Vital Secrets (25 page)

In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed,

Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love

Over the nasty sty!

and to watch in horror as the proud and confident Mrs. Thed-ford reduced herself to a cringing, mortified creature, defenseless against her son's moral tirade. With the ghost's appearance edited out, the scene wound down with the queen utterly abashed and Marc having to mouth epithets that caused his gorge to rise, but apparently made young Hamlet feel purged and righteous:

by no means …

Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed,

Pinch wanton on your cheek, call you his mouse,

And let him for a pair of reechy kisses

Or paddling in your neck with his damned fingers,

Make you ravel all this matter out …

When Mrs. Thedford had concluded the piece with “I have no life to breathe / What thou hast said to me,” she took a deep breath, reached over, and caressed Marc's wrist. It was a simple gesture, wistful almost. But it struck Marc like a jolt. He felt himself physically aroused—attracted and intimidated at the same time. There seemed to be something mysterious and taboo in her appeal that left his feelings in turmoil.

“Are you all right?” she asked, her concern now taking over. “I've pushed you too hard, I believe. I've forgotten that this ordeal has had a personal meaning for you as well as us.”

“I haven't slept well, but I'll be fine.”

“Your friend, Mr. Hilliard, stands in the shadow of the gallows?”

“I'm afraid he does. And there is nothing I can do to help. He has confessed.”

Marc could see his own pain mirrored in her eyes, and some of his confusion. “Was it Tessa's visit?”

Marc nodded. “He is under the illusion that he has killed for love, even though he has no recollection of doing the deed.”

“That sounds Shakespearean, doesn't it?” she said lightly. Then her face became grave. “But I
am
sorry that Tessa escaped
us this morning. She went out through the tavern. She's still a child in many ways, but she has done Mr. Hilliard a great wrong.”

“And he has wronged himself also,” Marc said. He smiled with some effort and said sincerely, “Anyway, I would like to thank you for helping us with this enterprise tonight. I may not get a chance to do so again.”

“Oh?”

“You are free to make arrangements to leave tomorrow, if everything works out as we expect this evening. Unless you want to stay and complete your schedule.”

“Tempting as that is, I think it best for the others if we get on to Detroit as soon as possible. I'll give you an address in Buffalo where you can ship the body, if that is all right. Jason has an elderly aunt there, his only relative.”

“I'm sure the governor will approve that.”

“And Major Jenkin tells me you are to be married soon.”

“Yes. A week this Sunday.”

“Lucky young woman,” she said. She paused and went on: “This … enterprise tonight, will it put you in danger?”

“Not if my acting skills hold up.”

Mrs. Thedford smiled. “They'll do just fine.” It seemed for a moment that she might take him in her arms and … what? But she didn't, and for that Marc was grateful beyond measure. If she had, he had no idea what he might have done or what irrevocable train of events he might have set in motion.

“Break a leg,” she said.

• • •

I
T WAS FIVE O'CLOCK WHEN HE
left Merriwether's room, where he had been mentally rehearsing his roles, and started walking towards the Cobb residence. Using the key that Ogden Frank had given him, Marc left the theatre by exiting through the door that led directly into the owner's quarters (thus avoiding the tavern altogether) and then out the rear door into the alley. Frank, with his hand-wringing now more anticipatory than despairing, had even supplied him with a key to the outside door so that he could slip in and out by this means whenever he wished.

On the bed in Merriwether's room Marc had laid out a suit of the dead actor's clothes from cap to boots. If he were called out to a rendezvous tonight after the performance, then he would have to go in Merriwether's guise, not his own. But for now he was just another soldier strolling east along King Street towards the “old town,” where Cobb lived.

Marc felt somewhat guilty that he had not visited the constable before now. Despite the differences in background, life experience, and class, Marc had developed a comfortable rapport with Cobb, without either of them having to resort to pretense or false formality, or move an inch away from who they were. Marc respected Cobb's native cunning and hoped Cobb's admiration of his intelligence was not misplaced. He soon found the clapboard cottage on Parliament Street just above Front. He was delighted to find a neat little house freshly
painted or whitewashed and, around it on three sides, the vestiges of the summer's vigorous vegetable garden. Bean-hills, withered tomato plants on stakes, yellowed cucumber vines—all attested to care and diligence. He almost tripped over a fat pumpkin-squash beside the stone path that meandered up to the front door.

