Chapter 67

The lights in the hallway were on. Power had either been restored or the emergency generator was running. The drawing room was empty except for Anne and Elsa. They rose from the couch as we entered.

Elsa took the baron’s hand in hers and said they were going to bed. Elsa wished me good night and gave Anne a kiss. The baron merely nodded to both of us.

“How did it go with Hugo?” Anne asked after they left.

“Good, I think. He’s different than I expected. He’s a thoughtful man.”

“He can get pretty deep. We should be off to bed as well. I tried to speak with John before he went up, but he said that everything could wait until tomorrow. He will see you at eleven in the library. Don’t worry. It’ll all work out. It always does, somehow.”

“I have more to do tonight, I’m afraid, but I’ll at least escort you up the stairs.”

“In a minute. I’m quite fine, but I thank you just the same. Are you worried?”

“Yes and no. The powers that exist here seem to have everything well in hand. At least I hope they do, because I don’t, but that’s not anything new.”

“There’s that, but I’d put more faith in a good night’s sleep. Don’t stay up too late. I knew this day would come, of course. It happened not in the way I imagined. I promised Alice I would do what I could to smooth it along. I’ve not been overly successful, I’m afraid. Change is hard. We get comfortable and set in our ways. You will talk to Stanley. I assume that’s where you’re going now? Alice told me she fretted over that meeting, but that is for you two to work out. Dagmar is prepared. She told me she had a broom ready to thrash you both if you acted like idiots. Walk me up the stairs.”

After I made sure she made it, I went in search of Stanley.

Dagmar sat in the kitchen at the side table with a cup of tea waiting for me.

“He’s in there. Good luck. I’ll be here, even if it takes all night.”

She gave me a hug and then maneuvered me into Stanley’s office. He was sitting down with his back toward me, facing the window. I could see his face in the reflection, and he could see me. I sat in one of the chairs on the other side of his desk. In the past, I was always eager to break a silence. Tonight, I allowed it to go on. It may have been five minutes before he sighed and swiveled around to face me.

“So it was foretold, and so it is. I have often wondered about this meeting. It is our first with all the cards on the table. I have played it out in my head many times in many ways. What I would say. What you would say. I was sitting here just now thinking, watching you in the glass. Do you know what surprises me most?”

“No.”

“The sterility of this moment. Reality is plain and unassuming. I expected to feel something, but I don’t. In all those different mental rehearsals, I never once envisaged that I would feel nothing.”

“Why should you? For me, you are who you always were. I am who I always was. I have a different name. That’s all.”

“She gave you the estate. Your status has changed.”

“She did, but I have not accepted it yet.”

Stanley leaned back and placed his fingers together.

“Why ever not?”

“I’m not altogether certain, but much depends on what happens in this room tonight.”

“That is also unexpected — and perhaps illogical.”

“I love this place, but if my taking ownership destroys it in the process, I wonder at the wisdom of doing so.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Right now, or on a more existential basis?”

“Take the broader view.”

“I’ll answer, but I have a question first. Do you hate me?”

“You personally, not really. It’s your father that I hate, and you by extension. I wonder at my having felt so strongly for so long. I cannot conjure the passion in the now, as I could then.”

“What would you have me do?”

“Leaving might be better.”

“Suppose I can’t.”

“Then I don’t know.”

“Would you leave?”

“I’m not sure. I’m older than when I threatened to leave her ladyship. I feel my age. It would be hard to start again, and I doubt I have the depth of feeling to carry it off. Dagmar loves it here, but she is younger. It would be hard for both of us.”

“What happened to you, Stanley?”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“I always saw you as the one who held everything together, preserving what needed to be preserved and holding us all to a higher standard.”

“That’s hard to know, because I don’t rightly know myself. I suppose I’m tired.”

“Would you be willing to work with me if I accepted the estate in spite of my being the son of Lord Bromley?”

“That is the question, isn’t it? I doubt it. I’m set in my beliefs.”

“Do you think there would be too great a disharmony between us?”

“I’ve held on to my hatred for Lord Bromley a long time. Reconciliation is impossible. There would be disharmony.”

“Then we should look at a more fundamental concept. Why are you here?”

“Existentially or immediately?”

“Start with the broader view.”

He smiled at that. “You’re difficult not to like, but so was his lordship.”

“I have my charm. Why don’t you begin and I follow? Is it all right if I smoke?”

“Yes and yes. Her ladyship is the answer to that. You know my story.”

I lit a cigarette. “Then that’s a starting point. Johnny and I read all the material you gave us. He managed to put Alice’s notes into a sequence that made sense. You know about her going to the Carlyle with Marianne Thoreaux?”

“Yes.”

