Being The Steel Drummer Part 25

When there was a pause, Jessie said, "Please, someone, tell me another story."

"I know," said Kathryn. "The journals. We found them in Victoria's studio. They're parts two and three of Victoria's set. We could read them. Oh wait, you don't really know about the first one, do you?"

Kathryn unfolded the story of Victoria's adventures. There was a lot of low-pitched snickering as Kathryn read from her notes about the Charlotte Cushman encounter.

"I studied Cushman when I team taught art history," said Farrel.

"Forget about her. I just want to know what happens when Victoria comes to Fenchester. I need a happy ending," said Jessie.

"Um, Evangeline only has two years before she falls from her horse in the forest," I said.

Jessie groaned.

Farrel said, "But do they hook up or not? That's the question."

"Let's see what Victoria has to say. I'm used to her handwriting." Kathryn took the thick little journals out of her bag, then hesitated. "I could use some latex gloves."

"I have a supply in my bag." The three of them stared at me. "For crime scene investigations, there's such a thing as fingerprints, you know. Honestly... minds in the gutter."

Kathryn pulled on the gloves and gently flipped to the end of the third journal. "Oh my, it ends in the 1930s. That's decades after Evangeline died. But the second one continues right on from the first volume. I'll read from that. Um, here are some things about travel arrangements to Philadelphia to present her piece for the Centennial Exhibition and all these pages are about getting ready for the opening of the exhibition. She talks about how many people were there on opening day. It was in Fairmount Park on the Schuylkill River and she says over 180,000 people attended the opening. And here she talks about the Women's Centennial Exhibition Executive Committee honoring her work in a special gallery along with Edmonia Lewis's... "

"Kathryn," said Jessie, "history is fine in its place, but could we hear about something a little more... uh..."

"Erotic?" suggested Farrel.

Kathryn laughed. "Ah, here's something about Fenchester." And then in her most s.e.xy bedroom voice Kathryn read from the flowing script: May 18th, 1876 The train to Fenchester was horribly late. My journey did not end until past midnight when the locomotive pulled into the station in the dead of night. The city was silent save for a crew of gandy dancers working by lantern light far down the track, where it curved out of the city.

"What's a gandy dancer?" asked Farrel. "Sounds like a group of hoochie koochie girls?"

"No," I said, "the gandy men were train track workers. They had to s.h.i.+ft the track back in place at sharp curves. They used big long bars called gandys and they sang songs that helped them all push at the same time."

"You know everything," said Kathryn, winking at me.

"I wish I did," I said softly.

"Read, read," said Jessie.

Kathryn resumed, When the train pulled to a stop I was not surprised to see the station deserted, but then to the delight of my heart, my angel appeared from a dark corner and rushed to meet me. When she was just a few feet away, she stopped short in profound hesitation... until I lifted my arms. She flew into them and held me fast, bringing me increasing joy.

I was deeply aware that this bold demonstration of emotion was unlike the Evangeline I had known in Rome. Although her letters over our three years apart had been quite personal and increasingly affectionate, while we had been together in Rome she had been all the more reserved than the other women at Charlotte's house. Even when we had had tea tete-a-tete, she was shy to look in my eyes, and when we walked together through the ruins, she did not take my arm. Upon our final parting, she simply offered her hand, though the tears in her eyes told me what I had hoped was more.

But, now, here she was, wrapped in my very fond embrace, which I sorely hope is quite more than a simple greeting from someone lonely and fearful of dire personal events.

I said simply, "My dear."

She said softly in my ear, "I have dared not beg you come, but I cannot express how glad I am that you are here, dear Victoria."

"Her embrace loosened finally and I held her at arm's length to look at her in the moonlight. She seemed tired, but her beauty has increased five-fold since we have been apart. Her sweet young features of three years ago have become the definition of grace, elegance, and allure.

My Evangeline had come to the train station to meet me with her sisters and had stayed the lengthening hours when she found the train lacked time. When her sisters grew faint-hearted and left for home as twilight fell, Evangeline stayed, chatting with the station master's wife and when that good lady left for home, Evangeline tarried alone save for a porter asleep on the platform next to a baggage carriage.

Evangeline woke the porter and I gave him directions to bring along my larger bags to Evangeline's home in the morning, whilst I carried my carpet bag by my own hand. I found myself guiltily pleased that her income had been reduced, so that likely there would be no guest room and thus I would be required me to sleep in a bed warmed by her entrancing form.

