by Sam Stone
10
‘How are you feeling?’ asked Mother as I opened my eyes.
It was morning and the light streamed in through the open curtains, even as fresh air wafted through the open balcony doors.
‘What happened?’ I said. I tried to sit but my head hurt. It was as if I had drunk too much of the fine wines and champagnes on offer the previous night, even though I knew that I barely touched a drop.
‘That was what I was about to ask you,’ said Mother. ‘You fired a gun in the middle of the night. Mr Pepper was the first to arrive to see what happened, I came next. In fact the whole household was awakened by it.
‘Oh goodness! Mother, I’m sorry. There was someone in here. Someone attacked me.’
‘There was no one in here. The balcony doors were shut, and we were in the corridor. There was no way this attacker could escape.’
The bedroom door opened and Henry came in. Since we had arrived in New Orleans I had barely seen him and we hadn’t spent any time alone at all.
‘Could I … speak to Henry alone please, Mother?’ I asked.
Mother sighed. ‘I’ve been here with you all night. I was quite worried my dear.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to cause you any worry at all.’
‘Well. I suppose I should go and change for the day anyway,’ Mother said.
Henry closed the door after her and hobbled over with his crutch, taking a seat beside the bed.
‘Sorry Kat,’ he said.
‘What for?’ I pulled myself up into a sitting position.
‘I invited you here and it hasn’t exactly been pleasant.’
‘Our hosts are very amiable,’ I pointed out. ‘But Henry what is going on? You and Maggie … your relationship isn’t what I thought it would be.’
‘It’s a long story.’
‘Well I’m not going anywhere at the moment.’
‘I don’t know where to start,’ he said.
‘Try the beginning. That usually works for most people.’
Henry nodded but he took a moment to gather his thoughts before he began his story.
‘I was off duty, wanting to wind down after a hard day of negotiations. You see my Major appointed me to the diplomatic posse who were trying to smooth things out in New Orleans. Our job was to help rebuild relationships between the North and South. And we had to work particularly with the landowners. They had lost out the most in the war and were trying to find new ways to live, particularly working alongside blacks and not treating them badly, or like slaves anymore.
‘So, I was kicking back in this bar. The truth was I losing badly in a game of poker and then this Southern gentleman came and sat down beside me. I only glanced at him while I continued to play, but I noted his expensive clothing and wondered briefly what he was doing in this cheap bar downtown. Though I didn’t wonder for long.
‘It was as though his presence brought with it lady luck. My fortunes turned. I began winning and winning well. Better than I had ever done. After a while all of the players dropped out. They couldn’t sustain the level of loss I suppose. But by then I was happy and ready to quit and taking my winnings on back to my hotel.
‘When the game was over, the Southern gentleman invited me to have a drink with him at the bar. I was curious about him and so agreed. It wasn’t lost on me that his sudden appearance had changed my luck and I didn’t mind buying him a drink based on that. I was feeling relaxed and happy. It made me unusually gregarious, and the man was easy company.
‘As we sat down, the bartender came over and took our orders. The man ordered sour mash whiskey and I went along with it. He introduced himself as the bartender poured our drinks and for the first time I looked directly at him. That’s when I noticed his strange coloured eyes. It was also the first time I met Orlando Pollitt.
‘Orlando and I became friends. When I learnt he was Big Daddy Pollitt’s son I couldn’t believe my luck. I’d been trying to get Big Daddy involved in the negotiations but every time one of our messengers invited him he declined to come.
‘When Orlando invited me over to the Plantation for dinner, I realised things were looking up. He told me he had already known who I was before I sat down, and he wanted his father to become involved in the discussions. Orlando thought it was important to the future of the South.
‘The Plantation wasn’t what I expected though. You know that Big Daddy had already reformed his way of working long before the war, and so Pollitt Plantation was the only thriving one in the area. I realised immediately that this was why Big Daddy had refused my invitations. He didn’t need us. He was doing fine all on his own. But this also meant that we needed him. A great deal. His insight would be a positive example to all of the other landowners.
