18 July 1870, Sunday
~After Mid-night, Before Dawn~
Captain Moriarty and Lord Maynooth arranged to have the League stay overnight in the guest rooms of the consulate. Miss Chigwidgeon and I are sharing a room. I afraid I disturbed her when I awoke from a dream that included a vision of the work that Mr Arkwright was doing the night he was murdered. I felt that I must record the details of the dream before they faded from memory. Miss Chigwidgeon asked what I was writing and I told her. At that point we heard Sir Cosmo in the downstairs hall. He went out with Lord Maynooth hours ago to meet with men from the government of Belgium to explain the damage and excitement caused by our League’s confrontation with Prussian agents yesterday afternoon.
Miss Chigwidgeon wanted to go down to see Sir Cosmo and I wanted to give him my report as soon as possible. We met Mrs Cuthbert and Miss Sinclair on the stairs. I overheard the Marquis and Wooster talking to one of the consulate staff about a nightcap. I noted, upon our return, that they were both sound asleep in two of the consulate’s armchairs. In the meantime, we found our way to Captain Moriarty’s offices. There we found Sir Cosmo working in the office that Lieutenant Wooster was to occupy as aide to Captain Moriarty. Sir Cosmo looked terribly tired.
I gave him the notes I had written down. Mr Arkwright had been working with the following papers as he wrote his report: Belgian Royal Railway Routes and Track Specifications; Prussian Calvary Drills; Imperial French Railway Routes, Grades, Specifications and Conditions; Comparative Troop Strengths within the Rhineland and Surrounding Regions; something about Rifle, Artillery and Cannon Specifications; Conte Analytic Engine Capabilities; &etc...
The most striking feature of the dream was a very clear image of an engineering drawing. Plans for a railway car considerably longer that an ordinary one. (I took pains to try to render the drawing as I had seen it.) I then saw Arkwright shake his head, set the plans aside, and write neatly on his report (his hand was neat and easy to distinguish): “For what purpose they would need a single railway car three times as long as a standard cargo car, I can not be certain. Please note previous inquiries about the load bearing capacity of certain railway bridges.”
It was at that point that I awoke. Earlier in the same dream, I had a very reassuring conversation with my Great-Aunt Hethalyn. She encouraged me to look in on my friends. I saw them out in her garden having various conversations, so I was not surprised later when Mrs Cuthbert reported having a dream that started with her talking to an elderly monk and Miss Chigwidgeon mentioning that Miss Mitzi had come to her in a dream. I do not know what the meaning of the mob with pitchforks that Inspector MacGregor was talking to was or who the woman reading a book with Miss Sinclair was.
I should put out the light again so Miss Chigwidgeon
and I can go back to sleep. Sir Cosmo and the others (except Lieutenant
Wooster and the Marquis) have returned to their rooms to rest
until true morning.
~Morning~
Miss Chigwidgeon has helped me dress for breakfast in what remains of yesterday’s dress. The overskirt was lost during the battle with Schmidt but the turkish trousers and tunic are, for the most part intact. Though they are much the worse for scorch marks and small burns from the exploding candles, (I still don’t know what made them explode like that, perhaps we used too much power in the spell?) and numerous small rips, tears and abrasions as a result of the hard fall to the cobbles, they are still sufficient for modesty.
While I was hostage to her help, Miss Chigwidgeon asked me about the contents of the letter I gave to Mr Salmalin last night. I had no idea that anyone had seen me give it to him. Most of our party were either asleep or being interviewed by Lord Maynooth. Miss Chigwidgeon has an inconveniently sharp eye. She asked what I could say that would cause Salmalin to become even more reticent than usual.
I had not noticed a change myself, and would not tell her much more than that I had decided, after the terrible experience with Herr Schmidt, that there were certain things I needed to say to Mr Salmalin, in order to both follow my own advice (to her), and have no regrets in the future. Though, I did confess that I feared I may have made a mistake. However, without telling her more about the letter, I could not tell her the nature of the mistake. I did not feel I could tell her the details as Salmalin has yet to respond in any fashion. Miss Chigwidgeon was not satisfied but seemed to understand that I was trying to allow Mr Salmalin some privacy.
