Chapter Nine
“Well, Newsome, you are certainly happier than I have seen you in many a day,” I said to Trevor when next he made an appearance at the Bohemian Club. He had told me he was running for Parliament some months back but I had heard recently that his campaign lacked funding and was not doing well. Today he patted his newly-curled blond hair and sank back in his armchair, nursing his usual brandy. I tasted my lime and soda and studied my friend curiously. His clothes were new and finely tailored, perfect pinstripe gray, spitshine shoes, a soft grey felt derby resting on the sidetable.
“I am. My campaign is going much better now, Florrie. No doubt I shall be in the house when the polls close election day.”
“Really? You were lamenting a lack of money last time we talked.” His father had suffered for his tacit part in my escape from Bohemia, I knew, and had been posted next to some tiny northern European country as punishment. They had never had much income but his mother had been practically nagging him to pursue this campaign.
“It was just a matter of making the right people believe in me. Oh. Florrie, I hope you don’t mind that I’ve invited a guest -- well, she’s actually a --”
A mesmerizing young woman entered the room and all eyes turned toward her. I had never placed any restrictions on the sex of members or their guests, but I had never had a woman like this come before. Trevor waved at her and she dazzled the stunned watchers, myself included, with a smile and crossed the room to seat herself on the arm of Trevor’s chair.
“My new assistant, Visha Kanya,” Trevor said with a smile almost as wide as hers. I could not take my eyes off the stunning creature. She wore a swirling royal blue skirt embroidered with black bamboo patterns and Stiletto-heeled bronze boots with platforms clad her small feet. On top she wore what appeared to be a blue leather and bronze corset glittering with buckles and studs like the boots and peeking out from under a demi-cape attached to a long, sleek blue silk mantle. A snug collar, studded and buckled, encircled her throat. One blue silk glove restlessly strayed over Trevor’s shoulder. Trevor’s light flush from the liquor deepened. Stray locks of carelessly-piled shining black hair spilled from her lacquered combs onto his face.
“You can have anything if you have money.” Trevor finally continued his speech. “And the best thing money can get you is power. Political office is power. When I get into office, it will be the beginning of a historic rise. You’ll see the tail of the Newsome comet in the sky soon, Florrie, and it’ll be going up, always up.”
“I advised you to be more moderate in your political ambitions, you remember, my friend.” I felt stifled by the presence of this extraordinary woman. “I wondered why you went directly for a seat in Parliament when there was a chance for a respectable rise in local government. Your father’s family was quite willing to help you with that.”
“Pater’s clan has always been afraid to speculate,” Trevor scoffed. “Only mother really supported me through all this. I have been told I have too much potential to waste myself in local politics. There are people who are willing to gamble on a promising young man.”
“I have seen your coverage in the press and your campaign signs. Impressive. You spoke of speculating and of gambling. Are there persons in the financial world willing to support a political candidate so openly?”
“Their support is hardly open. In fact, I’m not even sure who they are. But I’m sure they must be in finance, the way they throw money around. I’ve been reborn, Florrie. The hair, the clothes, the carriage, Visha – “ He only looked uncertain for a moment as he discerned my undisguised disapproval.
“Look here, Florrie, Visha’s not what you think. She’s my bodyguard. Show him, Visha.”
The woman slowly rose from beside Trevor and the blue cloak swirled as she half-turned to display the broad, blunt Khanda sword strapped to her back, leather armlets with paired daggers shining at her wrists, a brace of pistols at her wasp-thin waist. In a fluid motion she covered herself with her cloak, hooding her hair and eyes, standing like a shimmering blue silk statue with only scarlet lips and an alabaster chin left visible. I felt paralyzed by her display. Everyone in the room sat open-mouthed, stupefied. Trevor went on as if nothing unusual had happened.
“I’m a new man, fit company for the lords. And I’ve speechwriters, advertising men, scheduling secretaries. They’ve got me speaking all over England. I had to break three appointments just to come to the club.”
“People want to hear you speak? They invite you?”
“Of course. I’m on the rise, I tell you. My name’s on everybody’s lips.”