‘That evening though, the first time here, I saw Maggie and I was immediately attracted to her. She was like honey to a bee for me. A fact that Orlando encouraged with open generosity. It was he that made it possible for Maggie and I to meet and be alone, and finally to fall so in love that we just had to be together.
‘Of course when Big Daddy found out, he got into a rage. He was calling Orlando all the names of the devil and I was banned from ever stepping foot on Pollitt land again. This meant that all the good work I had been doing with him to help at the next conference just all crumpled. I didn’t care though. I resigned my commission – even though the Colonel tried to talk me out of it. And Orlando helped Maggie and I elope. “It’s the least I can do,” he said.
‘So, Maggie and I ran away together.’
Henry paused and his eyes glistened with unshed tears of his remembered happiness.
‘That was the happiest day in my life, Kat. When Maggie said “I do”. I’ve never felt such joy.
‘Of course, Big Daddy finally came around to accepting the situation. I think Orlando, bless his kind soul, had much to do with it. He loved Maggie and wanted her to be happy. And she was. We were. Until now.’
‘What’s changed?’ I asked.
Henry sighed. He bowed his head a moment as though he had to take time to get round to the awful thing that had ruined his life.
‘All was good. We bought our own place. It wasn’t all of … this …’ he said gesturing around himself to indicate the wealth and ostentation on the plantation. ‘But it was good. The trouble was, Big Daddy wanted his eldest daughter to have the best of everything.
‘So, when we all began to make nice. He asked us to move back onto Pollitt land.’
Henry grew quiet again.
‘I was all for it. But both Maggie and Orlando said it might not be such a good idea. I didn’t understand. Not then.’
I sat up in the bed, making myself a little more comfortable as Henry continued. I felt as though I was on the cusp of some revelation. That somehow I was going to learn exactly what had happened here, and what the dark shadow was that haunted the house.
‘I agreed to come and visit the Plantation with Maggie, see how we got on here. But we decided we would still maintain our own little house in New Orleans. The night before we came over though, something really peculiar happened.
‘I had been called to see the Colonel, he wanted to persuade me to take my job back. He said I was a “fine officer and a great negotiator” and that my marriage to Maggie might actually help things in the long run in the area. I told him I would consider it. I wanted to talk to Maggie about his offer and so I came straight back to our little house.
‘The house was in darkness as I arrived home. It was late and so I thought Maggie had gone to bed. I went into our parlour, poured myself a brandy to help me relax a little while I thought over the Colonel’s words.
‘A little while later I woke to find I had fallen asleep in the chair by the fire. I stood up, stretched a little then went upstairs to bed.
‘As I opened the bedroom door, I found Maggie lying on top of the bed. Her clothing was all in a disarray and she was breathing really hard as though she had caught some kind of fever. The room was cold. I pull
ed the blanket up over her and then turned to the window, planning to shut the door that was open, which I thought was the cause of the chill in the room. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a man leaving through the door. I was so shocked I almost didn’t know what to do. Then this rage came over me.
‘I pulled out the hand pistol I keep in the drawer beside the bed and I rushed at the door, calling and yelling after the blaggard. By the time I reached it, the man was gone. I returned to the bed, shook Maggie awake and asked her what had happened. She denied that anyone had been there.
‘Well I love my wife, and so I wanted to trust her. I could put it down to tiredness, me half asleep like that stumbling into our room, but the whole scenario worried at my mind. I was sure there was something Maggie wasn’t telling me. So we carried on as normal. The next day she was fine and lovely, and full of love for me as we packed up the carriage and drove into the Plantation.
‘When we got here Maggie began to behave oddly. During the day she was fine, but in the evening she would get all nervous and edgy. Sometimes she would start to cry and beg me to leave this place with her. She said that if we didn’t leave soon something awful was going to happen. Of course I didn’t believe her. I thought that her problem was just she didn’t like being here anymore. Not with Big Daddy the way he was behaving. “He’s trying to buy you,” she told me once. “Just like he does everyone. We don’t need all this. Henry, I’m happier when we are on our own.” I should have listened to her.