She has gone down to breakfast with Mrs Cuthbert. I shall join them.
~Early Afternoon~
All is Chaos and Confusion once again and we are back at the consulate. I must mention that we did not blow anything up this time. Though we were quite provoked.
During breakfast, reporters descended upon the consulate like nothing I had ever seen before. There was even a woman who chained herself to the front doorknob and sang ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ at the top of her lungs. What that had to do with being a reporter, I have no idea. We finished our breakfast and left via the back entrance in four carriages. Not long after we left, I noticed that two of our carriages stopped to speak with the driver of an additional carriage that seemed to have joined our cortege.
Once back at the villa, I went upstairs to change clothes and have Tattvik help me put my hair up with a bit more finesse. As Tattvik finished my hair, Salmalin came upstairs to say that two strange men had been brought into our midst as they had been following us. Salmalin suggested that several parties search the perimeter of the grounds for suspicious people or hostile magik. Mr Ramsay and Mr Deveril went one way, Mrs Cuthbert and her uncle another, and Salmalin and I searched the back of the property. Sir Cosmo, Miss Chigwidgeon and several others stayed to interrogate the prisoners or talk to our guests, what ever the situation was. Miss Sinclair remained behind to chaperone Miss Chigwidgeon.
While we were checking the back for signs of disturbance, Mr Salmalin took the opportunity to talk to me about my letter of last night.
The conversation met neither my wildest hopes or deepest fears. I think, for some time while we were talking, Mr Salmalin admitted some possibility that he may, in some fashion, have kind feelings for me. I, for one, feel much more settled in my decision and firm in my regard for him.
There is no action I can take to transform our relationship into a more conventional one, and my mourning year will not be up until February 1871, but part of the reason I love Salmalin is the devotion that he has shown to other people, particularly Miss Chigwidgeon. Mr Salmalin did try to tell me that he was just starting to learn about love, which I think is really a load of rubbish. He may not have know the name for it, but his actions reveal it every day. During our conversation there was one thing that I wished to say that I did not. That was that, in our line of work, we may not get very many chances to be with those we love for long. Upon reflection, I am glad that I did not press the point.
I would rather learn to know the Salmalin I love better than to change him into something he is not. I was right when I wrote that I did not expect him to reciprocate my feelings or necessarily respond to my declaration. He is a potent and powerful force in my life and I want him to remain so, regardless of his feelings (or lack thereof) for me. Strangely, I felt more comfortable working with him later in the day that I had for many weeks. I did not feel pressured to express my feelings for him. I value that closeness and hope that he is not made uncomfortable by my presence.
We concluded our work, finding nothing more threatening than the tracks of a small animal and were just about to return to the house to fetch Miss Sinclair, Mr Frazer, or Mr Cuthbert to further examine the tracks, when we heard Mrs Cuthbert yell for help. We dashed to the front of the villa only to discover that our Mr Ramsay and the new Mr Deveril had been abducted. Mrs Cuthbert used her powers of divination to locate the men while Edward readied the carriages for pursuit. Sir Cosmo, Miss Chigwidgeon, Miss Sinclair and the two guests, whose names were ‘Fritz’ and ‘Dr Fate’ came out of the house to see what was going on.
Suddenly, Dr Fate threw off his overcoat, grabbed Fritz and took off into the sky with the aid of a rocket he had strapped to his back!
The Marquis managed a partial tackle of the two men, but was forced to let go when his clothes caught fire. This action caused the fire to spread to the clothes of Dr Fate and for the rocket to begin spinning out of control. Dr Wilson took notes. Lieutenant Wooster estimated that the would land up to four miles away. We did not have time to chase them so Inspector MacGregor sent a note to the consulate reporting the news.
By this time we had a direction from our spell and Mr Frazer had found additional tracks. Everyone except Frazer and Turgenov loaded up in the carriages and we headed off in pursuit. I was particularly vexed at our latest attackers as Mr Ramsay and I had been planning to research ways to contain Schmidt and I needed his help to make any progress on the matter.
Mr Frazer ran along side the carriages for a while. Between Turgenov’s tracking and a history spell we were able to stay on course (though we noted that we may need to follow-up tracking a strange dog that crossed the trail at a crossroad, it was something Turgenov thought was significant).
