7 January 1871, Saturday

~Early~

We have arrived at Goxhill after taking a very late train from London. Late Friday afternoon Dr Wilson was recalled to the States on family business. Our American colleague’s precipitous departure made it necessary for Sir Cosmo to stay in town into the evening. We were able to catch the last train out of London but it put us in at Hull well after the last train for Goxhill had departed. Foreseeing this, Sir Cosmo had wired ahead to arrange a special train from Hull to Goxhill.

I managed to complete my week’s worth of errands in Town. My dress is finished– lavender and dark purple don’t really suit my complexion but will keep me from looking the crow at the Wedding. So far I have just had the one dress made, but I did pick up some new fabric while we were in Paris. The mourning year for my father is coming to a close. I don’t think that I will ever stop missing him but neither do not feel it necessary to wear my blacks past the end of their proper time.

Now, with the shopping finished and our safe arrival at Goxhill, I pray that Sir Cosmo and Miss Chigwidgeon’s wedding goes off as quietly and smoothly as Mr and Mrs Frazer’s.

~Later~

Given the early hour of our arrival, I am not surprised by how late I slept in. I have spent the afternoon unpacking and settling back into my room here at the manor. I gave Miss Pinker the items she had asked for from Town and practised my Hindi with Miss Chigwidgeon.

Miss Sinclair and Edward were working on their Arabic in the parlour. I joined them for their lesson until Edward was called away to be the coachman for Sir Spencer, Lieutenant Wooster, and Mr O’Flaherty who were going in to town for the evening.

~Evening~

We have been given quite a shock. To state it bluntly, Sir Cosmo is a suspect in the death of one Mr Wroth. Inspector MacGregor has been assigned to case. I do not envy him his task.

~Late Evening~

Something is definitely amiss. Edward has found a dead body at the office of the Hornsea Post. By Edward’s account, Mr Jokking, the owner of the newspaper, was killed by an etheric pulse weapon. A typeset copy of an article trying to further damage Sir Cosmo’s reputation was found under the body. Just after Edward finished his report a Constable Oakes showed up asking for Mr Frazer’s assistance.
Mr and Mrs Frazer have gone off to view the body in situ. Mrs Cuthbert suggests that she and I might be able to augment the investigation mystically.

~Midnight~

All that Mrs Cuthbert and I were able to determine is that the murderer of Mr Jokking is 1) out to frame Sir Comso, just as the murderer of Mr Wroth is 2) either a magik user or allied with one. In addition, we confirmed that Mrs Earwig is very annoying.

One or both of us needs to polish up on First Book of Jerome. It has the basic history spell in it– one of our most useful spells for gaining new information during an investigation. However, it is a spell known best by Mr Ramsey. In the past, Mrs Cuthbert and I have been able to depend on him to cast it competently. Unfortunately he is not with us. I haven’t heard from him in several weeks and suspect he has been much taken up with his duties as a Watcher. Mrs Cuthbert and I had several close calls casting the history spell– it is a tricky one to get right apparently.

Mrs Cuthbert was able to cast the spell correctly and we saw the following: a misty shape in female mourning garb including a long grey veil, entered the newspaper office, fired some sort of etheric pulse gun at Mr Jokking and killed him. The figure then set up the press, ran off a test sheet, waited for the ink to dry, placed the sheet under his body, and left.

We tried looking at the street from the neighbor’s point of view. What they saw was Sir Comso enter the newspaper offices, stay for a while, and then leave. Unfortunately, Sir Cosmo was out making calls about the time the murder took place and he was alone save for the coachman. It may be difficult to prove that Sir Cosmo was not in the offices of the Hornsea Post at the time of the murder.

Mrs Cuthbert and I did all in our power to find some definitive trace of the person who cast the veiling spell for the murderer. To our great irritation, our own spells and the ‘cleansing’ spell of Mrs Earwig only confused what little trail might have remained. We even went so far as to visit the office itself and have only just returned from our late and fruitless errand.

One other odd thing. There is a very clear foot print of Edward’s next to the body, as if he stepped in some ink while making his way through the office. However, Edward does not remember stepping in anything wet– something I think he would notice given that he was barefoot at the time. It is possible he stepped in the ink and then forgot in the excitement of finding the body but it still seems odd to me...

8 January 1871, Sunday

Mrs Frazer has had a bit of a surprise. Mrs Cuthbert was the first to notice. Mrs Frazer and Mr Frazer went up to their room for a bit. They were taking quite a while (and we could hear someone pacing back and forth) and remained behind while most of the rest of the household went on to services.

This was the final reading of the banns for Sir Cosmo and Miss Chigwidgeon and we made it through the service without having anyone give cause as to why they should not be married. It was a great relief after the events of yesterday.