‘About a week after we arrived, strange things started to happen. At first I thought it was all in my imagination. But sometimes I would see Maggie talking to someone. A man. Oh she would deny it. Saying I was seeing things. There were no strange men on Pollitt land that weren’t family. One night I saw her though. Out on the lawn, close to the pond. And the man put his arms around her and kissed her. Just like she was his wife and not mine!
‘Of course I flew into a rage again. I wanted to kill him. But when I ran outside she was alone. After that I knew there was someone else in her life. She continues to deny it. But I saw it with my own eyes.’
‘But you haven’t found out who?’ I said.
Henry shook his head, ‘No. And no one else will talk. Not even Orlando. All he says is, “I told you not to bring her back here”. I’m at my wit’s end Kat. I don’t know what to do. Every night Maggie is in my room, in my bed. But I can’t think beyond the knowledge that she has a lover. I can’t touch her no more. It makes me heart sick.’
‘Henry,’ I said. ‘You’ve been a total idiot. Maggie isn’t having an affair. She clearly loves you.’
‘I know what I saw Kat. How do you explain her being in the arms of another man? Even if the cowardly-dog keeps hiding himself from me and the world.’
‘I can’t explain it. Yet. But I will. And I also know who might be able to explain some of what’s happening here. Can you take me into town? I need to send a telegram. I think Pepper and I are going to need some help and advice from a well-read friend of ours.’
11
It was early evening on the fifth day of our visit. I was standing on the balcony when I saw a large balloon, made out of thick coarse canvas, silhouetted against the sunset. I hurried to Pepper’s door and knocked on. It took him a moment to answer but as he opened the door he looked beyond me noticing immediately what I had come to tell him.
‘Martin’s here,’ he said. ‘I hope your new in-laws aren’t too unhappy about having another visitor sprung upon them.’
‘They will be too polite to complain,’ I said. ‘Mother might not like it though …’
We had spent the day examining the layout of the house. The room that I thought I’d seen the day before didn’t exist. Or appeared not to. But I was certain of what I had seen and so Pepper and I began to ask questions. Was there a room ever there? Who might have occupied it? Why would it be sealed up and hidden?
Of course we didn’t ask these questions of the family or the servants. Just discussed the possibilities together, wondering what we could do and who to approach without making our curiosity too obvious.
‘Kat?’ Mother called.
She too had come out onto the balcony. Maybe she had heard me knock on Pepper’s door and was wondering why I would go to his room like that. Her constant chaperoning lately was beginning to irritate me. Pepper and I had been finding it extremely difficult to be alone and to talk lately. If Mother wasn’t there, then Sally was, and when both of them were absent I was still being courted by Orlando.
That evening we were all dressed for the evening party. This was the formal wedding evening for Maggie and Henry and many of the local landowners and gentry had been invited, as well as some distant relations of the Pollitts, to help them celebrate the marriage, even if it was somewhat belated.
‘I’m here,’ I said.
Mother joined Pepper and I on the balcony and turned her head to see what we were looking at.
‘Oh no!’ she said. ‘You didn’t!’
‘Didn’t what, Mother?’ I said.
‘You didn’t ask that gunslinger to come …’
‘Martin is not a gunslinger, Mother … He’s an inventor.’
Even so I smiled. I had an image of Martin weighed down with his steam-powered, clockwork and SunPan energy weapons in some backwater town, dark hair falling into his eyes as he squinted up towards the midday sun. Most women would see him as a romantic figure I suppose. I could also see why Mother worried about my relationship with him, as well as with Pepper. But, like Pepper, I knew Martin too well to become romantically involved with him. And … both of them knew me too. Despite her concerns we were not some obscene ménage à trois.
