12 January 1871, Thursday

~Late Evening~

Things were as quiet as they could be this evening, given that we have a houseful of wedding guests and indications that the danger to Sir Cosmo and his supporters has not fully abated.

After making it home from the wedding rehearsal and capture of Miss Brody and Mr Mannering we barely had time to dress for dinner. I had just finished when I heard a knock at my door. My brother John had arrived, and as a surprise, brought my brother James along. I was so excited to see both of them that it hardly mattered when my sister-in-law bustled up and interrupted our conversation.

She said something about a letter, but John said that it would keep until later. The first bell rang for dinner and I went down to the main floor parlour. I was chatting with some of the guests when I heard the unmistakable sound of Henri arriving at the front door. His atrocious French accent carried all the way from the front door. I could also sense that he had someone who was part fae with him. Being curious (and pleased to see Henri) I went out to greet him.

His travelling companion was Admiral LeCoq’s daughter– the one who masquerades as a boy and goes by the name Manfred Berri. He had presents for both Miss Chigwidgeon and Edward and had been asked to present them personally. The gift for Miss Chigwidgeon was a set of silver wine chalices in a very beautiful presentation case. He also slipped a note into Sir Cosmo’s pocket while whispering something into his ear.

Mrs Frazer took M Berri up to the nursery to deliver his gift. I do not know the details. I do know that my sister and her friend Lady Clara were to dine in the nursery after their shameful show of bad manners last night in the parlour. Both girls were outraged at having to dine with Miss Wilhelmina. I am pleased to say that Miss Wilhelmina took it all with surprising good grace.

Dinner was going along quite well. Though poor Inspector MacGregor was seated opposite Mrs John Whitnell and I could tell by his expression that he was bored stiff. Perhaps it will be a good thing for our future friendship that he has met my family– after all if his wishes had been fulfilled he and my sister-in-law would be forced to interact on a regular basis. Now he is safe from that eventuality.

We were interrupted by another arrival. I could sense that it was another fae-descended person, and since I thought we had accounted for all the ones we know personally, I excused myself from table to go check.

It turned out to be Hauptman Schneider on a mission from Kommandant von Wymms and Lady Sophia. He had been charged personally with the delivery of wedding presents. He was shown into the second parlour until after dinner was finished. I went back in to dinner and tried to let Mrs Cuthbert and Mrs Frazer know, discreetly, that all was well.

After the meal we went out to see the gifts that Hauptman Schneider had worked so hard to deliver. The first was from von Wymms and came packaged in the self-same box that we had sent to him. Last we saw it, it was full of a disabled ornithopter built by Dr Fate and two anarchists who had tried to steal the Lion of Damascus from us. Fortunately only the packaging was reused.

Enclosed within the box were two very large and overwrought candelabra. They were made of bronze and were very, very gothic. Apparently they had belonged to Herr Bopp and were not to von Wymms taste when he took over Bopp’s offices. Miss Chigwidgeon seems to like them. Lady Sophia sent a much smaller gift of crystal goblets in a velvet lined box.

The new gifts were taken in to the parlour that has been dedicated to the purpose. The candelabra did not go quietly– though the footmen assigned to the task of moving them did not quite resort to swearing as they wrestled the candelabras into the house.

As we returned to the parlour to circulate among the guests I overheard Mrs John suggesting to Mother that Betty be allowed to make full use of her experience here. It was very clear that she hoped Mother would allow Betty to be introduced to some of the single men here. Betty is not out yet, and is certainly not ready to marry. I managed to divert Mrs John by introducing her to Henri. I used his full title and my most florid French and he seemed to understand that I was in need of diversion and was at his most unintelligible. I took Mother off to another corner of the room before being rounded up by Graves for a post-prandial meeting of the League in the third floor parlour. Apparently there was still work to be done.

Before getting down to business. Sir Cosmo presented Miss Chigwidgeon with his gift to her. It was a small jewelled model of the Earth supported on a tripod of three ships. It was made in 1592 in Italy as a marriage gift. It was sold not long ago by a descendant of the original owner and is quite beautiful. Sir Cosmo said it was the only way that he could give Miss Chigwidgeon the world. He also gave her a little pendant with a painting of Kali.