“Indeed, it seems to be.” I unpried my eyes from the cloaked woman and glanced at the newspaper beside my chair. I had seen three articles about Trevor already today, as big and bold as the one in the paper before me. Posters filled the city. People were definitely talking about Trevor Newsome; all positive, all certain he would win his seat, though it was against an incumbent candidate. A few weeks ago I would have sworn my friend stood no chance at all, even if he had not been close to bankruptcy trying to pay for his campaign.
“But you do not know who your patrons are? Nor why they have chosen to support you?”
”I say, old chap, you’re not being very supportive. I know you’ve got piles of money, Prince of Bohemia and all that, but I didn’t see you reaching out a hand to an old friend.”
I said nothing to that, though I thought Trevor of all people should have remembered my situation. Bohemia itself was nearly bankrupt trying to hold up that very reputation of being an exotic European aristocracy. I had no part in the excess, and no income of any kind from that source. Rudolfo had seen to that, slandering me at every opportunity and claiming that I had abandoned Bohemia to become a heedless adventurer. But Trevor could still be very thick-headed at times. As he went on jabbering about “being a part of something bigger”, my thoughts wandered to the recent change in my own life.
I had been skeptical at first when Madame Phoebe had approached me about the Alexander Legacy Company. I had become used to being alone. There had been no more risk that someone I loved would be hurt, and by the same token, I protected myself from pain, or thought I did. The one letter I had received from my sister condemned me bitterly for ruining my family, forcing her and my mother to live in poverty, and abandoning our country. She even believed I had poisoned Trevor against her.
The death of the cousin of Colonel Geraldine had nearly destroyed my friend. We had been inseparable comrades in and out of Bohemia, and it was one of my schemes to right a great wrong that had gotten my loyal friend’s relative killed. I could not bear the thought of making someone else pay the price for my insatiable desire to beat rogues and monsters like the president of the Suicide Club.
The idea of associating myself with so many other persons in the Alexander Legacy had filled me with horror at first. Friendship, association and dependence on another’s money had become foreign ideas to me. I had only agreed to join because I saw clearly from Madame Phoebe’s research that there was a great wrong being done, and I was compelled to help right it. There was danger to the Alexander Legacy if enemies connected the members of the company and followed the connection to the mission. I thought perhaps I should speak to Madame Phoebe about my fears. But these people had made it clear that they considered friendship and trust a part of their strength. I wondered how they would take it if I tried to convince them I saw it as a weakness.
“Florrie, what a brown study!” Trevor poked me with the newspaper. “I told you I had to escape to come here and here you are lost in your own thoughts and ignoring me.”
“Oh, sorry, Trevor.” The oppressive blue-cloaked presence of Visha Kanya shattered the comparatively welcome thoughts of the Alexander Legacy Company and its members. With all the unease I felt concerning that association, sitting here pretending Trevor Newsome and I were having a normal visit was too impossible.
“I do have your vote, don’t I?”
“Do yo
u need it?” I did not bother to remind Trevor that I was not even a citizen -- that I had been denied the privilege of becoming one. “Your victory seems so certain, from all you’ve told me.”
“I still value the good opinion of people I consider friends. And someone I consider to be a good man.” Trevor studied me uneasily. He had not even looked at Visha Kanya and she had not moved a muscle. “Say, Florrie, have you been hinting that I’m corrupting myself by taking money from those ready to part with it?”
“What have you been asked to do in return?”
“Nothing but win. I’ve made promises to people, Florrie, to be honest and do good and all that. I meant those promises. I’m not selling out. What I said before about money and power, that was mad. I just meant that you have to have money to get the office, to get a chance to do good.”
“See if you can find out who your benefactors are, Trevor. It cannot be right that even you do not know.”
“Well, I do know the name of the outfit that’s handling their money. It’s the Dodge Foundation.”
“What?” I sprang from my chair. I honestly had not met with Trevor expecting to connect him to the mysterious Dodge. It had been purely a social visit at Trevor’s insistence. I had no real interest in politics and I had merely thought that Trevor would suffer an embarrassing defeat and go home to his family.
“Well, see, you know of it, so it must be all right.”
“Trevor, it is far from all right.”
