Miss Wilhelmina came down to the basement, after Edward's experiment had begun, and asked me to instruct her in proper fighting methods with the katars. She had retrieved two of the weapons from the scene of our battle with Master Tandu. She has extremely good reflexes and an instinct for survival. She has also been paying much more attention to the daily classes than she has been letting on. She insisted on working until she dropped from exhaustion.

She collapsed into a chair in the servants dining hall and fell asleep in mid-sentence.

By morning the fumes from the experiment had sufficiently filled the upper floors to awaken Miss Sincliar, Mrs. Cuthbert, and Miss Chigwidgeon. Mr. Graves instructed I and the other footman to prop open the doors on the ground floor while he went upstairs to activate something called a circulator. I later learned that Sir Cosmo has installed a machine which forcibly draws air up through the house and expels it from the attic. The device did its work admirably.

Before the device had been activated, Mrs. Cuthbert and Miss Chigwidgeon has awakened the others and sent them outside. We were kept occupied offering the houseguests tea in the garden and trying to keep them from falling asleep under the shrubbery. While the household was being roused from their beds, Miss Whitnell came down to the servant's hall to collect Miss Wilhelmina and deal with the experiment. Fearing that startling Miss Wilhelmina while she slept, still clutching a katar, Miss Whitnell sounded the breakfast gong until Miss Wilhelmina was awake.

Once the fumes were blown from the house, most of the household returned to bed, and we were able to resume our pre-breakfast preperations. Miss Bertilde and I spent a few moments discussing what she would teach the ladies in defence class later in the morning. I did not tell her how I planned to begin the class.

When the ladies arrived for class, I leapt upon them before they were prepared. For safety's sake, I attack Miss Bertilde, first, and she was quite prepared for the unexpected. The others responded quite well to the surprise. Miss Whitnell grabbed a weapon right away and was able to parry my attack. Miss Chigwidgeon dodge my first lunge and delivered a solid punch. Miss Sinclair was quite perturbed that one of my blades tore her sleeve, but she did succeed in defending her person from my attack. Mrs. Cuthbert executed a near-perfect leg-sweep, completely knocking me off my feet.

At the end of the object lesson, I asked them why they were able to evade my attacks. Miss Chigwidgeon answered that it was because I spread my attacks to all of them, instead of concentrating on removing the most formidible foe, Miss Bertilde, first. I agreed that that had a great deal to do with it, though it was really the reason I hadn't beaten them, not the reason that each of them successfully evaded of deflected my attack. I asked them what had been their first thought when I attacked. Miss Whitnell answered, "Big pointy sword coming at me." Miss Chigwidgeon then suggested that they had succeeded because they didn't have time to think, that they relied on their instincts.

Then I turned the lesson over to Miss Bertilde, who showed them ways to defend themselves with objects at hand, rather than relying on weapons. I hope this experience instills them with new confidence. If only I could think of a way to take some of Dr. Wilson's confidence and give it to the ladies.

After the defense lesson, Miss Chigwidgeon, Miss Whitnell, and I continued our discussions regarding the worship of Kali. Today we discussed the Five Pillars of Worship. I found myself in an awkward position regarding the fifth pillar. But I believe we sorted it out. Mr. Cuthbert had more tradesmen to meet with has the house next door is made fit to live in. Mrs. Cuthbert spent much of the day interviewing candidates for the new staff.

Sir Cosmo took Edward, George, and Owen into the City for some business. Miss Whitnell, Miss Chigwidgeon, and Miss Sinclair needed to return to the dressmaker. Mr. Graves asked me to drive them in the barouche. Miss Bertilde was along as a bodyguard, and accompanied them into the store for their fittings. They had additional shopping to do before tea, but we arrived back in good time.

This was the day that Nigel Graham was expected. He was to be interviewed by Mr. Ramsay and Miss Whitnell regarding his seemingly prophetic dreams. And then Miss Chigwidgeon was to inform him that she had accepted Sir Cosmo's proposal. Miss Chigwidgeon was quite nervous and took refuge in Sir Cosmo's office to remain out of sight. Exhibiting great forethought, Mr. Graves had gotten out two of the metal tea sets for the meetings.

Mr. Ramsay arrived early, so he and Miss Whitnell were prepared for Mr. Graham when he arrived. The interview and tests they subject him to seemed to confirm that he has some gift in the area, I am given to understand.