‘You invited him,’ Mother said again.
‘We need his help,’ I said.
‘Whatever for?’
‘I can’t say at the moment. Best you don’t know …’
Mother sighed and was just about to argue when Pepper chipped in. ‘Mrs Lightfoot, would you like me to escort you and Sally down to the drawing room. A nice long drink of something cold and refreshing is just what we all need right now.
Mother was, as always, too well-mannered to argue with Pepper and so she let him take her arm, and he led her back to her room to fetch Sally. As they reached the door to her room, she turned and glowered at me. Mother’s anger was something I could handle though. For now it was important to learn what kind of entity we were dealing with at Pollitt Plantation, and how to rid them of it as soon as possible. It was obvious to me, if not to anyone else, that somehow this thing was responsible for the rift between Maggie and Henry, and was indeed affecting our behaviour too.
By the time Pepper returned from escorting Mother and Sally downstairs, Martin’s airship was hovering above the lawn.
It was an imposing thing. The basket had been replaced with what could only be described as a small galleon-like ship. The canvas balloon above, which was double the width of the ship it carried, made the whole thing stand as tall as the house. As we walked across the lawn to greet Martin as he landed I looked back at the building and noticed that the airship – and truly it was more deserving of that name now than it had ever been – actually threw a shadow over the house.
This close I could see that the ‘ship’ was covered by a thin layer of highly polished metal over what had first appeared to be wooden planks. Instead of the usual invisible nails, the metal planks were secured by large rivets. On deck, I noticed that the control box, which was housed below the balloon and contained the various dials and levers which Martin used to control his flight, was much larger than its predecessor and had some additional switches and buttons too. Either side of the balloon were two large engines that were probably activated by the controls when the steam engine producing the hot air that pumped into the balloon wasn’t enough. Martin stood at the helm, turning the wheel just as he might have had he been on the high seas. There was even a kind of rudder that moved in the air with each small turn.
Of course the mac
hine was noisy. And steam poured out from a long, thick pipe that was attached to the side of the ship. It produced almost as much engine noise and pollution as the steam train that we had travelled across the country on. But as Martin dropped those final few feet to the ground, the engine silenced and the steam came out of the pipe in one final hiss.
‘You’ve made some changes,’ I called up as Martin leaned over the starboard bow and saluted.
‘I did make a few tweaks,’ said Martin.
‘What on Earth is going on?’ said Big Momma as she came out from the drawing room onto the lawn. I saw that Mother was looking out from the room. She was flushed red as though she were embarrassed by the whole situation – which I suppose she was. I knew then that another long and stern conversation was coming my way soon.
I smiled at Big Momma though, determined to make light of Martin’s appearance. She was wearing a bright red gown that had the widest skirt I had ever seen – and the lowest neckline. She looked very pretty to be honest and it was difficult not to note the contrast between her and Mother once more. I wondered if it was just a personality thing. Big Momma was very vivacious, whereas Mother tended to be very reserved all the time and rarely let herself relax and enjoy anything.
‘Big Momma,’ I said. ‘This is a friend of ours, Martin Crewe. I hope you don’t mind. He’s practically family and I invited him over.’
Martin lowered a rope ladder over the side and climbed down with practiced agility. He hammered some mooring ropes into the ground – although the ship appeared to be heavy enough to keep itself on the floor – and then he came over to allow me to properly introduce him. Fortunately he wasn’t wearing all of his weapons. This might at least appease Mother in some small way. But he did have an ordinary looking holster belt and gun slung over his slim hips. I suspected that the weapon inside the holster was anything but ordinary though.
‘I do hope you don’t mind my parking the Airship here,’ Martin said to Big Momma as he bowed over her hand.
Big Momma was completely charmed by his dark good looks, just as she had been by Pepper’s blond handsomeness, and so I knew immediately that all would be well. In fact she was rather pleased by Martin’s impromptu appearance as she flirted with him outrageously.