“How did you arrive so quickly?” Violet asked, enveloping daughter and feline in her arms while Sam shook Benjamin’s hand and offered congratulations on their marriage.
“Both trains and ships were very efficient, much to Mrs. Soft-paws’ relief,” Susanna said, scratching the cat behind the ears.
“We are so pleased you are here,” Violet said, standing back from Susanna just to drink in the fact that her daughter was really here, in front of her. “Both of you. Benjamin, I am delighted to call you my son-in-law.”
“It is my honor to be a member of the Harper family,” he replied.
“How long will you stay? We must plan to go to the British Museum, and to a pantomime show in Drury Lane, and I hear there is a traveling circus in the city—”
Susanna laughed, the tinkling sound a balm to Violet’s soul. “Oh, Mother, I don’t know if there’s time for all of that. Benjamin and I are here mostly to check on you.”
Violet was puzzled. “To check on me? I’m quite fine.”
“Father says otherwise.”
Violet looked at Sam, who made it a point to inspect a piece of sculpture on a pedestal nearby.
“What does my husband say?” she asked.
“He writes that you have been involved in all manner of murder and mayhem and pandemonium. We don’t want to visit any tourist sites until you sit down and explain to us in great detail what has happened these past few months.”
Violet did so, leaving out nothing. As she explained everything to her family in great detail, it occurred to her that perhaps she was indeed becoming a bit of an amateur detective.
Not that Inspector Hurst would agree.
But what did it mean for Violet, being an amateur detective? Thus far, she’d been close to her own demise on several occasions. What if next time she wasn’t as fortunate as she’d been thus far?
Yet Violet had helped to bring justice for several people callously murdered in London. Wasn’t that worth the perils involved?
The dead deserve justice as much as the living do, Violet Harper, and you know more about the deceased than anyone.
Yes, it was worth it. It was worth all of the possible danger, risk, and tribulation to protect the dead.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Mold Riot of 1869 occurred as described in this novel, with a group of angry townspeople attacking the policemen escorting a pair of convicted miners to the train station for a month’s hard labor at Flint Castle. Soldiers arrived and fired into the crowd, killing several, including a nineteen-year-old housemaid named Margaret Younghusband. Her half brother, Reese Meredith, is a figure of my own imagination.
Feminism was in its nascent stages in the Victorian era. In fact, the term “feminist,” coined by utopian socialist and French philosopher Charles Fourier, did not appear until 1872. I have chosen to call members of this early group moralists. Largely an evangelical movement, it was concerned primarily with basic human rights and dignity, hence their concern with the Contagious Diseases Acts, which placed humiliating burdens of examination and potential imprisonment upon prostitutes, while exempting from any such burdens the men who hired them. The suffrage movement also began in 1872, although the Victorian woman’s activist probably wouldn’t even recognize the feminist movement of today.
As a passionate Christian, Josephine Butler (1828–1906) abhorred the sin of prostitution but also regarded women as exploited victims of male oppression. After the death of her only daughter, Josephine sought solace by ministering to people at a workhouse and had her first encounter with the despair of prostitutes. Her husband, George, encouraged her activities, so when a national campaign was started in 1869 to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts she set up the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts and became actively involved.
The Contagious Diseases Acts were passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 1864, with modifications made in 1866 and 1869. The legislation allowed police officers to arrest prostitutes in certain ports and army towns, then subject the women to compulsory checks for venereal disease. If a woman was declared to be infected, she would be confined in what was known as a lock hospital until “cured,” generally a period of three months. By 1869, the acts expanded to allow for interment in lock hospitals for up to a year.
Lock hospitals were seriously underfunded and did not have enough beds for the number of prostitutes being confined. Thus many of these women ended up in workhouse infirmaries, which were ill equipped to handle these cases.
The level of prostitution was high in Victorian England, and it was predominantly a working-class profession, common in commercial ports and pleasure resorts. The nature of it makes it difficult to establish the exact number of prostitutes operating in the Victorian era, but judicial reports from 1857 to 1869 estimate the number to be between 50,000 and 368,000.