Mr. Frazer, the French Marquis, and Inspector MacGregor arrived, separately, at the house while this was going on in the parlor. Mr. Frazer presented Miss Sinclair with a gift, some books about the plants and animals of some region in Europe, I understand.

Miss Whitnell exited the meeting while Mr. Ramsay was still testing Mr. Graham, and went into Sir Cosmo's study. When Mr. Ramsay was finished, Miss Chigwidgeon went into the parlor to deliver the news.

Mr. Graves allowed me to linger outside the parlor while Miss Chigwidgeon spoke with Mr. Graham. Mr. Graves was the chaperone, serving tea and remaining unobstrusive. Miss Chigwidgeon broke the news to him as gently as it possibly could have been broken. Mr. Graham congratulated her on her good fortune, offered her a congratulatory gift, and quickly took his leave.

We had quite a number of guests in the dining room by this point, so I was drafted to help the other footmen with the serving. I did not hear, until later, the Mr. Cuthbert had offered to see Mr. Graham home.

Sir Cosmo had spent the day with George and Edward gathering information about the state of the Cobb's organization. He felt it was time to have a council of war to plan the next move. Mr. Frazer, Inspector MacGregor and even the Marquis had a great deal of new information. A French diplomat has been murdered, and his death appears to be tied to the death of the Foreign Minister. The Marquis is considered a suspect by at least one of the other Inspectors working the case, though a much stronger case has been built against Big Red Billingham.

We also learned the Lt. Wooster had not arrived home for dinner because he has been jailed on charges of assault, for shooting the man who tried to stab Rip Chigwidgeon in the back. Since MacGregor witnessed the incident, Wooster could have been released almost immediately, but he wished to remain in jail until late tomorrow, in order to avoid some obligation with his sister.

Miss Whitnell had to attend a class at the Order of St. Jerome, so she and Mr. Ramsay did not stay for the discussion, leaving immediately after dinner. During dinner someone commented upon Mr. Cuthbert's absence, and Mrs. Cuthbert suggested that he had taken Nigel out drinking to console him. I thought, for a moment, that Miss Chigwidgeon was going to slice right through the china, she suddenly put so much energy into cutting her chop. Mr. Caine and I were sent to retrieve Mr. Cuthbert and Mr. Graham.

We visited a number of boisterous houses, pubs, burlesques, and other establishment of questionable repute. It should have come as no surprise to me that Mr. Caine knew of these places, since he frequently has to retrieve Wooster from them. We eventually found Mr. Cuthbert's coachman, waiting with the coach not far from a pub called the Blind Fiddler (I believe that was the name). The coachman said Mr. Cuthbert was inside. On our way in, Mr. Caine informed me that this extablishment and several of the others in the same block of buildings interconnected, so we might have a difficult time finding Mr. Cuthbert.

The crowd was noisy and boisterous. There were people of many different classes intermingled. We found Mr. Cuthbert in the company of several young women. When we asked him where Mr. Graham was, he indicated that he had misplaced the young man. The women seemed to be slightly less inebriated or distracted than Mr. Cuthbert, and recalled that he had been in the company of a young man earlier, but they were uncertain where the young man had gone.

Mr. Caine left me to watch over Mr. Cuthbert while he checked the adjoining establishments. Some time later he returned, having had no luck. We helped Mr. Cuthbert walk out to the coach and returned to Charles Street.

Miss Chigwidgeon and Miss Whitnell were waiting up for us. It seems that Mr. Graham has been writing down his dreams and sharing them with Miss Chigwidgeon for some time, and those dreams have led the ladies to believe that some sort of vampire is in Graham's future. They feared Graham may have fallen into such clutches. Miss Whitnell roused Mrs. Cuthbert and they performed one of their magickal rituals. They announced that Graham was not at his home in the Borough, but was still somewhere in Southwerk or possibly Lambeth.

They awakened Sir Cosmo and some of the others. It was decided to launch a search. We loaded up in the carriages and went out, crossing the Thames yet again. They performed another of the magic rituals in the carriage, but we were searching a rather large and crowded part of the city for one young, drunk man. In the early morning hours of a Saturday, Southwerk and Lambeth contain thousands of drunk young men.

