Items related to Poison To Purge Melancholy (Pat Montella Possessed...
Pat Montella should have loved the idea of spending Christmas with her boyfriend Hugh Lee in a romantic place like Colonial Williamsburg. But the trip also means meeting Hugh's mother and his siblings, and his moody teenaged daughter will be tagging along. On the bright side, Miss Maggie, Pat's best friend and surrogate grandmother, will be coming, too, and she knows all the words to every holiday song ever written. Still, Pat hasn't been feeling well lately, plus she'll be missing two big Italian feasts with her family back home, which could make anyone melancholy. Add to that a determined poisoner, too many doctors, a centuries-old murder, and a house haunted by a malicious Colonial ghost. This is bound to be one holiday Pat will never forget . . . if she survives.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
ELENA SANTANGELO is the author of the Possessed Mystery Series, which begins with Agatha Award finalist By Blood Possessed, and features sleuth Pat Montella, a corporate layoff victim turned ghostbuster. Elena's Twin Mystery Series features forensic psychologist Gen Ziegler and her identical twin sister, Sara, both college professors in Pennsylvania's Schwenkfelder region. You can read her short mysteries and ghost stories in Short Cuts to Mayhem. Her forays into non-fiction includes Yesterday, Today and Forever: The World War II Journal of Joseph B. Chicco, and Dame Agatha's Shorts: An Agatha Christie Short Story Companion, which won the Agatha for Best Nonfiction and was nominated for Anthony and Macavity Awards. Visit her at www.elenasantangelo.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.:
advent
December, Present Day
The first e-mail came the Sunday morning after Thanksgiving:
"hello how are you in dominion you know me"
The address was one of the free e-mail services with only "CMJSM43" as the name. The subject was simply "Message from the Internet," meaning the sender hadn't typed one.
He often got mail from unfamiliar addresses–the bane of having an e-mail link on an organization's website. Some of the messages were legitimate inquiries, most were junk mail–spam. At least CMJSM43 could spell.
The obvious choice was to hit the delete button. One word stopped him: Dominion. Yet he couldn't bring himself to reply, either.
The next Sunday brought another message from the same address:
"hello how are you we played cards hearts with spades remember"
Hearts with spades. He remembered all too well. Can insanity be forgotten? This time, because he needed to know, he did reply, "Where are you now?" and typed his initials below.
No answer. A relief. Until Sunday, December twentieth:
"hello how are you joyce erased your note i couldnt read it but Christmas i find you play spades"
"Strong-Beer, Stout Syder, and a good fire
Are things this season doth require."
–Titan Leeds, The American Almanac, December, 1714
December 3, 1783–The Eagle's Nest, Williamsburg, Virginia
"Ye've angels dancin' on your fiddle, lad." As John Brennan spoke, he set his pint of beer and his snuffbox upon the table. Every man in the room turned toward him in amazement.
Some twenty of us were gathered in the West Room of Mrs. Vobe's tavern, warmed by fire and drink and the company assembled at the long tables. The oaken panels softened the hearthlight so that our faces glowed the color of fine brandy. Our tall shadows swayed upon the walls not starkly, but as grasses 'neath the water of a millpond. I'd brought my violin and Jim Parker helped himself to one of the house guitars, so the lot of us had been enjoying an evening of song. No one had taken heed of Brennan, sitting quietly by the door, until he spoke of angels.
'Twasn't his praise that drew our notice. Compliments came to Brennan's tongue like mold to cheese. Once there, the flattery was tinted a soft Irish hue and delivered through a generous smile, the effect being that few listeners doubted his sincerity. However, he reserved compliments for his customers, not for poor men such as myself who could ill afford the luxury of snuff, even at Brennan's price.
But no, all eyes viewed his snuffbox. 'Twas never out of his hand in public and that hand never dropped below the plane of his shoulders, except to replenish his box from a cloth pouch in his coat pocket. He kept the snuff at the ready so that when a potential buyer happened within hearing, Brennan could sniff in a dose and remark upon the excellence of the tobacco. Red veins stood out on either side of his nose as testimony to the practice, but I'd seen him sell his wares on the street in this manner, and take away more shillings in an hour than I took in all week.