We arrived to find the wagon used for the abduction stashed next to a warehouse on the docks. Oh, I must mention, Mrs Cuthbert’s scrying attempt revealed that Dr Wilson in his ‘Kid Rocket’ persona had actually been the target of the abduction, Mr Deveril was taken in error.
With Edward’s help we determined that Mr Ramsay and Mr Deveril were on one of the boats. Someone else was using magik to spy on the boat as well. Mrs Cuthbert and I cast a bewildering spell on the crew of the boat. The league then stormed the boat to rescue Mr Ramsay and Mr Deveril, leaving Dr Wilson and Mr O’Flaherty to guard the gangplank,. Mr Ramsay and Mr Deveril were tied up in a part of the hold. Inspector MacGregor was at their ropes right away, Mr Ramsay was trying to say something around his gag, Mr Deveril was a victim of our bewilder spell. The inspector just got the gag off as a woman attacked from the shadows and a second bewilder spell hit the boat. Half our party was incapacitated. I drew my sword, Miss Sinclair watched over the others, and Inspector MacGregor kept working at the ropes.
The woman with the sword said that Mr Ramsay was hers and that we could not take him. Apparently her name was Natasha and she was some sort of former mistress of Baron Blackhall. She had decided to take revenge on Mr Ramsay for the Baron’s death and disgrace. She plunged her sword at Inspector MacGregor’s heart, leaving me no choice but to engage her myself. She was frighteningly good and would have cut my head off if Emily’s body had not taken over. Emily’s brain was still befuddled but apparently she can fight on reflex alone. I continued to attack the woman as Emily was somewhat incapacitated (though still better than me on my best days). Mr O’Flaherty arrived and hit Natasha on the back of the head at the same time Mrs Cuthbert shot her. She was still fighting, so Mr O’Flaherty hit her again and she finally went down. I tied her up, gagged her, and asked Mr O’Flaherty to carry her off the boat.
We managed to get our party on the upper deck. Mr Salmalin had been fighting with a young man who was half-fey (though later Miss Sinclair told me that the young man was actually a young woman). Apparently a party of putative Belgian agents had arrived to try to secure the ‘Fox’ and his associates. They took custody of a man as large as O’Flaherty and a small weasely looking man who Mrs Cuthbert had seen in her vision as the leader of the group of three that had attacked Mr Ramsay and Mr Deveril. I was perfectly happy to let them have the two men, but insisted that the woman come with us to the consulate as she had confessed to being an associate of Baron Blackhall and of wanting to avenge herself on Mr Ramsay.
The young fey woman introduced himself as Manfred Berri. They had a magical agent with them called Brother Alphonse and the leader’s name was Erick Regnier (though he did not introduce himself at the time). They disappeared by the time we were preparing to load up and return to the consulate. At which time the real Belgian police (two cartloads of them) arrived. It turns out that Regnier and his associates are agents for the French. We told the Belgian police to apply to the consulate for Natasha as we did not have the authority to hand her over at that time (especially given that we had just been tricked by the French).
We are now at the consulate making plans for the rest of the afternoon. It is midday and we are all hungry after our adventures. Neither Mr Ramsay nor Mr Deveril were injured during the abduction, though Mrs Cuthbert did check them to be certain there would be no lasting effects. It seems to be Mr Ramsay’s lot to be hit on the head at least once during the course of our adventures. However, a small shot of good brandy seems to have revived his spirits.
Captain Moriarty has decided to turn Natasha directly over to the Belgian police. She does not seem to be a sorceress or witch but she seems to be somewhat resistant to magik. As a result of all this I sent a telegram to Mr Weasley asking if he has any trusted associates in Belgium that I could consult with. I do not know if there is any organisation similar to that of the Lord High Warlock in Britain here in Belgium and I do not know who we could safely hand prisoners over to should they prove to have magikal powers. Captain Moriarty just looked puzzled when I asked him.
~Early Evening~
Mr Ramsay, Mrs Cuthbert, and I had lunch at the Watcher’s Guild. The others of the League were reluctant to let us go on our own (truthfully, I was somewhat reluctant to be on my own, however I kept my feelings to myself). I did point out that we wouldn’t be alone– we would be within the walls of the Watcher’s guild, surrounded by powerful sorcerers and people who know how to use many types of iron weapons. Most important of all, we needed to research a spell from the ‘Transcendental Wisdom of Solomon ben David’ to further our goal of capturing and neutralizing Schmidt.