Alas, when we finally arrived at her small home, not really more than a tradesman's townhouse and yet curiously charming and comfortable, I found that indeed we would be sharing a bed. But also sharing it was her sister Adelaide, who woke when we opened the front door and flew to the front room to ask me all course of questions about my travels.

Addy is a kind and well-meaning girl of 18, though sharpness of wit is not her forte and she has only the merest shadow of Evangeline's striking features. (Same can be said for the youngest sister of the family, Geraldine, who shares a small alcove with Carlton, their young brother). When I finally was allowed to retire, Addy insisted on sleeping next to me, and indeed snored in my ear for the rest of the night.

I must see if there is a suitable hotel in town... Perhaps Evangeline might see her way clear to join me there. Yes, I shall commit to make that a certainty.

"I bet," said Farrel. "This is... um..."

"Remarkably frank for the Victorian era?" said Kathryn "Well, I was going to say hot, but I agree it's also frank."

Kathryn was gently flipping through the pages of the journal. "Don't skip any of the good parts!" said Jessie.

"Well, this is all about retrieving her luggage, which was lost for a while. So much for things being different in the olden days. And this is about sending for her tools and supplies to be brought to Fenchester to begin her commission for Irwin. It even has the name of the company that she hired to bring them. This is really a find."

"You're going to write an article about this aren't you?"

"Farrel, I'm going to use this as a basis for a significant book. It's a gem..."

"I wonder..." I thought for a minute. "I wonder if Suzanne found the first book in the library stacks. That would have made her excited."

"She might have been excited about any sort of research."

"Yeah, but she was found in Victoria's..."

Jessie sighed.

"Keep reading Kathryn," I said.

May 21st, 1876 Today, Evangeline and I had the entire afternoon together. I confess I am both elated and distraught. She told me quite directly of her serious financial problems, but I would have felt them not insurmountable, were I to help.

However, Evangeline also said, "Victoria, when a woman such as myself, who has no real skills and no family protection, and who has admittedly the serious responsibility of a family far less capable and far more desperate, it's simply a matter of making a good match. Surely my mother insists it is so and it seems to have been so, because I have consented to accept the proposal of General Merganser Hunterdon and having done this, I have secured future financial relief for my family."

I confess that when she said that to me today, I felt as though I was falling from a great height and it took me several moments to recover.

Finally I was able to ask meekly, "Do you love him?"

And much to my relief she replied, "My dear Victoria, I not only do not love him but I have an odious dislike of him. In fact, his advances have been unpleasant. He seems only interested in the most lurid aspect of matrimony, perhaps shadowed only by the support my family name can lend to his respectability."

"Oh no!" said Farrel, "Evangeline Fen's about to sell her virtue. Is this a romance novel or what?"

"Farrel, stop interrupting," said Jessie. "Go on, Kathryn."

"Hmmm, this is more about her luggage finally arriving and she's sending it to the Hamilton Hotel where she secured a suite. OK... Here's something. It's three days later..."

I have taken it upon myself to embark on serious research as to the root of Evangeline's financial problems. Whilst certainly true that the entire country has suffered from the bank panic and indeed many have been ruined, as far as I can see, a significant amount of the Fen family holdings are not only intact but flouris.h.i.+ng. Particularly the farms and lumber mill.

Evangeline insists that her financial advisors, Auerbach, s.h.i.+lling & Scand, have presented her with reams of papers showing crippling debt and she has carefully reviewed them. She really is quite astute when it comes to numbers, yet I fear she trusts these advisors far more than is their due. After all, whilst the dollars and cents add up to a loss, one does have to ask where the numbers have come from. It is not as though Evangeline is actually in the cornfield counting the bushels. The sums are brought to her for her review.

Debt comes from unlucky speculation and there is no indication that the shares Evangeline's family held were on margin. While overhead is a concern, the profits from the production areas of her holdings are clearly more than double the costs involved. So where, indeed, is this debt coming from? Who is doing the borrowing, and why? Are her advisors nefarious or just fools? Perhaps there is more than an obvious reason why they deign to use their initials in their signage.

Funds are certainly not overspent for the upkeep of Evangeline's family. They own this little house outright. It would surely be an ample and charming town home for one or two, plus housekeeper, were it not for the stable odors. Yet it is quite cramped with Evangeline, her mother, her aunt, and her two sisters and brother, along with the scullery who lives in the below-stairs quarters.

