JourneyToHell
From IMiA
Van Alliki and Juliana go to East House, to tell Newell Merrick of her son's death.
It would normally take two days on horse to get to the East House, which is where we're headed to see Juliana's sister-in-law and the deceased's mother, Newell Merrick. With the pace the Duchess is keeping (she has insisted you take one of her horses), she is only stopping to eat and rest the horses. She will not stop for the night, or to sleep, unless she's about to fall unconscious (and then there's a good chance she'll try to talk you into carrying her asleep in front of you and letting Love follow, rather than stop.) I think at that pace they can easily get there in 18 hours.
Nicholas would accompany her, doing as she asked, but would protest, "Your Grace, I am not some illegitimate son of Oberon. I am not a Prince of Amber come home in disguise. I am a mortal man as you are a mortal woman and eighteen hours in the saddle could likely hamper my ability and skills to rise to your defense."
She laughs, clearly finding the idea of Van Alliki being an illegitimate son of Oberon very funny. "If I can do it you can do it. We just have to get there. We'll rest once we're there. I can do eighteen hours of anything. [GM concurs Juliana can do this.] And you're younger than I am, by quite a bit, I'm guessing. This is a basically safe trail to take. No one should know I'd be going this way. So I'll take responsibility for whatever happens from here to Newell's." (Yes, she's being obstinate, and she obviously knows it, and is insisting anyway.)
The East House is a two story structure, somewhat townhouse like, set among a group of like structures on the outskirts of property owned by House Feldane. They have a country manor nearby that members of their family have been known to vacation at through the years. Either vassals of Feldane, or family friends own all the homes in this small community. This being the central part of this small village, it is surrounded by smaller homes owned by those who own the small shops which are scattered about.
It's a very homey feeling place. Not crowded like the city, but not lonely like the country. It's clear that about half the owners of the townhouses live here year round. The town has the feeling of being 'out of season.'
"We aren't expected. Even if Newell has gotten word of Gavin's death, which seems unlikely, she won't have expected I'd come out here like this. I'm going to go up and let her know we're here. She'll have to send someone around for the horses. If you'll stay with them until someone comes to take them " she sighed. "I just don't know how I'm going to do this. I might blurt it out. I might be able to hold off and prepare myself. And I don't know what she'll do, either. So, well, she doesn't know you, so it's probably best you stay out of the way until I can figure out how we're going to handle this. Oh, and I'm sure they'll feed you. Give me about ten minutes, and then tell the staff what has happened, so they aren't surprised. Will you do that?"
"Certainly, Your Grace, I shall be the soul of discretion," Van Alliki assured her.
Juliana dismounted Rainbow and walked up the six steps to the door. She took a deep breath and knocked. A middle-aged gentleman opened the door. Juliana smiled at him, clearly the butler, although a different one since she'd last visited. But then, it had been a very long time. "Can you tell your Lady that Juliana Pinegar has come to see her? And perhaps send someone around for the horses, and to refresh my man Van Alliki there?"
The servant stared at her a moment, comprehension slowly dawning on his face. He opened the door wider. "Of course, Your Grace, please let me sit you in the parlor. I'll send someone to stable the horses and we'll bring your guardsman into the kitchen, hmm?" He asked. She smiled at him, stepped in, and nodded.
"Van Alliki's had a hard ride, so if there is somewhere he could rest after he's eaten, I'd be very grateful. Also, do you have any sedatives in the house?" she asked. He looked at her funny before he could stop himself. Juliana could imagine that all this was strange to someone out here, in a single household in this quiet little place.
"I think we might have something, Your Grace. Would you like me to bring you a soothing drink?"
"I rather think we'll like something strongly relaxing after I've talked to your mistress," she told him. He frowned, but installed her in the front parlor, bowed, and went off to accomplish all this. Juliana felt a bit ill, but having eaten so little in the last day, she was able to keep it under control. She walked about the room, picking up and admiring Lawton's work. She wondered again what she'd find when she got to Moorefield. Perhaps Gavin's art had turned very dark at the end. It had always had that streak in it, of pain, and other hidden emotions. She again began to dread the discovery. 'It might be very much like watching him die slowly,' she thought. She heard the rush of footsteps down the stairs, and braced herself.
Newell Merrick, a woman well into her 7th century, burst into the room, alight with delight and a huge smile. Juliana swallowed and smiled back, unable to keep it off her face at the sight of her old friend. "Sister! You must have gotten my letter," she exclaimed, and drew Juliana right into a hug.
Juliana desperately tried to stifle her tears, and croaked, "I didn't get your letter." Newell pulled back from her, and looked up at her in confusion.
"Ana? What's wrong? Is it your Duke?" she asked, eyes full of concern. Just the mention of something being wrong with Phillip caused tears to start falling. She shook her head. Newell pulled her back into her embrace. "Whatever it is, it will be all right. I'm here, sweetie."
"I'm so sorry, Newell." She gasped. "Holy Mother. I am so sorry."