Now here he was, beer and snuff forgotten, the smile gone from his lips and perplexity in its place, his gaze lingering upon my fiddle, his eyes becoming rounder, as if every host of Heaven now occupied the instrument's curves. All from my rendering of "The Jolly Miller." A common rendering it had been, since my bow was in need of new horsehair and to make it last, I'd been forced to restrain my customary musical vigor.
Sam Walker, the only one of us seemingly unaware of Bren-nan's unnatural behavior, stood and raised his leather tankard. "A toast, gentlemen."
Everyone laughed, for 'twas Sam's custom to make such a proposal no less than twice with each new round, and to address every man thus, regardless of his birth and status.
I'd first beheld Sam's lean, red face at Germantown in '77. In the thick fog that day, he'd been estranged from his militia and had come upon me, wandering senselessly, knocked on the head by the wayward musket barrel of a less fortunate comrade who'd taken a British ball to his chest. Sam had led me to safety and stayed the bleeding of my skull with a strip of homespun from his own shirt. He'd saved my life thrice more in the next six years, and I his as many times.
"To Mr. Dunbar's angels," he said now. "May they cavort upon his fingerboard for many an evening to come."
"Huzzah!" the company shouted as one, hoisting their cups to their lips.
I bowed deeply. "Your pleasure is my own, good sirs."
"Ah," said Sam. "A wager then."
The men gathered closer, for Sam's wagers were more legendary than his toasts.
"Benjamin Dunbar has delighted us with his fiddle since coming to Williamsburg a month ago." Sam paused to allow the lads to express agreement and, to a man, all did, many pounding the table for punctuation. "From the Eve of All Souls onward, each time we've gathered here, Mr. Dunbar has played every song or dance requested of him, not once claiming unfamiliarity."
Agreement once more, mingled with a bit of wonderment. Sam hushed them by raising a hand. "I propose that, for a stake of tuppence apiece, each man buys the chance to name a tune unknown to Mr. Dunbar. Winner take the pot, or Mr. Dunbar, if he can play all."
Further conditions were set. I was to play each melody through, at which I insisted that, should I fail, my challenger be prepared to sing his own ditty, to prove its existence.
Tucking a wayward lock of my red hair back behind my ear, raising my fiddle to my chin, we began. I played better than three dozen tunes that evening, triumphing until the fourth go-round, when the stake had risen to half a shilling and two, and those wagering had dwindled to four souls.
Then Will Knox asked for a Welsh hymn he'd heard as a boy, of which he recollected not the name, but recited the first couplet. I'd heard the song once, though my memory brought forth only the opening phrase. To resolve the chord, I added the refrain of "Yankee Doodle," which made all laugh.
So ended the wager known ever after as "Walker's Fiddler's Challenge." Though Will took the biggest pot, by the close of our evening amusements, I had in my pocket five shillings four and three bits of a Spanish dollar which had not been there before. Placing my fiddle in its hemp case, I bid the barkeep goodnight and, with Sam at my side, stepped out into the wintry air, both of us buttoning our coats across our chests. The chill penetrated the wool of my stockings. I tilted my tricorn down to shield my face from the wind, saying, "By rights, Sam, you should have half of tonight's purse."
"You earned it, Ben. You're the best fiddler in Williamsburg. Nay, in all Virginia." Yet no smile colored his voice, and he turned not west along the path, but stopped to gaze eastward, toward the end of the street and the old capitol building. 'Twas now a grammar school by day, but after dark it took on a gloomy, forsaken aspect.
"Here are your own wagers, at least," I insisted, holding forth a shilling. "I'll not accept money from a friend."
Sam allowed me to place the coin in his palm, though by his expression, you'd think he'd never before felt silver. His only remark was, "The days grow short, Ben."
Puzzled by his mood, I replied lightly, "That they do, as always in December. 'Tis your favorite time of year, Sam, for the nights are long enough to allow for several trysts."
His mouth twitched into a smile then, but there was no jollity behind it. "I meant for Williamsburg. Not five years ago these windows were ablaze with light each evening."
