Tuesday, 2 April

Sent word 'round that we'll be needing an emergency meeting of the guild Thursday. Not sure why everyone is acting so confused. Of course we'll need to have an emergency meeting!

Wednesday, 3 April

It's a boy! The Sir and Lady have an heir! Mother and baby doing very well indeed. The child is as beautiful as his mother. I've never before met such a skilled midwife as Mrs Chigwidgeon. She told me I should call her Nanny, which was very kind but I hardly feel deserving.

There is so much to do!

Thursday, 4 April

The Lady does not wish to wait overlong for the Christening. A few of the ladies of the guild were surprised that she's not remaining in confinement the usual six weeks. But this Sir and Lady are very modern, just like the previous Sir and Lady, really. In their own way, of course. And as Vicar pointed out, many bishops have suggested that parents should not wait more than two Sundays before baptizing the child.

I'm so glad I ordered extra flour. There is much baking to do!

Friday, 5 April

Spoke briefly with Miss Pinker and Mrs Chigwidgeon concerning arrangements. All is proceeding well on that front.

Caught quite by surprise by that storm! Angels mucking about in mortal affairs, never good. The visiting French Lord and Lady were helpful in that regard, though. A bit disappointed I didn't see this coming. But then I have been distracted by the new baby.

Saturday, 6 April

People are coming from far and near to attend the Christening. Young Mr Balderstoke has arrived, and will be standing as Godfather. Mrs Presbury raised a question about the choice of Godmother, but Vicar and I put an end to that. Baptised and Confirmed, that's all that is required!

The old clock in the hall ran backwards for a bit. I may have to have a word with the visiting French Lord. They may put up with that sort of nonsense on the Continent, but we won't have that sort of thing here!

Sunday, 7 April

Practically perfect in every way. There wasn't an empty pew in the church! Even the visiting French Lord and Lady attended. And His Lordship, of course, there to see a great-grandson Christened. I noticed tears in his eyes, though he tried not to let anyone see. It warms the heart. And the Lady was so beautiful in her gown and veil.

Some gentlemen should make sure they get a good night's sleep before attending such an important event! But that was the only difficulty, and we took care of it without disrupting the service.

Dear Jason eksetra,

You has a new great-gran-nefew. Rip's little girl, Namaste, delivered a boy--healthy and strong. Good lungs on him, just like your brother, Stan.

Lot of people I met before are here. Miss Pinker runs a tight ship, and Mrs Robb, who runs the kitchen, always has a spot of pie or cold chikken whens you wants it. Misus Cake is one a the local witches. She's quite traditional, tho she does go in for the frilly hats.

Namaste wants to do the kristenin this Sunday, and the vicar's agreeable, so no dithering about. I spect there will be a partee afterward. Might be a spot a fun.

The babe's fussing. I shud go sing to him. Will wright again soone.

Mum.

P.S. You be suure to look in on Granny and tell her the newes. Just say you're bringin the newes, no need to act like you're lookin in on her.

P.P.S. Whyle youre about it, tell Agnes an' Magrat the newes. But don't tell em before you tell Granny, right? We dontt nede a reapet of that misunnerstanding!

P.P.S.S. Give my love to all the family, eccept, of course, your Aunt Beryl on account of what shee said about our Daisy at Cristmas.

From the diary of Bernard MacGreggor, Esq. (deceased)

I need a drink.

The sergeant is right about one thing, though. I can't say my boy didn't listen to me. He saved her life! And what did he get for his troubles? Well, all right, Mrs Cuthbert did thank him. And it was sincere, but the Harpy had to harangue him about the wild spell.

A wild spell is considerably easier to recover from than death. That's all I know.

And excuse me for doing my job. Maybe next time one of the powers looks ready to devour someone's soul I'll just keep my mouth shut.

Where was I?

Oh, yes, well. It has been an odd week. Don't get me wrong, he's been so much easier to get along with since he settled down with that lovely Helen. A bit headstrong for my tastes, but then, that was one of my problems in life, wasn't it? I thought everyone but me was too headstrong.

Burglaries. He was looking into burglaries on Camberwell Lane. Seemed straightforward enough. And he had a couple of suspects he was trying to track down when a murder happened right there in the middle of all his burglary sites, more or less. A doctor has been found dead in his consulting room on Camberwell Lane, and there's sign of a break-in.