Sir Cosmo, realizing how little Miss Whitnell's magic could tell us, asked whether Mrs. Cuthbert had tried her crystal gazing to at least see Mr. Graham and perhaps determine his location that way. The ladies hadn't thought of that. In their favor, it was a quite late hour when they started, and Mrs. Cuthbert had been awakened from a sound sleep. Mrs. Cuthbert took the mirror she wears in a locket and gazed at it for several moments. And then she blushed quite pink.

Mr. Graham was not in the clutches of a blood-sucking demon. In his drunken and despressed state, he had accepted the advances of a woman. The woman had probbly been acting under financial persuasion from Mr. Cuthbert.

Everyone was so busy being embarassed, I think I may have been the only one to notice the expression of anger that crossed Miss Chigwidgeon's face. Mrs. Cuthbert was able to give Mr. Caine enough information that he was certain he could locate the young man in a short time. Once we knew that Graham was not in mortal danger, Sir Cosmo gave Mr. Caine some money for cabs and anything else that should arise. Leaving the matter in Mr. Caine's capable hands, the rest of us returned home.

During the trip, Mrs. Cuthbert quietly informed Miss Whitnell that she had had one of her own prophetic dreams. In the dream, Lady Miranda, whom the League met at the reception Wednesday evening, performed a ritual that involved killing Sir Cosmo, Dr. Wilson, Mr. Cuthbert, Miss Chigwidgeon, Miss Wilhelmina, and Miss Sinclair, in order to bring the Cobb back to this world, reborn. Edward's mother was also killed as a part of the ritual. I have never heard of this particular ritual, though that doesn't surprise me, since I have no training in sorcery. However, the Cobb occasionaly performed rituals whereby he could question deceased persons about events they witnessed while still alive, so it would not surprise me if dark sorcery such as Mrs. Cuthbert dreamed about might exist.

As the household was returning to their rooms, I asked Sir Cosmo if it might be better for all concerned for me to simply find this Lady Miranda and kill her before she progressed in her plans. He told me he was confident that we would find a way to eliminate the threat without "sinking to their level."

I resolved, therefore, to meditate on just that while the others slept.

3 June 1870

Of the League, only Dr. Wilson was eager to get up early, and he was in a rush to meet the Marquis and perform their experiment.

The rest of the household slept in, coming down to breakfast a bit later than usual. Mr. Caine reported that he had located Mr. Graham and assisted Graham in sneaking into his home without disturbing his family. The morning lessons went well. After all the lessons, Mr. Frazer and Inspector MacGregor arrived. Miss Chigwidgeon, Miss Whinell, Miss Sinclair, Mrs. Cuthbert, and Miss Bertilde left the house in their company to examine the scenes of the murders and look at all the evidence.

While they were gone, Sir Cosmo and Edward went to work on a particularly difficult portion of Edward's latest machine. George and I were keeping at eye on the house and the carriage house. Unfortunately, it was not quite enough. The tall man managed to get onto the roof of the carriage house and proceeded to bang on one of Edward's exits. He had come, he said, to discuss matters of mutual benefit. I sent George onto the roof of the carriage house to distract the tall man, while I slipped into the carriage house and moved up into the loft unobserved.

The tall man introduced himself as Claude Moriarity, explaining he was the Cobb's son and also Edward's father. He apologized to Edward for not getting back to London in time to either help raise Edward or to save Edward's mother. He confirmed that Edward's mother is the involuntary guest of one of the other factions of the old gang. He mentioned, further, that other factions were trying to capture her themselves. He indicated that he was aware that Edward was a target of some of the leaders of the factions. He claimed that he wanted to form an alliance with Sir Cosmo. With Sir Cosmo's help, he would quell the factions and bring the organization back into line, including eliminating the specific people who had grudges against the League.

George's distraction worked perfectly. Claude heard George and addressed comments to me, though looking up at the ceiling where the noise had been. He informed "me" that it was foolish to try to sneak up on him. He claimed to be a master equal to Tandu. Of course, while he was saying that, I was standing not four feet from him, with not roof between us, and he did not perceive me. That was all the proof I needed that he either had an over-inflated sense of his own abilities, or had not personally sparred with Master Tandu in many, many years.

Sir Cosmo listened to the offer, asking several interested questins designed, no doubt, to extract as much information as possible. However, eventually Claude insisted on an answer, and both Sir Cosmo and Edward said "no."

