Chapter Five

Chapter Five

After a delicious dinner of roasted quail and buttered scallops (Jessamina felt her Mother was trying to cheer herself up after the funeral), she waited until Marian was alone in the kitchen and asked her to help her unpin her hair.
“Of course, miss; whatever you like. Should I come help you now?”
“No, you can finish up your work here. When you’re done, just knock on my door.”
“Yes, miss. I shouldn’t take more than a hour.”
“Very well, then.” Jessamina started to upstairs, but then remembered her brooch. “Marian, where is Mr. Shelby presently?”
“I don’t know, miss. I would imagine that he is in the dining room cleaning up after supper.”
“Yes, of course. Well, thank you, Marian.”
“You’re welcome, miss.”

After finding Mr. Shelby and receiving a pair of pliers from him, she went up to her room to repair her broken brooch. But before she could begin, a knock came at the door.
“Miss?”
She hid the brooch under her pillow.
“Yes, come in”, Jessamina called out.

Marian entered timidly. “Are you sure you want me to pin up your hair still, Miss Jessamina?”
“Of course! Why wouldn’t I?”
“Well, if you don’t mind me saying, you’ve been very... distant lately, and you often snap at me when I try to help.”

Jessamina realized that Marian was actually afraid of her and began to laugh.
“Oh! Of course you would be apprehensive about my asking you here. But no, really Marian, I do require some assistance tonight, as I pinned up my curls much tighter than usual and they are quite painful against my scalp.” Jessamina sat at her dressing table. “I very much appreciate you coming here to help me today, Marian. Truly.”
“You’re very welcome Miss. It was just unexpected, is all.”
“Yes, well, I promise to be less hostile in the future.” She tried to smile comfortingly at Marian (jessamina hadn’t truly smiled in three years), who grinned in return and set upon Jessamina’s hair. She let Marian work in silence for a few minutes, and then cleared her throat. “Marian?”
“Yes, Miss Jessamina.”
“May I ask you a question of a more... personal matter?”
“Why, I suppose so, miss. I will try to answer as best as I can.”
“Tell me then; what do you know of a Mr. Vincent Blackhorne?”
“What? THE Mr. Vincent Blackhorne?”
“I suppose so. I heard someone mention a man named Blackhorne who had recently acquired an original work of Pablo Picasso, and I wondered what sort of man could afford to purchase such an item.”
“Why, a very wealthy man, Miss Jessamina. A very wealthy man indeed. Mr. Blackhorne acquired a great fortune from his father upon leaving the army, and spent t wisely, investing in steel mills when they were first being built. Ever since then, he uses his money to continue his investments, but also to amass some collections.”
“What sort of collections?”
“Well, paintings, for one. He’d been looking for that particular painting for years in order to complete a trilogy of paintings, which is why it meant so much to him. That’s why he spent over $10,000 pounds on it.”
“My goodness!”
“Yes, it while quite a story around society. He also collects faberge eggs from Russia, and starting in his army days, a collection of interesting weapons.”
“What makes them interesting?”
“Well, miss, they’re not just guns you know. There are axes, maces, swords, cannons, grenades, and even firework blasters from ancient china! He keeps all of these locked in a glass room, so that he may better display them for his guests. The entire collection apparently amounts to over fifty-thousand and something pounds!”
“He must have an enormous amount of servants to take care of his estate then.”
“Oh yes. And none of them like him.”
“Really? Is he mean to them.”
“Horrible! He hits some of the maidservants when he’s angry, and his been known to fire a butler with three kids simply because his breakfast was served only five minutes late! And, on top of all that, he pays them horribly. Not nearly enough as they should for working for a house of that size and prominence. Why, even I am paid more than some of the women in that place, and he can afford it!”

Jessamina knew that this was a way in to the house; if she could just pay off one of the servants to let her in (she could make up some excuse about wanting to see some his collections up close) she could sneak into his room and administer the poison. She wouldn’t bother with questioning him about who exactly hired him; if this man was as dangerous is Mr. Wiloughby claimed, she wouldn’t be able to defeat him. But she would at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the man directly responsible would be held accountable to his actions. He would be at her complete mercy, and she like having that power.

