for a bountiful final harvest of the season."
Adeline opened one eye and glanced around. Before her father sat down and the ring was broken, she piped up, "And may the Trinity bless our Miss Alice, a lost lamb among our fold, may she find her way."
"Amen," Bryce, Lydia and Mother Landry said in unison. Alice smiled at each one in-turn, her smile dimming by the time it met Lydia.
As each person began eating, suspicious and curious eyes darted back and forth across the table. The silence was broken
when Jefferson cleared his throat and said, "Clayton, tomorrow you'll head up to Pike's Wall and see what we can muster there."
Clayton nodded and dabbed his bushy mustache with a napkin. "Yes sir. I'll speak to Colonel Merris in the morning."
Lydia and Mother Landry frowned, Mother Landry being the one to speak up. "Can we not talk of war and armaments at the dinner table?"
"Mother's right," Adeline piped up. "You said it was bad luck to discuss war at the dinner table."
"It's not war, it's business," Jefferson grumbled around a cob of corn.
"Whatever the case, we should be figurin' out a way to get sweet Alice home." Adeline tried to meet the eyes at the table over the rim of her iced tea glass. Almost everyone bristled.
Jefferson frowned and opened his mouth, but stopped when he caught Bryce shooting his sister a silencing glare.
Savannah drew everyone's eyes when she suddenly shouted out, "I think she's a log!"
Mother Landry gasped. A fork clinked a plate loudly.
Bryce looked past Alice to his little sister. "Savannah, you know better than to speak of the Ladies that way."
Alice looked to each face with a question. Adeline answered. "Log is L-O-G. It's a rather uncouth acronym for Lady Of Grace."
Lydia said, "The Ladies Of Grace are said to be the real rulers of the Confederacy, women married to the political hierarchy —"
"A silent cabinet," Clayton finished around bites of okra. He kept his eyes down.
Jefferson said, "Who should not be spoken of at the dinner table either."
Adeline's eyes narrowed and she smirked at her father. "Daddy, you'd best consider your words as well. We don't know Alice ain't a Lady Of Grace. She has no memory." She winked at Alice, "But she's smart as a whip and knows what—and who—she likes."
The last comment caught the attention of four people at the table. Alice and Bryce reddened slightly, as did Lydia for different reasons. Clayton scowled. From that moment on Clayton continued glancing Alice's way, eying her up and down when she wasn't looking, glancing away when she did, looking between the strange woman and Bryce when he saw his younger sister do the same.
Bryce quickly changed the course of the subject. To Alice, he explained, "It is said the Thinking Machines devised the plan, that they alone give secret knowledge to certain members of the Thinking Machine Council who happen to be Ladies Of Grace."
Adeline nodded and pointed her fork at Alice with one eye half-closed as she aimed at her. "And the Ladies are married to the political caste who," she made finger quotes, a small bit of potato falling off her fork, "make all the decisions."
"I still say she's a LOG," Savannah giggled. Mother Landry gave her arm a pinch. "Oww!"
In a weak voice, Alice asked, "Why don't the machines just give that information to the politicians directly?"
Jefferson let out a booming laugh and pointed a chicken leg at Alice. "Ah! Smartest thing I've ever heard Property say!"
Bryce's jaw tensed and he jumped in before Alice could speak again. "Because the Ladies are protected from assassination or external control or influence. No one ever sees them go into or out of the Hall. They're designed to be anonymous."
"And polygamous," Adeline added.
"Adel!" Mother Landry said.
"Well, they are. That's how men gain political power in this country and how they stay so smart." She smirked. "It's the women." She nodded at Alice. "It's also said they're mystical and all powerful."
"That's enough."
"Well, I'm just sayin' 'Out of the mouths o' babes'." Adeline raised her tea to toast her little sister. Savannah giggled and toasted back with her water.
Jefferson said, "This country is—and has since 1863—been fueled by the machinery of corporations such as the future Landry & McFerran." He raised his own glass in toast.
Lydia raised an eyebrow toward Jefferson. Her look bordered on icy. "But such a corporate bond would require a Lady's approval, Mr. Landry." She turned her cold gaze to Alice. "Perhaps we should be mindful of the feelin's of our mystical guest."
Adeline laughed. "I guess you'd best start smilin' at Miss Alice, Daddy. If she's a Lady, you'll have some butt smoochin' to do!"
A chorus of "ADELINE!" erupted up from Mother Landry, Clayton and Jefferson.
Savannah giggled and said, "Butt."
After the outburst, Jefferson Landry pounded a fist on the table, the Landry family signal that talk was over. Lydia smiled slyly at the master of the house before winking at Bryce. Alice caught the wink and glanced at Bryce herself. He in turn blushed and tended to his plate.
