We are all rejoicing, as Lady Cowperthwaite has been safely delivered of a healthy son. He was born this morning at 6:41, and he weighed 6 lb exactly. He was 18 inches from the crown of his head to the tips of his toes.

Mrs Chigwidgeon and Mrs Cuthbert made themselves indispensable, as I would have expected, though Mrs Chigwidgeon looked askance at me when I took the baby's measurements. I suppose she has no interest in keeping accurate data.

I can hardly be surprised that no studying or any other task of value has accomplished by anyone this morning. I did my best to keep Edward and Sir Cosmo and the other concerned-but-not-actually-helping persons occupied and out of the way of the work at hand, but I can only do so much in the face of everyone's anticipation and anxiety.

Having seen this newborn, I am astonished to realise how very large my own two have grown. They have just reached the age of six months. They still seem so small and helpless, but compared to the new baby, they are quite robust and active.

Thursday, 4 April, 1872

Daru seems quite pleased to assume her proper duties. She has been among us since February, and she has done her best to be useful in preparing the nursery and the baby's things, but I can see she was eager to work with her charge. She has even spent some time assisting with my two, as if to keep her hand in. This morning, I observed her work in changing the little Cowperthwaite’s nappy, and she was neat and efficient about it.

I assisted Mrs Salmalin in composing and sending quantities of announcements by post and by wire, most including invitations to the Christening. Lady Cowperthwaite has chosen to have the baby christened right away--this very Sunday! This seems very hard on the local Altar Guild, but Mrs Cake appears to be well prepared and undismayed. Mrs Salmalin told me, with unconcealed delight, that Lady Cowperthwaite has asked her to stand Godmother to the baby.

Now I must go feed the babies and then find Edward for lessons. Tonight I must put the final touches on Benton's birthday gift, as well as packaging up the chukchi-style baby carrier I have made as a gift for the new little Cowperthwaite.

Friday, 5 April
(after luncheon)

I can scarcely believe the sang-froid of that Comtesse de Brabant! She has come, uninvited and unannounced, with her new foreign husband, and called to offer congratulations to Sir Cosmo and Lady Cowperthwaite. Miss Pinker, who has been acting Hostess during Lady Cowperthwaite’s confinement, was pleased to receive them, not at all suspecting our concerns.

I was sure that someone would thrash her, but no one did, indeed, everyone spoke to her with the most saccharine manner I can imagine. Mrs Cuthbert, who just a few months ago was telling us all "I told you so," kept out of sight and busied herself around Lady Cowperthwaite and the baby, who naturally are not receiving visitors yet. Lady Cowperthwaite, whom I have rarely known to conceal her dislike of anyone, did not even suggest that the Comtesse be ushered off the grounds. Mrs Salmalin, who I know hates her for stabbing Mr Salmalin with the crystal and throwing him off the French Embassy roof, calmly offered her refreshments in the parlour. This woman had tea with me as though she had no idea that I had fired 3 bullets at her when last we met.

Not that any of us have any notion of actually forgiving her or trusting her. We all simply prefer to keep her under our eyes. She left a gift for the baby, which was promptly inspected as soon as she left. Mr Frazer and I examined it for poisons or the scent of explosives, the mystics examined it for whatever threats they could imagine. We gave the parcel to Graves, whohas stored it away from the main house until the gifts are opened (carefully) on Sunday

The Mystics tell me that the Comte de Brabant also has significant powers. When I heard she had remarried, I thought he would simply be an unfortunate and unsuspecting victim of her ambition. Now I think he is probably just as unscrupulous as she is. He certainly is charming, but I'm not taken in by that foreign suavity for a moment. I am starting to think we should just lock up any man with the title of Comte on the assumption that he is an evil sorcerer. None of us can be easy with the Comtesse in the neighbourhood. I hope we can determine why she has come in time to thwart her--chances are we won't like it if she succeeds.

(late evening)
We have had a great deal of goings-on, many of an inscrutable nature.

Inspector MacGreggor and Mr Frazer were detained at the train station after their arrival in Edenfield, as the porter had discovered a deceased passenger in one of the private cars. Edward had already noted that the train seemed to be delayed (since we did not hear the sound of its passing at the appointed time), when Sergeant Frazer and the late Mr MacGreggor arrived to inform us of the difficulty.

Several of us proceeded to the station forthwith, including (to my amazement) a veiled and wrapped Lady Cowperthwaite. When we arrived there, we met not only with our partisans who had come by this train, but also with an excess of stray mystics. Mrs Earwig was making a spectacle, waving about scattily and proclaiming “terrible vibrations.” The arrival of the Comte and Comtesse de Brabant was less obtrusive, but perhaps more worrisome. I did my best to ignore these intrusions.