“But I know why you want to know more about Mr. Blackhorne!” Marian teases.
“What? What do you mean?”
“You’re interested in his son, aren’t you?”
“He has a son?”
“Don’t be coy with me, Miss! Every eligible girl in London knows of Vincent Blackhorne’s only son!”
“I swear, I had no idea that Mr. Blackhorne had any children at all. What’s his son’s name?”
“They call him ‘James’, and he’s the most eligible bachelor in all of London. I’ve only seen him once myself, and even then I caught only a glimpse of his profile, but goodness! What a handsome man he is! And charming, too, from what I’ve heard. Quite a surprise he isn’t married yet, considering what a catch he is. Why, he could marry any girl in the entire city if he wanted.”

Perhaps, he, too prefers solitude to the company of the opposite sex, she thought. But aloud, she said, “And how old is Mr. Blackhorne?”
“Which one?”
“The son.”
“About to be twenty-one this Friday. In fact, his father is throwing him a lavish party to celebrate his inheritance, for he will then have acquired a great sum of money. Your Mother had managed to acquire an invitation a little while ago, but I thought that considering your aversion to such events.”
“Aversion? What do you mean?”
“Well, you had said that night... after your father’s death...”
****************************************
It is the day of Jessamina’s seventeenth birthday. She is no longer a young girl, but instead a radiant woman ready to entered into the marriage market. While this doesn’t exactly please Jessamina, since she is already promised her heart to Edmund, there is something rather lovely about knowing that she’s finally a true adult, and in charge of her own personal affairs. The day had been rather lazy for her; she had slept until two and then eaten a rather large dinner so that she would be able to socialize during the party.

The party. Another thing that Jessamina wasn’t too thrilled about. She was never type who enjoyed being in the company of a plethora of unrelated strangers whose only purpose for attending was free champagne. Nonetheless, she knew how important this evening was to her parents, and so she decided to humor them just this once.

Really, it was her mother who had wanted this party so much. Jessamina knew that if her father had his way, Jessamina would have been able to do whatever she wanted that night. In fact, considering the fact that the Delaney’s did not have very much money (they were upper-middle class, but Mr. Delaney was only an apothecary), the whole “coming out to society” party seemed a little foolish. After all, the people who normally threw these sorts of parties were not the type of people the Delaneys associated with. Nevertheless, Mrs. Delaney wanted desperately for Jessamina’s marriage prospects to be wealthy ones, and so spending an extravagant amount of money on an unnecessary party seemed to be the only option.

Mrs. Delaney also spent an extravagant amount of time trying to get Jessamina ready for her big debut. She and her new maidservant, Marian, were struggling to get Jessamina into a corset that was much too small.

“Mother, please, can’t I just wear my usual one?” Jessamina cried. “This one pinches something awful!”
“Absolutely not! Your waist needs to be much smaller if you want to attract a handsome young suitor. You’ve fit into it once before, haven’t you?”
“Yes, when I was thirteen! This is meant for a child, Mother!”
“Just give one more deep breath for me, all right? Just try!”

Jessamina tried to exhale as much as possible (until she was dizzy, in fact) but the stays would just not tie.

“Bloody hell!” cursed Mrs. Delaney. “Fine, wear your old one! But you better have absolutely perfect posture tonight, Jessamina. None of your usual slouching.”
“Yes, Mother.”

“What’s all this fuss about?” Mr. Delaney asked as he entered Jessamina’s dressing room.
“Charles! What on earth are you doing back here? You can’t see Jessamina before the party.”
“Goodness, Eleanora, she’s not getting married yet, you know. I came to see how my two lovely ladies were doing. Do you need any help before I head out?”
“Why, where are you going.”
“I have a few errands to run before tonight, dear. I’ll be home before five in the evening, don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry? Of course I have to worry, Charles!”
“One of my patients, Mr. William Faunley, just delivered a message to me that he has come down with a case of severe influenza. I just need to drop off some medicine for him, but since he lives on the other side of town, it will take me an hour or two.”
“Can’t he just pick it up himself?”
“He’s too sick to even move out of bed. Eleanora, I promise I will be back soon, but the longer we continue to have this discussion, the more I am delayed from my task.”
“Fine. Let me get back work then.”
“Darling, maybe you should rest before the party. Can’t you let Marian do all of this?”
“Why, certainly not! How would she know how to pin her hair?”
“You’re pinning up Jessamina’s hair? But why?”
“Why? Because it’s what is done at these sorts of things, Charles!”
“Eleanora, Jessamina has the rest of her life to wear her hair pinned up like a matron. Let her have this one night to be young still.”
“Jessamina doesn’t want to be young. She would much rather wear her hair up. Right, Jessamina?”