He gestured along Main Street, where too few lamps twin-kled–faint stars through the damp air. The dim flicker of hearth-light shown in both taverns and in one upstairs window of Dr. Galt's apothecary, but no candles at this hour. Candles were conserved in times like this, when money was hard won. Yet–and I thought of the surplus of coin in my pocket–'twas times as this when fools entered most into wagers, in hopes of easy winnings.
Sam turned to view the Eagle behind us. "Williamsburg once had fourteen taverns, Ben. Now two are all that remain. Before the Revolution, this one was called the King's Arms. Only gentry passed through its door. Today I heard that Mrs. Vobe plans to sell."
"What then will you do for venison tarts?" I asked, joking, for Sam had a great appetite for Jane Vobe's meat pies. Yet the news was unsettling, for I was reminded how the citizens of Williamsburg seemed daily to dwindle in number, and that boded ill for my plans to situate myself here.
Sam moved then, turning westward, his feet crunching upon the oyster shells of the path. "The devil of it is that I cannot bear to stay behind Old Man Greenhow's counter much longer." Sam was a clerk in John Greenhow's store and had in the last month often stated his displeasure with the work.
"And yet," he continued, "the import trade is all I know. In truth, I fancy my own establishment." Sam paused, using his hands to outline an imaginary signboard in the air. "?Samuel Walker, Purveyor of Fine Goods.' A fine sound that has to it."
"You need wealth to open a store, purchase inventory, pay the ships–"
"Precisely my point." Sam resumed his walk, jamming his hands into his pockets in frustration. "Even if I had the means, with everyone leaving Williamsburg, who would be my patrons? Green-how already provides for the gentry still here–"
"And no one else can afford imports of late," I concluded, "with all the embargoes."
Sam agreed. "Still, if I could begin small, offering one item– French wine, perchance–that could be sold from my current lodgings, as Brennan does with his snuff."
I scoffed. "John Brennan's snuff is but the lowest quality tobacco, ground up with dry mint to make it tolerable. He sells for a shilling what costs him less than a penny to produce."
Sam paused, one foot poised in the air. When it came down, he touched his hat to me, saying, "Sir, I bow to your insight." Then he laughed, clapping me upon the back. "Do you see? I need not sell to gentry at all. I can claim as my customers Brennan's pa-trons–those middling folk who desire the luxuries of the gentry within their own means, and who already frequent Mrs. Carson's to deal with Brennan."
"Those folk can ill afford imported wine, even at cost."
"Imported from France, no. I could do my importing a bit closer to home. York County, say."
"And pass local wine as French? You'd be caught out."
We came even with the old powder magazine, an octagonal building used since the war as a market storehouse. Sam waved me ahead, for the path here was ill kept and it forced us to go Indian file to avoid the worst of the mud, but he carried on his plotting. "I'll call it Rhenish then. And if need be, I could travel farther afield for my stock. See you here, Ben, we've both maintained since the war began that Americans ought to trade more in their own goods. Why, I could make unwitting patriots of the lot of them."
I could but laugh at that and say over my shoulder, "I suppose this is no worse than your last week's scheme to marry a rich widow 'fore the New Year."
"The outcome is more pleasant. The wealthy widows hereabout all long ago lost their comeliness, if indeed they had any to start with. Why should beauty and fortune be so opposed, I wonder?"
"'Tis a device of rich men, to keep Sam Walker from bedding wife and daughter."
"A faulty device, then. A homely lass is often more willing than a pretty one, and the view remedied with ease by blowing out the candle. 'Tis only for the years of marriage that I require a handsome face, to gaze upon across the dinner table each day and not be put off my victuals."
The path widened before Mr. Greenhow's tenement and we walked abreast once more."Moreover, Sam, no widow would marry you, rich or poor, given your present income."
"Nor you," he returned with a laugh. "None save our landlady, at least, who'd meet you at the altar on the morrow if you showed a willingness. What about it, Ben? Elizabeth Carson owns her house and a half acre, and her Thomas has been in his grave more than two years now. Have the banns announced this month and you could be wed Twelfth Night."
I felt my face grow warm, for in truth, the prospect of marriage was one reason I'd come to Williamsburg. Yet the memory of Thomas Carson, my lieutenant for the late years of the war and as good a man as I'd ever known, could not be so easily dismissed. My reply was, "I'll not marry until I have means enough to improve my intended's circumstances."