For the continuing investigation, the station personnel had removed the car in question from the train and secured in on a siding, so as to allow the rest of the train to continue. We were permitted to view the body. The deceased was an older man of perhaps 60 years. He had no marks of violence, save that his face showed a look of extreme terror. What made this inscrutable was that Sir Cosmo was acquainted with the man, a Colonel Dunbar, and proclaimed him to be only in his 40's, and here much changed from the time of their last meeting.

I was then excused from the compartment, as Mrs Cuthbert declared that the man was not yet dead, and she would attempt to bring him back from the metaphorical brink. This did not go well. While Mrs Cuthbert was attempting to find the man's spirit, she encountered an entity of great power, which nearly took her off as well. The Inspector received an urgent warning from his late father, and he prevented Mrs Cuthbert from making physical contact by knocking her down. This saved her, but the disruption of her concentration caused a problem with the magic, which, I am told, required the assistance of the numerous mystics in the area to suppress.

The not-quite-dead Colonel Dunbar was removed from the train and given into the custody of Helen MacGreggor and Mr Nathan Shorrock, whose advice and assistance had been sent for. The two of them and Sir Cosmo took Colonel Dunbar off to her Father's house and settled it, or I should say him, in the tank of moss which just last year held Mr Shorrock in a suspended state for some months. We do not know if it will preserve him, but it is the best hope we have.

This whole incident proves to be related to the case which the Inspector and Mr Frazer have been working on in Town, and they told us about it.

Their investigation began with a series of burglaries in Camberwell Lane. During their inquiries, the body of a Doctor Kenyon was found in his consulting room. He appeared to have died of natural causes, but the circumstances were certainly suspicious enough to warrant further inquiry.
In addition to the area burglaries, there had been a young woman, a patient, staying in the back room of the office, who was now missing. The window of the back room was broken, and looked to have been broken out from the inside. This girl was thought by some to be guilty in the Doctor’s death, but she may also be the victim of foul play herself.

When the Inspector and Mr Frazer returned to the Constabulary, they learned that a known burglar had come to confess to the Camberwell burglaries. He had witnessed some unusual events which prompted him to confess his crimes and change his life. His testimony included the following:
1) Shortly before 3 am on Monday 1 April, Eddie Molony had examined the street side of the business he was targeting for burglary. While doing so, he noted that the lights were on at Dr Kenyon's consulting room, two doors down. While he was watching, a large carriage, well appointed but unmarked, pulled up to the Consulting Room door and out came a youngish man and an elderly woman in black crepe and a heavy, concealing veil. The woman was profoundly stooped and had a very difficult time coming out of the carriage. The two of them proceeded into the Dr Kenyon's establishment.
2) Molony went around the building and into the alley to effect his break-in to the target business. Once there, he encountered what he described as an Angel, wreathed in glory. He was extremely frightened, and took its advice to repent. According to Inspector MacGreggor, Molony's description of the Angel was accurate enough to satisfy the late Mr MacGreggor, who obliquely indicated some experience with such an entity.

Now we have two men dead (or at least seeming dead), followed by the appearance of a powerful entity described as an Angel. For those who believe that angels conduct the souls of the deceased to heaven, this might not seem strange. However, the terrified rictus on Col Dunbar's face did not suggest someone going to his eternal reward. Moreover, Mrs Cuthbert has been communicating with the recently deceased for many years, and she has not so closely encountered this hazardous entity before. These factors suggest that this entity is not a part of the normal scheme of things.

Mr Frazer has told us that while they were aboard the train, just before the train left the station in Manchester, he saw a pair of figures on the platform which matched Molony's description of the people he observed outside of Dr Kenyon's offices. Mr Frazer glimpsed them for only a moment, and there was not time to disembark the train to find them.

I suggested that we go immediately to Manchester to look for the two mysterious figures, but I was overruled by Inspector MacGreggor, who was sure that we would not find the strange people there, and that we didn't have time to make inquiries in Manchester and return in time for the Christening ceremony on Sunday. I thought this assertion ridiculous. We have plenty of time, and frankly, I am not as concerned about witnessing the christening as he is. I doubt Lady Cowperthwaite would be offended since a girl's life may be at stake.

I really think that the Inspector was merely tired after an admittedly arduous day, and anxious to get to his father-in-law’s house to see his wife and have a cup of decent tea.