Claude attacked. Sir Cosmo by hurling his walking stick and a knife. I knocked the knife out of it's path as Edward deflected the stick and Sir Cosmo fired one of his concealed guns at Claude.

Claude went tumbling down the ladder out of the loft. We all followed. George intercepted him on the drive, but Claude, who had recovered his stick during the scuffle, struck George two nasty blows and laid him out. There were more shots fired. Edward managed to knock Claude off his feet and wound him at least twice. Claude succeeded in knocking two or three of the fired rockets out of the air with his walking stick. He is a formidable opponent. I managed to wound Claude only lightly before he eluded me again. He had an escape planned. A wagon pulled by two horses was already on the move by the time Claude reached the street. He leapt onto the top of the wagon. I ran after the wagon.

Fortunately, I heard Edward scream at me to duck.

Edward fired a rocket into the wagon itself. Since Claude could knocked the missles out of the air, this was a tactically smart move. Except, of course, that the wagon was loaded with barrels of alcohol. The explosion was tremendous. The driver of the wagon was killed. One of the horses was rather horrifically wounded. But not the other, and by the time the smoke had cleared, Claude could be seen far down the street, riding on the back of the surviving horse.

George was badly bruised on the forehead. Mr. Graves and Sir Cosmo were tended to his wounds when I returned to the house. Edward was very cross at Claude, muttering all sorts of derogatory evaluations of the decision to attack, and so forth. I can't say that I disagree.

The fire brigade and the constables had barely arrived and began asking their questions when the ladies returned from the errands. They were all very upset. Miss Sinclair and Mr. Frazer asked us some questions about the horses and the wagon. It is possible the wagon Edward destroyed is the one witnesses saw fleeing the Foreign Office after Lord Clarendon died.

Miss Chigwidgeon was most upset at all the injuries. She threw her arms around Sir Cosmo, and then Edward, very upset that they had been in danger. Sir Cosmo had to remind her that Miss Pinker was expected at any moment to discuss the marriage plans. Mr. Graves and I moved George inside where Graves and Mrs. Cuthbert could tend everyone's injuries while Sir Cosmo, Mr. Frazer, and Inspector MacGregor sorted out the explosion. Miss Pinker arrived and had her meeting with Miss Chigwidgeon and Miss Whitnell.

Claude left behind his top hat. More to the point, Sir Cosmo's first shot knocked the hat off Claude's head. If Claude had been slightly slower I believe Sir Cosmo would have hit him right between the eyes. Miss Whitnell and Mrs. Cuthbert have high hopes of using the hat with one of the magic rituals to spy upon Claude.

Apparently the meeting with Miss Pinker went well. Miss Chigwidgeon will not have to endure multiple engagement balls. There will be a dinner party at the Earl's townhouse next month.

Mr. Chigwidgeon arrived while his daughter was visiting with Miss Pinker. He wished to speak to Sir Cosmo. Sir Cosmo later informed me that Rip has uncovered some disturbing evidence concerning Lord Robert St. Simon, a younger son of the Duke of Balmoral and one of the men who showed interest in courting Miss Chigwidgeon. It seems that the undead bounty hunter, Sentenza, received much of his information about the household and our connection with Lady Ottoline's school from Lord Robert. The young Lord has gambling debts some of which Sentenza paid off. Sir Cosmo seemed to take this betrayal quite personally. He said I may consider Lord Robert a threat to the ladies of the household when and if we encounter them in social situations. He advised that unless physical danger was imminent, I should simply assist the ladies in leaving St. Simon's company, and notify Sir Cosmo of anything the man says or does in regards to them.

"I will attend to Lord Robert, when the need arises," he told me, in a tone of voice which made me, just momentarily, pity the so-called gentleman.

As the dinner arrived so did most of the usual guests. Inspector MacGregor and Mr. Frazer came to discuss the progress of the various investigations. The ladies have determined, through both sorcery and mundane investigation, that Claude Moriary is the man who killed both the Foreign Minister and the French Diplomat. MacGregor and Frazer have been able to gather evidence which tends to clear by the Marquis and Billingham of the charges, though they are still lacking evidence which points to Moriarty that is also admissible in court.