The meal continued in relative silence. Someone mentioned a dress they saw. Someone responded that money should not be squandered. Someone mentioned the weather. Silence reigned.
Of all the thoughts floating unspoken at the end of dinner, Adeline's was the boldest. She planned to play matchmaker. She planned to throw her big brother for a loop and tell him that Alice was madly in love with him. Then she'd tell Alice the same about Bryce.
Then she'd sit back and watch the magic happen.
Clayton Landry had thoughts of his own.
~~~~~~~
"Daddy, look!"
Wilco approached the gilded desk where Pandora was sifting through papers in the center drawer. He had been investigating a large brown stain in the carpet with bits of jagged bone and teeth. "What is it?" He kept glancing to the door.
"It looks like orders for a fleet mobilization—a naval blockade."
Wilco shrugged. "Must be old. There hasn't been a blockade since—"
"It's dated today."
"Let me see that." Wilco grabbed the papers and read while Pandora continued looking around the office. "Pandy, this mark."
"I know."
His beard rustled and his eyes grew wide. "I saw this when I was … dead. Do you know what this means?"
She knew all too well. The symbol that marked the location of Atlantis—three circles with a line between them—It was also the mark on Alice's back. And it also stood for something else, something stronger than any witch or ghoul could ever imagine.
She nodded toward the large stain, changing the subject and hiding her worried expression from her father. "I see how Mr. Wolfe retired."
Wilco responded absently as he continued studying the map and accompanying orders. "Our ghoul, I'd imagine."
The double doors rattled in their frame as the air pressure changed in the foyer. Both Pandora and her father looked to the doors. Wilco drew his arc pistol and took aim. Pandora stood tall and prepared to cross her fingers.
The loud striding footfalls were too purposeful, too direct. Someone knew they were here. Pandora was sure the doors would swing open and they'd come face to face with Teivel Hearse.
"Daddy."
"I know."
"Daddy."
"I know, Pandy."
"If it's him, let me handle it."
"Like blazes." Wilco cocked the pistol.
The doors swung open and in stepped Bradford Thorne. "What the hell is going on in here? Who the hell are you?"
Pandora crossed her fingers. "I'm your new girl, Mr. Thorne. That there is Willy... from maintenance."
'Willy' quickly lowered his pistol and tucked it back inside his jacket.
Thorne blinked once, then twice more. His smile was slow and greasy as his eyes took in Pandora's blouse. "What is your name, my raven haired beauty?"
"Doroth—"
"No!" Wilco coughed. Thorne and Pandora looked at him. She nodded in understanding with a knowing smirk.
"My name's Doris. Doris Gold."
Thorne's eyes remained on the dwarf.
Pandora followed Thorne's gaze and said in a s
tern voice, "That will be all, little man. Be gone!"
Wilco scowled, but turned and stuffed the blockade papers into his flight jacket before turning to leave.
"Wait... Just a moment," Thorne hissed as he stepped in front of the door to block it.
Pandora took a step and raised her hand. Her other hand remained hidden behind her. "Oh. It's ok, Mr. Thorne, sir. He was just leaving."
Thorne nodded. "He was just leaving."
Wilco grumbled as he passed Thorne on his way out. "I was just leaving."
A moment after her father left, and Pandora sensed he was a safe distance away, she turned on a false smile and said, "Well, is there anything I can do for you before I retire, Mr. Thorne?"
"Call be Bradford."
"Bradford." The look in his beady black eyes made Pandora's skin crawl. She was tempted to use magics to start a fire in the room, but recognized something in Bradford Thorne that she could use—the way he apparently used his secretaries.
The president of the new Thorne & Hearse Incorporated licked his lips and grinned salaciously as he slowly approached. "I have a mad posh to take a letter, Miss Gold. It has been a delightful day, fraught with frustrations but... all nice in the end."
Pandora glanced around as if for an exit rather than a steno pad. "A letter, Mr. Thorne?"
He stepped closer.
She moved her fingers closer to an X position behind her back.
Thorne moved around the table and glided toward her. "Miss Gold, how long have you been in my service?"
"Just this evening, sir. Like I said, I'm the new girl. Frustrations, you say? Um, like what?"
Thorne spoke as he stepped inches from her face, Pandora fought against wincing. The pastrami hit her like a cloud of acid. "You have quite the mouth, lovely lady. I like my girls to have... sass."
"Oh, my father always said I was full of sass... or was that something else?"
He leaned close, his rancid breath brushing her lips and nose. "About that letter." He smiled showing yellow-brown teeth. "I'm thinking we'll begin with the letter 'L'."
“The letter 'L', sir?”