"A noble heart, you have, Ben Dunbar. If it's means you want, well . . ." he looked about him, and though no one else occupied the street, brought his voice down almost to a whisper. "A few of us lads go about performing antics on Christmas Eve, and divide equally our take. With your fiddle along, I'll wager we'd double our profits this year."
"Antics? Mummery, you mean?" In the years before the war, bands of masked mummers–sometimes as many as a dozen separate companies an evening–had yearly come to demand entry upon the steps of Mr. Ivey's townhouse in Norfolk, some on Christmas Eve, some New Year's, some Twelfth Night. I'd watch them from the third floor window, until the mistress would send one of her manslaves out to chase them away without recompense. Like as not, they'd fire their pistols and muskets at the house, cursing the master, before moving on.
"In the best tradition," Sam assured me. "St. George and the Dragon. This season our saint shall be Washington and our dragon, George the Third. We'll end the evening at the Eagle and toast the Yule with rum punch. You know all the lads–Jim Parker, Will Knox, Alex Fisher–and I promised young Tom Carson he could shadow us."
No sooner was the name out of Sam's mouth, than the youth himself came running at us out of the darkness, wearing no coat, nor even his waistcoat. Young Tom was a boy of nine years, tall for his age, with the same broad, kind face as Thomas the elder as I remembered him before he'd died in camp not a week after the surrender. But this night the boy's face was deformed in horror.
"Mr. Dunbar! Mr. Walker!" he called, his voice breaking into its highest falsetto so that he had to swallow hard to gain control of it. He halted, flustered, and performed an awkward bow. "Your pardon, sirs."
As we hurried our steps to meet him, Sam lost his patience. "Manners be damned, boy. Tell us what's the matter!"
Tom straightened, his breath coming fast, one hand quelling a stitch in his side. "Mother says to come at once. Mr. Brennan has took a fit, raving as one mad. Mr. Parker and Doctor Riddick fear they cannot restrain him much longer."
o n e
December 24, Present Day
Fifteen minutes outside of Richmond, I knew I was insane.
Wistfully, I recalled Christmas Eve last year. I'd goofed off at work until our department potluck began. My tray of chocolate pizzelles had brought kudos from my co-workers–the only time all year, so I'd lapped it up. After work, I'd gone to Uncle Mario's for dinner. Since his wife was second-generation Sicilian, that meant seven fishes on Christmas Eve. I'm not crazy about the smelts or baccalà, but nobody does calamari like my Aunt Philomena. Good squid isn't something I get every day.
This year would have been Aunt Sophie's turn to invite me. Italian sausage and ricotta pie. And after midnight mass, we'd all go back to the house for homemade cannolis sprinkled...
December, Present Day
The first e-mail came the Sunday morning after Thanksgiving:
"hello how are you in dominion you know me"
The address was one of the free e-mail services with only "CMJSM43" as the name. The subject was simply "Message from the Internet," meaning the sender hadn't typed one.
He often got mail from unfamiliar addresses–the bane of having an e-mail link on an organization's website. Some of the messages were legitimate inquiries, most were junk mail–spam. At least CMJSM43 could spell.
The obvious choice was to hit the delete button. One word stopped him: Dominion. Yet he couldn't bring himself to reply, either.
The next Sunday brought another message from the same address:
"hello how are you we played cards hearts with spades remember"
Hearts with spades. He remembered all too well. Can insanity be forgotten? This time, because he needed to know, he did reply, "Where are you now?" and typed his initials below.
No answer. A relief. Until Sunday, December twentieth:
"hello how are you joyce erased your note i couldnt read it but Christmas i find you play spades"
"Strong-Beer, Stout Syder, and a good fire
Are things this season doth require."
–Titan Leeds, The American Almanac, December, 1714
December 3, 1783–The Eagle's Nest, Williamsburg, Virginia
"Ye've angels dancin' on your fiddle, lad." As John Brennan spoke, he set his pint of beer and his snuffbox upon the table. Every man in the room turned toward him in amazement.
