Chapter 11

The fire popped again, giving Johnny and me a start. Stanley got up and put on another log. He poked at it until the fire was burning to his satisfaction and sat back down. He continued.

“I won’t bore you with the details of nursing Lord Bromley back to health. As he grew stronger, he became surly. Rage would dance in his eyes whenever he looked at me. I felt now was the time to take steps for my own safety and peace of mind. This man was a bully, and bullies need to be handled forcefully.

“It was in the morning perhaps a week later. He was sitting up in bed. I had just brought him breakfast and put the tray on the side table. I thought I would start right in. ‘Your lordship, I see you are making a recovery. Now is the time for you to consider your position. I have a letter from her ladyship’s attorneys.’ I gave it to him. His hand shook as he read it. He threw the correspondence aside when he had finished and looked out the window. He put his fist to his mouth and bit down. When he took it away, I could see the puncture marks from his teeth. He glared at me and said, ‘You have all the cards. I surrender…for now. But know this and mark it well: you have not heard the last of me. I will have my revenge on that slut of a wife of mine…and on you. She has wrapped you around her little finger — I see that. You will not be able to protect her, I promise you. I will win in the end. You think you have taken everything from me, but I’m not without means. I have time. It’s my greatest weapon. How quickly you’ll forget, but I won’t. Every day I’ll remember. Now get out. I don’t want to see you. You’re beneath me.’ He turned away and would look at me no more.

“It was vital that I did something then. He was too smug. This would only give him confidence, and I needed to unbalance him. I snatched the knife from the breakfast tray, grabbed him by the throat, and stuck the blade right up his nose. I did not draw blood, at least not much. I waited until his eyes began to water, and then I said, ‘I have let you live. Remember that, when you get too high and mighty. I might just forget myself next time.’ I removed the knife, gave his nose a playful twist that caused him to cry out, and walked out the door. I saw Cedric and told him that his lordship was on his own. Her ladyship would cover all expenses up to this moment and to send a bill for all costs including a cash bonus for his discretion and loyalty.

“His lordship was gone the next day. Where he went, I do not know, but in the end, he was right. We forgot about him. Her ladyship decided to take a completely new tack. Spurred, I suppose, by the unexpected spiritual experience with ‘the people’ whom she encountered during her husband’s abuses, she decided to learn all she could about this type of phenomena. She took up psychology, anthropology, archaeology, Egyptology, as well as the occult. She gave liberally to the finest university departments that specialized in antiquities, who were only too happy to accept her as a student and, eventually, as a colleague. She consulted everyone from professors to fortune-tellers, gurus, and shamans all around the globe in her zeal for learning.

“Her pursuits caused her to spend less and less time at Rhinebeck. Partly, this was due to her studies at university and other places, but later, she joined in expeditions throughout the world. Her only stipulation for funding many of them was that she was allowed to take part.

“From here on, I can give you only snippets of her life, because the times I saw her grew fewer and farther between. I was never sure whether this was because she would rather not be reminded of Lord Bromley or because of something else. Once again, I must relate some personal details.

“I knew from the start that I was completely captivated by my employer, perhaps even besotted. I also knew that this was a potential disaster in the making. There’ve been numerous instances of those in service creating liaisons with their employers. These have either ended badly, or when the relationships have come to light, they’ve been at great cost to the reputations of those involved.

“In addition to this peril, being in service in a large house where the employer visits only occasionally can be a lonely and forbidding occupation. I would receive telegrams now and again: IN LIMA STOP HOME MAR 11 LA. The LA stood for ‘Lady Alice,’ or so I thought. She would stay for a week or two and then be off to somewhere else. She would remain in residence for perhaps eight weeks of the year. I pined and suffered in silence, until I determined to do two things.

“First, I resolved to read every book in the massive library, including the volumes accumulated by her ladyship’s mother, of which I will have more to say in a minute.

“Second, I needed to find myself a wife. Although her ladyship had the final say, I could put forward for consideration of employment whomever I wished. I had my eye on one such lady. She was in the employ of a banker in New York and had a reputation as an outstanding cook. This, of course, was my Dagmar.

“I will never forget when I informed her ladyship that I had asked for Dagmar’s hand in marriage and that she had accepted. We were in this very room when I told her. She said simply, ‘Oh, Stanley.’ She paled and sat staring out the window. I realized that LA had always meant ‘Love, Alice’ and that she must have felt for me what I had only imagined. I was speechless. Eventually, she blurted out, ‘What am I doing? Of course you have my permission. Have you set a date?’ I managed to tell her when, and she said she would take care of all expenses. At the end of our conversation, she said, ‘Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some letters to write.’ She did not appear from her apartment until the next day, when she announced she was off to Paris. She didn’t attend our wedding, and we did not see her again for an entire year. We did, however, receive a congratulatory telegram.

