Jack

Seattle, WA—Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition

Friday, July 16, 1909

HELPING WILHELM WAS turning out to be more difficult than I’d expected.

“You look awful, Jack.” Ruth had been frowning at me when I’d gotten off the street car in front of the exposition, and now I knew why.

“Thanks?”

“Someone had to tell you, and I can’t keep being seen with someone as haggard-looking as you. I’ve got a reputation.”

I rubbed my eyes and tugged my hat lower on my head. “I’m not getting much sleep.”

Ruth mmhmm’d, though I wasn’t sure whether her response was a full-throated remonstration or milder disapproval.

“It’s not what you think,” I said.

Ruth took my arm and led me through the gates, ignoring the looks from the folks probably noticing that we hadn’t paid. “So you’re not spending your nights with a certain handsome magician’s assistant?”

I couldn’t have stopped the smile that spread across my face even if I’d wanted to. “I mean, I am, but only because we’re trying to come up with a plan to free him.”

That wasn’t all we’d done. We’d also spent a large portion of our time together talking about whatever crossed our minds. Wil could discuss Jane Austen’s fiction as easily as Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy. He only had to read a book once to absorb and understand it, and he could defend his beliefs with a razor-sharp wit. At the same time, he was almost excruciatingly naive. Despite his circumstances, he still believed the best about people. If I’d experienced what he had, I doubted I would’ve been able to look at the world through the same rosy lenses. It was a wonder he trusted anyone at all.

“The hardest part is locking him up back in that cage every night.”

Ruth shook her head. “That’s not right. If people knew Laszlo was keeping him like that . . .”

I hung my head, hardly noticing the crowds swarming around me. The wonders of the exposition had become commonplace, and I struggled to feel the excitement I’d experienced the first time I’d run down the Pay Streak and seen a real live camel, for instance. Besides that, it was tough to enjoy anything while Wil was suffering. I felt like a failure for every day I couldn’t free him.

“You’ll work it out,” Ruth said. “Nothing good happens in a day. He’s been prisoner for how many years now?”

“Twelve.”

“A few more days or weeks is better than the rest of his life.”

Ruth was right, and it wasn’t like Wilhelm was my only problem. Evangeline was pushing me hard during rehearsals, and she had far less patience for mistakes than normal. Laszlo’s star continued to rise, and since Evangeline would never consider that Laszlo’s show might simply be better than hers, she assumed that I was somehow causing our decline in popularity. Which meant I was still sleeping poorly on a cot in the workshop.

My only respite was that Evangeline, disguised as Rachel Rose, had been spending most of her evenings with Fyodor. If I hadn’t known better, I might have thought she actually enjoyed his company.

“There’s just so much to do,” I said. “I have to help Wil remember where Laszlo kidnapped him from, make sure it’s the gold that Laszlo’s actually after, figure out how he’s going to steal it, then devise a plan to prevent the theft and free Wil while ensuring no one gets hurt.”

“Well, we’re working on one part of that plan this morning.” Ruth tugged my sleeve as we turned toward the Government Building. I’d been so lost in my own head that I’d nearly missed the enormous Alaska Monument rising into the sky. “What about the mesmerizer?”

I rolled my eyes. “I haven’t seen him yet.”

“Maybe you should.”

“It seems like a waste of time,” I said.

“You might be right about the mesmerism,” Ruth said, “but you could also be wrong. Seems to me if you really want to help him you’d be willing to try anything.”

I stopped, pulling Ruth to a halt with me and blocking traffic. “Of course I want to help him!”

Ruth cocked an eyebrow at me. “You sure? I think it must be comforting knowing Wilhelm’s not going to run off on you and that he’ll always be where you left him.” She tapped my chest with the end of her finger. “Oh, wait, but aren’t you the one who usually does the running?”

“You . . . I mean . . . that’s not . . . ,” I spluttered, trying to argue with Ruth, but the idea that I was avoiding Doctor Otto because I wanted to keep Wil caged was absolutely bananas.

Ruth’s knowing smile was infuriating, but before I could tell her exactly what I thought about her silly theory, she said, “Come on.” She led the way into the Alaska Building, which was dedicated to exhibits about mining and agriculture, but there was only one exhibit we were interested in.

In the center of the room stood a templelike structure. Thick columns held up a lighted entablature, and the frieze was decorated with designs that looked like watchful eyes. Under the protection of the temple was an enclosure consisting of iron bars as thick as my wrist that surrounded a glass case. Within the case rested over a million dollars in gold bars and nuggets.