Newell stiffened. "Tell me." Her sister-in-law whispered, suddenly sounding frightened.
Juliana took big gasping breaths until she could speak normally again. Then she held Newell very tightly and said, "Gavin's dead."
Newell stayed very stiff, frozen almost. Juliana gently led her over to a loveseat. "Phillip found out from the DCI he's friends with in the City. She remembered that Gavin had sponsored me all those years before I married Phillip, so she told him. She told him that Gavin hung himself," Juliana said very quietly after she's gotten her to sit. Newell looked at her, a little blank-faced.
"With what?" she asked. Juliana stared in incomprehension. "What did he use to hang himself?" Newell whispered.
"I I don't know. I didn't want someone you didn't know to tell you this. I rode out right away. I don't really know much more, except that they found him in his studio, he'd hung himself, and there was a note, but Phillip didn't know what it said. I can't imagine; to have the DCI involved. That's all I know. I'm sorry." She said again, and the tears returned.
"Do you want to wait here for the DCI to send someone? Maybe they'll know more," Juliana asked. Newell just sat there, thinking, not really reacting at all.
Juliana said her name. Newell shook her head. "No, we'll go to him. You'll come, won't you?" she asked calmly. Juliana nodded, amazed by this 'normal' behavior. "If there is some criminal aspect involved, unless this investigator comes out here herself, her representative won't tell us anything. I need to go see him, take care of his things. He would want us to make sure his work is preserved correctly."
Juliana nodded, brow furrowed. "I'm here to help you with anything you want. Do you want to ride, or do you want to take a carriage?"
"I should probably take a carriage. I never could keep up with you riding types. I like having a place to rest. The motion of a carriage is very relaxing, when the roads aren't bad. I should tell Donald that I'll be leaving." She said, and stood. Juliana stood with her, somewhat alarmed.
"Newell, are you " Juliana stammered.
"I suppose I'm just a bit numb. Lawton tried to hang himself once. Gavin was very small, maybe three. Susana had been down for a visit, and I don't know what she said to him, but it must have been awful. She'd left that morning, and that night he got very drunk, and tried to use one of my scarves. Gavin had fallen asleep in there, and Lawton didn't know. I heard Gavin crying, and that's the only reason I found him in time. Lawton would never talk to me about it again, and Unicorn knows I tried, Ana, and Gavin never let on that he remembered any of it. That's why I wondered, what he used, because if he used a scarf, I'd know he remembered that." She sighed. Juliana whispered to the Unicorn under her breath.
"It isn't very real right now. I need to see him. He was just like his father, always; he was like having another little Lawton around. It just seems like a bad plot in a play right now. We'll go. When I can begin to understand this, you will be there. Thank you, darling. I really wish he had married you before that Earl snatched you up. I know it would have been a scandal, but it would have been worth it, for him." Newell decided. Juliana shook her head, tears running down her face again. Newell went to the hall door, and opened it to reveal the butler with the drink Juliana had asked for. His face was drawn.
"My lady?" he said, holding it out to her. Newell shook her head and held up a warding hand.
"I need to think Donald. I have to go to Moorefield. My son is dead," she said, and paused. Feeling nothing from saying it, she continued. "I want to bring Gavin back here so he can rest next to his father."
"I will have everything ready when you return, mistress." She laid her hand on his arm.
"Just do what you can do, Donald. I'm fine. I'll be fine. Why don't you give that drink to the Duchess?" she suggested, and turned to look at Juliana. "Honestly, Ana, I've never seen you look so wretched. You'll have to rest before we leave. By the time I am ready and we hire a driver to go that far, you should be able to get some real rest. I know you'll be tired in the saddle all day, no matter how enamored you are with the creatures." And with that she walked out of the room.
The butler offered the drink to Juliana, who refused it. "Thank you, but I want to be able to wake right up if she needs me. I am tired. I can sleep without it. Thank you though." She sighed.
"Thank you for coming, Your Grace," he said. "Van Alliki refused to rest until you did. He's waiting for you in the breakfast nook. He thought perhaps you'd like to eat something."
Juliana shook her head. "Can't eat. I'd just get sick. I'll try to eat something when I get up. Newell, she's amazing, isn't she?"
He smiled. "She is, but she's not herself at all right now. The worst things always seem to happen to the best people, Your Grace. She's very strong. She'll pull through, eventually. Horrible tragedy, Your Grace. The staff's sympathies are with you as well."
She nodded. "Tell everyone thank you, and I will do my best to take care of her. Will you take me to Van Alliki now? I must get him to rest, or he'll be useless to me."
Nicholas was catching a catnap in the nook. The food had not been touched. As the Duchess stepped into the nook, Nichols' eyes sprang open and he looked directly into the Duchess's eyes. "I have not yet dined, wishing not to weigh myself down with a meal should your require my services. Will her Grace, break her fast with me?"
