“Just like that,” she said. She gave the mink a final scratch and then dropped the document on the table between us. “Voilà.”
“Is this a trick?”
“Put it in your cute little briefcase, dear, before I change my mind.”
And I did exactly that, grabbing it off the table and giving it a quick glance to note the squiggly signature of Caitlin McGoogan on the bottom before snapping it inside the briefcase as if it was one of the countess’s birds about to fly away.
“I guess I’ll be on my way, then,” I said, standing. “See you in court.”
“I won’t be in court,” she said.
I had already taken a step toward the door when I stopped and swiveled my head. “No court?”
“Despite the promise made by his mother when we saved his life all those years ago, I am setting Keir free.”
I turned around and faced her head-on. “Why?”
She looked down and brushed a bit of lint off her perfect black jacket. “Whimsy, I suppose.”
I stayed frozen for a moment right there, in front of the door of my escape. Maybe it was because of the countess’s strength and bearing. Or maybe it was the way she wasn’t pretending to be happy to see me, unlike the always-smiling and ever-frightening Miss Myerscough. But most of all it was because the countess was as hard and as real as a diamond and I couldn’t leave her with that word, that soft little careless word, hanging in the air.
I walked back toward her and sat down in the chair. “You’re the least whimsical person I’ve ever met.”
“And that bothers you?”
“I like it,” I said.
She tried to fight her smile and finally succeeded. “We’ve been keeping careful watch on our Keir.”
“With your birds,” I said, nodding.
“And we get reports.”
“Reports? From who?”
“It doesn’t matter from whom,” she said, waving away my question like it was an annoying fly. “Keir has… surprised us. We thought the only way to protect him, and the people he would come in contact with, was to keep him here. Forever. But we hadn’t counted on one thing.”
“His inner decency?”
She laughed. “He has no inner decency, dear, at least he didn’t when he lived here. What we hadn’t counted on, Elizabeth, was you.”
“But I didn’t do anything.”
“We respond to our environments. We knew how Keir responded to the environment we created for him here. But he responded to you and your friends in a way we could never have expected. It forced us to reconsider many things.”
“To reconsider the way you treated him all these years?”
“Yes, that, too, of course. I’ve lived long enough, Elizabeth, to have more than my share of regrets. But I was thinking of something else. I had a daughter. Her name was Linette. She was the dearest of creatures. And then she died.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said. That’s what you say when you don’t know what to say. I’ve even said it after a Debate Club debate. I’m sorry for your loss. But it felt so small just then, and when the countess winced as I said it, I felt small, too.
“I unwittingly brought Miss Myerscough to America to be Linette’s tutor,” she said. “I didn’t know then what she was. But in the yellow fever epidemic of 1905, when my daughter’s gums started bleeding from the saffron scourge and the doctors had no solutions, Miss Myerscough offered her… services. There was a decision to be made. I had a chance to save my daughter’s life, but at what cost?”
“What did you decide?”
“It doesn’t matter. By the time I did decide, it was too late. She was gone. As I laid my head on her silent chest and wept, I knew in my bones it wasn’t the fever that had killed her—it was me. Whether because of my decision or my hesitation, I was the cause.”
The countess put a hand to her throat, as if the scarf was there to hide a wound.
“I tried to join my daughter, but Miss Myerscough found me before I succeeded and wouldn’t let me die. She told me I had to stay alive to preserve Linette’s memory. That’s why I allowed Miss Myerscough to save as many as she could. After my loss, in Linette’s memory I wanted to heal the world. But there was a darker purpose, too, I can admit now. For each time I saw the horror of the life those like Keir lived, I felt somehow more elevated, purer, for not having subjected my daughter to that. I was congratulating myself, even as I was part of the horror.”
I started to say something, some bland piece of assurance, as weak as Sorry for your loss, but before I could even get a word out, she thankfully waved me quiet.