Jessamina didn’t want to choose sides between her parents. But, truth be told...
“Honestly, mother? I’d prefer to wear it down, and wear that pretty pearl comb you gave me last Christmas,” she admitted.

“Fine. Fine! Have it your way, then. I suppose it is your party, isn’t it? I’ll just be taking a short rest then. Marian, if you need any help from me at all, I mean, if you are at all concerned about anything--”
“She’ll let you know, dear.” Mr. Delany promised.

With one final glaring look at her husband, she stormed off to her bedchamber.

“There, now you can get ready in peace and quiet!” he chuckled.
“Thank you, Father. For everything.”
“It’s your special day, my dear. Nothing should ruin it.” he gave her a big hug and kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll be back soon, all right.”
“All right.” he turned to walk out. “I love you, Father.”
“I love you, too, Jessamina. Always remember that.”

Jessamina blew him a kiss as he left his house for the last time.

“Shall I help you into your dress now, Miss Delaney?”
“Oh, yes! Thank you.”

Of this entire evening, there were only two things she was looking forward to, and one of them was her dress. Her father had the fabric imported from France, and had surprised her with it a few months ago. The dress was a beautiful blue-gray taffeta, with a giant bustle in the back and ribbons flowing down it. The skirt was pinched on both sides, and fanned out into a train whenever she walked. The sleeves were puffed to perfection, and neckline was a very elegant v-shape.

She felt incredibly elegant and beautiful when she was wearing this dress. The bluish-gray brought out the heterochromia of her eyes. She had always felt very self-conscious about her eyes being two different colors, but in this gown, she felt as if it enhanced it. The gown also set well against her auburn hair, which she was very pleased that she got to wear down for the evening. Once Marian had tied her into the dress, Jessamina let her naturally wavy hair fall about her shoulders, and placed the mother of pearl comb above her right ear. She also attached her cameo brooch to a black velvet ribbon and wore it around her neck. Although she didn’t think it would be needed during the evening, she didn’t know what sort of scoundrels would be attending her party, and therefore couldn’t be too careful.

Suddenly, she heard a familiar male voice wafting up the stairs from the main hall. Her heart started pounding out of her chest, and stomach had butterflies in.

“Marian, why don’t you take a break for a little while.”
“Miss?” Marian asked in confusion.
“You’ve worked so hard for our family today, and tonight will be an even more stressful event. Why don’t you go down to the kitchen and make yourself a nice pot of tea?”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely! You’ve been an absolute life-saver so far. You deserve it.”
“Well, thank you kindly, Miss Jessamina!” She scuttled out of the room and down the stairs before Jessamina could even blink.

Jessamina took a huge breath, composed herself, and walked out to the top of the staircase, where she saw Edmund talking to Mr. Shelby in the hall.”

Wanting to be alone with Edmund before the night began, she cleared her throat and shouted, “Mr. Shelby?”
Edmund turned and looked up at her, and his jaw fell open in surprise. Noticing his agape mouth, he quickly shut it and looked embarrassedly at his shoes. Jessamina stifled a giggle at how adorable he was.
“Mr. Shelby, do you mind making sure that the flowers are all arranged. Mother would hate it if they were wrong.”
“Right away, Miss Jessamina.” Mr. Shelby bowed to Jessamina and walked out of sight. Once Jessamina was sure that she and Edmund were truly alone, she ran down the stairs and jumped into his arms.