When we arrived I could feel it in the air. The presence of Them--the ones who sent me here, told me I had to make amends for my mistakes in life. They had been here. Well, it makes sense, a guy had died, right? Except I hadn't felt their presence so strong at any of Simon's other crime scenes. So I kept a watch outside the building while Simon checks out this dead doctor. Just in case.

The sergeant's boy didn't stay inside very long. He was out in the alley measuring and tasting things. So I tried to make conversation with the sergeant. Just being friendly. I casually mentioned the feeling. The sergeant made some comment about those who go on to their reward or some such. He didn't seem to be bothered by it, so I decided to ignore it.

Anyway, didn't look like it was a murder. The guy was old, he'd caught a tropical disease back in his army days, it was probably just his time. The only sign of break-in actually looked more like a break out. Like the patient he had in the back room was scared and legged it when she found the old guy dead.

Seems she was the village idiot somewhere up in Worcestershire, and an old friend of the doctor had asked him to take care of her. Since the friend is a baronet, the girl's probably his git. You know how it is. Anyway, seeing as she was a looney and an idiot besides, makes since she'd go into hysterics when she found a body.

That's how things looked, until we got back to Simon's office. Someone called Eddie the Eel wanted to confess to the burglaries. Said he'd been about to break into his next mark the night before when an angel "wreathed in glory" and all that, appeared to him and told him to repent.

Sure, this guy steals from people for his whole life, and he gets a second chance to walk the straight and narrow. You know, if they'd said something to me when I was still alive, things might have turned out a whole lot better.

The third or fourth time Simon interviewed Eddie (the next day it was, I think), I could tell Simon didn't completely believe him about the angel. So I suggested he ask Eddie how many wings the angel had.

Eddie said it was six wings. One pair up around the head, another pair around the body, and the third at the feet. I told Simon Eddie was telling the truth. And did Simon believe me? No, he did not. He started interrogating me. I was trying to be helpful, and this is the thanks I get!

Simon asks the sergeant's son, and he quotes from the Bible for a description. I should have known it would be there. Not like I can do much reading now that I'm dead. So my boy is ready to admit that maybe my question wasn't a bad idea, when the coroner comes to talk to him.

The coroner thinks the victim died of natural causes sometime between three and four in the morning. There's no sign of violence or poison on the body, he wasn't in good health, and so on. The coroner doesn't want to convene a jury and have an inquest, and Simon agrees. But Simon's still worried about the girl, so he wants her found--not as a suspect, but for questioning, right?

Simon and his clerk go back to interview Eddie, because Eddie had claimed the angel appeared to him between 3:15 and 3:30, in the alley just two doors over from the doctor's place. So Eddie was in the alley when the doctor died. And from where he said he was standing when he saw the angel, he would have also been able to see the window that was broken when the girl left. So Simon wanted to know if the window was already broken when Eddie got there.

Eddie said he didn't remember anything about the back window. He did, however, know that the doctor was in. Because before he went into the alley, Eddie walked down the Lane, so he be sure all the lamps were out in the shop he planned to rob. That would indicate everyone was gone or asleep. The shop was dark, but the doctor's consulting room lamps were on. Not only that, but a carriage pulled up to the doctor's door, while Eddie was watching, and a young man got out of the carriage, then assist a crippled woman out of the carriage and into the office.

Simon asked lots of questions about this woman. Eddie said she was dressed in black crepe, like a widow, with a hat and veil completely concealing her face. She had a difficult time coming down the steps of the carriage, and she seemed to have a badly hunched back, as well.

Simon spent the next couple of days reading all the doctor's files, trying to find some indication of the identity of this woman. He also continuned interviewing Eddie, who was more than willing to tell about other crimes he had been involved with before the burglaries, and so forth. Simon made several arrests of minor crooks, but they didn't find the missing girl.

Before that, Simon took Mrs Earwig, who we haven't seen in months, out to the morgue to examine the dead doctor and try to determine if the death had really been natural. She have visions of the angel and went on for some time about how the doctor must have lived a blameless life to be called directly to heaven like that.

Somewhere in there they received telegrams from the Cowperthwaites that the baby had been born. Everyone was invited to the country for the weekend for the christening. Helen had been assisting the mother-to-be, so Simon was looking forward to being reunited with his wife. Simon also wanted to ask Mrs Cuthbert and the Harpy to examine some of the evidence to see if they could learn more than Mrs Earwig had been able to tell them.