“And so now, to make up for my cruelty,” she said, “and because he has shockingly earned it, I’m giving Keir a chance for something other than this. And I’ll leave him enough of his precious money to pay your bills, with some left over for his room and board and creature comforts. Keir does like his creature comforts. And to you, Elizabeth, I give the responsibility for his life, and for the damage he does.”
“Wait, what?”
“Oh, my dear, the moment you went into the Court of Uncommon Pleas to give Keir his freedom, you were taking it upon yourself to make sure he doesn’t succumb to the beast Miss Myerscough put within him.”
“We’re just lawyers. It will be the law that gives him the freedom to make his own choices. And then it will be his responsibility.”
“There was a young woman named Rachel who became one of Miss Myerscough’s favorite children. She was sweet and quiet and devoted. We trusted her. When she escaped, none of us were too worried. She would grow hungry, she would come back, she was so sweet. A few months later we starting reading of a series of mysterious deaths in Chicago. We sent Miss Myerscough on the train to fetch her back, but Rachel destroyed herself before she arrived. A stake through her own heart. Can you imagine the agony she must have felt at all she had done?”
“No, I can’t.”
“Well, dear, maybe you should.”
“Keir’s better than that. He wants to do right.”
“Are you still playing the lawyer, or is this the clear-eyed friend speaking? He might need the second more.” The countess rose. “It is time for me to stop the foolishness in the other wing.”
“Van Helsing brought guns and torches,” I said. “They started a fire.”
“He is always so boringly predictable. He has come for Miss Myerscough, but only Miss Myerscough, or so I’ve been told. A trial has been promised. Maybe it’s for the best. I thought it crucial that all her precious children always be under her thumb, but Keir might have shown us another way. Wait here for Keir to find you. Don’t leave without him, it would be terribly unsafe. But when Keir comes for you, don’t linger.”
“I won’t, trust me.”
“Surprisingly, I do, Elizabeth. She was very sweet, my Linette. I have to admit, when I see you I think of her.”
“I’m not sweet,” I said.
“She would have grown out of it, too. At least I hope so. Our time here is over, I fear. We’ll find someplace new. I hear Iceland is quite popular these days. Perhaps a cottage by a thermal pool. I could use a long bath. And maybe there we’ll do things differently.”
“And maybe there you’ll lose your regrets.”
“Oh, my dear, dear Elizabeth. I don’t think they ever go away, and who would want them to? They’re like a string of pearls that lets us know we’ve lived a life. I’m sure you’ll have your own lovely string. Let’s just hope Keir isn’t one of them.”
As she was leaving, I stood and faced her. “How did you do it?”
She stopped, turned around. “Do what, dear?”
“Become you?”
She smiled. “In my hometown of New Orleans, as the poor daughter of a former slave, I was always underestimated. Men thought they saw a girl they could take advantage of, and I let them see just that as I took advantage of them.”
“It must have felt great.”
“Of course it did, but you know that alre
ady, don’t you, dear? You’re the girl who faced down the demon in court. Women like us, we never let anyone else define our limits.”
She paused just a moment as if she had something else to say, but then turned and pulled open the door. The shouts, the clash of metal, the clatter of battle. The lights in the hallway were out and her silhouette, outlined only by the twisting orange of a distant fire, was tall and regal.
The Countess Laveau.
A puff of smoke leaked into the gap where she had been before she closed the door behind her. I coughed. The mink hissed.
I felt, just then, small and terrified, powerful and reckless, and full of tears. Keir had been right—somehow the countess had reached into my chest and pulled out my heart, yet my skin was untouched. I was still trying to figure it out when I heard a knock on the door.
I waited in silence, too scared to answer.
“Elizabeth?”
I jumped to the door and yanked it open. Keir, his face smudged with soot and his cap askew, stood in the doorway gripping a lantern. His large front teeth glowed white.
“Did you get it?” he said.
I lifted my briefcase.
“Then what are you waiting for?”
“You,” I said.