Once Miss Chigwidgeon had re-packed her gift into the beautiful presentation box it came in, we heard several reports.

First, the message from Admiral LeCoq delivered by M, Berri. The French Secret Service has discovered the following:
1) An Italian count by the name of Coronini brought messages to Major Grey.
2) Coronini was formerly the tutor to the son of the Earl of Dovercourt (on Xanthus’s short list to be the MB) and is still in the Earl’s employ.
3) Dovercourt was involved in Marquess of Deringforth’s plot to discredit the crown but there was not enough evidence to bring him to trial. He has been out of favour with the court for the past 20 years and bears a grudge against Sir Cosmo.

Second, Mrs Cuthbert reported receiving a message from Mr Snape which included the following:
1) Sir Cosmo has been cleared of the suspicion of murdering Mr Wroth
2) The footman who hid the poison in Mr Wroth’s rooms committed suicide and left a confessing implicating only himself in Mr Wroth’s death. Unfortunately this seems to be a direct result of the tampering done to his mind. When the memories of what actually happened were revealed, he believed that he had gone made and murdered his master, when in fact he was under either Master Tandu or Iota’s control. Yet another victim in this terrible affair.
3) The poisoning of Mr Wroth was accomplished by having Master Tandu possess Mr Wroth, lock Mr Wroth in the study and administer the poison secreted by the footman earlier in Mr Wroth’s tea. Master Tandu fled the body before it died.
4) Mr Moody arrived in good order with Xanthus as his prisoner.

Third, both Miss Chigwidgeon and Miss Wilhelmina found notes hidden in their rooms:
1) The notes informed them that they were in grave danger and that the writer needed to meet with them.
2) The suggested meeting place was the duck pond at 11pm.
3) The writer had gone to some lengths to disguise his or her handwriting.

We discussed a few options for dealing with the notes. Since one of the suggestions was that someone needed to see to the guests, I opted to go downstairs and circulate and let the rest of the league figure out a plan.

Once downstairs, John asked if it was a good time to talk about the letter he received. It wasn’t, but I made time anyway.

He had a hard time starting his story, claiming that I would think he was crazy or some such. I tried to reassure him on that score and he finally said that he had a dream in which Father appeared and spoke with great seriousness to John about taking care of the family. Then he handed John a letter. John awoke with a great sense of foreboding. Later that same day he received a letter from Lady Elizabeth Elliot– her maiden name was Haywood and she is some sort of cousin on Father’s side of the family. Enclosed in that note was a letter to me.

John recognized it as the one from the dream. He did not open it, as it was addressed to me. Both letters turned out to be fairly mundane. Lady Elliot writing to introduce her nephew a Major Walter Haywood. Major Haywood recently inherited the property that adjoins my own in West Darlson and had asked his Aunt to provide an introduction to me.

I found this information to be more vexing that it really warranted, after all, what is this man to me? But I thanked John for passing it on and reassured him that he was not going crazy. I must make time to talk with him before he returns home. I did ask him to keep an eye out for anything strange at the party as we were still having some difficulty with troublemakers trying to disrupt the wedding.

We returned to the party and began circulating among the guests. His wife reclaimed his arm and I was soon on my own again. Then I heard a familiar voice. Lieutenant Wooster was telling a story. I looked up and noticed that Mrs Frazer had entered the Music room from the opposite door. We both looked at Wooster and discovered that the two ladies he was entertaining with stories of his adventures in Prussia were Lady Clara St Simon and my sister Betty. Neither girl had permission to join the party. I escorted Miss Betty back to Mother while Miss Sinclair reunited Lady Clara with the Duchess of Balmoral.

Just when all seemed quiet and under control, Mrs Cuthbert made the rounds and said she had had a vision. In it, Mr O’Flaherty was trying to take on two men. She was convinced this was happening right now. I went out to the garden and told the Frazers who were strolling about looking for trouble. Mrs Cuthbert also said that she could feel a spell circle being set up north of the house, in the direction of the duck pond.