Mr and Mrs Frazer were still in their room when we arrived home. Mrs Cuthbert and I took the opportunity to check on them (someone was wearing out the floor with her pacing). Mrs Frazer was having a very hard time putting her new condition on a rational footing and Mr Frazer didn’t seem to be quite in tune with his wife’s needs. I brought him back down stairs and left Mrs Cuthbert, with her superior experience in such matters, to deal with Mrs Frazer.

Lunch was served. We all spent some time talking about what might possibly be done to solve the murders of Messrs. Wroth and Jokking before the wedding.

We have two very different murders, their only commonality being the men in question both had an acrimonious relationship with Sir Cosmo.

Inspector MacGregor arrived on the afternoon train. He had spent late Friday and all day Saturday interviewing potential witnesses and gathering evidence. Mr Wroth died of strychnine poisoning, the symptoms of which are well known to the police.

Mr Wroth was found, dead, locked in his own study. Sir Cosmo was his last caller of the day and they were heard to have a vociferous argument regarding Mrs Frazer’s moth paper. Apparently Mr Wroth feels felt that Sir Cosmo tricked that worthy into co-sponsoring the paper and was calling on Sir Cosmo to resign from the Naturalist Society. Sir Cosmo refused and left Mr Wroth to stew in his own juices. Unfortunately that juice included poison– at least as far as the family is concerned.

The Inspector discovered that a quantity of strychnine and at least one syringe are missing from Sir Cosmo’s house in London. Also, one of the railway clerks saw Sir Cosmo tossing something in the trash as at the station. A syringe was found in that trash.

I am not even going to list the number of things that make me believe that this an attempt to discredit Sir Cosmo. He is just not this stupid or venal. That is all there is to it!

9 January 1871, Monday

~After mid-night~

The events of the afternoon and evening were very trying to the nerves. I must catch a few hours sleep in preparation for my next task, but will attempt to set down the events of Sunday afternoon and evening.

Mrs Cuthbert and I discussed several options for finding out more information mystically. She suggested, and I agreed, that we try to track the owner of the black stuff and grey veiling left behind in the offices of the Hornsea Post.

While she was setting up there was a bit of an uproar in Sir Cosmo’s office. Apparently an undead salamander was caught by the dog that Lieutenant Wooster picked up at the tinker camp. Wooster rescued it from the dog and, noting that it was still moving about even with a spine broken in two places, decided that it was something for Sir Cosmo’s expertise. I didn’t arrive until after Mrs Frazer had dragged Edward in from his workshop to ask if it was one of his experiments. I then realized that I had forgotten to mention Edward’s ongoing, and thus far unsuccessful attempts to, shall we say, reinvigorate, some of Sir Cosmo’s dead salamanders during the time that Mrs Frazer was off on her honeymoon.

She was rather vexed that I would fail to pass on such information.

I did point out that I had ascertained that Edward was acting with Sir Cosmo’s permission and that I had required Edward to write several detailed papers on the experiments once I discovered them. That was all I could offer in exculpation.

Regardless, this did not seem to be one of Sir Cosmo’s salamanders. Edward’s experiments have thus far failed and they have all been done in London. The discussion then turned to whose experiment it might have been.

It turns out that Edward has been visiting a boy who died 28 years ago. His father was able to bring him back by means unknown, though it is thought by Sir Cosmo and Edward that the father’s inspiration was drawn from the ‘true story’ of Frankenstein’s Monster. I have only read Mrs Shelley’s fictional tale and was not, until I learned of Edward’s experiments, aware that several ‘true’ versions of the story had been written as well.

After my experiences with the League it does not surprise me that Frankenstein could turn out to be closer to fact rather than fiction. Though Edward finding an undead boy in the prosaic English countryside is rather startling.

Until this point, Edward and Sir Cosmo had been working quietly to figure out what might be done for the young man. He is apparently arrested at the age at which he died. Sir Cosmo had hoped to work his way in the confidence of the boy’s reclusive father and get some of us, notably Mrs Cuthbert, in to see the child– officially. I gather that Edward’s visits are quite unofficial.

The upshot is we must make time to find out if this salamander came from the boy’s household and is merely an innocent escapee or if something more sinister is behind the creature’s appearance.

Mr Frazer pointed out that the coroner has determined that Mr Jokking’s death was odd in that it appeared that he was struck by lightning while he was inside a building. The doctor noticed the peculiar traces that an etheric pulse weapon leaves behind– scorch marks at the wrists and ankles as well as marks where metal was touching the body. So far, lightning is the only thing he knows that would cause such marks. We know differently, and if it got about that Sir Cosmo was performing experiments with electricity on a dead body, even that of a salamander, the doctor and others might have cause to wonder if Sir Cosmo might not have found a way to electrocute poor Mr Jokking in retaliation for the painful past history the publisher had been dredging up over the past few months.