At the beginning of our visit, the League stopped in to visit Baron Claase von Raalik the Abbot of the Low Countrie for the Order of St. Jerome. Only, Mr Ramsay explained that the Belgian branch of the order hasn’t always operated openly as the Order of St. Jerome, so the Baron is also known as the Chancellor of La Concorde Universalle. Regardless, he is the head of the order here and, more importantly, has a picture of the Compte d’Erlette on the back of his door that he uses as a dart board. Mr Deveril was able to confirm that the Compte d’Erlette and Gaspard du Nord are one in the same.
The rest of the League then left us in the Watcher’s care. They were going to return to the villa, have lunch, get a change of clothes (I heard Inspector MacGregor say something about a bath) and then try to track the strange dog/wolf creature that may have been hanging around.
The were to return by late afternoon to pick up Mr Ramsay, Mrs Cuthbert, and myself where we would proceed to the Glassworks to investigate why Mr Arkwright had been seen there and at the embassy in Brussels simultaneously. We know already that the person at the embassy was Schmidt so we are hoping that the siting at the Glassworks will tell us more about the last hours of poor Mr Arkwright.
Mr Ramsay, Mrs Cuthbert and I have worked on the spells we need from the ‘Transcendental Wisdom of Solomon ben David’ and now we are awaiting our friends.
This seems like as good a time as any to note a bit more about the details of the dreams that Mrs Cuthbert and Miss Chigwidgeon had.
Mrs Cuthbert dreamed of visiting a very old, dying monk, St Cuthbert in fact. He and she talked over some of the limits and difficulty of prophecy and divination. Later in the dream she had visions of two groups of people.
The first were in a building and included (I have noted where we have since made identifications):
Grey Man = Compte D’Erlette = Gaspard
du Nord
A Prussian Captain who is also a dwarf = ?
A tall young man with red hair (fey?) wearing a Norse hammer or
cross =?
An athletic woman with ash blonde hair =?
A mangy dog = possibly the one that has been seen both at our
villa and at the consulate in Antwerp
A dark featured young man with a beard =?
Also 2 ill-kept prisoners in the basement. In her dream it appeared
that they had been there a while and had been badly treated.
In a separate part of the dream:
Eye patch man = Erick Regnier a French Agent
A priest with salt and pepper beard = Possibly Brother Alphonse
(we did not see him in person)
A group of three young men, one of whom was possibly Manfred Berri
In yet a third dream location she saw Herr Falkstein writing a letter while Dr van Zemo slept.
Miss Chigwidgeon’s dream revolved around a visit from Miss Mitzi. She told Miss Chigwidgeon that ties of blood and love allow her to reach Miss Chigwidgeon even through my ward. She explained to Miss Chigwidgeon that Herr Schmidt was indeed her half brother, though both Nigel and Rene are half fey-half human, Max is half fey-half djinn and cares nothing for humans (I would add except as they provide amusement for him). She said that Max had been forced to retire from the mortal realm for a time due to the damage we had inflicted and she strongly recommended that we not fight him again. She said that we could use his heritage against him and that we should consult with Mr Ramsay (which we did, which led us to the Seal of Solomon). Herr Schmidt has sworn an oath to king of Prussia and his nature makes that oath binding to the point of death. If he ever goes against the exact wording of the oath he will be destroyed. Mitzi also said never to say his full name aloud as it would summon him to us.
Then the dream changed to Miss Chigwidgeon’s
wedding day. It was, by her account, a very romantic dream, even
if the words of the wedding service did transmute into what seemed
to be a message from Kali. She was very pleased that, while Mr
Chadwick did appear in the dream she did not have any murderous
feelings for him or end up sacrificing him to save the world.
Everyone she loved was there. I can only hope the day, when it
comes, will be as tranquil and joyous.
~Later~
At long last I hear our party at the door. We are off to investigate the Glassworks!
19 July 1870, Monday
I made several attempts last night to update this record with the later half of the day’s events.
