The Visitor - The Bell Tower 1873 - 1875

by Barbara Svetlick

  Mirisa came back into the room wearing a long white simple gown that slid along her curves like melted butter. Her hair was loose, her eyes were dark and she hadn’t spent any time with them since they had gone on assignment. James reached out and pulled her to him as she entered the room.

  “You smell so good tonight.”

  “James, you realize that I am in the room don’t you?”

  “Meeks, I really don’t care at this moment because I have had too much to drink and she should not be allowed to dress like that in front of men who know her every curve.”

  “Well, you have a very good point.” Meeks looked at Mirisa. “Darling, will you please go upstairs and put on something that won’t bother James.”

  “James shouldn’t be having any problems since he just spent days chasing loose women around Washington and tonight I believe I may have counted at least half a dozen.”

  They got extremely drunk and celebrated Dominic’s birthday. Meeks had to carry Mirisa to bed after she passed out. They had breakfast pastries brought up to the room and spent Sunday morning in bed. Both James and Garnett came in and climbed on the bed to talk and read the paper.

  Mirisa stretched out. “Have any of you done your Christmas shopping yet?”

  “I’m finished.” Garnett reached over and picked up a cinnamon bun and sat back against the bedpost to read the paper.

  James was doing the crossword puzzle and he looked up. “I still have a few things to do.”

  Meeks turned to the financial section. “I’m not shopping because I think Mirisa already spent all my money.”

  “Honey, I didn’t though I don’t want any complaining when all the bills come in.”

  Garnett looked over the paper. “Who are you talking to?”

  “All of you.”

  “How much did you buy while we were gone?”

  “Well, let’s see. I had two whole days of non-stop shopping with five children and a personal day with Charisse and finally a day by myself.”

  “Mirisa, what in the world could you have bought?”

  “A lot of silk French undergarments.”

  James smiled. “Well, if you put them on my tab you damn well better be showing up in my room wearing them.”

  “I would James but you never sleep over anymore.” Mirisa sipped her coffee as Meeks looked at her. “I may now have to go out and find men with more money and more time to spoil me.”

  Dominic walked in and poured a cup of coffee before sitting down in front of the fire. “That shouldn’t be hard since Louis crossed the damn line when he kissed you last night.”All three of them looked at her as she turned toward Dominic.

  “Dominic threatened to shoot him.”

  “The hell with that, he touches you again and I’ll shoot him myself.”

  “He’s harmless.” Mirisa knew if Dominic hadn’t said it out loud he would have told them sometime today.

  Garnett put down the paper. “He’s not harmless; he just wants you to think that.”

  “Well, he’s old and he has no feelings.” She stretched out on her stomach so Meeks could massage her toes. “I prefer my men to be gorgeous and naked.”

  James smiled. “You want me to take my clothes off now?”

  “You do and I won’t be responsible for what happens.” Mirisa ran her hand across his foot. “You know I absolutely love your body.” They all looked back at her and Mirisa realized that she had said it out loud and she blushed. James started laughing and told her she should have given him sex last night.

  “I couldn’t. It wasn’t your birthday.”

  “I don’t mind getting sex on Dominic’s birthday.” Mirisa rolled over and looked up at James. She was wearing a very thin silk nightgown in dark green. He ran his hand across her breast as the nipples became hard against the tight silk. He continued to run his finger around them as she closed her eyes.

  "Dominic."

  "Yes Mirisa."

  "Happy Birthday."

  Dominic came in with his sons as the birthday cake was put on the table. The children had made all of the decorations and wrapped the presents for Dominic. After the party, James and Garnett headed out to celebrate in style with Dominic while Meeks sat down and helped Mirisa finish wrapping the presents.

  “Are you tired of wrapping?”

  “My fingers are tired but I love your company.” Meeks helped Mirisa up and curled up in bed with her to read a new book. Meeks heard them come in and it sounded like the whole Unit was trying to maneuver the stairs. He got up, slipped on his jeans and went out onto the landing. Garnett and James were drunk out of their minds and looked like they had been in a street brawl. They were only half way up the stairs and didn’t look like they were going to make it any further.

  “I see you two found something better to do tonight instead of playing cards.”

  James tried to stand but couldn’t. “No we played cards.”

  “Does the other guy look worse than you?”

  “I think all of them do.” Meeks knew that it could be a drunken exaggeration or it could be serious. Usually if James was in a fight it was bad and since he used a plural reference to the others it was probably a great fight and probably started by one of them.

  “What did you do and where is Dominic?”

  “We played cards with Louis and he said the wrong damn thing.” Mirisa at this point was standing behind her husband listening to James. “Garnett where is Dominic? He was with us at the table.”

  “James, is he alive?”

  James had a split lip and a bruise forming on his jaw line. “Is who alive? Dominic’s alive but the son of a bitch started it and we had to finish it.”

  “Garnett, is Louis alive?” Garnett’s right eye was swollen shut and his head hurt like someone had split it in two.

  “Sure he’s alive for God’s sake, he had ten people step between my fist and his damn mouth. Next time I see that son of a bitch I’m going to kick his ass.”