Most of the train ride was uneventful, though I kept having the feeling like I was being watched. And there was other feeling, very vague and inconsistent, but it was like the presence of one of Them. But I couldn't find anything, and the sergeant didn't seem bothered, so I kept my mouth shut. The sergeant's boy noticed something odd on the platform in north Manchester, just as we was pulling out: a woman who looked something like the woman Eddie had described. This upset Simon a bit.

We finally arrived at Edenfield and everyone was debarking the train when I felt it, finally, too strong to deny. One of Them had been there and done something. Before I could really explain it, the conductor came to inform Simon that a passenger had been found dead in one of the First Class cars. They were sending for the doctor and a local constable, but could he look at it?

They led us right to the car where all the power was come from. I told Simon the angel had been there. And there was a dead body and it was just awful. You could practically hear the death scream of the guy still echoing in the room. Simon asked me to go tell Mrs Cuthbert about what had happened, and I was only too glad to go.

I relayed the message. The sergeant had gone ahead to see his grandchildren. When I delivered the message, Mrs Cuthbert, the Harpy, and Mrs Frazer decided to go to the train station. Sir Cosmo was apparently already there. The sergeant thought he should look after the ladies. I volunteered to stay and watch over the babies.

Maybe an hour after they left, I felt the return of the Presence--and it was close to Simon! I hurried to him, and it was worse than I had feared. Mrs Cuthbert had tried to conjure the spirit of the new dead guy, and what she had gotten was the Thing that took his soul to begin.

During all the discussion Simon and Mrs Cuthbert and the others have been having the last few days about this case, they've talked about Seraphim and Cherubim and the Celestial Host and other more high class versions of angels. I don't know all the fancy names for the different kinds of angels. What I remember from church when I was alive that there are ordinary angels and archangels, and there was some talk of an angel of death.

The angel of death? I've met him. Or one of them. I am dead, after all. So when I saw Mrs Cuthbert reaching up into the magic portal she had made, and I saw the angel of death reach through from the other side, I said what needed to be said to make Simon act. If Simon hadn't jumped in the way and knocked her back, the angel would have taken her!

So then the spell went wild and all the sorceresses and mages in the area had to jump in to bring it down, but the angel of death left without taking our Mrs Cuthbert, and I for one have no regrets.

Turns out the angel didn't quite finish his previous job, either. The guy on the train isn't quite dead. With Mrs Cuthbert's help, and Helen's father's equipment, they've kept the body alive and hope to keep him going until they can get his soul back. How they think they'll get his soul back, I don't know.

Then again, who am I to talk?

Additional from the correspondence of Mrs Gytha "Nanny" Chigwidgeon

Dear Jason et everone,

Whot a life, all kinds of thins goin on. Dontt talk to me about angels. Still, not a lot a harm dun. I shall have a story or two to tell when I gets back.

You may rekall Misus Cuthbert, one of the witches what knows our Namaste? She has a sister, and theys both the spittin image of the other. Itss evil twinnes all over. This one is married to a wizzard, an a furreign one, at that, an a lordship to boot! She's a commtess, cuz he's a commtt. Granny always said no good ever comes from witches marryin wizzards. I hope she's wrong, cuz these two look to be settlin in to be neighbors.

Guestes have been arrvin for the kristening, and while Namaste's Sir was meetin sum a them at the train station, there was a bit a bother. Thas when the angel come into it. Well, really he did his thing a bit further down the tracks, but the body was found at our station. Fortoonatlly Misus Cuthbert was there to brings him back from the brink, tho the angel didn't take too kindly to that, and we had a bit of a mess to clean up after, but it wasunt much work cux there wuz so many hands lending.

One a Namaste's other friends is a copper from London. An he wuz on the train an now he's vestigatin the almost death. May be mixed up in anuther death back in London. There's a lost girl involved in it all. More than one angel, come to that. One may mean well, but the other deffenitly doesntt. An its too soon to say about the first.

The wizzard has takin an intrest, probly his wife, too. Doesntt make Misus Cuthbert none too happy, let me tell you.

I shud get back to helping with the babe. Will wright again soone.

Mum

P.S. Dint get this in the post, but the nyce manservant sez he'll take care of it for me. New develupmints. Nother death or maybe an almost death. Namaste's Sir needs to go help copper with the vestigatin. Namaste doesntt want him goin off on his own. V. sensibul. We'rr all packin and leave on the morning train.

P.P.S. Going to some place called Woooster. Village by the name a Brinkley I think. Or maybe Brinkley's the house. Not sur. Surrly they have post. Will wright again soone

P.P.S.S. My love to all, cept your Aunt Beryl, that is.

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