Instead, several interruptions prevented me from retiring before I was utterly exhausted. First, I remembered that I still had yet to ward the property. While Salmalin and I were out walking the boundaries the crazy woman from the States who chained herself to the consulate door this morning had locked herself in the villa’s downstairs bathroom. Miss Chigwidgeon told me later, with great satisfaction, of Sir Cosmo’s clever solution with the plumbing for removing the unwanted woman.
I was pleased that Salmalin and I were able to work together without difficulty. Quite frankly I was pleased just to be in his presence.
The second interruption was also of my own making, I wanted to consult with some of the engineers of the League to see if they could build me a device I could use to damage Schmidt with should he confront us again.
I spoke with Edward, Dr Wilson, Mr Cuthbert, the Marquis and Mr Deveril and tried to describe my idea for a weapon. I remembered the good effect containers of lamp oil had on the undead of Kor, and was hopeful they could build me something we could throw at the ground in front of Schmidt that will shatter and spray things harmful to him on both his corporeal and incorporeal forms. Miss Mitzi did urge us to avoid another physical confrontation with Schmidt if at all possible as he will likely have the advantage in any future fight. I still shudder to think of the ease with which he snapped the neck of our poor coachman. He could just have easily done that to myself or Mrs Cuthbert. I do not know what prevented him from swiftly disposing of all of us in like manner.
I still am rather surprised to be alive after our confrontation with him. I was disturbed to realize that, in talking events over with members of the League, that they were afraid I was being abducted. I am very grateful that I was only in that creature’s grasp for a few moments before he was driven away. I shudder to think what would have happened to me if Schmidt were indeed intent on stealing me away rather than just murdering me outright.
I refuse to contemplate that subject any further. All that can be done, has been done.
My third interruption was again caused by myself.
I wanted Mr Salmalin to teach me the mantra he used to help make
Schmidt solid to see if I could master it and make it into a spell
or a blessing I could use on an object (like a sword). We spent
some time in one of the downstairs parlours working though the
mantra. It is very complex. I do not know that I will be able
to master it in the short time we may have before Schmidt’s
return.
Miss Sinclair provided the next interruption. She and Mr Frazer
had the odd occurrence of dreaming the same dream (which in this
case was a memory of one of Mr Frazer’s actual experiences
while he was on his most recent mission out of the country) the
night we slept at the consulate. Miss Sinclair was rather unsettled.
I asked, and received her permission to talk with Mr Frazer on the subject as well. I told both of them (separately) of what Mr Ramsey had told me about djinn being manipulators of dreams and what Miss Mitzi had said about blood and love creating passage ways allowing loved and family to circumvent wards and other protective magik. I learned from Mr Frazer, that Schmidt really had taken the form of Miss Sinclair during his encounter with Schmidt in Prussia. I did not learn what was said in that form from either Miss Sinclair or Mr Frazer, however, based on my own experience with Schmidt, I doubt that it was anything pleasant.
After conversing with both of them, I hunted up Mr Ramsey and we used a simplified version of the Seal of Solomon to keep Schmidt away from the villa last night. No one reported any dreams of a mystical nature at breakfast this morning and I for one slept soundly thought the night.
After some of the events of yesterday evening, I have taken the precaution of giving the key to this record to Sir Cosmo. I realize that most of it is much more personal than he would ever need, but if something does happen to me or my memory, this record may be all that my friends have to take action with. I suppose that there are many people who would be able to decipher these writings, but it would take more time without the key (and I hope my code is idiosyncratic enough that it would be something of a challenge).
Which leads me to the events at the Glassworks Factory last evening.
Mr Ramsey, Mrs Cuthbert and I found an inconspicuous place to cast our history spell while Inspector MacGregor and Mr Frazer went into the building to talk to the supervisor and inspect the premises.
Mr Ramsey suggested that I cast the history spell as I need practice. We found out just how much practice when the spell went wild. Those affected, including myself, lost either all memory of events relating to Mr Arkwright’s death (the focus of the spell) or even worse, lost memory of who they were. Mr Ramsey, Mrs Cuthbert and I tried to cast a Cleansing spell to repair the damage. Mr Ramsey must have been flustered because the second spell also went out of control. I lost my memory of who I was and when Mrs Cuthbert suggested that I read my notes, I could not! My notes are written in my code– which the spell had caused me to forget.