Miss Wilhelmina and Miss Chigwidgeon showed up about this time. The Frazers, Miss Wilhelmina and others were going to try to find Mr O’Flaherty (and Owen). I drafted Miss Chigwidgeon to help me set up our own spell circle as Mrs Cuthbert was exhausted from her efforts earlier in the day.

We raised power. I tried to stop the spell in progress by pulling the power away from the other spell circle but did not succeed.

The unknown opposition completed the spell and the clouds began to boil in the heavens– as they had over Antwerp last July when the Eagle and the Bull were pitted against one another.

Feeling that the weather could wait, I tried to stop the second spell they were casting. My spell seemed to work correctly. I could feel the power stop gathering and then the spell seemed to dissipate. Miss Chigwidgeon and I then worked on dispelling the storm– which removed the motive power for the storm but left the weather to play out as it would.

Nothing further seemed to be happening. We waited a bit longer. Mr Templeton came out to see what was happening and helped us clean up our own spell circle. We went in to visit with the guests while waiting for the return of our compatriots.

The Frazers, Mr O’Flaherty, Miss Wilhelmina, Miss Bertilde, and the Cuthberts returned with a dead sorcerer, an unconscious servant, and an injured Mr Hawkesworth in tow. The servant and Mr Hawkesworth were smuggled into the house and hidden away while the body of the sorcerer was stored in our impromptu morgue in the third wine cellar.

Now we must sleep. The wedding is tomorrow and Miss Chigwidgeon needs her rest.

13 January 1871, Friday

The Frazers, Mrs Cuthbert, Mr O’Flaherty and I rose very early to interrogate our prisoners and try to ensure that nothing further would happen to disrupt the wedding. The Frazers spoke with Mr Hawksworth and Mrs Cuthbert and I spoke with the spirit of Count Coronini.

Mrs Frazer and I shared information while we dressed for the wedding.

Count Coronini was reluctant to talk with us at first. He said that the ‘one who killed him’ was in the room. We asked him how he died and he said that a spell he had been casting to illuminate the area around him was turned back on him so he burned up from the inside out. Given that information it wasn’t hard to determine that he was talking about me. I told him that his death was not my intent. Mrs Cuthbert tried asking him questions several different ways to get him to tell us about his plans for Miss Chigwidgeon and Sir Cosmo.

He said we were evil and that he would not talk to us. He was a papist and considered us to be not worth talking to. Mrs Cuthbert said that she knew someone he might want to meet. She said a little prayer to St Cuthbert. A few minutes later Count Coronini’s spirit was much more cooperative.

He said that Hawksworth’s plan was to try to get Miss Chigwidgeon to leave Sir Cosmo. But the real plan was that Cannini and his servant were going to murder Mr Hawksworth and make it look like Miss Chigwidgeon and Miss Wilhelmina had done it.

The overall plan was to replace Queen Victoria with a more suitable monarch. One of the steps in the plan was to discredit the Secret Service, of which we are a part. The murders of Mr Wroth and Mr Jokking, the murder of the Earwig’s footman, the destruction of the Tinker camp, the kidnapping of Sir Charles and Humphrey, the tampering with the files at the office, and the planned disruption of the wedding by Miss Brody were all part of the same plot by the Earl of Dovercourt to bring down as much of Our Employer’s organization as possible.

Count Coronini did not know of any other operations that were planned. He said that they hadn’t expected us to take their organization apart quite so fast. It is possible that Coronini doesn’t know the full scope of the Earl’s organization or plans.

Mrs Cuthbert did ask him how he got information about the household. He said that he had used the mind of Lieutenant Wooster’s dag– animal minds being apparently easier to read. He also said that the notes found by Miss Chigwidgeon and Miss Wilhelmina were planted by Natesh before Natesh was captured by Salmalin. Apparently the Count did not know of Natesh’s plan to replace Edward.