“What the blazes do you mean, old man? Explain yourself.”
I was about to say more when it suddenly dawned on me that my friend was already compromised by the very organization the Alexander Legacy had sworn to overthrow. At that moment Visha Kanya’s hood started to slide back. A gloved hand started to reach behind her shoulder for the sword hilt, fingers walking their way down the barbed point jutting out of the sword’s handle. I took my gaze off those sensual, sinuous fingers for a moment.
“I cannot. Be careful, Newsome. Everyone, the club is closed. Now. I am sorry, but I need you to leave immediately.”
I saw that Visha Kanya had half-drawn the sword. “Mademoiselle, even you must know that it is absurd to pretend to frighten me in that way,” I said quietly.
She fixed her eyes on mine for the first time. The rest of the patrons had scattered, half because of my insistent manner, and perhaps the other half in real dislike of the idea of seeing me beheaded in my own club.
“Are you so certain that I pretend?” she asked.
“I can assure you that even if you are in earnest, you are deceived if you think you can make me afraid of you.”
She rammed the sword back into the sheath. Trevor started to stammer something -- A protest, an apology -- Whatever it was, I did not care.
“Just go,” I said to him, and he went, with Visha Kanya trailing along behind.
“But your highness,” Madame Phoebe began, as I paced the floor in the penthouse sitting room. I could not bring myself to meet her steady gaze. She looked especially sweet and pretty today, in a white gown with small light blue velvet flocked patterns decorating it. A matching blue velvet snood tried unsuccessfully to contain her unruly black curls. “You cannot simply leave the Alexander Legacy without telling me why.”
“I told you I may have compromised us. That is why.”
“But how? You said you merely met a friend at your club, and spoke warmly of him being a good, honest fellow. That is no compromise. All of us have friends. We did not swear to be monks and nuns, but only to fight evil. We are in the world, just not of it.”
“My friend is a politician seeking a seat in Parliament. He has taken very generous contributions that seem likely to guarantee his winning the office.” I sucked in a breath. I had not mentioned the surreal presence of the bodyguard Visha Kanya. I could not bring myself to describe that creature to this sweet and pure wife and mother. I could not imagine that it mattered. “The contributions came from the Dodge Foundation.”
“Why – that’s wonderful! He may have information that could be useful to us. Did you ask him?”
“I could not ask him without putting the Legacy Company in danger. Do you not understand? This man is closer to Dodge than anyone we have uncovered so far, heavily influenced by him. Dodge must be watching his every move. What if he knows we were together? How deep might Trevor be in this evil web already?
“It is likely he will be asked about his association with me. You found me, in spite of my efforts to be inconspicuous. Certainly the man Dodge can trace me as well, and through me get the whole Alexander Legacy Company at his mercy. He is a cunning, thorough devil, and he murders without hesitation. I cannot say I am even certain of Trevor’s innocence. If he does not know the truth now, he will have obedience extorted from him just as others have.”
“Your Highness--”
“Madame, this title has painful associations for me and I prefer you do not use it. It is no longer appropriate in any case.”
“Very well, then, Florizel, let me be frank with you.” Madame Phoebe rose from her little writing desk and cut off my pacing. “I told you that I studied very carefully the people I have asked to join our company, and sought wise and godly counsel all along the way. There was only one person among all of you that I even hesitated about when it came to this final selection. You already know that person was you, sir.”
I had expected this speech from this lady for a long time. Finally, she would openly declare her distrust of me and we would discontinue our association, and my membership in the Alexander Legacy Company. I flushed and took a step backward.
“Indeed, Madame, you have made this clear on more than one occasion.”
“But you have not grasped the real issue. You have not understood that I was only concerned about your pride.” My color heightened. “You have been for years doing what I only dreamed of. You have righted wrongs and destroyed evil. You had great resolve and relentless courage. You have paid a great price for your successes. I have, since we met, learned about your mother and sister, and I know about the cousin of your friend the colonel, and others who have fallen because they helped you. When a man does great things and finds himself alone in the doing of them, he begins to draw inward. In a way he believes he must. He fears to put family and friends at risk because he has already risked and lost. He sometimes comes to believe he must always act and be alone, and so he has only his poor fallen self for company.