We heard a scream from inside the building. One of the glass workers, affected by the spell, forgot where and who he was and was very badly burned. Mrs Cuthbert healed him to the point where he could be rushed to the hospital but he was still very much in danger.
Mrs Cuthbert and Mr Ramsey decided that there was nothing for it but to try another cleansing spell. They kept it small, trying to repair the local damage first. Apparently when a spell goes wild it can spread over a wide area– as I would have remembered from our encounter with Madam Zephyrine had I been in a position to remember anything at that point. The spell was, finally, successful and the League and every one in the immediate vicinity of the glassworks remembered who they were and why they were there and what not to do with a giant vat of molten glass.
I was then able to assist with yet another cleansing spell, spread over a much wider area, that was successful in negating the effects of the wild spells. Fortunately the time between spells was short and I can hope that no one else was injured. After all that, we had to decide whether or not to cast the history spell that we had come to do originally. We decided to do so and were successful.
We were granted a vision of Mr Arkwright sneaking into the Glassworks and using a key to open the door to a storeroom (the very one the Inspector MacGregor had found locked and was told by the supervisor was kept locked by the owner and that only the owner had the key). As the door opened Herr Schmidt reached out of the darkness, grabbed Mr Arkwright, and knocked him unconscious. He then flew the unconscious man out of the city. We then saw Herr Tot speaking to the glassworks foreman and some of the workers. Tot explained that keeping their eyes on their work would be beneficial to their long term health, and left.
While we were caught up in the spell, the Marquis and Edward snuck into the building and Edward was able to creep into the storage room. He found a quantity of arms sufficient to equip a full battalion. Once he and the Marquis returned safely to us, we returned post-haste to the consulate to report our findings and urge quick action by Belgian forces to secure the munitions.
Once our report was complete we loaded up for the return to the villa. First we stopped by the hospital where the injured glass worker had been taken and Mrs Cuthbert and I looked in on him and made what arrangements we could to provide the best care possible. We returned to the carriage, I believe Mrs Cuthbert was beyond exhausted at this point, and the entire League returned to the villa, where events transpired as I have previously recorded them.
I found out on the carriage ride home that, Mr O’Flaherty had run into another of his former associates, a Mr. Obediah Sturdy, who has been an assistant to Messers Leslie Gallant (Jr and Sr) over the years. Mr Sturdy did not remember who he was working for or why he was in Belgium at the time Mr O’Flaherty talked to him. They were both helping Henri with the injured glass worker and trying to get all of the glass workers away from the kiln before anyone else could be injured. Edward reported proudly that he had been given a threepence from ‘sneaky white-suit-man’ and that Mr Sturdy was ‘sneaky white-suit-man’s’ empolyee, or so I gather from the way Edward phrased things. Perhaps Miss Whilhelmina will be able to give us a clearer account of those events.
Last night we slept without nightmares or prophetic dreams. Which was all to the good as we received the morning paper after breakfast only to read about a horror of human making back in our own London. Apparently a pair of women, a Mrs Waters and a Mrs Harnett have been taking in babies from unwed working women and letting them die. All the while accepting money for their care, charing the mothers for doctor visits and medicine never purchased and as a final insult billing the mother for funeral expenses and then burning the bodies of the poor dead children in the furnaces of their homes. The number dead children is in the hundreds. The horrible scheme was discovered by Lord Greyminster and Lord Shaftesbury and they are using it to press for reforms to the system that cares for our nation’s orphans and foster children.
I have had an idea for a more immediate solution and will wire Lady Ottoline at the earliest possible moment.
In the meantime Sir Cosmo is calling us together to plan the day’s schedule. There has apparently been some news from the consulate. Additionally, we have an appointment to view Mr Arkwright’s shoe, and we must make a plan to deal with Schmidt before he can again become a threat. We have used up our days grace and whatever plan we come up with must needs be effective and should not rely on magik alone...
Proceed to Kali Laughing
Return to Miss Whitnell's Diary Index
Contents this page copyright 2001 by Kristin Fontaine. All Rights Reserved.