“Kickin' 'em won't make them ripen any quicker!” Cobb called from the doorway.

“A bit like us, then?”

Cobb chortled. “Glad ya could make it, Major. I figure a solid meal and a restful pipe or two should set us both up fer the ruckus later on.”

“I needed to get away from that place—and Government House. Thanks for inviting me.”

Cobb led Marc inside, where he found himself in a cozy parlour with cushioned chairs, a throw rug, a stone fireplace, and a deal table set for supper. The remains of a log in the hearth radiated a welcoming warmth.

“It may be 'umble but 'tis h'our h'own,” Cobb said in his execrable imitation of a Cockney accent.

“It's very comfortable. Your missus must be a conscientious homemaker.”

Cobb looked decidedly uncomfortable at this compliment. “Most times, I'd agree with ya, Major. But not today.”

“Is Dora ill?”

“Healthy as a horse,” Cobb snorted, as if this state were somehow sinful. “Healthy as two horses!”

“What's wrong, then?”

“She ain't here, that's what.”

“Oh,” Marc said, confident that Cobb would get to the point sooner or later.

“Off on one of her calls—again.”

“I don't quite understand.”

“She's a midwife,” Cobb said in a tone that was both boastful and accusatory. “An' the women of this town arrange to have their
off-springers
at the most
inconvening
time they can think up!”

“I didn't know that,” Marc said, casting about for an appropriate place to park himself. “But surely you are proud of her: she plays a most important role in the community.”

Cobb looked as if one cheek or the other would soon burst. “But
she
was the one that went an' invited you!”

Marc just laughed, and sat himself down in one of the two cushioned chairs. “You're worried about a breach of manners? Well, don't be. Besides, I smell something delectable cooking in the other room.”

“Well, as long as you're not upset, then I guess I can't be, can I?” Cobb smiled, sat down opposite Marc, and offered him his tobacco pouch. “I just figured the English
gentle-tree
was a stickler for good manners.”

Marc took the pouch, packed his pipe, and soon both men were smoking with meditative satisfaction. The aroma of some kind of meat stew grew more enticing.

“You didn't get the lad to change his story, then?”

“No. And now it's too late. We can't keep the troupe here any longer when there's a confessed murderer already in custody. I've talked Spooner into waiting until the morning before taking Rick down to your chief and the magistrate. Thankfully, Sir Francis has been incommunicado all day and Spooner, I suspect, is afraid to have Rick charged without the governor's explicit approval.”

“You still think one of them actors did it?”

“That seems less and less likely. But one of them knows more than he's saying.”

“Shall I bring in the supper, Dad?”

Marc turned to see a girl of nine or ten years standing under the curtained archway between the parlour and the kitchen. Marc blinked and stared. She was beautiful: tall and willowy with long brown hair, large brown eyes, and a freckled grin. How she had contrived to be born from the union of Horatio and Dora Cobb was a mystery, Marc thought, one of those miracles of generation that keep humans humble and awe-struck.

“This here's Delia,” Cobb said proudly. “My first-born. Say hello to the officer, girl.”

Delia performed a brief, under-rehearsed curtsey, blushed, grinned, and said, “How d'ya do, sir?”

“Now that you've gone an'
inter-ruptured
us, ya might as well bring the other one in fer viewin',” Cobb rumbled with mock annoyance.

“Fabian wants to see the soldier,” Delia said, and rolled her eyes.

Fabian was duly ushered in so that he and Marc could carry out a mutual inspection. The boy was a masculine copy of his sister: bright-eyed, handsome, and shy without being self-effacing.

“And what do you want to be when you grow up?” Marc asked him.

“A grenadier,” said Fabian smartly.

“And you?” Marc said to Delia.

