10 January 1871, Tuesday

Monday was a blur of action from the time I rose just before dawn until we arrived home from the party thrown by the Earl of Sidcup in honour of Sir Cosmo and Miss Chigwidgeon.

I was able to get a few hours uninterrupted sleep after my last update of this record. Mr Salmalin came for me at the time we had arranged. Realizing that I would have a better chance of finding an appropriately sharp-eyed bird to borrow out by the barns, I dressed warmly adding an extra flannel petticoat, two pairs of stockings, and a flannel chemise to my ensemble. A few people were stirring about the house but most were too occupied with their own business to remark on our departure.

I set up my ritual on the leeward side of one of the barns. Their was little wind but ice was in the air. I concentrated and began gathering power. It did not take much to flip myself into the mind of a seagull that was beginning its morning survey of the parish. It was exhilarating to ride along as the bird dove and swooped in search of it’s breakfast. I am further reminded of the warnings in my Great-Aunt’s book. One of the greatest dangers in borrowing is the sheer joy it and with that, the temptation not to return to one’s own body.

Salmalin stood watch over me while I rode the air currents looking for something odd or out of place. I spotted Nanny Chigwidgeon gossiping over one of the old fences and was reassured that I could still see auras even though seagull eyes.

Not long after that I had the unpleasant experience of exploring the Widow Cropley’s compost heap. My seagull host drove off several of its compatriots in its quest for the juiciest morsels left over from the Widow’s culinary experiments. From a seagull’s point of view, the fact that she uses anchovy paste as a base for everything from pate to frosting made for a ripe feast.

Once my friend was sated or at least tired of defending its place at the heap we launched skyward again. It only took a little nudge to persuade the gull to quarter the parish. We flew over the train station and saw a bunch of bipeds meeting and greeting. We soared over the train as it pulled away from the station. Then we saw a very odd thing indeed. Someone threw a small mailbag off the train. A second person, this one with no discernable aura, appeared from the undergrowth, grabbed the bag, and started running.

I urged the bird to fly causal loops while keeping an eye on the running figure. It was running much faster than any normal human could. The figure made for Goxhill Grange, the home of the reclusive Sir Charles and his son, Edward’s friend, Humphrey. The entire Grange also had no discernable aura. As we flew around the boundaries we noticed other animals that crossed into the quieted space would appear to lose their auras, only to have them reappear when they came out again.

I felt a sudden surge as someone in the house started to raise power. The gull and I retreated back to Goxhill Manor and I leapt back into my own body once more. I was very stiff and cold but managed to remember the tin of biscuits I carry for emergencies. At first I could not get my fingers to work to open the can– I resisted the urge to poke at the tin with my nose while I remembered how fingers worked. What a strange sensation. Mr Salmalin waited for me to find my feet and then we returned to the house.

I found Sir Cosmo at once. I realized with a start that all of the bipeds I had seen at the train station were wedding guests. Lord Greyminster’s Graves was offering tea all around and trying to get the guests all settled in the correct rooms. I managed to get Sir Cosmo alone in the small parlour and told him what I had seen.

The other ladies of the League had already done the morning exercises with Emily’s help. It had taken me several hours to fly around the parish. That is one of the reasons that I had asked Mr Salmalin to help me– the times I have practised this spell before I have noticed that one loses a sense of time as the weather, food, safety and shelter all become foremost in the mind one is riding along with.

Mrs Cuthbert had slept in, and the staff had taken a late breakfast tray to her room. I still do not know all that occurred last night, only that Mrs Cuthbert wore herself out in the process.

Since there were guests in the house, I did not announce my findings to the house at large. Rather I took various members of the League aside to brief them.

It was decided that Inspector MacGregor, Mr Frazer and Mrs Frazer, with George as their driver, would take a carriage over to Goxhill Grange to follow up on interviewing the servants to verify Sir Cosmo’s alibi. It was to be hoped that they would be able to gain information without giving away the fact that our attention was now focussed on the Grange. The plan was that Inspector MacGregor and the Frazers would visit the Grange and then proceed in to Hornsea to interview possible witnesses in the death of Mr Jokking.