Some twenty of us were gathered in the West Room of Mrs. Vobe's tavern, warmed by fire and drink and the company assembled at the long tables. The oaken panels softened the hearthlight so that our faces glowed the color of fine brandy. Our tall shadows swayed upon the walls not starkly, but as grasses 'neath the water of a millpond. I'd brought my violin and Jim Parker helped himself to one of the house guitars, so the lot of us had been enjoying an evening of song. No one had taken heed of Brennan, sitting quietly by the door, until he spoke of angels.
'Twasn't his praise that drew our notice. Compliments came to Brennan's tongue like mold to cheese. Once there, the flattery was tinted a soft Irish hue and delivered through a generous smile, the effect being that few listeners doubted his sincerity. However, he reserved compliments for his customers, not for poor men such as myself who could ill afford the luxury of snuff, even at Brennan's price.
But no, all eyes viewed his snuffbox. 'Twas never out of his hand in public and that hand never dropped below the plane of his shoulders, except to replenish his box from a cloth pouch in his coat pocket. He kept the snuff at the ready so that when a potential buyer happened within hearing, Brennan could sniff in a dose and remark upon the excellence of the tobacco. Red veins stood out on either side of his nose as testimony to the practice, but I'd seen him sell his wares on the street in this manner, and take away more shillings in an hour than I took in all week.
Now here he was, beer and snuff forgotten, the smile gone from his lips and perplexity in its place, his gaze lingering upon my fiddle, his eyes becoming rounder, as if every host of Heaven now occupied the instrument's curves. All from my rendering of "The Jolly Miller." A common rendering it had been, since my bow was in need of new horsehair and to make it last, I'd been forced to restrain my customary musical vigor.
Sam Walker, the only one of us seemingly unaware of Bren-nan's unnatural behavior, stood and raised his leather tankard. "A toast, gentlemen."
Everyone laughed, for 'twas Sam's custom to make such a proposal no less than twice with each new round, and to address every man thus, regardless of his birth and status.
I'd first beheld Sam's lean, red face at Germantown in '77. In the thick fog that day, he'd been estranged from his militia and had come upon me, wandering senselessly, knocked on the head by the wayward musket barrel of a less fortunate comrade who'd taken a British ball to his chest. Sam had led me to safety and stayed the bleeding of my skull with a strip of homespun from his own shirt. He'd saved my life thrice more in the next six years, and I his as many times.
"To Mr. Dunbar's angels," he said now. "May they cavort upon his fingerboard for many an evening to come."
"Huzzah!" the company shouted as one, hoisting their cups to their lips.
I bowed deeply. "Your pleasure is my own, good sirs."
"Ah," said Sam. "A wager then."
The men gathered closer, for Sam's wagers were more legendary than his toasts.
"Benjamin Dunbar has delighted us with his fiddle since coming to Williamsburg a month ago." Sam paused to allow the lads to express agreement and, to a man, all did, many pounding the table for punctuation. "From the Eve of All Souls onward, each time we've gathered here, Mr. Dunbar has played every song or dance requested of him, not once claiming unfamiliarity."
Agreement once more, mingled with a bit of wonderment. Sam hushed them by raising a hand. "I propose that, for a stake of tuppence apiece, each man buys the chance to name a tune unknown to Mr. Dunbar. Winner take the pot, or Mr. Dunbar, if he can play all."
Further conditions were set. I was to play each melody through, at which I insisted that, should I fail, my challenger be prepared to sing his own ditty, to prove its existence.
Tucking a wayward lock of my red hair back behind my ear, raising my fiddle to my chin, we began. I played better than three dozen tunes that evening, triumphing until the fourth go-round, when the stake had risen to half a shilling and two, and those wagering had dwindled to four souls.
Then Will Knox asked for a Welsh hymn he'd heard as a boy, of which he recollected not the name, but recited the first couplet. I'd heard the song once, though my memory brought forth only the opening phrase. To resolve the chord, I added the refrain of "Yankee Doodle," which made all laugh.
So ended the wager known ever after as "Walker's Fiddler's Challenge." Though Will took the biggest pot, by the close of our evening amusements, I had in my pocket five shillings four and three bits of a Spanish dollar which had not been there before. Placing my fiddle in its hemp case, I bid the barkeep goodnight and, with Sam at my side, stepped out into the wintry air, both of us buttoning our coats across our chests. The chill penetrated the wool of my stockings. I tilted my tricorn down to shield my face from the wind, saying, "By rights, Sam, you should have half of tonight's purse."