Before the League had formulated any new plans, one of Dr. Wilson's assistants arrived at the house, quite out of breath and agitated. Dr. Wilson and the Marquis had not returned for dinner because things had gone wrong with their balloon and rocket experiment. Exactly what is not clear. They had ascended in a balloon and the asistant was supposed to fire some rockets so that the Marquis could attempt to photograph them in flight. The assistant blacked out after firing the first rocket. When he awakened in the field, the other rockets had been fired, and the balloon was nowhere in site.

Even worse, the owner of the balloon lay dead in a neighboring field, and the balloon was reported seen drifting eastward on the wind. Miss Whitnell perfromed her locating ritual, and announced that Dr. Wilson was many miles east of the city, and still moving. The League gathered their things and, at Edward's suggestion, we went to the river, where a tug captain of Edward's acquaintence was persuaded to transport us down river as far as necessary.

Frazer and MacGregor stayed in the city to follow up on several promising leads regarding the murders.

The tug boat is of the paddle-wheel type often seen on the river. Despite the urgency of our situation, it was difficult not to enjoy the voyage, particularly once we had progressed far enough from the city to see the stars.

Some time after that, Miss Chigwidgeon approached me. Miss Whitnell was standing off a bit further than usual, though still in a position to see us and thus fulfill her chaperone duties. Miss Chigwidgeon was more nervous than usual. She said that she wished to discuss some topics which had been bothering her.

She told me that she had found a scrap of paper in the parlor after Graham departed the previous evening. It was one of his descriptions of his dreams, though not the version he had shared with Miss Whitnell and Mr. Ramsay. It had also contained some of his personal thoughts about his feelings toward Miss Chigwidgeon. It is no wonder that she was so upset during dinner. He had also noted that he thought I might be courting Miss Chigwidgeon's affections. Therefore she wanted to know if I harboured any romantic feelings for her. She was most concerned, she said, because she feared that her engagement to Sir Cosmo might be painful for me or that I might resent the situation.

I could not lie to her. Not after she had told me so specifically two nights ago that I must never keep things from her. So I confessed that I was disappointed that I was not the person she chose. But I also told her about how much she has done for me, helping me to see the new path that Kali laid before me when She sent me back into the world. I tried to explain why I believe that her falling in love with Sir Cosmo is part of the goddess's plan.

She was noticeably relieved when I assured her that I was not angry nor did I feel betrayed. It was important to her, she said, that I understand that she did not think of me as a servant or merely a friend. She said that she could not imagine a future with Sir Cosmo that did not also include me. As she said this, I experienced a startling thought. I do not think it was a vision, but more of a moment of clarity, as if I were walking a winding pathway in the wilderness and the road had turned, just for a moment, so that I could see all that lay before me.

I glanced very briefly toward Miss Whitnell, who sat on one of the crates, writing in her book. This was what she was trying to tell me the night before when she became so upset about me putting myself in danger. It is what Sir Cosmo tried to explain when he asked me to swear to protect the household. It is what Mr. Graves was referring to when he spoke of the how servants take care of the family and the family takes care of the servants. It is what Miss Chigwidgeon had tried to tell me with her smiles and her trust and even when she cried in the tunnels.

A person may survive if he loses a hand or a foot or even an eye. But he is no longer the same man. He will always feel the ache of the loss. He will also have to live within his limitations. Circumstances may arise where such a loss must be endured, but the person will no longer be whole.

I was wrong. Master Tandu was wrong. The Cobb was wrong. He called us the Hands of Kali, but he did not think of us as his own hands. That was his great failing. That is where he left the path the goddess tries to show us all.

I am not a tool.

I am not a weapon.

I am a hand.

The members of the household are not precious objects to be defended as a rich man guards his gold. They are my heart. As a fist is connected to the rest of the body by bone and sinew and muscle and blood, I am a part of them and they are all part of me.

After such a revelation, the recovery of Dr. Wilson and the Marquis was anti-climactic. They survived, though they were clinging to the half-burned remains of the gondola. Apparently Baron Blackhall (Dr. Wilson saw and recognized the Baron's coach on the ground when their troubles began), through dark sorcery, caused the balloon operator to attempt to murder them. When that failed, he caused Dr. Wilson's assistent to fire a rocket at the balloon. Dr. Wilson and the Marquis were able to thwart or survive the attacks, but the balloon's equipment was damaged beyond repair, and they were force to wait for the balloon to descend on it's own accord.

We have secured lodgings in an inn at the riverside town of Gravesend. We will return to London tomorrow.

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