As usual, very little went according to plan and the next time I saw Mrs Frazer she was standing in the first floor of an abandoned building. Some fiend had done in her bodice and corset (with no harm to Mrs Frazer fortunately). Salmalin later informed me that they were haschishin and not thuggees.

While events were spiraling rapidly out of control at the Grange, we were bracing to welcome the next train of house guests for the wedding. Mr and Mrs Travers had arrived on the early train. By the time we left the house later in the day Lord Greyminster had the Duke and Duchess Balmoral, Lord Eustace St. Simon, Lady Clara St. Simon, and the Earl and Countess Shaftesbury settled in their rooms. Sir Sebastian and Lady Ffolkes were also expected, however Lady Ffolkes arrived without her husband as he was required in London to continue the investigation into the death of Mr Wroth and related matters.

Lady Ffolkes did come armed with information for us. Sir Cosmo’s files at Our Employer’s office had been reviewed and more people added to the list of those who might be willing to harm Sir Cosmo. She was able to answer one of my questions. Madame Zephyrine is still in custody– so that is one less person to worry about.

Two major issues had come up as a result of this review. One is old business from the Dearingforth case. A section of the report that Sir Cosmo wrote and submitted to Our Employer’s office (many years ago now) is missing. That section of the report dealt with how a stolen machine had been modified and the final disposition of the man who made the modifications. The man’s name was Thomas Dower and he was something of a mechanical genius. He was in the safe keeping of Our Employer’s predecessor, but nowhere is there a record of his existence.

Another discrepancy in the files regards the death of Claude Smith, the man who pretended to be Edward’s father a few months back while attempting to gain control of Jerrold Moriarty’s criminal organisation. We had apprehended Claude and turned him over to Our Employer. They made a deal offering to protect him in exchange for information. Shortly thereafter he was killed by another inmate in prison.

There are no records that the death was investigated. Our employers records show Mr Smith as still alive and in custody, the prison records record the death of Mr Smith, and Sir Phillip has a note that he assigned an agent to review the case but the agent has no memory of the assignment. Lady Ffolkes said they did not know if this was a bureaucratic error or a more serious document tampering issue. Given the condition of the Dearingforth file it was all very worrying.

As a side note, apparently the only person who knew where Mr Dower was hidden was the prior incumbent of Our Employer’s office and with the loss of all records relating to Mr Dower, The Office no longer knows the location of Mr Dower.

Just as we were beginning to wonder if we should try to intercept the investigators on their rounds, Mrs Cuthbert started talking to a point in the air slightly to her right. When she was finished she said that it was very urgent that we go. Having not heard the other end of the conversation we had no idea what she was talking about.

She explained that Sergeant Frazer had been sent to gather a rescue party as Inspector MacGregor and the Frazers had been abducted by a man with a skin condition.

Lady Ffolkes took this moment to announce that her husband had requested that she put Sir Cosmo under house arrest. After a brief discussion she decided that it would be best if she and Sir Cosmo remained at the Manor to socialize with the wedding guests and Be Seen. The rest of us quickly bundled into carriages, and taking a few extra mounts along, headed off following the directions given to Mrs Cuthbert by Sergeant Frazer.

Mrs Cuthbert explained that a man with six or more haschishin brutes had chained the Frazers in the basement of one of the old abandoned houses that regularly flood with the tide. Sir Cosmo had taken us there on an outing earlier in the summer. The man (who we later determined was Proctor Xanthus) was planning to do something to Sim Inspector MacGregor that would force him to assassinate Sir Sebastian.

Both carriages were going full tilt along the road when someone shouted that George and his carriage were approaching. Mrs Cuthbert said that George’s aura was wrong. Miss Chigwidgeon and I had been raising power for a spell and I used it to exorcise the area as George’s coach approached. I figured that possession has been nine-tenths of our enemies’ strategy so far and that it could not hurt to start by trying to drive the spirits of our tormentors away from the area.