"You earned it, Ben. You're the best fiddler in Williamsburg. Nay, in all Virginia." Yet no smile colored his voice, and he turned not west along the path, but stopped to gaze eastward, toward the end of the street and the old capitol building. 'Twas now a grammar school by day, but after dark it took on a gloomy, forsaken aspect.
"Here are your own wagers, at least," I insisted, holding forth a shilling. "I'll not accept money from a friend."
Sam allowed me to place the coin in his palm, though by his expression, you'd think he'd never before felt silver. His only remark was, "The days grow short, Ben."
Puzzled by his mood, I replied lightly, "That they do, as always in December. 'Tis your favorite time of year, Sam, for the nights are long enough to allow for several trysts."
His mouth twitched into a smile then, but there was no jollity behind it. "I meant for Williamsburg. Not five years ago these windows were ablaze with light each evening."
He gestured along Main Street, where too few lamps twin-kled–faint stars through the damp air. The dim flicker of hearth-light shown in both taverns and in one upstairs window of Dr. Galt's apothecary, but no candles at this hour. Candles were conserved in times like this, when money was hard won. Yet–and I thought of the surplus of coin in my pocket–'twas times as this when fools entered most into wagers, in hopes of easy winnings.
Sam turned to view the Eagle behind us. "Williamsburg once had fourteen taverns, Ben. Now two are all that remain. Before the Revolution, this one was called the King's Arms. Only gentry passed through its door. Today I heard that Mrs. Vobe plans to sell."
"What then will you do for venison tarts?" I asked, joking, for Sam had a great appetite for Jane Vobe's meat pies. Yet the news was unsettling, for I was reminded how the citizens of Williamsburg seemed daily to dwindle in number, and that boded ill for my plans to situate myself here.
Sam moved then, turning westward, his feet crunching upon the oyster shells of the path. "The devil of it is that I cannot bear to stay behind Old Man Greenhow's counter much longer." Sam was a clerk in John Greenhow's store and had in the last month often stated his displeasure with the work.
"And yet," he continued, "the import trade is all I know. In truth, I fancy my own establishment." Sam paused, using his hands to outline an imaginary signboard in the air. "?Samuel Walker, Purveyor of Fine Goods.' A fine sound that has to it."
"You need wealth to open a store, purchase inventory, pay the ships–"
"Precisely my point." Sam resumed his walk, jamming his hands into his pockets in frustration. "Even if I had the means, with everyone leaving Williamsburg, who would be my patrons? Green-how already provides for the gentry still here–"
"And no one else can afford imports of late," I concluded, "with all the embargoes."
Sam agreed. "Still, if I could begin small, offering one item– French wine, perchance–that could be sold from my current lodgings, as Brennan does with his snuff."
I scoffed. "John Brennan's snuff is but the lowest quality tobacco, ground up with dry mint to make it tolerable. He sells for a shilling what costs him less than a penny to produce."
Sam paused, one foot poised in the air. When it came down, he touched his hat to me, saying, "Sir, I bow to your insight." Then he laughed, clapping me upon the back. "Do you see? I need not sell to gentry at all. I can claim as my customers Brennan's pa-trons–those middling folk who desire the luxuries of the gentry within their own means, and who already frequent Mrs. Carson's to deal with Brennan."
"Those folk can ill afford imported wine, even at cost."
"Imported from France, no. I could do my importing a bit closer to home. York County, say."
"And pass local wine as French? You'd be caught out."
We came even with the old powder magazine, an octagonal building used since the war as a market storehouse. Sam waved me ahead, for the path here was ill kept and it forced us to go Indian file to avoid the worst of the mud, but he carried on his plotting. "I'll call it Rhenish then. And if need be, I could travel farther afield for my stock. See you here, Ben, we've both maintained since the war began that Americans ought to trade more in their own goods. Why, I could make unwitting patriots of the lot of them."
I could but laugh at that and say over my shoulder, "I suppose this is no worse than your last week's scheme to marry a rich widow 'fore the New Year."
"The outcome is more pleasant. The wealthy widows hereabout all long ago lost their comeliness, if indeed they had any to start with. Why should beauty and fortune be so opposed, I wonder?"