The only people involved in the plot that we have not captured are the sorceress who helped transport Miss Brody to Hornsea and who hid their activities in York, the Earl of Dovercourt, and Mr Dower (who is not necessary in on the plot but is missing none-the-less).

Mrs Frazer’s interrogation of Mr Hawkesworth was not very productive. It turns out that he is completely mad. He believes that Sir Cosmo is a mass-murderer who holds us under his fiendish sway. He really did want to get Miss Chigwidgeon away from Sir Cosmo before she married him. He had no knowledge of the letter that was sent to Miss Wilhelmina. Mrs Frazer was able to determine that Mr Hawksworth’s father was the stoker on the experimental train. He would have been about 10 years old at the time of the disaster. He was recruited by Count Cannini by someone who knew of his obsession, that much is clear.

Now we are off to prepare Miss Chigwidgeon for marriage!

14 January 1871, Saturday

Yesterday was so busy I never did get back to this record...

After an already full pre-dawn slate we got our selves dressed and hurried to see to Miss Chigwidgeon. Miss Pinker was already there. Miss Wilhelmina looked like she could barely move given the weight of all the ribbons, bows and fancy-work she had persuaded the seamstress to add to her frothy dress. She and Miss Bertilde were dressed in pink. Mrs Cuthbert, Mrs Frazer and I wore burgundy (there had been a bit of arm wrestling over who would not wear pink early on– Mrs Frazer tried to stick me with it but I declined as it I am still officially in mourning for my father and pink would have been just too much. It would have looked quite nice on Mrs Frazer– her complexion had become quite rosy the past week or so. She is eating much more heartily than anytime since I have known her.)

The wedding went off without a hitch. No one fainted, no rings were forgotten and no one blew up the church. Lord Greyminster had invited the entire parish to the wedding breakfast and had opened folding wall between the dining room and ballroom to accommodate everyone. There were many many toasts to the couples' good health and fortune but I found Mr O’Flaherty’s to be the most moving.

He said that he hoped that Sir Cosmo and Lady Cowperthwaite would live a thousand years and that he would live one day shy of that thousand as he would not wish to live in a world without them.

He said it much more eloquently than that and, of all the toasts, his came closest to breaking my composure.

At last Miss Pinker nudged Lord Greyminster and the Cowperthwaites retired to their rooms. Lord Sidcup invited everyone over to his house for tea and continuation of the festivities. Graves assured me that the newlyweds would be well guarded and so we set off across the winter fields for Lord Sidcup’s. Throughout it all my family was tolerably well behaved. Though I could see James grinning like an idiot during part of the wedding service. Mother got misty eyed as the couple sealed their vows and Mrs John had an odd puckered look on her face.

I was making the rounds at the tea and found Mrs John introducing Betty to Sir Spencer. I took pains to let Sir Spencer know she was my much younger sister and he sensibly decamped to help Edward with the fireworks. Mrs John and I glared at each other for a few minutes before I steered Betty over to James and asked him to squire her about. Mrs John said that he should be meeting eligible young ladies not escorting his sister about. I told her that I hoped to be able to visit him at school more often now that my chaperone duties had been discharged. She mentioned that he was taking his studies much to seriously, as he had stayed at school through both Easter and Summer break this year. I forbore to mention that she had scared him off coming home by foisting her obnoxious cousins on him.

Instead I made my own excuses that I must go help with the fireworks.

I joined Edward, Albert (as Natesh now wishes to be called and who had been let out on the promise of good behavior), Sir Spencer Mr O’Flaherty, and Miss Betide. Edward gave us all our instructions and the fireworks went up all around us. He had apparently arranged with someone at Goxhill Hall, Goxhill Grange, and several neighboring farmsteads to send up fireworks on a predetermined signal. It was very beautiful.

However, something was wrong. According to Edward there was a hole in the pattern. Humphrey’s part in the display was missing.

We loaded up in the carriage and headed for the Grange. Somehow, in all the excitement none of us thought to send into the house and tell the rest of the league where we were going.