“Edmund! What on earth are you doing here? I thought you had to work at the shop.”
“I did. But your mother asked me if I would help set up for the evening, and I said yes. She said I could close up early tonight.”
“Edmund, I told you not to offer any of your services to Mother! She’ll only think of you as hired help if you do.”
“What was I supposed to do, Jessa? Say no? That would have been much worse for me as her future son-in-law, believe me. Besides, I couldn’t wait to see my little darling in her ball gown.”
“Do you really like it, Edmund?”
“You’re beautiful, Jessa.” He kissed her. “You always are, but tonight there’s a certain radiance about you. Something otherworldly almost.”
“It’s because you’re here, darling. I can’t believe that in a few weeks time, we’ll be engaged!”
“I can’t believe it either! I’m truly the luckiest man in all of England to have won a prize such as you.”
“And I the luckiest woman, to have man love her despite all her naivete and foolishness.”
“You’re hardly foolish, Jessamina. You’re the most intelligent girl that I know. How many other ladies can say that they know how to fill prescriptions?”
Jessamina laughed. “Yes, I suppose that’s true. But compared to all the older, maturer women that you could court, I can’t believe that you would choose me.”
“Well, it looks like we’re both very lucky then, aren’t we?” he leaned in to kiss her again, but there was a sharp knock at the door that made the two of them break apart. “I should probably get that. Perhaps more flower deliveries. Jessa, promise me you let me have the first dance?”
“And the last, dear Edmund.” He grinned at her and opened the door. But just as she was halfway up the stairs, she heard panic in Edmund’s voice. She turned around and was surprised to see two police officers standing at the entranceway.

“I don’t understand.”
“Sir, is this the house of Mr. Charles Delaney?”
“It is indeed. Is something wrong?”
“Sir, I’m afraid Mr. Charles Delaney has been killed. We found him dead outside of Picadilly Square a quarter of an hour ago.”
Jessamina’s ears were ringing and everything sounded muffled, as if she’d just been boxed in the ears. Nothing seemed right. Her sense of balance seemed off. Her vision was distorted and warped into some sort of carnival freak show. And although she wanted desperately for this to be all some sort of nightmare, and for her to wake up and have to go through all the tedious preparations again, she knew that this was real. Nothing had ever felt more real, more tangible at this moment, despite how numb her body felt. Like a patient in a coma, her mind was very much alert, even if her body was not.

“I will find the people who did this, and kill them,” she thought. “Make no mistake.”

Edmund turned to see Jessamina’s wide-eyed expression of shock and horror. He turned back to the officers.
“Look,” he stuttered, “there must be some kind of mistake--”
“You found his body?” Jessamina asked quietly.
“Well, parts of it. It looks like he had been very badly beaten--”
“Sirs, please, not in front of the lady--”
“No, Edmund!” she shouted. Edmund’s surprise was quite apparent at her outburst. “I need to hear this.” She rushed down towards them. “Tell me what happened.”
“Miss, perhaps this young man is right. Perhaps it would be better to speak to the head of your household, your mother--”
“Tell me NOW!” she screamed. “I can take it!”
There was utter silence as the police officers exchanged nervous glances, and decided to tell her the truth.
“Miss, we found... parts of him. It seems as though he had been... clubbed. With a very dull and heavy object, like a broadsword. His face was unrecognizable due to the broken nose and the swelling. Both his hands were missing, so we couldn’t identify his fingerprints--”
“Then how do you know that it is her father that you found and not some homeless criminal?” Edmund demanded.

But Jessamina knew. Edmund had hope, for he was ever the optimist, and ever concerned for her safety. But no matter how much he wanted to protect her, there was nothing he could say or do that would alter the truth. The truth that her father was gone. She could already feel it in her whole being-- that sense of emptiness in her heart that felt unfillable. Edmund might be holding out for a miracle, but Jessamina knew that miracles didn’t exist. In order for miracles to exist, God had to exist. And any trace of higher power had vanished along with her father’s life.

“We found this in his pocket.” One of the officers pulled out a gold pocket watch.
“Oh god,” Jessamina whispered.
It was the very same one that she had given him for his birthday last year. He had complained about how the ticking of his old one had aggravated him to no end, and Jessamina had rectified the situation by asking Edmund for some money in order to buy her father a truly spectacular gift. Edmund, of course, acquiesced to her request (because he would sail all the way to India and back for her), Engraved on it were the words, “To Charles Delaney, the best father in the world, from your little flower.”
“Oh my God!”
“Jessamina!” Edmund whispered. “My darling, I--”
As if in a trance, without any feeling or knowledge of actual words coming out of her mouth, she said, “I must go tell my mother the news. Please excuse me.”

