Chapter Seven
Afterward I approached Madame Phoebe and her husband and drew them away from the chattering company.
“I must beg to be excused, if we are finished meeting for the day,” I said.
“Oh, is it your club day?” Madame Phoebe asked me with a smile.
“You claim that you just discovered my whereabouts yesterday,” I said, just a little nettled, “and yet you seem to know everything about me, about my life. How was it that you knew all about my meeting with the young man in the pub, and how did you know that paper with the address was ever in my possession?”
“I caught a pickpocket dipping into my coat,” Mr. Campbell responded. “Phoebe told you that. I grabbed his wrist and thankfully he wasn’t one of the ones who tries to kill, just the ordinary sort. I held onto him and a bit of paper fell to the ground. Phoebe pounced on it and said, ‘What is this? Why do you have this address?’ He told us he ‘took it off a toff at the Cog and Steam Pub, a funny old foreign chap who made it seem like money, and had pinched it off another toff while he was sleeping it off.’ He described you as having ‘Done it proper, too.’ I keep having to educate myself about what these Londoners mean by their talk. I was in my father’s counting house in Boston while Phoebe was schooling over here learning to understand this stuff.”
“When we learned that an elderly foreigner was acquiring the address of a gossip columnist and acting as if it were so very important, we had to know more,” Madame Phoebe continued. “Happily the pickpocket, in exchange for an escape from arrest, confided to us that he had watched you from the time you made friends with the drunken manager and described your doings in great detail. He followed you out and relieved you of the paper.”
“Unhappy doesn’t begin to describe his reaction when he realized he had passed up the real money your acquaintance carried, thinking you had taken something more valuable,” Mr. Campbell laughed. “So he moved right on to another promising ‘toff’, which happened to be me. He knew that you were disguised and made a good guess at your real appearance. He said his ‘hat was off to you,’ by the way, and he regarded you as a consummate professional. It was still a bit of a stretch, to my way of thinking, Phoebe pegging you by that description, but it seems she was right.”
“I mentioned to you last night, your highness, that I may know things about you, but I do not yet know any personal details,” Madame Phoebe said. “I am greatly encouraged by our association so far. Archie said last night that you truly grasped the problem we have had with getting clues about this Dodge -- That he appears and disappears at will and no one seems to be able to get hold of any information about him. You handled your part in the meeting very well considering you had only just grasped the importance of your information.
“And the other members have asked about you and desired to become better acquainted. Doctor Twist, especially, is quite taken with you. Can we not tempt you to linger and fellowship with the company?”
I cast my eyes around at this odd assortment of people. Doctor Twist was dismembering his tablet on the dining table, happily explaining its workings to people who had no inkling of his meaning but enjoyed watching his bright little animated face. Sluefoot Sue and Mowgli swapped tracking stories like old comrades. The woman’s rough hand rested on her husband’s neck and massaged it.
I noted that Mowgli’s experience at guessing the thoughts and communications of his animal comrades seemed to make him adept at communicating with Pecos Bill. The helpless man’s eyes blinked and squinted and darted here and there and Mowgli was almost as quick to interpret his “speech” as his wife was.
Edward, Zambo and Fun See Tokiyo were engaged in some earnest talk that I was too far away to overhear, but the little minister was showing them a small copy of the Scriptures.
I found myself very much wishing to linger. The truth was, however, that I had rent to pay, that maintaining my shop, purchasing my daily bread, and acquiring my stock cost money. I could not expect to dine in the finest restaurant and sleep in the poshest hotel every day at someone else’s expense.
“I have customers.” I dissembled a little. “They are good enough to patronize my shop and my club, and I do not wish to disappoint them.”
Madame Phoebe seemed about to attempt further persuasion, but her husband laid a hand on her arm. “When will the Alexander Legacy Company meet next?” he prompted her.
“Mowgli and Sue have plans to go to the alley where Mac and Rose were attacked,” she replied. “But that will be very late tonight. We must be at the port early in the morning. Fun See and I have some shipping matters to look into. I have to give a talk tomorrow afternoon at a ladies’ charity group, and I have a benefit concert tomorrow night. We will meet to hear Mowgli and Sue’s report tomorrow afternoon at four, if that is acceptable.”
“I shall be prompt, Madame.” I bowed and started to take my leave. Doctor Mac nearly upset the table to intercept me and shook my hand.
“ ‘Spect we might not see each other again, Prince Charming, as Rosie and I sail with the tide early tomorrow morning,” he said. “You’re a fine pipe fixer, I’ll say that for you. And it looks like you’ll be a fine crime-fighter, too, considering you got started just last night and jumped right in with all your wits about you. Don’t let the Phoebe-Bird intimidate you, now. She can be too bossy by half.” He grinned and kissed her cheek. Madame Phoebe blushed and smiled.