Regulating prostitution was not an attempt to protect the prostitutes themselves but to control the high level of venereal disease in Great Britain’s armed forces. By 1864, one out of every three sick cases in the army was caused by venereal disease.
The issues surrounding the Contagious Diseases Acts and venereal disease created significant controversy within Victorian society, as debate erupted over the double standards between men and women. It was one of the first political issues that led to women organizing themselves and actively campaigning for basic human rights. There was a great deal of energy behind the repeal of the acts, led by people such as Josephine Butler. After an active campaign involving hundreds of meetings and petitions totaling more than 2 million signatures, the acts were finally repealed in 1886.
The notion of the Princess Louise (1848–1939) as a feminist (or moralist) is not far-fetched. The sixth of Victoria’s nine children, Louise was considered the most beautiful of the queen’s four daughters. Always interested in the advancement of women, she was a regular correspondent with Josephine Butler and other women’s rights activists. Louise knew that she could best serve her causes by remaining in Britain, instead of becoming the consort of a foreign prince.
She demonstrated a rebellious streak early on, by falling in love with her brother Leopold’s tutor, the Reverend Robinson Duckworth (1834–1911), whom Victoria dismissed in 1870, a year later than I have it occurring in this story.
Princess Louise then set her sights on John Campbell, the Marquess of Lorne and heir to the dukedom of Argyll. Victoria had arranged dynastic marriages for her children with royal houses throughout Europe, making her known as the grandmother of Europe. After a minimal amount of argument from her mother and Parliament, Louise was permitted to marry her commoner, so considered although he was a British aristocrat. Such a marriage was nearly unprecedented, having not occurred since Charles Brandon was permitted to marry the Princess Mary, Henry VIII’s sister, in 1515.
Albert Edward or “Bertie” (1841–1910), the Prince of Wales, had an acrimonious relationship with the queen’s favorite, John Brown (1826–1883). In fact, after the queen’s death in 1901 Bertie had destroyed as many of Brown’s letters and other mementos as he could possibly find.
The prince was also implicated in the divorce proceedings of Sir Charles Mordaunt (1836–1897) against his wife, Harriet Sarah Moncreiffe. Sir Charles was a country squire primarily interested in hunting and shooting expeditions. Unfortunately, he married Harriet, an empty-headed beauty. She caught the eye of the prince, and while Sir Charles was away in Parliament or off killing foxes she was entertaining Bertie and many other aristocratic lovers.
In 1869, Harriet gave birth to an illegitimate daughter and confessed all to her husband. When Sir Charles discovered his wife’s perfidy, he went on a rampage, threatening to name the Prince of Wales as a corespondent in his divorce case. He never did so, mostly because his father-in-law announced that his daughter was mad and had her incarcerated in a series of locations.
It should be noted that I have Mordaunt loudly decrying the Contagious Diseases Acts in Parliament in 1869, whe
reas in reality he’d left Parliament by 1868.
Bertie’s wife, the Princess Alexandra of Denmark, or “Alix” (1844–1925), endured the Mordaunt scandal during a pregnancy and indeed spent years gracefully surviving her husband’s many affairs. Ironically, Alix and Bertie had a very affectionate relationship. Things were not so affectionate with her mother-in-law, as the queen was very fond of the Prussians and Alix was not.
Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom, despite her Christian piety became acutely interested in the occult, especially after the deaths of her mother and husband in 1861. Victoria had several spiritual advisors, including John Brown, who became her spiritual medium through whom she contacted her dead husband, Prince Albert. Interest in spiritualism and the afterlife was widespread during the Victorian era, understandable given their serious attitudes toward death and dying.
The queen’s interest in death and dying must have been acute, since she was not only permanently bereaved by her husband’s death, but she also survived no fewer than seven assassination attempts in her life. Three of her attackers went into mental asylums, two were transported to Australia, one received an eighteen-month sentence, and one was given a one-year sentence and a caning. Less than pleased by the light sentences, Queen Victoria insisted that laws be changed so that defendants could be found both “insane” and “guilty.”