“It was shortly after that time that rumors of her participation in a very fast set began to hit the papers and magazines even in New York. In spite of my concerns for my employer, life with Dagmar proved beyond my expectations. I was, for the first time, happy beyond all imagining. We saw her ladyship for only brief periods over the next several years and had the house pretty much to ourselves. When her ladyship did appear, she often looked different from when we last saw her. Sometimes she would come back tanned almost black, when she had been in Egypt or in South America. Other times, she would arrive white as porcelain, when she returned from stints at the British museum or other establishments where she examined ancient texts. Boxes filled with books and manuscripts would arrive from time to time, many to be cataloged and preserved in the special library, which I will show you now.”

Stanley got up and walked to the wall to the left of the entrance to the sitting room. He flicked what looked like a light switch. There was a click, a hiss, and the edge of a door appeared where before had been a blank wall. Light streamed from the opening. Johnny and I followed into a chilly space that was filled floor-to-ceiling with wooden shelving holding books of all shapes and sizes in no apparent order other than a series of numbers and letters.

The repository was larger than expected, some ten by fifteen feet, but the striking part was its height. The ceiling was higher than that of the sitting room. There was a sliding ladder to get to the upper reaches. Almost every shelf was filled to capacity.

There was a background hum of air-conditioning. Otherwise, the room was singularly quiet.

Stanley pointed to a pair of boxes.

“There is a filing system based upon subject matter, with a large section under Miscellaneous. The room is hermetically sealed, with temperature and humidity controlled automatically. Her ladyship was an avid collector of many books on the occult. Some of those that are stored here are hundreds of years old. You are looking at probably one of the most extensive libraries on witchcraft and black magic in the world.”

Johnny and I were speechless.

Johnny eventually said, “This has been here all along?”

“Yes. It was built before you were born and was her ladyship’s private repository. Her most valuable books, including some of her mother’s, are kept in here. Her ladyship was quite adamant that their existence and the location of the repository be limited to a few. Mr. and Mrs. Dodge know about the library, of course, but have chosen to let me remain the caretaker.”

I couldn’t help asking, “Stanley, were you the one who cataloged them?”

“Oh yes. Most of them I have read — at least those that can be. Many are in foreign languages and not of any modern variety. Some of those are beyond my skill, but I have looked at all of them at the very least.”

Johnny looked about, touching the bindings. “To think there was a whole room that we never knew about. We were only told that there was a locked section. By the way, is this a lending library? I mean could we borrow the odd volume now that we know about it?” asked Johnny.

“I see no reason you can’t, provided they are returned. Most can be removed, except those kept in these cases over here. These must remain in this room because of the potential damage due to contact with untreated atmosphere. Each of the books in this library has been put through a freezing cycle to kill pests, but still, some are very ancient, particularly those made from papyrus, and must be especially protected.”

“How about the one you had us swear on this evening?” The words came out before I could catch them.

Stanley smiled. “That was a personal copy, but there is another charming volume on summoning demons and other spirits that you might find amusing over here in this section.”

He pointed to an oddly shaped book that could have been rectangular when bound, but was now bent out of shape.

“I don’t know how much you believe in that sort of thing. We live in a modern world, after all, but let us go back to the other room. Such discussions are best done outside of this particular place.”

We filed out. Stanley shut the door and toggled the switch on the wall. There was a hiss and a click. We took our places before the fire. Robert had not moved.

“Where were we?” he asked.

I was quite sure he knew exactly where we were, but said nothing. It was not that I now disliked Stanley. He had numerous outstanding qualities, but he was also a hard man, a cruel man, a man of many secrets, and we were being given only those he wished us to have, and for what purpose, I was unsure.

Johnny answered, “We were talking about spirits…and speaking of which, please pass the decanter.”

It was by my elbow, so I handed it across. Johnny poured another round for all of us and sat back down.

“Spirits…” said Stanley. “I have always been practical by nature; after all, Hume was Scottish, and so was Adam Smith. Prior to my current employment, I had no place for superstition in my life. When I arrived, I had a house to run, so practicality was always foremost. But as a rule, we humans see only what we want to see, and that is not so much. If you’ve lived in this house consecutively day after day for as long as I have, you will have observed things that cannot be easily explained, which we will be getting to. Are we ready to continue?”

Johnny and I nodded. Robert continued to doze. Stanley started up again.