I seriously considered simply going to Manchester myself, but I would need the dogs to track effectively, and I can’t easily travel with Turgenov without Mr Frazer. And the difficulty of my own feminine retinue of babies and nurserymaid is difficult enough to wrangle.

For the moment, I must content myself with less footloose forms of investigation.

We are reading over Dr Kenyon’s case notes, especially as regard the missing girl, Evie Botley, aged approximately 12 years. She has somewhat recently become the ward of Sir Robert Plank, a resident of Worcestershire. Sir Robert is an antiquarian and orientalist, with particular interest in Babel, the Lost Tribes of Israel, and Atlantis.
Evie Botley had been diagnosed as an imbecile, and Sir Robert had sought the opinion of Dr Kenyon. Dr Kenyon's notes seem to indicate that he did not consider the diagnosis correct, and Dr Kenyon had brought the girl to London for further observation.

While examining Col Dunbar's effects, I noted a ring he had been wearing, and Mr Frazer told me that Dr Kenyon had worn a very similar ring. It features an Egyptian-looking scarab-beetle emblem. Could this represent an further connexion between Dunbar and Kenyon? An affiliation with some organisation, or a mutual acquaintance who gave them similar gifts?

We are attempting to discover what other connexions Col Dunbar and Dr Kenyon have in common. Sir Cosmo has indicated that Col Dunbar has done work for Our Employer in the past. He has wired Our Employer to ask if that might also have been true of Dr Kenyon. Edward, with Sir Cosmo’s permission, has sent a wire to some of his friends in London (what delivery address, I can’t imagine) asking them to look out for the girl, and we have also sent to Lady Ottoline.

Several other inquiries have been sent by wire, but we will not receive answers until tomorrow.

Saturday, 6 April
(midday)

We have further information which may suggest connexions between our two recent Angel sightings.

We learned via courier packet that Col Dunbar had been asked by Our Employer to speak with Sir Robert about his Atlantis theories.

The mystics have undertaken to scry using a blanket from Evie's room at Dr Kenyon's rooms. They observed the following chain of events, seeming to be the evening of the girl's disappearance and Dr Kenyon's death.

The girl was in the consulting room with Dr Kenyon. He examined her and asked her questions, recording the findings in his notes. After some time she was excused, whereupon she retired to her room. She prepared herself for bed, spent some time reading, and then extinguished her light and apparently slept. She seemed to be awakened by sounds form the outer rooms and a very bright light coming under the door.

She immediately got out of bed, broke the window with a blanket-wrapped arm, and climbed out into the alley. In the alley, she came upon a man (presumably Eddie Molony). He did not seem to see her immediately. A bright light seemed to emerge from the girl's body, and a glowing form seemed to hover above her. It said "Who are you." Molony dropped and cowered with his face near the ground, the bright light disappeared, and the girl ran on, out of the alley. A few moments later, another similar bright form emerged, apparently from the building, through or near the broken window. It also addressed Molony, and Molony fainted.

The Mystics next saw the girl hiding beneath a train platform. They lost track of her when she drew a circle about herself in the dirt.

They then resumed their scrying, this time observing Dr Kenyon himself. They saw him interview Evie Botley and send her off to her room. Then the street bell rang, and Dr Kenyon admitted the young man and the stooped figure. Once these two were inside, the stooped figure threw off its black clothing, revealing a glowing Angel. It said, “Who are you?” and Dr Kenyon collapsed.

Of course, it is very difficult to rely on only this indirect information to piece together such a bizarre chain of events, and I hesitate to draw any sort of conclusions; indeed this is barely enough to form an hypothesis. Still, it is all we have at present.

It would seem that we have at least two separate entities. One is hiding in the form of young Evie Botley, the other in the form of the stooped figure. They do not appear to be working to a common goal. The Stooped Figure seems to be pursuing the Girl.
As both the Girl and the Stooped Figure have been seen in proximity to trains, either one of them could be the entity encountered by Mrs Cuthbert in Col Dunbar’s compartment.

We are left with few and tenuous avenues of concrete evidence to trace:
-the two figures seen fleetingly on the Manchester platform might be traced by inquiry, and possibly by scent tracking.
-the girl might be traced further in London, including inquiry among Edward's allies on the streets, who might have seen her near the rail lines, and possibly by scent (though this is much more challenging in such an highly-trafficked place).

(Evening)
We took the dogs to the rail yard to see if they could detect the same person's scent on the blanket and in the rail car. The dogs were extremely reluctant to go into the train car, declaring that there had been something very bad there.