She had only managed to take a few steps away from them when the world grew dark.

Edmund had just enough time to catch her before she hit the floor.
****************************************
It’s true that ever since that day, she had vowed to never be celebratory ever again. She hasn’t gone to a single party or social event in three years, much to her mother’s chagrin. And how could she? How could she possibly be happy without her father by her side? Without her father to tell her that she was beautiful? Without her father to tell her that he loved her as much as he had loved anything in the entire world. Without her father to talk to about her fears and hopes and dreams.

The world had lost all joy the moment her father had taken his final breath. And as long as her father was dead, she would be in mourning. As much as her mother would hope, grieving came with no time limit.

Jessamina hadn’t realized that she had been silent for a few minutes until Marian cleared her throat nervously.

“Miss Jessamina, I’m sorry if I’ve caused you any pain by bringing up your father--”
“I’m fine, Marian.”
“I could run over to their place tomorrow and tell them you’ve changed your mind if you’d like.”

The idea of her wanting to attend some rich eligible bachelor’s ball made her insides twist in repulsion. But tactically, this may be her only shot at gaining any useful information. Jessamina thought this plan over. She decided what statement would sound the most convincing about her sudden change of heart.

“Well, Mother has been pestering me for ages about attending such parties. In fact, just today she made me promise to accept an invitation for the coming month. I suppose this one will be as good as any top appease my mother. Tell Mr. Blackhorne that I shall attend.”
“Lovely, Miss Jessamina! I shall run over there as early as I can.”
“Thank you, Marian. You can go now.”
“But I haven’t finished unpinning your curls--”
“I should be able to manage the rest on my own, thank you.”
“Have I done something wrong, miss?”
“Not at all. You’ve actually been quite a good deal of help to me. I’m just feeling rather tired now.”
“All right then. Goodnight, Miss Jessamina.”
“Goodnight, Marian. Oh, wait, do you think you could tell Mother that I’ve decided to obey her requests just this once?”
“Certainly,” Marian smiled, and she closed the door to Jessamina’s bedchamber behind her.

Jessamina waited until she Marian knocking on her mother’s door before she gave a huge sigh of relief. It would be perfect: she could attend this party on the pretense of meeting the son, but instead figure out the weakest point in his father’s defenses. By the end of the night, she could promise one of the servants handsome compensation for their help, and be well on her way to accomplishing her wildest dreams. Yes, it would have been nice to get the men on top, but she would be satisfied if this was was the last man she ever killed. She would have kept the promise to her father, and that’s all that really mattered in the first place.

She remembered the brooch under her pillow, and pulled it back out so that she could fix it. She used the plier to press the gold band back into shape. It still looked a little worn, but at least it wasn’t broken anymore. Just to be sure, she opened one of her windows, held the brooch outside, held her breath, and pushed down on the small lever. A small “poof” sound came out of the silhouette, and she knew that no severe damage had been done to it. She went back to her dressing table and laid the brooch on the top of her dresser next to a picture of her father. She picked up the picture and dusted it off. Her father’s smiling eyes beamed up at her, as if encouraging her to take this next step in her journey. He was proud of her, she knew, wherever he was.

“Don’t worry, Father.” she whispered. “It won’t be long now.”

She finished unpinning her hair and changed into her nightgown. She went to her bedside table to turn off her lamp, but caught a glimpse of some shiny taffeta in the mirror. She turned around and noticed that her coming our gown was hanging in her boudoir. She went over to it and inspected it, rubbing the smooth material between her fingers. The dress was just as lovely as she remembered it being, with all its ribbons and bows and layers. She was happy that it would finally be put to good use rather than just collecting dust.

She went back to her lamp and extinguished the flame. All was quiet and dark, just the way she liked it. She crawled in between her sheets and closed her eyes, hoping that sleep would come to her easily tonight, instead of the nightmares that she always had. But she felt that her newfound sense of security would be a comfort to her in her sleep that night; for just as the sun would rise, Mr. Vincent Blackhorne would be no longer, and all would be well.