As the spell was cast, Lieutenant Wooster leapt from the roof of the second carriage, landing next to George. I am not certain what the Lieutenant was thinking as George is a frightening opponent but luckily George had been freed from whatever or whoever had a hold on his mind. Unfortunately the spell did not work on Inspector MacGregor and he shot Wooster twice in the back. We could hear the reports from the gun. Sir Spencer was trying to get our carriage stopped and turned around. We hurtled back toward the now still carriage. By the time we had slowed enough to get out, Wooster was lying bleeding in the road, Inspector MacGregor’s body was out cold and its jaw was broken and George was standing shakily to his feet.

Salmalin and Mr O’Flaherty stood guard over Inspector MacGregor’s body while Mrs Cuthbert, Edward and I went to see what could be done for Wooster. Mrs Cuthbert couldn’t heal him with the bullets lodged in his body– Edward and I quickly discussed our options and decided that he would try to remove the bullets while I kept the wounds as free from blood and gore as possible. Mrs Cuthbert stood by. While we were preparing the forceps there was a fleeting suggestion that I could use magik to lever the bullets out of the body, however I vetoed that plan because, first I have very little experience moving objects without touching them, second I could not actually see the bullets, and third I did not know if they would come out the way they had entered or if they would make new holes as the exited the body. Edward had both long forceps and steady hands– those would be made to serve.

A few nerve-wracking minutes later and Edward dropped the second bullet into my hand. We bandaged the wounds while Mrs Cuthbert laid hands on Wooster. I could see the power streaming from her into him. His breathing steadied and his blood stopped flowing so freely. Edward had used a small bit of ether to keep Wooster unconscious. My cuffs were stiff with blood by the time we had the Lieutenant settled in one of the carriages.

Salmalin had used his time to study Inspector MacGregor’s body. He determined that the spirit animating it was that of Proctor Xanthus. Mrs Cuthbert and I consulted. I was reluctant to leave Xanthus in MacGregor’s body but was not certain if the body would live without a soul to animate it. Mrs Cuthbert thought that, robbed of a spirit, the body might begin to die, but that it would take several weeks or months. That agreed with what I had read in Great Aunt Hethalyn’s book regarding what can happen to the body of someone who uses the borrowing spell and abandons their body permanently. I borrowed Lieutenant Wooster’s flask and used it as a vessel to hold Xanthus’s spirit. It was harder than I thought it would be to pull the spirit from the body. I managed, and felt better once the two were separated.

Mrs Cuthbert healed the Inspector’s broken jaw before we loaded him into the carriage with Wooster. We piled into the carriages drove as quickly as possible to the place where the Frazers were imprisoned.

Xanthus’s lair was in an abandoned house on the shore. The beach has been eroding rapidly (the cause of Mr Earwig’s loss of both face and fortune) causing houses to be reclaimed by the sea. By the time we arrived, the Frazers and Inspector MacGregor, in Xanthus’s body, had nearly finished rescuing themselves. Mr and Mrs Frazer had picked the locks on their handcuffs, several haschishin were unconscious or dead, and Inspector MacGregor’s spirit had broken free of the chair the body had been bound to by breaking the body’s wrist.

One haschishin was still battling Frazer as we arrived. Emily stepped in and finished the fight. He was formidable. It is so frustrating that people of such talent and ability devote their lives to men such a Xanthus.

I consulted with Inspector MacGregor while Mr Salmalin, Miss Bertilde, Mr O’Flaherty, George and Mr Frazer searched the building to ensure that no further surprises awaited. Mrs Cuthbert was seeing to Turgenov, who had been badly injured in the fight with the haschishin.

I explained to the Inspector that I didn’t really know what I was doing. I had one spell that might help him get back to his body but I didn’t know if it would have the effect that I desired. He decided not to rush to get back into his own body and we settled for keeping the captive spirit away from both bodies until we could summon experts to consult on the case.

Mr and Mrs Frazer volunteered to ride over to Hornsea proper and telegraph Mrs Godwin on my behalf. I wrote up a short, and hopefully compelling note to send. I pressed the use of my bodice on Mrs Frazer. Her chemise and a rather ungainly coat were the only thing preventing full immodest exposure. This way we both had a chemise and one additional layer. My bodice, of course, did not match her skirt, but hopefully the bloodstains did not show too dreadfully against the plain black wool serge.