I should have been frightened by this thing in front of me, I should have felt the terror that the countess had tried to slip into me like a knife between my ribs. But I wasn’t afraid of Keir. Instead I leaped forward to give him a hug. The fear on his face as I grabbed hold made me laugh. Why I was laughing I couldn’t figure, but the sight of him, still alive, still full of possibilities, just brought it out of me.
And maybe I began to understand my father a little bit better.
“Enough of that,” Keir said, pushing me away. “You’ll ruin my hair. There’s a tunnel to the outside beneath the house. Let’s go.”
I swiveled my head toward the table. “What about the mink?” I said.
He looked at the cage. “That little rat’s been nothing but trouble its whole life.”
“Like you, huh?”
He looked at me and gave his half-cocked smile before he ran over and unlatched the door. The mink slipped out of the cage and hissed for effect before jumping off the table and sprinting out the door.
“Now, Elizabeth,” Keir said, “can we get out of here? Please?”
EMANCIPATION
Oyez, oyez, oyez,” called out the ram on the wall, and with that licorice-scented command the Court of Uncommon Pleas was called into session. I was at the barristers’ bench in the front of the courtroom, standing next to Josiah Goodheart, as the puff of smoke burst behind the judge’s desk and the red-eyed judge appeared, coughing and waving his hands as if at a swarm of bumblebees.
“That’s all,” he said between waves and coughs. “Be seated. It is time to wield the sword of justice, so be careful one and all that ye don’t get skewered.”
We all sat. As the judge asked for emergency motions, Josiah Goodheart tilted toward me. “I need to apologize, I think,” he whispered, “about that goat.”
“You should be apologizing to the goat,” I whispered back.
“I suppose you’re right. Talk about getting skewered with the sword of justice.”
“Well, I sure learned my lesson,” I said.
“And what lesson is that?”
“When dealing with someone with good and heart in his name, expect the worst.”
He laughed. “A fine lesson that is. And you haven’t even met my brother, Uriah.”
“Ms. Webster!” shouted the judge, staring angrily at me with those red eyes.
I nervously stood. “Yes, Your Honor?” It was like I was back in social studies class, getting yelled at by Mr. Armbruster for talking to Natalie. I mean, was it always my fault that the person sitting next to me wanted to chat?
“Are you and Mr. Goodheart having an enjoyable time there on the front bench?”
“We’re discussing goat recipes, Your Honor,” I said.
“Am I supposed to be amused?” barked the judge. “Next time you bring a chupacabra into this courtroom, you keep it in its cage. The bloodstain is still on the floor, not that it doesn’t give my courtroom a beneficial air of severity. Now, where is your father?”
“Somewhere on the other side, still searching.”
“Then I’ll ask you. In the matter of McGoogan v. Laveau, did your firm get hold of the contract?”
“The contract was not properly filed with the Prothonotorius,” I said. “Or maybe the contract was destroyed by unknown agents on the other side.”
“I am sorry to hear that,” said the judge, sounding oh so not sorry. “Another Webster failure.” He raised his gavel. “In the matter of—”
“However,” I said, interrupting and causing the judge’s red eyes to pop, “I was handed the original contract by the Countess Laveau herself and am prepared to present that to the court.”
“Indeed? The original? From the countess? How surprising. And I suppose, with your father indisposed, you’ll be handling tonight’s hearing.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is that agreeable to your client? After the fiasco of your last appearance in this court, I would think Mr. McGoogan would want you to stay as far from his case as possible, lest he end up like the goat.”
Just then Keir stood up in the back of the courtroom and said, “I’m with Elizabeth, Judge. For better or for worse.”
“The worse could be worse than you imagine, young man,” said the judge. “Then let’s see it, Ms. Webster. And no more of your tricks.”
“No, sir,” I said.
I lifted my briefcase, snapped it open, and took out the piece of vellum, now rolled and tied with a pretty bow. I put the briefcase down on the bench and carried the scroll to the judge.