Evangeline has been told by Messrs. Auerbach, s.h.i.+lling & Scand that two substantial notes are due at the end of next month. And that payment of those will reduce her family income to near zero and turn them out of the house. Yet I cannot see how this is possible.

I have wired Franklin and asked him for the loan of an auditor to accompany me and Evangeline in the meeting two days hence with her financial advisors. Franklin, ever the doting and supportive brother, has wired back that he will also attend the meeting and in the meantime will look into the Fen holdings through other channels. He is arriving on the four o'clock train, tomorrow.

"Who's Franklin?" I asked.

"I looked him up," said Kathryn. "He's Victoria's younger brother, Franklin Cedarbrook Snow. He was a major Philadelphia lawyer even at the young age of twenty-eight. He ran for office and ultimately became a Senator and then a cabinet member under McKinley."

"Read more," said Jessie.

"OK, this is later that day."

It is quite late and I have just sent Evangeline home in a hack. The rooms I have taken at the Hamilton are comfortable but seem empty the moment she leaves. I have asked her to stay but she insists that her family feels more comfortable in the house when she is there.

I took these rooms not because I felt the need to leave the tiny Fen family home. In fact, I would gladly stay there regardless of the discomfort if only to be near my angel, but I needed a place to spread out the papers and financial records to elucidate the Fen family holdings.

Evangeline and I have found several significant discrepancies between actual shares and profits. I must say that Mr. Auerbach seems nothing more than an American Uriah Heap to me. Unctuous is quite the understatement and I caused Evangeline to laugh when I said so.

I ordered an intimate supper for the two of us to be delivered in my rooms. I found her looking at me with a brightness that warmed me. I was nearly seized with a pa.s.sion to take her into my arms, but that wouldn't solve anything, and both of us seem to know it.

As yet she is guarded. Perhaps that is so because I offered to cover her debts. I was in error. She is not the sort to be indebted to a dear friend, much less one she... well. It is perhaps a condemnation of our era that a woman would hastily enter a loveless marriage for security, but would never enc.u.mber a friend.

Kathryn turned the page and said, "This is after the meeting."

June 1st, 1876 I don't suppose this meeting could have gone better. It is gratifying to have Franklin here and he has taken to Evangeline. My brother knows me far to well to misunderstand my commitment to Evangeline. Like two children scheming as one, he is always on my side and I am glad to see he approves of my obsession. Franklin and his faithful accountant Mr. Purrit were able to lay plain the figures of Evangeline's so-called advisors, 'a.s.ses Three,' as Franklin calls them privately.

Franklin threatened them with criminal prosecution. They relented under his brilliant 'cross examination style' questioning and indeed I pride myself in that I was able to add quite a bit of enlightening information from my examination of the Fen family books, which I have reviewed without ceasing for the last several days.

Mr. Purrit easily confirmed that Evangeline is due several large sums from share investments that will not only cover any debt but will allow her family to live comfortably. Under pressure of prosecution by my formidable brother, the a.s.ses have admitted that..."

"Oh my G.o.d," said Kathryn scanning the page.

"What, what!?!" we all said in unison.

"...have admitted that... General Merganser Hunterdon had pressed them and indeed paid them to create this financial debacle for the Fen family. Franklin has already sent for the police and telegraphed state banking authorities."

Kathryn sat back in utter amazement.

"So, Ersatz, Shamming, and Scammed sold out the General!" said Farrel.

"But I'm afraid to ask what happened. Hunterdon was so wealthy and powerful he could have just had Brother Franklin and Mr. Pruitt thrown in jail or worse before they got out of town," I said.

Kathryn was gently flipping the pages to find out the future of the past.

"No, that's not what happened! Here, listen to this, just a few days later,"

June 7th, 1876 My brother is even more powerful than I had imagined!

Under further pressure the dastardly money counters who nearly ruined the fortune of my angel admitted they had caused the ruin of several other families and businesses in the district by simply confusing the books and presenting fraudulent bills. They did this under the direction of Merganser Hunterdon, to his financial advantage.

Via a series of telegrams Franklin has called an informal meeting of a wide range of powerful men from Harrisburg. They arrived by train this morning. Of course, I was not permitted to attend, but Franklin recounted everything to us later.