“A grenadier's wife,” she said promptly.

“I warned you kids not to start yer teasin' ways 'round our guest,” Cobb said. “Now get out there an' bring in the food.”

Brother and sister exchanged grins, bowed theatrically, and pranced out of the room.

Amused, Marc said, “You disapprove of grenadiers on principle?”

“They do that just to
aggra-grate
me, Major. They're both smart as a whip on a bare bum! The common school up the street ain't seen nothin' like 'em since it opened.”

“And you don't need your sums and Greek declensions to be an officer in Queen Victoria's glorious army?”

Cobb gave an invigorating pull on his pipe. “I wouldna thought so,” he said.

• • •

S
UPPER CONSISTED OF A TASTY VENISON
stew, replete with vegetables from the garden and cellar—turnips, parsnips, potatoes, onions, carrots—and crowned with dumplings. On the side there was bread baked earlier in the day and butter from the market. An apple pie capped off the feast. The children served the meal, mimicking and perhaps mocking their notion of what waiting on high table entailed, but they ate quietly on their own out in the kitchen.

When he had finished his pie, Marc said, “I'm still puzzled about how that bottle of laudanum got from Thea's possession into the spittoon where Merriwether or the killer left it. If Rick is to hang, then the least I can do for him is to prevent his being thought a rapist.”

“Well, Major, if that silly actress was befuddled enough to try an' do herself in with
loud-numb—
I figure she'd've needed two or three bottles fer the job—then heaven knows what she might've—” “What actress're you talkin' about, Mr. Cobb?”

The two men swung around to face Dora Cobb, who now filled the lower portion of the curtained archway. Her round cheeks glowed red from an exertion she had not yet fully recovered from.

“You wasn't supposed to hear that, Missus Cobb.”

“Well, Mr. Cobb, I could stuff me thumbs in me ears, but it wouldn't wipe away the words. Now, tell me, what actress an' what laudanum?”

“Now, you know, Missus Cobb, we agreed to keep our oars outta each other's canoe—”

“Or else you'd've known I had one of them actresses here in the house last Saturd'y.”

D
ORA
C
OBB DEMANDED TO BE FED
and watered before she would elaborate on a remark that had elicited gasps from her husband and guest. So they waited patiently until she wiped the gravy from her lips with a delicate pinky, gave Cobb a reproachful look, and started in on her tale.

“This Dorothea person comes knockin' at my back door about two o'clock in the afternoon. She looks like Death's daughter, so I ask her in. Even before she starts talkin', I recognize the symptoms, so I ain't surprised when she tells me she's pregnant.”

“We already know that,” Cobb said.

“An' that's all you'll be knowin', Mr. Cobb, if you have the impudence to butt in one more time.”

Cobb flushed, but decided not to risk retaliation.

“Please, go on,” Marc said soothingly, but he, too, found his heart beating with anticipation.

“‘Well,' says I, ‘it'll be a few months down the road before ya need my services.' At that, she busts out cryin'. An' pretty soon I get the whole sad story. Seems this actor fella got her in the fambly way an' then, havin' had his fun—like most men—he tells her to bugger off. Seein' her life is now ruined,
she decides to do away with herself an' the unborn child, so she goes to old Ezra fer some ‘poison.' When she gets outta the shop, she changes her mind—goes back in and asks Ezra's wife if she knows of a midwife in town. That brings her here. What she wants now, of course, is to do in the bairn but not herself, an' she reckoned I'd know how to go about it—fer a fee.”

“Missus Cobb don't have nothin' to do with that sort o' sin!” Cobb said. “Do ya, sweet?”

Dora acknowledged his defense of her integrity with a dip of her chins, and went on. “I told her just that, an' she sets inta bawlin' somethin' terrible. I was glad the kids was out. Anyways, I set her down an' let her talk and talk. An' by the time she left, she was feelin' a whole lot better. I told her that men often reacted that way at first, but if she gave him a little time an' space an' was real patient, he'd probably come around. 'Course, that was a wad of malarkey, but I didn't want the woman's suicide on my hands.”