He untied the bow, unrolled the scroll, and peered at it with his red eyes. “Interesting, quite interesting. Clerk, call the case.”
“McGoogan v. Laveau!” shouted out the tall green clerk in her strangled voice. I took my place at the table and motioned for Keir to come forward. He slid out of his seat and started his slow saunter to the front of the courtroom.
As you and I wait for Keir to take his place beside me, you might be wondering how ended the fight at the Château Laveau. Very well, thank you, for all concerned but the château itself. According to Keir, the battle was still raging when the countess arrived. With one wave of her hand the birds stopped their attacks, the residents stopped defending Miss Myerscough, and Van Helsing and his crew stopped swinging their blades and torches.
In the calm, Van Helsing swore that he would ensure Miss Myerscough had a fair trial in the Tower of London, and his crew, which now included Olivia, swore that they would hold Van Helsing to his pledge. Miss Myerscough screamed and hissed, but when Van Helsing asked the countess for permission to take his prisoner, she nodded, and that was that. The whole hunting party, Barnabas included, made it out safely.
But the fire that had started in the battle grew out of control. Even as Miss Myerscough was bound with a rope made of garlic and wolfsbane, the fire was climbing up the walls, burning the main stairway, devouring the great paintings hanging in the center hall. By the time Keir and I had made our way out through the underground tunnel to greet our waiting friends, the roof was already in flames.
“At last you’ve made it, Mr. McGoogan,” said the judge when Keir was finally standing beside me. “Next time maybe settle into a row closer to the front.” The judge turned to stare at the barrister standing at the other table in front of the bench. “Mr. Locksley, where is your client?”
Barrister Locksley simply put his hands over his mouth.
“Still following orders, I see,” said the judge. “Prudent of you, Locksley. What say ye, Ms. Webster?”
“I don’t think the countess is coming, Judge,” I said. “At least, when she gave me the contract she said she wouldn’t be coming. And when we tried to serve notice of this hearing at her residence, we found the
Château Laveau in ruins after a mysterious fire of some sort and the grounds deserted.”
“Any idea where the countess might have gone off to?”
“She mentioned something about Iceland?” I said.
“Out of our jurisdiction, then. How delightful. I’ve had enough of her insolence. Now, Mr. McGoogan, I’m ready to make judgment.”
This was the moment that the banshee had sought from the beginning. This was the moment that would define the rest of Keir’s life.
“In light of Ms. Webster’s startling procurement of the contract,” said the judge, “and the failure of the defendant to appear in court, I find the contract by its terms to be void. I therefore find judgment against the defendant and declare the plaintiff, Keir McGoogan, now and forever emancipated.”
As soon as the gavel slammed, a cheer went up from the spectators, and the babies on the ceiling twittered and laughed. It would have been a joyful moment if Keir himself hadn’t dropped down into a chair as if the weight of the world had just then fallen on his head. He wasn’t overcome with happiness, he was just overcome, and in the face of his emotion, the courtroom quieted.
“Mr. McGoogan,” said the judge.
Keir dragged himself to his feet. “Yes, Judge?”
“You have just obtained the most valuable thing known to man or woman. Freedom! So answer me this. What do you intend to do with it?”
Keir stared down at the table for a moment. “Well, Judge,” he said finally, “I’ve been pondering on that more than you might expect, and this is what I came up with. I’m going to the beach to spy the ocean for the first time in my life.”
The judge pulled back in surprise. “The beach? That’s the best you could come up with?”
“Aye,” said Keir. “And while I’m there, I think I’ll eat some chocolate.”
The judge leaned forward and stared at Keir McGoogan like he was staring at a frog, and then he said, “Splendid idea. Just splendid. Clerk, call the next case.”
THE GREAT PARADE
My mother roasted a big knob of meat for our celebration dinner, which for some reason meant that all afternoon the house smelled like a barn animal had settled into the living room and was scratching itself.
Elizabeth Webster and the Portal of Doom Page 20