Despite the numerous attempts on her life, the one I portray in the book is completely fictitious.
Queen Victoria regularly held Drawing Rooms at Buckingham Palace. Their purpose was to permit aristocrats to present their marriage-eligible daughters to the queen. The young woman would be dressed in her finest and would curtsy before the queen, who would exchange a few innocuous pleasantries with her before turning to the next girl to be introduced. Thus “presented,” an aristocratic young woman was a far better catch in the marriage market. An invitation to a Drawing Room was a singular event in a girl’s life. Drawing Room receptions could also be used for the presentation of foreign diplomats to the British sovereign.
Although the mourning jewelry that Violet helps Louise and her friends make was extremely popular in Victoria’s reign, the eye portraits that the Princess Beatrice (1857–1944) paints had fallen largely out of fashion after the eighteenth century, when they were called lovers’ eyes and given as romantic gifts. Eye portraits did experience a short resurgence of popularity in the Victorian era as mourning pieces.
An able actress and dancer, as well as a keen artist and photographer, Beatrice was the queen’s favorite child, and in fact Victoria referred to her as “Baby” for most of her childhood, an unusually affectionate nickname for the queen to use. Victoria kept Beatrice at her side almost constantly.
Because the queen kept the young girl from experiencing life outside the privileged confines of the royal palaces, Beatrice spent considerable time in John Brown’s company, working with him to carry out the queen’s wishes. Beatrice was also a devout Christian, fascinated by theology until her death at age eighty-seven.
Prince Leopold (1853–1884), the second-youngest of Victoria’s offspring, was a sickly child, having inherited hemophilia through his mother. Hemophilia is a blood disorder that decreases the body’s ability to create blood clots and thus causes the sufferer to bleed severely from even a slight injury. He was nearest to Beatrice in age, but he was often confined and she spent little time in his company. Leopold died in 1884 at the age of thirty, after a brief two-year marriage.
In 1869, Karl Marx (1818–1883) was on the General Council of the International Workingmen’s Association and regularly gave speeches encouraging his viewpoints. Originally from Prussia, Marx moved to London from Paris in 1849 and remained there the rest of his life.
William Morris (1834–1896) was a textile designer, artist, writer, and libertarian Marxist who was well known for his wallpaper and furniture design in the English Arts and Crafts style. Along with several partners he founded Morris, Marshall, and Faulkner at Red Lion Square in London, offering a range of stained glass, carpets, furniture, wall hangings, and tapestries.
John Walter III (1818–1894) was the proprietor of The Times as well as a member of the House of Commons.
Evelyn Denison (1800–1873) was Speaker of the House from 1857 to 1872. He was raised to the peerage after his retirement and became the First Viscount Ossington.
William Norton held his position as superintendent of the mews for over thirty years.
Henry Peach Robinson (1830–1901) was an English photographer best known for his work in joining multiple negatives together to form a single image, an early example of photomontage. The reader should note that by 1868 Robinson had relocated from London to Tunbridge Wells, yet I have chosen to have him still working in London in my story’s time frame.
Postmortem photography was common in the Victorian era for two reasons. First, because photography was still fairly new in the late 1860s, most people did not have such portraits routinely made. If someone died unexpectedly, a picture made after death might be the only one that the deceased’s loved ones would ever have.
Second, the Victorians considered an after-death photograph a very sentimental keepsake, much like mourning brooches. Hence the subjects would be posed in various ways with their loved ones, with the photographer often employing techniques to make the subject as lifelike as possible.
Most postmortem photography would be done fairly quickly after the deceased breathed his last, since the Victorians did not typically embalm their dead and so burial happened within a few days of death.