As we pulled up to the Grange I could sense that a veil had been laid around the building. I began raising power to remove it. We noticed a strange carriage in the drive. As Edward, Albert, Sir Spencer, Mr O’Flaherty, George, and Emily scrambled out of our carriage a thuggee jumped them, knocking Mr O’Flaherty to the ground.

I was pretty certain they could handle one thuggee and kept chanting. I was able to dispel the veil and could tell that another spell was in the works. By now the thuggee was down, Albert and Edward had gotten a head start into the house but Sir Spencer, Mr O’Flaherty, and Miss Bertilde were not far behind.

Once they vanished into the house I concentrated my full attention on dismantling the spell in progress. My spell came off correctly and whoever was raising power in the house stopped– or was stopped.

I sprinted into the house, being careful not to fall into the holes made during the last fight between Master Tandu, Salmalin, Mr O’Flaherty, and Miss Bertilde. There were quite a lot of them.

I arrived in the laboratory in the back of the house to find a gruesome sight. An old man was hooked up to some equipment that was pumping his blood out of his body and replacing it with an embalming solution. The man was still alive. A witch was lying unconscious in her spell circle with shards of broken glass all around. I had passed two unconscious thuggees in the hall and noticed another man was lying on the floor of the laboratory. Sir Spencer and Mr O’Flaherty were tying up the witch and the other man while Miss Bertilde was untying Humphrey.

I told any ghosts that might be around to send the league to us but that it was not an emergency. I don’t know if Sgt Frazer or the Senior Mr MacGregor were around but it certainly couldn’t hurt. George was sent off in the carriage to get Sir Anthony, Mrs Cuthbert, and Sir Charles (and any one else in the League that wanted to come).

Humphrey said that the man on the table had not listened to him about the importance of the fireworks. He was very upset, Edward fussed him and took him upstairs to set off the fireworks.

Albert was quite dazed. I bandaged his cuts and realized that he had been hit hard by a stun spell. It was too early to tell if the effects would be permanent or not.
Edward and I calculated that the man on the table had about 20 minutes left before all his blood was replaced by the solution. Edward and Humphry both said that the switch must be thrown at that point or the old man would be dead. Of course, if we did throw the switch he would become Undead. I decided that we need not make the decision ourselves– we had enough time to wait and see if Sir Anthony would arrive in time to guide us.

While we were talking, I suddenly remembered that the strange coach out front bore the coat of arms of the Earl of Dovercourt. It was highly likely that the man on the table was the same person who had been making our lives difficult for the past week.

Sir Anthony arrived with Sir Charles and the rest of the League (excepting of course Sir Cosmo and Lady Cowperthwaite). We briefed Sir Anthony. Sir Charles examined the Earl. Mrs Cuthbert and I discussed the possibility of healing the Earl– keeping him both from dying and becoming Undead.

Sir Charles announced that the Earl and his minions had failed to install the terminals necessary to recharge the body (apparently a painful and invasive procedure if one is living). So even if the Earl were successfully revivified he would run out of energy and there would be no way to recharge the body.

The decision was reached to allow Mrs Cuthbert, with my aid, to try to save the Earl’s life. We worked at it for some time before Mrs Cuthbert pulled away in surprise.

The body sat up and said “Ex subter id consumat” and fell back to the table quite unmistakably dead.

Mrs Cuthbert reported that some foul being had tried to seize her own life force, forcing her to pull away from the healing.

We did a ‘lay to rest’ spell, hoping to strongly encourage the Earl to stay dead.

Then we helped Sir Anthony secure prisoners and evidence, stowed them all safely, and returned to the party to say our goodnights.

Miss Bertilde’s gown had been ripped in the fight but, as it was a small tear, I was able to mend it magikally so it would arouse no comments.

We all slept soundly through the night and took the day off from our usual routine. Now that this record is up to date I am off to find Tattvik and see if she has given thought to my suggestion that she apply to Lady Cowperthwaite for the position of Lady’s maid.

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