  James tried to get his feet under him and failed. “Yeah, he’s a son of a bitch too. Louis is.”

  Dominic came through the door and stood at the bottom of the stairs. Meeks looked down at him. “How bad is it?”

  “Louis moves pretty fast for an older man but he has absolutely no balls at all.” He took his cigar out of his mouth as he leaned on the banister. “And I was holding a great hand with a large stake when Garnett suddenly stood up throwing the table over and followed it to get to Louis. I swear I haven’t seen these two move that quickly since Laredo. They took on the world trying to reach Louis including two thugs who were there to protect him. Other than being banned from the Club for the rest of the month and having to pay for the extensive damage and maybe a few doctor bills, I don’t think we’ll have any problems.” Dominic looked up at Mirisa and smiled. “And I don’t think Louis will try to kiss you again either.”

  Mirisa whispered something to her husband and stepped back as both Garnett and James looked up when Dominic addressed her. Meeks knew she had stepped back too late.

  “Mirisa.” She didn’t move and didn’t say anything. “I need to talk to you now.”

  Meeks looked down at Garnett. “She’s gone to bed. You can talk to her in the morning.”

  “No she hasn’t. I want to talk to her or I’ll come up and climb in bed with her.”

  “Garnett, I think we need to have a drink and see if we can get something on that eye before it gets any worse.”

  “Meeks, tell Mirisa I need to talk to her now or I’ll just sit here until she comes out.”

  “Garnett, I don’t think she can handle you two looking like this.” Garnett tried to stand and almost fell. Mirisa walked around her husband and down the stairs. She sat down on the step just above and between Garnett and James.

  She looked from Garnett to James and back and neither of them said anything. James reached out and pulled her over to him. She looked back up at her husband and touched her lip. Meeks went into the bathroom and got a wet cloth an
d brought it down to her.

  She looked at James and tried not to show any expression because he looked so drunk. Mirisa reached out and touched his lip as he narrowed his eyes. James took the cloth from her and held it on his lip.

  Mirisa took the other wash cloth and moved over next to Garnett. She cleaned the blood off his face then folded it and put it up against his eye. Garnett put his hand over Mirisa and pulled her down and kissed her.

  “Can you get up the stairs?”

  “I don’t think so but if you will come to bed with me I’ll try.” Mirisa smiled and told Garnett that she didn’t think her husband wanted to sleep alone. “Do you want to have a drink in the library?”

  “Sure if you are coming down because I have to talk to you.”

  “Alright, I’ll come down and have a drink with you.” Dominic came up and helped Garnett stand and that’s when she realized exactly how drunk the both of them were.

  After they got Garnett on the couch in the library, Mirisa came back to help Meeks who was talking to James. Meeks helped him up and they put him on the couch in the living room. She went into the kitchen and got out her herbs making a paste. Mirisa put everything next to James. He reached for her hand as he closed his eyes. “Mirisa have I ever told you that I love you?”

  “Many times in so many ways. You have always held me up when I wanted to die.” Mirisa bent over and kissed his cheek. James smiled as she gently washed the blood off of his hands. Mirisa unbuttoned his shirt so Meeks could check his ribs. James’ entire left side was bruised and turning red. James winced when Meeks felt for cracks but didn’t say anything.

  “It doesn’t appear like anything is broken.” Mirisa took some of the salve and slowly spread it on the bruise and she could tell by James expression that it not only hurt but stung. Meeks covered it so that it would hold in the heat and taped it. Mirisa put some on James’ chin and he covered her hand with his. She looked into his eyes leaned down and kissed him lightly.

  “You are a much better patient then I am. Now I understand why you tease me when I’m hurt.”

  Meeks laughed. “That’s because you are a prettier nursemaid and James loves pain whether he’s giving it or getting it.” Meeks poured him a shot and sat with James while she went into the library.

  Dominic was sitting on the table drinking shots with Garnett when she put the bowl down and sat on the edge of the couch. His shirt was already off and the bruising appeared light so she put the paste on Garnett’s eye and covered it with a cold cloth. She washed the rest of the blood off of his face and neck to make sure he wasn’t cut. Mirisa washed the blood off his knuckles which were in worse shape than James’ hands. Garnett fell asleep as she was doing it. Mirisa covered him with a blanket, took everything back out to the kitchen and Dominic put fresh logs on the fire as they locked up and went to bed.

  “Alexander? Isn’t Louis’ gala coming up this weekend?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are we going to send our regrets?”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “Why would you go after what happened?”

  “Because you never run from a fight and you never let anyone think you won’t stand up for your family or friends.”

  “Must be one of those Army rules.”

  “Yes, it must be one of those.” Meeks kissed her as she curled around him.

  Mirisa had breakfast in the nursery with the children and when she came downstairs she heard them in the library. She slipped on her jacket and went out to the stable. A few minutes later the stable boy came running into the house and stopped at the library door.

  “Sir, I tried to stop her but she threatened me and took off on her horse.”