“It’s impossible,” Ruth said, keeping her voice low. “This can’t be what Laszlo’s after.” She wasn’t looking at the gold. She kept her eyes on the four guards who stood at each corner of the room.

“Nothing’s impossible.”

“First, he’d have to get past the guards watching, then he’d have to pick that lock.”

“I could pick that lock,” I said. “Eventually.”

“Then you’d have to get past the glass case, and it’s got an alarm on it. At night the whole exhibit drops through the floor to a vault under the building that’s got guards watching it at all times.”

“I bet I could get into that case.” I tried to think of how Evangeline might do it if she were so inclined. But it didn’t matter, because Laszlo wouldn’t get to the gold the way Evangeline would. He had Wilhelm.

“Say you could,” Ruth said, though she didn’t sound confident. “How on earth would you get it out of here? You’d need a wagon and a team of strong men to carry it all.”

That was a dilemma. I didn’t know how much weight mattered to Wilhelm’s ability. I still hadn’t told him I thought it was the gold Laszlo was after, but I needed to get around to it soon so that Wil could answer some of the questions I had.

As the crowd inside the building grew uncomfortably dense, we made our way outside, where it was cooler. We started walking toward the Bohemia, where Ruth was scheduled to dance.

“I’d ask you to church tonight,” she said, “but I suspect I already know how you’re spending your evening.”

I felt bad that I hadn’t gotten to spend time with Ruth’s other friends, but between Wilhelm and Evangeline, I barely had a moment to myself. “I’m sure Jessamy keeps you occupied enough that you don’t even miss me.”

Mentioning Jessamy Valentine earned a smile from Ruth, and I loved to see her smile. “She does at that.” Ruth cleared her throat. “Speaking of church though, can you make the deliveries on your own tomorrow?”

“Sure,” I said. “Something wrong?” Ruth and I always delivered the booze together. She knew everyone, and they loved her.

Ruth shrugged. “It’s nothing, Jack.”

“Come on, you can tell me.”

“Don’t get worked up over it. I took a job is all.”

“Another one? Are you thinking about leaving Madame O?”

Ruth seemed to be getting annoyed, but I didn’t have the first clue why. “This is just something a little extra.” She caught me staring at her, still full of questions. “I met the owner of S.H. Stone Catering and Party Supply Company at a meeting, we got to talking, he offered me a job, and I took it.”

There were sides to Ruth I knew nothing about. It was easy to think she sat around and waited for me when we weren’t together, but she had friends I’d never met and went to parties I wasn’t invited to. Our friendship was only one small part of her life. “But why? Don’t you have enough to do already?” A thought occurred to me, and I snapped my fingers, sure I’d figured it out. “It’s Jessamy, isn’t it?”

Ruth bit her lower lip and looked away, uncharacteristically bashful. “While I do enjoy spending time with Jessamy, no, she’s not the reason I took the job.”

“Then—”

“Because I want choices, Jack,” she said. “That’s all.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Ruth waved me off. “You didn’t. It’s just that money greases the wheel of opportunity, and I want to be able to keep that wheel spinning as long as I can after the fair ends. I told you I have big plans, Jack.”

“Then let me help you,” I said. “I know ways of making money that are a lot easier than waiting on rich people.”

“Oh, I bet you do.”

“It wouldn’t be illegal. Mostly. It would be mostly legal.”

“Somehow I doubt that.” Ruth fired off a laugh. “And thank you, but I don’t need your help.”

Ruth was so stubborn. She needed money, and I could come up with a hundred better ways to do it, but she wouldn’t even consider them. “Then at least let me get George off your back. I could—”

Ruth snapped around to catch my eye. “I told you I can do it on my own.” Her tone reminded me so much of Evangeline right then. It was no use arguing with her; she’d made up her mind.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever understand why you won’t accept help, but I get that it’s important to you,” I said. “I guess I just don’t really like thinking about what happens after the exposition. I like having you around.”

“I like having you around too,” she said. “Even when you’re annoying.”

“Annoying?”

“Like a little brother.”

I snorted. “An adorable little brother.”

“That’s debatable, Jack.”

“Ruth!”

She pushed me away as we neared the Bohemia and said, “Go talk to the mesmerizer!” before heading inside.

Everyone seemed to know where they were going, or to at least have an idea that they wanted to go somewhere, but the future was never more to me than what was happening in the next ten minutes. Ruth was going to save up enough money to go to a university, Lucia might run off, even Wilhelm was going to go home, if I could ever free him, but I had no idea what I was going to do. I had no clue what I wanted to do, and I was worried if I didn’t at least give it some thought, everyone was going to leave me behind.