To hear that I was to have no more concourse with this bluff, good-natured gentleman almost made me decide to throw off opening the shop and club and stay after all, but there were still bills to pay. I clasped his unbandaged hand firmly.
“What time do you sail, sir?” It suddenly occurred to me that there was no reason to open the shop early, and I could at least bid the departing Campbells a proper farewell.
“Early, far too early,” grumbled Doctor Mac, and named the time.
“I shall be there.”
“Excellent!” Phoebe exclaimed. “I would be glad of your input on another piece of evidence we have uncovered, which I mean to share with Fun See when he has access to his records. Archie has to finalize arrangements for my benefit concert tomorrow night and cannot stay, so you can be my escort.”
I had to admit to myself that I was encouraged by her invitation. I was still all at sea to know what my place was in this association and wanted to be involved and useful. Searching for evil was one thing, but I wondered what this sweet lady planned to do once she actually confronted it.
I made it a point to be at the dock bright and early as Doctor Mac and Madame Rose departed for America with their children. I was surprised and more than a little embarrassed to receive a share of the hugs and tears and good wishes for the success of the Alexander Legacy Company. Mr. Campbell took their children with him to drop them off at the hotel and then go to meet with the benefit organizers.
I felt as if I were escorting royalty as I accompanied Madame Phoebe along the dock to the shipping office we sought. She wore a brocaded green satin walking suit embroidered with a whole peacock along the back of the jacket, tail feathers swirling around the side of the skirt. On her head was a small flat-topped black silk hat with peacock tail feather tips and a black veil with emerald seed beads. She closed her black, peacock-painted parasol as Fun See admitted us to his office at the docks. Fun See wore royal blue and gold today, a rich padded Mandarin jacket and blue trousers, all emblazoned with golden dragons.
“Here is a reference to a luxury liner coming into port in Dame Autolycus’ column.” Madame Phoebe showed us the clipping.
“We have not concerned ourselves with pleasure ships before.” Fun See pushed aside the other papers on his desk and took the news article as we sat down across the desk from him. “We assumed they would want to smuggle goods and people secretly in freighters.”
“But the reference is clear. When translated, Dame Autolycus says, ‘According to my dear friend Dodge, Lord Malcolm and his family will arrive Tuesday, the twenty-fi
rst of April, eleven in the a.m., on the luxury liner Prometheus from Jamaica after visiting his holdings in that south sea paradise.’”
“What are we to look for, then?” Fun See asked. “Shall the Malcolm family be robbed as they come down the gangplank?”
“This Dodge is looking for documents, plans, things of that kind.” I was puzzled as well. “But why would a noble family be a target as they return from visiting their Jamaica property?”
“I do not know about this Lord Malcolm, except his name.” Fun See cast a troubled glance at me. I was momentarily uncomfortable, thinking he had not expected my presence and resented it.
“Please pardon me, your highness, if I speak of a personal concern to Madame Phoebe. I mean no disrespect. There is a waiting room just through there. It will only take a moment.”
I immediately stepped out of his office. Again the unreasonable anger at an imagined distrust filled me. He had spoken of a personal concern. Why would that make me feel so excluded? But it did. In less than two minutes, Fun See invited me to return, and I did so with the best grace I could muster.
“As to this arrival of the noble family, do you have any thoughts on why they would be a target?” Fun See asked.
“The article is not quite correct,” I mused, distracted from my black mood by a sudden recollection. Lord Malcolm’s son Valentine was one of my club members and with friends over cigars and brandy had spoken freely about his family’s status. “It is not Lord Malcolm who has the holdings in Jamaica. It is his daughter, Lady Anne. She came into the holdings through her maternal grandmother, but she is not yet twenty-one, and Lord Malcolm is her trustee.”
This association had special significance for me, being close to my own situation with my uncle. I hurried on. “It is a sugar plantation. She is called ‘Anne the Rum Queen’ by the natives and many others because she has the largest sugar plantation on the Spanish Main. She will come into the property on her own very soon, I am sure. What if they have completed paperwork to certify her ownership and are bringing it back with them? They may even plan to sell it.”
“If they carry with them documents of this nature,” Fun See said ominously, “and Dodge were able to steal them, he could lay claim to the land. I realize now the extent of Lady Anne’s control over the rum market. It would give him a large share of the profits.”
“How could he, when everyone would know they were stolen?” Madame Phoebe asked. “It isn’t like plans or secrets. Property can be traced. There’s no way to hide its ownership.”