I had taken a page from her book and invested in dark underclothes so both chemise and corset were black, and while not in the style of my skirt, were at least the same colour.

Our job was to return to Goxhill Grange and rescue Sir Charles and Humphrey. The elderly butler had pressed a note in to Mrs Frazer’s hand from the young man asking for her help to rescue his father.

The Frazers set off for town. We set off for the Grange. Inspector MacGregor decided that he would pretend to be Xanthus. He would take Sir Spencer, Mr O’Flaherty, and Mrs Cuthbert in the front door, ostensibly as prisoners and try to find out what was going on in the house. Miss Bertilde and Edward would climb up the side of the tower that Humphry lived in and get him out the same way. Salmalin and George were sent around back to find a way in and deal with any threats that might be lurking in the back of the house. Lieutenant Wooster was conscious. Sir Spencer gave him a gun and put him in charge of guarding the carriages.

Miss Chigwidgeon spotted some standing stones on the back section of the property so she and I made our way there, hoping that they would help us raise enough power to remove the veil from the Grange. I asked Edward to send Humphrey to us once he was out of the tower. I realize now that I never told Edward my concern that if Humphrey were caught in a spell it might de-animate him. Fortunately it did not come to that.

I did not want to leave Inspector MacGregor’s body untended so Miss Chigwidgeon and I loaded it up on one of the horses and took it with us.

Miss Chigwidgeon and I set up our ritual space in the field near, but not too near, the standing stones. It was a place of mystic power. We began chanting. Time passed and the power grew– holding it took more and more of my concentration. We could not hear anything of what was going on in the house. I could feel the beginnings of a spell being cast in the house but was not yet ready to cast my own spell.

We later learned that Inspector MacGregor was not successful in pretending to be Xanthus. Shots were fired. Master Tandu attacked Mr O’Flaherty. Salmalin and George battled their way though eight thuggees while Miss Bertilde helped rescue Mr O’Flaherty. Mrs Cuthbert, Sir Spencer and the Inspector disrupted the ritual, causing the spell to go wild.

I had my hands full, even the enormous amount of power I had raised did not seem enough. I felt rather than saw helping hands from around the parish. Mrs Earwig, the Tinker, Nanny Chigwidgeon, and others were raising power and helping to calm the wild storm of magik. I do not know how long it took to bring the spell under control and release the power safely back into the world. We could see our compatriots gathering outside the house and we went to join them.

Inspector MacGregor and Miss Bertilde’s spirits had been knocked loose from the bodies they inhabited. Mrs Cuthbert and I were just about to try to summon them back to us when we heard Nanny Chigwidgeon approaching. She was driving a ramshackle wagon with a very old woman at her side. The old woman’s name was Old Mother Hempseed and she had managed to catch Emily’s spirit before she got too far separated from us. Nanny led us in a variant of the borrowing spell to put Emily back into her body. Miss Bertilde awoke and seemed to suffer no ill effects.

We then made our circle around Inspector MacGregor’s body. I led the summoning and as the spell concluded I had a vision of the Tinker sorceress holding a glimmering quartz crystal. Simon’s soul was held within and as she sensed our call she set him loose to return to us. Once manifest in our circle, Nanny took over and sent him back to his body. Earlier in our conversation she confirmed that if I had used the bind the spirit spell it might have held the spirit in the body for a time but no connection would have been made that would allow the spirit to reattach. When the spell wore off the spirit would slip free again.

I checked the flask holding Xanthus and he was still prisoned within.

While we were cleaning up after the wild spells, others of our group searched the Grange from top to bottom. They found no other confederates of Xanthus, Iota, or Tandu. Mr and Mrs Frazer had rejoined us in the interim as well.