“At the end of it, she said she needed to repeat what she did there, but in this place, using a specific Book of the Dead. Are you aware of that?”

“Yes.”

“Alice’s health was failing at the time of her death. She was wrapping up her affairs. I suspect she knew she wouldn’t survive. I will stop here because we’re at a significant juncture. Several nights ago, you gave Johnny and me an option of hearing the rest of Alice’s story in exchange for a promise. This moment is not dissimilar.”

“A harmonic?” asked Stanley. He looked vaguely interested, but in his case, it was hard to tell.

“Possibly, but no less important. The choice we face must be made by both of us together. It is the reason I have yet to fully accept what she gave me. I see two paths before us. The first is simple. I give the assignment of the estate over to Mr. Dodge. It becomes his in full, and I move on. Mr. Dodge then sells what treasures he can for whatever he can get and replenishes the maintenance trust, so the house can continue. On the surface, it seems a workable solution, and it is within my power to grant. The estate survives. Nothing really changes, but from another view, everything does.

“This house has a life that exists on a separate and, I think, higher plane. The problem with the first path is that this spiritual element becomes secondary compared to the physical. What will be the cost of that decision? I think a light will go out. You asked me why I’m here, and I asked you the same. I don’t know the answer specifically, but preserving the essence of this place might be close. The day we turn our backs on its transcendent elements will be tragic in a way I cannot put adequately into words. Do you agree?”

“I am aware of what you’re saying, but I don’t see an alternative. Are you willing to do what you say?”

“I’m not unwilling, but I see it ultimately as a failure. Just the same, a possible solution is better than none.”

“I’m surprised you would consider it,” said Stanley.

“And why is that?”

“I think of you as self-absorbed and selfish. Your father certainly was.”

“Perhaps I am, but at least I have learned to look at a problem from many different angles in an effort to find a solution that seems best. I take all stakeholders into account. Even then, there is no guarantee it will all work out. There is a second solution that might preserve that magic, although it does not immediately resolve the financial needs of the estate. At the least, it sets the importance of the spiritual element at the level it deserves. We’ll have to rely on the possibility that a better solution will present itself. Provided we are able to reach a harmony between us, perhaps we might be able to work together and come up with something to preserve this place intact. It might not work, but we will at least have made the attempt. Does that make better sense?”

“You seem to think our differences are the key here.”

“I do. Right now, you more or less hate me. I more or less distrust you. There is no peace between us. You are right from your point of view, and I am correct in mine. Suppose, hypothetically, you were compelled to stay on? Suppose I was too. What would this house become? A battleground? We would have wished we had taken path number one. I for one will not live under such conditions, magic or no magic. The first path, with its no-win outcome, will always be preferred, whatever happens, unless we’re able to resolve our issues. Therefore, those issues are where we must begin. So far, no other ideas have been put forward other than selling the treasures. Maybe there is another way. Working together, it might be possible, but with our current attitudes, that’s not likely to happen.”

Stanley interrupted. “So, if I get this straight, there are two paths. The first is you leave and the status quo maintains. The second is we resolve our differences, and the first path is still available, but another also becomes possible. It becomes the better choice. I might agree with that. Still, I don’t see how I’m going to change my mind about you. Once I’ve decided, I rarely change. More importantly, I don’t see how the sale can be avoided.”

“Neither do I, but stranger things have happened. Did you expect that I would simply walk away?”

“Frankly, no.”

“Perhaps I’m a different person than who you think I am.”

“It’s possible. What did you have in mind for resolving our differences?”

“I’ve learned a few things this week. I admit I’ve never been the strongest advocate of honesty. I never really grasped the point. Being truthful, from my experience, has created just as many problems as solutions. I see it differently now. One lies well enough, and one even fools oneself. One can then be fooled by others. The world one perceives no longer is a true reflection of what is. I’ve been wrong in so many ways. I’ve made assumptions that were invalid, been blind with my eyes open, and generally had my head handed to me by professionals because I was filled with false perceptions. I’ve been compelled to change my views about many things, and it was discovering the truth that did that.

“Given that as a premise, I think we both may have it wrong. We see each other none too clearly. For a brief period, we should give each other the benefit of the doubt. I propose we be completely straight with each other. No bullshit. No lies. No half-truths. I have questions. You may have some also. We will answer each other as honestly and completely as we can. How could it hurt?”

“What if we still feel the same at the end?”

“We follow path one.”

“You will do that?”

“I will. My gamble is that we won’t need that solution.”

“To me it seems I win either way.”

“You do, but remember, if it comes down to the first path, you’ll have to live here when I’m gone and so will Dagmar. I’m not sure what the consequences will be, but there will be some. Let’s at least try. Are we in agreement?”