“But it has been hidden already,” Fun See said, searching his files in great excitement. He possessed a type of clockwork and steam cabinet similar to that of Madame Phoebe, only his was black lacquer and inlaid with mother of pearl and red jade. He kept the cabinet locked by means of a sliding puzzle arrangement which he rapidly moved with his long fingernails. Various compartments opened at the different workings of the puzzle. The inlaid design depicted a beautiful garden with trees dripping wisteria blossoms and pugs playing among the bushes.
“The young lady has the title in name, but the Malcolms, like many nobles, have needed money over the years.” He found what he was looking for with a cry of triumph. “I have here records of many shipping companies trafficking in rum from the Malcolms’ plantation with very liberal terms of payment for the privilege. It is clear to me, though I am sure it is not public knowledge, that a great part of the holdings have been leased or sold off.”
“The documents on record will show it all still belongs to Lady Anne,” I burst out. This was such a common scandal among the European nobility. I had seen families ruined over and over again when their non-existent fortunes were supposed to change hands as inheritances.
“Ownership or interest cannot be proved by any other party as far as I know,” Fun See agreed. “Whoever holds these documents coming in from Jamaica could claim to be the owner. The real legal state is so encumbered no one person would be able to contest it.”
“The Malcolms would actually be better off if the papers were stolen,” I said grimly. I glanced over the transaction records Fun See showed us. “They have certainly blurred the lines of legal transactions in the management of this estate.”
“I wonder if Lady Anne has any idea that her inheritance has been squandered in this way,” Phoebe said. “I believe that property was intended to be her dowry upon her marriage to the Earl of Dorchester, which is to happen very soon. Yes, here it is in the latter part of Dame Autolycus’ column. The marriage is to come off in the middle of May. The Alexander Legacy must be there to meet the noble Malcolm family.”
“Indeed,” Fun See nodded. “We shall be there.”
I summoned a Hansom cab to return Madame Phoebe to her hotel and her children. “Thank you so much for your help in understanding the importance of the Rum Queen’s papers, your highness,” she said to me as I handed her into the cab. “I could not make out what it meant, and Fun is so concerned with commercial shipping I doubt he would have seen it either. Once again you have helped our cause. Will you not share the cab to return to your shop?”
I tried to demur. I had to closely regulate my expenditures to be able to offer selection and comfort to my patrons. The cost of even half of a cab fare from the docks was beyond my practical means. To continue to ask this woman to pay my way was unthinkable. She saw my expression cloud over and said, “I have forgotten something I must speak to you about. Please, step in.”
I obeyed, thinking she meant to ask me about some business of the Legacy Company. Instead, she said, “Fun See tried to spare me embarrassment when he asked you to let him speak to me in private. But you should know what he wanted to talk to me about. He asked me why Mac and Rose were approached to help fund the Alexander Legacy, but he and Annabelle were not. He assured me they had the means and the heart to contribute, and he thought I had not asked them because I held resentment against Annabelle for her treatment of me when I was Rose Campbell’s housemaid.”
I stared at her, uncomprehending. “I came to the house of Rose Campbell when I was fifteen,” she said. “I was an orphan, and I had worked since I could swing a mop and beat a rug. Rose took me under her wing and her uncle, Alexander Campbell, for whom the Legacy company is named, became my guardian as well as hers. They paid for my education and took me to Europe with them for two years before Rose came into her estate. But before that I scrubbed floors, washed dishes, dusted and redusted every inch of that house, and, at that elder Doctor Campbell’s insistence, taught my ‘Miss Rose’ to do it too.
“The Campbell family never saw such a scandalous uproar as when Archie declared he loved me and wanted me as his wife. But God worked this miracle, that I was accepted into the family, because He allowed me to be a nurse to Uncle Alec and save his life when he became ill in New York while I lived there. Fun See was concerned that I still held against Annabelle the way she treated me in my serving days and therefore kept them at arm’s length.
“Are you troubled because we have provided you with the hotel room, clothing, and so on, and you see no end to our having to provide for you, because you lack the means even to share cab fare? This is a matter of pride, your highness. I had to humble myself to allow Rose to raise me up to sisterly status, to educate me, to prepare me for my singing career. I had to let the whole family provide for me. Let us provide for you, in reasonable ways.
“I told Fun See that I had decided not to call upon anyone who was already one of us to finance our operations because each member already has pledged himself to give so much – unlimited time and exposure to danger and hardship. We must all give everything to this cause, perhaps neglect our other obligations, even our families, and that is a great enough cost to bear. I told him he and Annabelle must first provide for the needs of their household, and I will not expect you to spend money which must go to meet your needs, for the others to provide for their families if something happens.”
The cab had arrived outside the tobacco shop as she fi
nished speaking. She smiled at me and gave me her hand, and I was proud to kiss her glove before I got out.
A Dodge, a Twist and a Tobacconist Page 10