“One freezing night in winter, her ladyship arrived unexpectedly. She asked for a large vodka and a conference in her sitting room, while handing me her coat. We always assumed that she could show up at any time, so all was ready for her, including flowers in her room. I entered her quarters with her drink and served her. She gulped the vodka down in one go, put the glass on the table, and sat down in this chair. Her shoulders began to shake. Her tears turned to sobs. She held her head in her hands and whispered, ‘Oh, Stanley, what have I done?’

“I said to her, ‘My lady, you are home again. All will be well.’ She seemed on the verge of collapse. She sat up and fell back in the chair, curling herself up in a ball.

“I went to her and lifted her up. She was light as a feather. I carried her to her bedroom, laid her on the bed, and covered her with a blanket. I whispered, ‘Sleep is what you need. Everything will be better in the morning.’ She was snoring by the time I closed the door.

“The next day, she asked to see me. She apologized for her behavior the night before. She said she was exhausted by travel and that she should have held herself together a bit better. She asked how I was keeping and then blurted out that she had remarried. This surprised me, but I congratulated her. How could I have done otherwise?

“Her new husband was the mining magnate Arthur Blaine. He had made a fortune diamond mining in Africa. She thought that he was at least as rich as she was. The wedding had taken place in a thirteenth-century church near the fortified manor house that was now the Blaine residence in Shropshire. The ceremony had been small and discreet. There had been no news in the American press and hardly any in the British papers. I asked her why. She said that both of them preferred it that way. I had no problem with that, but then I asked how come she was here and not with her husband, to which she replied that after the wedding they had attended a party in London. Someone had snuck up behind her and put their hands over her eyes and whispered, ‘Guess who?’ Alice had whirled around and been struck speechless as she looked into the black eyes of Lord Bromley. ‘Surprised, Alice? I thought you’d be. I told your man we would meet again, and so we have. Arthur and I have known each other for years. What? Arthur never told you? I made sure of it. Poor, poor Alice.’ He had left her there with her mouth open. The surprise had been complete. She just made it to the bathroom before she got sick. As soon as she was able to, she fled and did not stop until she arrived at Rhinebeck.

“I had heard of Arthur Blaine, of course. In my circles, he was considered a bit of a lightweight, but to have amassed his considerable fortune spoke otherwise. I decided to suspend judgment until I saw him.

“I met him later that week. He arrived by car, knocked at the door, and asked politely to speak to his wife. She invited him in. He looked half-frozen, and they were married, after all. He begged her forgiveness. He explained most earnestly that he had seen her at a shooting party long before she had wed Lord Bromley and had been in love with her ever since. After the divorce, he had informed Lord Bromley of his intentions to woo his former spouse. Lord Bromley had warned him that if he was to have any chance of success, not to mention their friendship. Her ladyship then acknowledged that had she known that the two were friends, rather than acquaintances, their wedding would never have taken place. Blaine appeared sincere and genuine. Her ladyship relented, and a new chapter started in her life. They moved into the upstairs bedroom. Her ladyship used this area of the house as her study and informed me that under no circumstances was the existence of the secret library to be revealed to him or to anyone.

“In spite of the rocky start, I think she was happy with Arthur. He was the opposite of Lord Bromley in almost every way.

“For a couple of years, all was peace and harmony, until they went off to Ecuador. They were lured there by a rumor of lost treasure that came in the form of a map and a letter sent by one of Arthur’s cronies, Fredrick Deprizio, known to all simply as Freddy. I think the excitement of a new find unknown to the modern world captivated them, rather than any monetary gain, although that may have been on Arthur’s mind. His fortunes had by this time suffered a steep decline due to the simple fact that he was not in South Africa looking after his business affairs.

“After doing some research, her ladyship announced they would embark on an expedition to discover the truth of the matter. I did not hear from them for half a year. Out of the blue, her ladyship appeared, without her husband and angry as a hornet. She filed for divorce immediately. I must say, I was not altogether surprised, but after she related what happened, I agreed with her in every way.”

At this point Johnny interjected, “I hate to interrupt, but we found a letter in our search of the basement that was written by Aunt Alice to an M. Thoreau, care of the Carlyle. It was returned shortly after her death, unable to forward. I have the letter here.”

Johnny handed the letter to Stanley, who read it carefully. He showed no indication of surprise at its contents, however.

“I suggest this be kept in the repository” was all he said as he handed it back to Johnny. He then added, “It confirms what I have learned about the incident, but more importantly, what she writes hints at a change in her ladyship’s habits and concentrations. After her return from that expedition, she became much more obsessed with the world of the spiritual and the occult. I will have more to say about that shortly, but what is interesting is that she mentions the figurine, an object that I believe may be responsible for more than one death.”