We loaded back in to carriages and on to horses taking the frail Sir Charles, his son, and butler with us to stay at Sir Cosmo’s. I did not see the inside of the house but was assured that it was quite damaged in the fight between Tandu, Miss Bertilde and Mr O’Flaherty. At least the battle did not take place at St. Winifred’s. Lord Greyminster would be vexed with us if we damaged the church before the wedding.

Halfway home Miss Sinclair Mrs Frazer and I were fretting as to how to get into the house unseen, as our mode of dress was rather scandalous by this time– not to mention the shock some of our guests might feel upon seeing the bruised and battered in our party. Of the gentleman, I believe that only Sir Spencer got away unscathed. Miss Chigwidgeon, Mrs Cuthbert, Mrs Frazer and I were comparatively lucky. Miss Bertilde had received a slash to her side and Mrs Cuthbert was greatly tired. Her healing powers had been in high demand once more.

Edward overheard us and showed us an underground passage on the outskirts of the property that lead into the house. We exited in Edward’s room (the former nursery). I heard Ruth exclaim that ‘this explained quite a lot!’ I presume she meant about Edward’s comings and goings– a constant source of anxiety for her.

We arrived home around five and realized that we had an event to attend in the evening. The Earl of Sidcup was throwing a ball in honour of Sir Cosmo and Miss Chigwidgeon and it would Not Do to have the entire household fail to appear.

Mrs Godwin, Mr Moody, and Mr Weasley all arrived on the early evening train. Mrs Godwin transferred Xanthus’s spirit into a crystal ball of some sort. I had showed her my bindings and she was concerned that they might break loose at any time. Apparently the crystal has properties that allow the spirit to be more tightly bound to it. Xanthus’ body was stowed safely under guard. Salmalin took on the task of keeping him safe as several of the house guests have good reason to want Xanthus dead. We might need him alive in the future to prove Sir Cosmo’s innocence.

Three hours speed by in a whirlwind of preparations. Through the grace of Lord Greyminster’s excellent staff we managed to have a little dinner while dressing for the ball (and I did not get any grease stains on my black ballgown). We managed to brief Sir Cosmo and Lady Ffolkes, get our severely injured people cleaned up and tucked into beds, and get out the door in a timely manner.

Lady Ffolkes gave Sir Cosmo into his grandfather’s custody for the evening while she went off with Mrs Godwin, Mr Moody, and Mr Weasley to supervise the clean up at the house at West Beck and the Grange. Sir Sebastian owes her much more than flowers the next time the occasion warrants. I do not envy them their task, as the damage to persons and property was extensive.

The ball was blessedly uneventful. Lieutenant Wooster managed to rise from his sickbed to attend the party and do an amazing impression of a colour-blind peacock in the process. Poor Mr Caine, the trials he must endure! The blinding waistcoat and matching handkerchief did provide an alternate topic for the gossips at the party, however.

Sir Spencer’s dance card was full of eligible young ladies backed by their fearsome mothers.

The reporter, Mr Hawksworth, arrived, was discovered to be without an invitation and was evicted. Such an odious man to print such things about Sir Cosmo! Mr Laurence Oliphant was also at the party. He was one of the reporters in Belgium during the League’s most recent tour. He had the good sense both to secure an invitation and keep his congratulations to the couple short and to the point.

Mrs Frazer got in several dances with her husband and well as other gentlemen of her acquaintance. I did not dance, being in mourning still. This did allow Mrs Cuthbert more time on the floor and her dance card filled up quite swiftly. Mr O’Flaherty came in part way though the evening and held up a wall for a time. His arm was damaged again in today’s fight as well as additional injuries inflicted by Master Tandu.

We left not long after midnight, pleading Miss Chigwidgeon need of rest in preparation for the wedding as our excuse.

I checked on Xanthus’ body and spirit before retiring to my own room for the night. I slept restlessly, plagued by dreams that I was trapped in Iota’s body, unable to get anyone to believe that I was me. The dream seemed to drag on all night and now I am up before dawn once more, working on updating this record.

Fortunately I have a room to myself and do not disturb anyone by lighting a candle at this hour. I will try meditation and prayer for I suspect that this day will be as trying and perhaps more irritating than yesterday.

Proceed to States of anxiety

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