The problem, it seems, is that the General controls so much of the financial infrastructure of the state that he has effectively stalled his own indictment. The gentlemen from Harrisburg fear that the rocky economy that has been sh.o.r.ed up since the panic will collapse if the richest man in the state is prosecuted. And while he may be a crook, his own businesses are actually sound. It has been revealed that Merganser was instrumental in a great deal of the slave trade and purchase in the years before the war. As heinous as that surely is, he has a great deal of information about other key people in the Northern financial world who were also part of these nefarious dealings. He threatened to expose them if he is indicted.

So the government regulators have agreed to make a back room deal, as Franklin would call it. The majority of Merganser's corporation will now be run by a closely regulated network of new board members. Merganser will remain at liberty but he will be powerless. He'll draw an allowance and I suppose he will continue to control a small part of his own acc.u.mulated wealth. But for now, his Scrooge-like grasp is loosened on those weaker than he.

"It's always about money, isn't it?" I sighed. "So does this mean Evangeline doesn't need Victoria anymore, or is this where the doors open?"

"I'd hate to think money ended their relations.h.i.+p. Let's see, this is also from that day," said Kathryn.

I confess that the vast majority of my concern has always been for Evangeline and now everything has changed. I have already taken rooms for her family at the Hamilton Hotel, where they will reside until a more suitable residence can be arranged. Meanwhile I find myself oddly drawn to the little tradesman's row home on Was.h.i.+ngton Mews. I believe I may purchase it and rebuild the inside with modern convenience. I think I shall reside there while I work on my sculpture commissions for Irwin College. I'll plant lavender in every free inch of earth in order to overcome the mephitic odor.

Yet, dear journal, what this means for Evangeline and... me... I do not know. I can at least rest a.s.sured that any question of marrying that criminal general is out of the question. Yet... the Harrisburg power brokers have asked that Evangeline's engagement continue for a suitable period, because as it turns out, Gen. Hunterdon's engagement to one of the state's oldest families has helped to stabilize the state's banking system even more than his money has done.

"Well, how long is she going to have to pretend she's engaged to him?" asked Jessie.

"Well publicly, 140 years or so," I said.

"Hunterdon must have been furious. Oh look, it goes on to say here," said Kathryn.

Franklin tells us that Merganser is near to spontaneous combustion. Certainly Evangeline and I will not escape his verbal curses, but they are impotent in our world.

Evangeline has agreed to keep up appearances until all danger of the state's financial instability has pa.s.sed. She wants none of his money for herself but has already planned a series of public works including a vast public library, a network of schools for children, an education program for poor mothers, and a modern hospital with a nursing school for women on the edge of the city.

"Until all danger of the state's economic instability has pa.s.sed? Well, no wonder the myth of their devotion to each other has survived for 140 years," Farrel said.

"Well, well, doesn't this cast a different light on the city of Fenchester?" said Kathryn, pausing to sip some more wine. "Now, these next few pages are all about the allocation of various monies. They did leave Merganser with control of a few things-the funeral home, the Majestic, some land holdings... an office building. Based on what Franklin said about a board controlling Hunterdon's money, how was it that so much of the city's philanthropy is attributed to him?"

"Well, he did have some money left, but why did he throw himself into commissioning all those beautiful sculptures of Evangeline after she died? He must have hated Victoria Snow, but he ended up giving her twenty dollars every day for the rest of her life for those commissions? Why?"

"Yeah, hard to explain, but can we get back to the romance?" asked Jessie. "Isn't there anything else?"

"Yes, here, about a week later." Kathryn read, June 17th, 1876, The heat wave that is lowering the attendance at the Centennial in Philadelphia has. .h.i.t Fenchester. The weather is oppressively hot, nearly 100 degrees in the shade at not even ten in the morning. These steamy days are giving me second thoughts about living so close to a vast stable.

Evangeline has suggested we ride into the country. I confess I am not the horsewoman she is, but I would ride an elephant if that were the key to finding moments alone with her. I must bring forth the spirt of Charlotte Cushman and not be complacent. Though being with Evangeline as dear friends has been a pleasure, I can wait no longer. What would Charlotte do? Yes, well, I know exactly what Charlotte would do!"

Kathryn scanned the rest of the page and the next two, then she said, "OK this was written the next morning:"

Were I not tethered to the earth by the heavy garments my s.e.x must endure, I would fly over the rooftops. Today may well have been the best day of my life, but I place hope in that it is just one of a lifetime of happy days to follow.

"Oh no, this is so sad," said Farrel. "Knowing what happens to her is like being able to see into the future."

"Focus on the present," I said. "Go on, Kathryn."