Once we persuaded them, they were both quite positive that nothing like the scent on the blanket was anywhere in the rail car. So, if there are two similar entities, the one in the form of the Girl was not in this compartment. The scent we did find in the rail car, which the dogs associated with the "bad" something, could not be traced outside the car anywhere at the Edenfield station.

Shortly thereafter, a party of us set out for Manchester: myself and Mr Frazer, the dogs, Inspector MacGreggor, Mr and Mrs Salmalin, and of course Violet and my babies.

I had little hope of learning much at the Manchester station, it being so busy there, but we had more luck than I expected.

The dogs were able to find the "bad" scent fairly quickly, and with a bit of cajoling they followed it off down a side street and into an alley. In the relatively undisturbed dirt of this disused passage, we could see a set of marks which appeared to be a set of three small wheels. Alongside those was a set of footprints, good-quality man's shoes, of a medium stride. The tracks did not suggest that the man's shoes were pushing a wheeled cart or some such, as they did not overlay the wheel marks, but clearly paced beside. The dogs confirmed the "bad" scent. Could our Stooped Figure be using some kind of bath chair or wheeled crutch?

The tracks continued into the alley, which ended in a blank brick wall. They made whorls as if turning about to face the way back, but they did not go out, but rather simply stopped. I found no sign of any hidden door, and the tracks did not go right up to any of the surrounding walls as if they’d gone through. We looked up for evidence of a ladder, and I was about to climb up the wall to investigate the roofs of the surrounding buildings when approaching footsteps made me pause. Who should appear, silhouetted in the mouth of the alley, but the Comte de Brabant.

We made some pretense at examining the architecture and brickwork, but he came into the alley and looked at the tracks, as if he were our comrade. I was not keen to have him learn what we were looking for, but he carried forward eagerly.

He announced that he would attempt an experiment, and asked if I would please hold his watch for him. I did so with some trepidation, and at the Comte’s further exhortation, all of us who had watches on our persons walked to the mouth of the alley. Mr Frazer and Mrs Salmalin stood nearer to him. He extracted a piece of chalk from his pocket and began to write all over the brickwork--Greek letters and signs. It took me a moment to realise that these were mathematical equations of great complexity. After some moments of this, Comte de Brabant and Mrs Salmalin simply winked out of existence. I was very alarmed, and yet they had winked back before any of the rest of us could contrive any action.

It took some doing to extricate ourselves form the jovial company of the Comte so we could speak privately. Finally I was able to hear what Mrs Salmalin experienced. The Comte’s action was apparently something like one of the Mystics' scrying rituals. What Mrs Salmalin saw was as if time were flowing backward at high speed, including a reversed track of the sun across the sky. They saw, in reverse, the young man and the Stooped Figure coming into the alley, turning, the Stooped Figure throwing back its concealing clothing and unfurling itself into just such a glowing and winged form as scried by the Mystics and as described by Molony. It picked up its little cart and took the young man by the shoulders and flew straight up until lost from view in the sky. Hmm, very difficult to track.

When we at last returned to Edenfield Court, we were greeted with the news that Sir Robert Plank, whose health has been failing, has taken a turn for the worse, and has lapsed into unconsciousness. His family and heirs have been sent for. Could he be the victim of further foul play or malign influences? It seems likely enough. I can only hope we will not be too late to learn his story.

Sunday, 7 April, 1872

The Christening of Galen Robert Cowperthwaite went well this morning. The church was quite full, as the entire village and a large complement of invited guests were all present. And some uninvited, such as the Comte and Comtesse de Brabant. Mrs Salmalin was presented as Godmother, and Mr Ichabod Balderstoke as Godfather. Lt Wooster made a fool of himself, I am not quite sure what he was about, but most of those present seemed not to pay his pratfalls much mind.

On a less cheerful note, word has come that Sir Robert Plank has died. The death is being considered unusual, and the Worcestershire constabulary has requested assistance from the Metropolitan Police. Inspector MacGreggor and Mr Frazer have been summoned to investigate matters there. Inspector MacGreggor has wired that an autopsy should not be performed as yet (not mentioning over the wire that he might not be dead). Helen will be going along, bringing a quantity of equipment, to assist in case he requires suspension. Sir Cosmo received a request from Mr Willoughby to involve himself as well. I was just attempting to manoeuver my way into this party when we all received an invitation from Lt Wooster's sister Dahlia Travers to visit her home at Brinkley Court, a scant mile from the Plank home.

I knew I liked Mrs Travers. Yesterday we learned that she has had some dealings with Our Employer, and it seems that she has been pressed into service as our hostess and local guide for the next leg of this investigation.

We are to depart very early tomorrow.

Proceed to A dangerous maniac

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