This is just as ridiculous as the frame for the death of Mr Wroth, as Sir Cosmo lost his own parents in the disaster, and to this day, remembers the name of every person (whose body could be identified) that was killed in the experimental train explosion.

After the Salamander and its Pandora’s box of problems had been stowed, Mrs Cuthbert got on with her divination. We loaded up into two carriages and followed her directions. At first it seemed that we were headed out to the tinker’s camp that, just Saturday night, was the scene of a rather spectacular boxing loss by Mr O’Flaherty. Sir Spencer, Lieutenant Wooster, and George had hauled the man home unconscious. Mrs Cuthbert had tended him so he was not quite as sore Sunday as he deserved.

Instead of revisiting Mr O’Flaherty’s recent battlefield, the pendulum took us to Thorpe House. Home of Mr and Mrs Earwig. Mrs Cuthbert and Miss Sincl Mrs Frazer had already met this worthy in person– Mrs Cuthbert during her time at Goxhill (Mrs Earwig claiming to be something of a colleague) and Mrs Frazer on Saturday during the interview of Mr Jokking’s assistant, a young woman who was also likely his fiancé.

We decided to have a smaller party drop in to call on Mrs Earwig. Mrs Cuthbert, Mrs Frazer, Inspector MacGregor and I would call on the house. George and Mr Frazer would wait in one of the carriages in the drive, while Sir Cosmo and the rest of the party would wait back on the road in case Thorpe House turned out to be a trap that we could not extricate ourselves from.

The reason for this division was simply the fact that Mr Earwig does not like Sir Cosmo as the former was forced by his own stupidity to sell his small Hornsea railroad to the B&C Great Locomotive Company. He blames Sir Cosmo for his business loss when he insisted upon building the terminus of the railroad out onto the rapidly eroding beachhead of Hornsea. It was his own insistence upon this route that cost him Lord Greyminster’s backing during the initial construction and forced his later sale of the railroad at a loss to Sir Cosmo and Mr Balderstoke’s company.

Mrs Cuthbert led the way to Thorpe house and performed the introductions once the lady of the house consented to see us. Mrs Earwig was in the midst of preparations for a seance. Her husband (with much rolling of eyes), married son, daughter-in-law and two unmarried daughter were all in attendance. In addition a widowed Baroness and her daughter were present.

We made ourselves as pleasant as possible given how annoying Mrs Earwig is (I really should start writing out her name as she pronounces it or I will soon slip up and say the name the way it looks... for my record she pronounces her husbands family name ‘Arwavge’). She is a woman of real power but dithers about in a manner that makes her appear as a charlatan. We were not long into the conversation when we heard a scream from below stairs.
Inspector MacGregor, Mrs Cuthbert, Mrs Earwig, I and ran in the direction of the scream. Mrs Frazer stayed behind to keep and eye on the family.

We found a screaming maid with a footman lying dead at her feet. His body had been stuffed in a cupboard and had nearly fallen on the poor girl when she opened the door. His neck bore the marks of strangulation. I found no pulse or breath when I got to the body– my first aid skills were to be of no use. Mrs Cuthbert looked over the body and confirmed, with a slight shake of her head, that he was beyond her help. Inspector MacGregor then took over examining the body.

I went outside to our carriage to tell Mr Frazer and George what had happened. George agreed to run tell the others of the new murder while Mr Frazer came in to help with the investigation.

I started back into the house.

The next thing I remember is coming to standing in front of Mr Earwig’s liquor cabinet in his study. I was holding a bottle marked poison.

I nearly came unstrung right there. Had I poisoned any of the liquor? How would I know? How had I been transported from the gravel drive to the upstairs study none the wiser?

I heard quiet footsteps in the hall outside. I felt I could not move– whether the paralysis was an artifact of my translocation or my own fear I do not know.

I called out Ruth’s name as quietly as I could, hoping that she was looking for me and that her astonishing hearing would lead her to me. She and Mrs Cuthbert found their way to me. They were able to determine that the bottle in my hand had not been opened for some time. It was quite dusty and Ruth was able to say with some certainty that I had not handled any of the liquor bottles on the shelves. She pocketed the poison and we returned downstairs.

I was shaking more than on the day I said my wedding vows. Hands, knees, voice (if I had tried to speak). To be removed from control of my own body was terrifying. It is only now, as I write this, that I realize– I do not know if I was able to drive away Our Enemy or if he (or she) put me in that precarious position only to torment me.