Queen Victoria’s fifth child, Princess Helena (1846–1923), was never in very good health, although her mother claimed she was a hypochondriac. Like Louise, Helena enjoyed a healthy flirtation with a palace employee, librarian Carl Ruland, who also taught German to the young Prince of Wales. And, as with Louise’s infatuation with Reverend Duckworth, Ruland found himself dismissed in 1863 the moment the queen discovered their relationship.
Following Ruland’s departure, the queen searched for a proper husband and found him in Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (1831–1917). Schleswig and Holstein were two territories fought over not only by Prussia but also by Denmark, Princess Alix’s homeland, hence making the match politically awkward for the princess. However, Helena and Christian were devoted to each other and Victoria was delighted because Christian was willing to live in nearby Cumberland Lodge, thus keeping the princess near her mother, even if Victoria did scoff at her daughter’s many illnesses, real or imagined.
A final note: History can be inconvenient for a fiction writer when its events do not line up properly for a story. I have already mentioned a few date shifts I made for the sake of the story. In addition, I also point out to the reader that Queen Victoria’s birthday was on May 24. The public celebrations for her fiftieth birthday were held on June 2, 1869, the same day that the Mold riots were occurring in Wales. I have moved the date of her birthday festivities to a month later, to fit with the pacing of the novel.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Griffiths, Jenny, and Griffiths, Mike. The Mold Tragedy of 1869. Llanrwst, Wales: Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2001.
Louis, Anthony. Tarot Plain and Simple. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 1996.
Packard, Jerrold M. Victoria’s Daughters. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1998.
Underwood, Peter. Queen Victoria’s Other World. London: HARRAP, 1986.
© Jax Photography 2013
CHRISTINE TRENT lives in the Mid-Atlantic region with her husband, Jon, and five cats: Caesar, Claudia, Livia, Marcus, and Octavian. When she isn’t writing, you can usually find her scrapbooking, planning a trip to England, or haunting bookstores. She is currently working on the next book in the Lady of Ashes historical mystery series. Please visit Christine at www.ChristineTrent.com.
LADY OF ASHES
Only a woman with an iron backbone could succeed as an undertaker in Victorian London, but Violet Morgan takes great pride in her trade. While her h
usband, Graham, is preoccupied with elevating their station in society, Violet is cultivating a sterling reputation for Morgan Undertaking. She is empathetic, well versed in funeral fashions, and comfortable with death’s role in life—until its chilling rattle comes knocking on her own front door.
Violet’s peculiar but happy life soon begins to unravel as Graham becomes obsessed with his own demons and all but abandons her as he plans a vengeful scheme. And the solace she’s always found in her work evaporates like a departing soul when she suspects that some of the deceased she’s dressed have been murdered. When Graham’s plotting leads to his disappearance, Violet takes full control of the business and is commissioned for an undertaking of royal proportions. But she’s certain there’s a killer lurking in the London fog, and the next funeral may be her own.
In this unrestrained tale that is equal parts courage, compassion, and intrigue, Christine Trent tells of love and loss in the rigidly decorous world of Victorian society.
STOLEN REMAINS
After establishing her reputation as one of London’s most highly regarded undertakers, Violet Harper decided to take her practice to the wilds of the American West. But when her mother falls ill, Violet and her husband, Samuel, are summoned back to England, where her skills are as sought after as ever. She’s honored to undertake the funeral of Anthony Fairmont, the Viscount Raybourn, a close friend of Queen Victoria’s who died in suspicious circumstances—but it’s difficult to perform her services when his body disappears....
As she is the viscount’s undertaker, all eyes are on Violet as the Fairmonts and Scotland Yard begin the search for his earthly remains. Forced to exhume her latent talents as a sleuth to preserve her good name, Violet’s own investigation takes her from servants’ quarters, to the halls of Windsor Castle, to the tombs of ancient Egypt—and the Fairmont family’s secrets quickly begin to unravel like a mummy’s wrappings. But the closer Violet gets to the truth, the closer she gets to becoming the next missing body. . . .
A Virtuous Death Page 29