  “Son of a bitch. Saddle mine and Dominic’s horses.” The boy ran back out of the house slipping twice before he got his footing under him. Dominic strapped on his shoulder harness and when James and Garnett tried to get up Meeks told them that Dominic was all he needed because he knew where she was going and they would only make it worse.

  Meeks realized her gun was not in the cabinet when he took out his. “Damn, her gun is gone.” They ran for the stables and hoped to catch her before she reached Louis.

  Mirisa made it to Louis’ house and dismounted tying up her horse as the stable boy was running from the large stables. Ignoring him, Mirisa walked into the foyer without knocking leaving the doors open. When she was approached by the butler, who was adamantly protesting her being in the house uninvited, Mirisa pushed him out of the way causing him to fall against the foyer table knocking over a vase of flowers.

  The butler steadied himself as he ran behind her trying to get to the door before her. “Miss, you may not come into the house unannounced. This is totally improper and unacceptable. I must ask you to immediately leave or I shall have to call the authorities. This is a private home. Miss, please you may not enter…”

  The library door was opened by a gentleman that Mirisa didn’t recognize as Louis was coming around his desk to see why his butler was hysterically shouting. There were six or seven gentlemen sitting on the other side of Louis’ desk who were obviously discussing business with Louis. The cigar smoke filled every inch of the room and the crystal decanter on the desk was almost empty. The room was filled with bookcases but not a single spine appeared to have been cracked. The rugs were oriental with beautiful cherry blossoms woven into the dark green silk and the lanterns were just high enough that the room had a soft subdued glow. Mirisa stepped past the man at the door and walked toward Louis' desk. She wasn’t ten feet into the utterly silent room when she was face to face with him.

  Louis smiled as he looked at her in pants. “Mirisa.”

  Louis never saw her fist come around until it connected to his nose and knocked him across the floor. Mirisa straightened up, shook her hand because it hurt so bad she wanted to cry. She turned to the men in the room who were frozen in whatever position they had been in when she landed the punch.

  “I apologize for interrupting your meeting.” Mirisa turned and walked out of the room. The butler started to say something and she just walked past him. The man who had opened the door watched her as she slammed the front door leaving the house. Mirisa mounted her horse and as she was leaving the property she ran into Meeks and Dominic.

  Meeks grabbed the reins to her horse. “What the hell did you do? Give me your damn gun.”

  “I don’t have it on me.”

  “It’s not in the cabinet.”

  “No, it’s upstairs in my dresser.” Mirisa smiled at him. “Were you afraid I would shoot him?”

  Meeks shook his head. “Well, it wouldn’t be the first man you have shot. I don’t want you to ever go after someone again. Not ever, not under any circumstance and not alone. Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for you to walk into that man’s house alone?”

  “For whom? Him or me?” Mirisa was livid and Meeks wasn’t about to continue the conversation until one of them had settled down. She turned her horse back toward the house and left them sitting on their horses watching her. Dominic smiled at the thought that she loved them so much to attack a man.

  The butler ran in with a towel and told Louis that he had sent for the doctor and did he want the police. Louis told him that he didn’t need either.

  “Louis, don’t you think you need a new hobby. I don’t think I have ever seen any woman that angry, exactly what did you do to her?”

  “I made the mistake of calling one of her children illegitimate in front of the child’s father.”

  “Is that what the fight was about at the Club last night? Which one is the father, Garnett or James?”

  “Garnett and I know better than to antagonize him but damn she is one beautiful woman.”

  “I don’t know why you even want to mess with those four. Politically they can cost you more money than you can afford to lose. As a foreign held company, you really need to think about what you are doing. This obsession of yours will be disastrous both socially and financially and
it makes me very leery to invest in you.”

  Mirisa dismounted in the stable and immediately went up to the music room and locked the door. Meeks decided to give her space to cool down before he asked her what happened. They walked into the library and Meeks poured a shot and sat back.

  “What happened?”

  “I haven’t asked her yet. She was coming back down the driveway when we got to the gate.”

  Garnett stood up. “Maybe she needs to talk to her lawyer.”

  “She wasn’t wearing her gun so the worse she could have done is yell at him and I don’t know if you can arrest someone for that.” Meeks poured another shot and drank it right down. “We really have been a very bad influence on her.”

  Dominic shook his head. “Yes the three of you have been a very bad example.”

  “Shut the hell up Dominic. All of this is your fault in the first place.” James sat up slowly.

  “Are you going back to me marrying her or just last night?”

  “Both.” James stood up and walked over to get a cigar. “You deliberately goaded him last night until he said the wrong thing. Next time do it when there aren’t so many people who want to kiss his ass by jumping into the fray.”

  Meeks lit a cigar and passed it to Garnett. “I thought what you did last year would stop him.”

  Garnett turned from the door where he had been listening to her play. “Obviously he is more arrogant then I realized. I’ll call in a couple of favors and see how he likes roadblocks to his doing business in America.” He turned back around. “Next time put the piano on the first floor because I really can’t handle stairs today.”

  “I have an appointment I have to go to. If she comes out while I’m gone tell her I’ll be back in a while.” Meeks didn’t wait for a response as he put on his jacket and left.