“I tried to live that way when I left the Campbell family and went to New York. But God drew me back to those people and led me to accept a family, a home, a loving husband and children.
“Somehow, sir, you overcame yourself so far as to agree to join our little company. But you have not been one of us. You have gone apart and followed your own path and now, of course, you wish to pull away from us entirely. It may not be. You must conquer your pride. Stop feeling that yours is the power to decide what others may risk. It is with God, and with our own hearts as we seek His will. Join us with your heart and soul and mind as you joined us with your body and you will see the truth of what I say.”
I stared at her without speaking for a full minute. All this time I had been pitying myself as an enforced outsider, when the fact was that this lady had never held me at arm’s length. I had done it to myself. I saw her start to waver as I continued to stare.
“Oh, I have been too blunt, haven’t I? I’m so sorry. I truly -- I did not mean to--”
“Madame Phoebe, you speak with a wisdom far beyond that of any I have known before. Truly God has put His hand upon you, and I beg your pardon most humbly. I will heed what you say, for you have exposed exactly what was in my mind. I will see what can be learned from Trevor and I will be truly a member of this company.”
Archibald Campbell entered the room just as I finished speaking. “And that is the woman I have been blessed to be married to.” I bowed quickly to him and then paused, my eyes drawn to his face. I recalled that I had not seen him in severa
l days.
“Mr. Campbell, I fear you are not well. Our talking has disturbed your rest. I pray your pardon.”
I thought Campbell looked ghastly. He was pale and trembled as he leaned on the doorpost. “No, no, it’s all right. I’m glad I heard you talking because I have something to say to you, your highness – forgive me — Florizel. I really must sit down.” He allowed Madame Phoebe to help him to a chair. “Phoebe has to follow this compulsion to try to right wrongs when she sees them. It’s much the same as my cousin Rose and her philanthropy.
“She began the Alexander Legacy with my full sympathy and support. I have given what help I can and tried to be a strong right arm to her. I think she always felt that it was I who should have the real charge of the group. But I was not one of the group and it doesn’t want an outside influence.
“As it turns out, that was a very propitious decision. I have just learned that I am dying. It has come on quite suddenly and the doctor does not altogether understand it, but it seems certain.”
“Accept my deepest sympathy, sir and Madame.” My mind reeled. He stated this awful news so calmly, and his wife did not shed a tear, though I detected the slightest trembling.
“I mean to get something rather different than sympathy from you. We both knew – Phoebe and I, that is, that you had a heart for this work before we did, but that you’d done it mostly on your own. I want to get a promise from you that you will stick by Phoebe, help her all you can and keep the other members in line if it comes down to needing a man’s authority. Do you understand what I’m asking?”
I looked at Madame Phoebe and had to force down the sudden thought that this beautiful, intelligent, gifted woman would soon be alone. I turned back to Archibald Campbell and met his gaze steadily. “I believe I do, sir. I shall do all that a man can do to support Madame Phoebe in this enterprise. With God’s help it shall go forward.”
“Good.” Campbell had risen briefly with the fervor of his words but he sank down into his chair again. “I don’t know that I have any business saying this to you, Florizel, but I have to, anyway. Phoebe’s a loving, giving little woman who’s always had somebody around to fuss over and care for. She’s got the care of me, but let me assure you her part in this enterprise shan’t suffer.”
“On the contrary, sir, Madame Phoebe must be free to do a wife’s duty, that which any fool can see is uppermost in her mind and heart. As important as the mission is, Madame, you need not neglect anything for it to go forward. As much as I respect your privacy, sir and Madame, I must urge you to let the other members know that your attention may be diverted, and why. Give yourself the freedom to divert it and rest assured the burden will shift from you in an instant to any or all you designate.”
A few short days later, Archibald Campbell became bedridden and Madame Phoebe was forced to become his full-time nurse. Our investigations seemed to falter as Campbell’s strength did. Our ceaseless efforts still amounted to nothing. We spun our wheels, and all of us secretly sought, even more than how to find Dodge, how to help and comfort our lady leader as it seemed her husband’s time was growing dangerously short.