By the simple expedient of having hysterics, I was able to draw Inspector MacGregor away from the house temporarily and tell him about what had happened. We returned to the house. MacGregor said he would contact the force, but that in the meantime, the household was strongly encouraged to find another place to sleep for the night.

We removed ourselves to the carriage. I had recovered enough to help Mrs Cuthbert with a history spell to determine what had happened to me. The spell showed me walking out to consult with George and Mr Frazer and then walking into the house down a side hall, picking up the poison and then taking it upstairs to the study. It was very strange to see myself from the outside in mirror of the spell.

We then tried the same spell on Mrs Frazer, for the bottle of poison had somehow disappeared from her pocket between the time she took it from me and the time we arrived downstairs. Mrs Frazer’s own inherent resistance to magik made the spell more difficult, but we were able to see her take the poison back down the stairs and restore it to the cabinet I had taken it from. Unfortunately auras do not show as part of the history spell so we could not learn anything about the spell that was cast upon us.

By the time we returned home and compared notes it was clear that what ever malevolent force was in play, it was targeting not only Sir Cosmo but the rest of his household as well.

The footman’s death by strangulation was done in a way that could implicate either George or Salmalin. I was manipulated into nearly poisoning the Earwig family (or at least those parts of the family that take spirits), and now I am wondering if the footprint left in the ink at the newspaper office was really Edward’s, or was deliberately made by someone trying to frame Edward.

Mrs Cuthbert and I decided to follow up on trying to contact Mr Jokking’s spirit directly for some answers and find out what he, as a spirit, might know about his own death. Miss Chigwidgeon and Mr O’Flaherty joined us for our own seance.

The spirit summoned spoke through Mr O’Flaherty. It did not take Mrs Cuthbert long to realize that the spirit speaking though Mr O’Flaherty was not Mr Jokking, but rather a living spirit. We began to raise power to bind the spirit but it fled before we were able to do so.

Mr O’Flaherty said that he had the strangest vision of One Punch O’Neill (the man he had fought yesterday) and his clan all dead. At the same time a strange woman walked in the door and introduced herself as Nanny Chigwidgeon– Miss Chigwidgeon’s great-grandmother.

She has come down for the wedding... Miss Chigwidgeon did not seem to realize that she had a great-grandmother still living.

Mr O’Flaherty rounded up the troops (Mrs Cuthbert, Inspector MacGregor, Edward, Lieutenant Wooster, Emily, George and himself). I stayed behind to keep an eye on the household. Mr and Mrs Frazer had already retired for the evening. Once I had assured myself that Nanny and Miss Chigwidgeon were comfortably settled, I went to talk to my Great-Aunt Hethalyn.

She suggested several courses of action that I might take to both protect myself from the spirit or spirits at large and possibly locate the bodies of those who were letting their living spirits loose to make such trouble for us. The conversation had just ended when I heard a commotion downstairs.

Our party had returned from the tinker camp. Mrs Cuthbert was unconscious– uninjured, but she had exhausted herself healing. Inspector MacGregor, George, and Edward were all over scratches and bruises. Mr O’Flaherty’s arm was broken. Emily was the only one of our party unscathed in the battle According to Emily, Mr O’Flaherty’s arm had been broken during the fight as various members of the tinker camp and our own party were possessed by what George identifies as the spirit of Master Tandu. Emily complained that she couldn’t figure out who to hit. From her point of view people were changing sides rapidly and randomly. George mentioned that Mrs Cuthbert had help stopping Master Tandu. One of the women at the tinker camp nearly killed herself in a magikal attack to drive him away. Hopefully I’ll be able to find out more in the morning after Mrs Cuthbert wakes.

Once our wounded were seen to and Mr O’Flaherty and Mrs Cuthbert had been put to bed I sought out Mr Salmalin. I have a possible method for tracking down our tormentors, and, given Emily’s report it would be best to act soon.

Our adversaries are living spirits and are able to cause trouble for us at a moments notice so they must be keeping their bodies somewhere in the vicinity. I hope to gain some hint of where they are hiding– without drawing their attention– but I need someone to watch over me in case something goes wrong. My original plan had assumed that Mrs Cuthbert would be available to help but she is in no condition to help. My hope is, that the same will be true for Our Enemies. I will take only a few hours rest and we will begin before sunrise. Salmalin has agreed to watch over me and summon help should I be unable to return to my own body.

Wilhelmina was impatiently waiting for me to finish conferring with Salmalin so she no doubt has some scheme of her own she hopes to try. At least this should keep him from running off and trying to confront Master Tandu on his own.

I hope...

Proceed to A blur of action

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