"'Tis a device of rich men, to keep Sam Walker from bedding wife and daughter."
"A faulty device, then. A homely lass is often more willing than a pretty one, and the view remedied with ease by blowing out the candle. 'Tis only for the years of marriage that I require a handsome face, to gaze upon across the dinner table each day and not be put off my victuals."
The path widened before Mr. Greenhow's tenement and we walked abreast once more."Moreover, Sam, no widow would marry you, rich or poor, given your present income."
"Nor you," he returned with a laugh. "None save our landlady, at least, who'd meet you at the altar on the morrow if you showed a willingness. What about it, Ben? Elizabeth Carson owns her house and a half acre, and her Thomas has been in his grave more than two years now. Have the banns announced this month and you could be wed Twelfth Night."
I felt my face grow warm, for in truth, the prospect of marriage was one reason I'd come to Williamsburg. Yet the memory of Thomas Carson, my lieutenant for the late years of the war and as good a man as I'd ever known, could not be so easily dismissed. My reply was, "I'll not marry until I have means enough to improve my intended's circumstances."
"A noble heart, you have, Ben Dunbar. If it's means you want, well . . ." he looked about him, and though no one else occupied the street, brought his voice down almost to a whisper. "A few of us lads go about performing antics on Christmas Eve, and divide equally our take. With your fiddle along, I'll wager we'd double our profits this year."
"Antics? Mummery, you mean?" In the years before the war, bands of masked mummers–sometimes as many as a dozen separate companies an evening–had yearly come to demand entry upon the steps of Mr. Ivey's townhouse in Norfolk, some on Christmas Eve, some New Year's, some Twelfth Night. I'd watch them from the third floor window, until the mistress would send one of her manslaves out to chase them away without recompense. Like as not, they'd fire their pistols and muskets at the house, cursing the master, before moving on.
"In the best tradition," Sam assured me. "St. George and the Dragon. This season our saint shall be Washington and our dragon, George the Third. We'll end the evening at the Eagle and toast the Yule with rum punch. You know all the lads–Jim Parker, Will Knox, Alex Fisher–and I promised young Tom Carson he could shadow us."
No sooner was the name out of Sam's mouth, than the youth himself came running at us out of the darkness, wearing no coat, nor even his waistcoat. Young Tom was a boy of nine years, tall for his age, with the same broad, kind face as Thomas the elder as I remembered him before he'd died in camp not a week after the surrender. But this night the boy's face was deformed in horror.
"Mr. Dunbar! Mr. Walker!" he called, his voice breaking into its highest falsetto so that he had to swallow hard to gain control of it. He halted, flustered, and performed an awkward bow. "Your pardon, sirs."
As we hurried our steps to meet him, Sam lost his patience. "Manners be damned, boy. Tell us what's the matter!"
Tom straightened, his breath coming fast, one hand quelling a stitch in his side. "Mother says to come at once. Mr. Brennan has took a fit, raving as one mad. Mr. Parker and Doctor Riddick fear they cannot restrain him much longer."
o n e
December 24, Present Day
Fifteen minutes outside of Richmond, I knew I was insane.
Wistfully, I recalled Christmas Eve last year. I'd goofed off at work until our department potluck began. My tray of chocolate pizzelles had brought kudos from my co-workers–the only time all year, so I'd lapped it up. After work, I'd gone to Uncle Mario's for dinner. Since his wife was second-generation Sicilian, that meant seven fishes on Christmas Eve. I'm not crazy about the smelts or baccalà, but nobody does calamari like my Aunt Philomena. Good squid isn't something I get every day.
This year would have been Aunt Sophie's turn to invite me. Italian sausage and ricotta pie. And after midnight mass, we'd all go back to the house for homemade cannolis sprinkled...
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherCreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
- Publication date2006
- ISBN 10 1518803555
- ISBN 13 9781518803550
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages352
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Poison To Purge Melancholy
Published by
Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
(2006)
ISBN 10: 1518803555
ISBN 13: 9781518803550
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Paperback / softback
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Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. This item is printed on demand. New copy - Usually dispatched within 5-9 working days. Seller Inventory # C9781518803550
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