Juliana shook her head. "I've got to sleep. I'm out of energy, even to eat. I'll eat when I wake up. I want you to sleep too. Newell is making arrangements, and the trip out to Moorefield will be slower and easier, because Newell is taking a carriage. But if you can eat now you should. I'm sure you'll be hungry again when we get up." She really did look completely exhausted and more than a little lost.
It's four days at a good pace on horse to get from the East House to Moorefield. With the carriage along, it's going to take longer. We'll guess a good week to get to the House. For the last two days Juliana has gone on ahead of the Viscount's mother, so she can beat her to the house and make sure everything is in order as it should be. When Juliana and Nicholas can just barely make out the house on the horizon, she'll point it out to him, and stop.
Juliana stares at the house, so far away. She's been eating just enough to get by, and she's lost weight since the journey started. She looks a bit as if she's seeing a ghost, and sadly, Nicholas in fact knows what she looks like in that circumstance.
She turns to Nicholas. She looks suddenly intent. Her eyes are on fire. "There are things I have to tell you." She says, seriously. "I feel like I can trust you. My instincts tell me I can. But I need to hear you say that what I'm about to tell you, and anything you might witness or find here stays between us. Only between us. The Duke was not involved in this period of my life, and I don't want him entangled in it any more than he already is. Will you swear it?"
"I, so swear."
She sighs in relief. She leans forward a little and slides her hand down her face to rest over her mouth, like she's trying to think of where to begin. She stares out into the distance. Then she swallows.
"Let's eat now. I think I don't want to go into this on Love. She'll get upset." Juliana dismounts, takes care of Love and Manly and sees them fed. While she's doing this she'll let Nicholas lay out lunch.
She sits down and breaks out the wine, taking a very big slam of about half the bottle before she offers it to Nicholas. Nicholas takes a small sip. "In my profession one should be consistent; an alert mind and a fit body prevents early retirement. Alcoholism, drugs, gambling all weakens my focus, and put both my charge and myself at risk."
Juliana nods, as if she understands these sentiments, even if she doesn't live by them herself.
"Okay." She draws a bracing breath. "Common knowledge, but you haven't been in town so long, so I'm going to recount a bit. I got married really young, by our standards, when I was twenty, to Viscount Moorefield, Samuel Merrick. He was nine hundred and something. We were married for thirty-eight years before he died. His heir, our nephew Gavin, inherited, because I'd never had any children." She smiles ruefully. "Gavin allowed me to stay part of his house, although he was in no way obligated to do so. In fact, he risked a lot, socially, doing so, because people will talk. It was another ninety years before I met and married Phillip, who was an Earl then."
Juliana looks him in the eyes, then shrugs, and looks away toward the horses. "The not so common knowledge is pretty vast. I didn't want to marry Samuel. I didn't want to marry anyone back then, but I really didn't want to marry an old man. My father, with my mother pressuring him, let me know that if I did not consent to the marriage, I would have to leave his home. They lead me to believe that my only alternatives were bad very bad. Prostitution or hard physical labor, which I'd never done and couldn't even imagine. So I married Samuel. I really thought he'd spoil me. All the men in my life had always spoiled me."
She winces. "I was so wrong. Samuel had very clear ideas of what he expected in a wife, and he'd dropped what was left of the family fortune on my bride-gift. It took me some time to adjust, but I did my best to be what he wanted. I refused to talk to my father, and I burnt his letters without opening them. In fact, I've only seen my father twice since I was twenty. My mother, who I never got along with, came to the wedding too, and that was the last I ever spoke with her. I started to write my father, occasionally, after I settled in with Phillip, but my mother died before we returned from our time in Oberon's service. We never reconciled."
"I understand and if appropriate, you have my sympathies. While in Oberon's service, my parents died, far and away from me," Nicholas reveils.
Juliana reaches out and touches his hand, trying to be comforting. Then she shakes her head and pulls back.
"I'm digressing. Samuel and I were never able to have children. We'd been married seven years when I did get pregnant, but I lost the baby in the second trimester. Samuel was never able to get another child on me, much to his frustration, because it was really his entire purpose in marrying me to begin with. About six months after the miscarriage, Gavin came out to live with us."
She hits the bottle again. She looks over at Nicholas. "Samuel was old. He was amazingly vigorous for a man of his years, but it came and went in spurts. He hated to travel. He would get very short with the mill vendors. We needed Gavin's help, although Samuel didn't want to admit it. Samuel wouldn't let me help with anything. I was allowed to run the household, and that was it. So when Gavin first came, we put him up in the Cabin, about three hours ride from the house. He didn't move into the house until we'd been married, well, nearly thirty years. I didn't really know him when he lived in the cabin. We had him in for dinner about once a month, and otherwise we had no contact."
Juliana looks back out toward the House. "He moved into the manor with us because Samuel's health was beginning to fade. His doctor recommended that having Gavin in the house to help encourage Samuel not to drink or eat the things he wasn't supposed to would be helpful. It wasn't. Samuel was going to eat and drink as much of whatever he wanted to, and I found it hard to argue with him. Once I hit 900 years, I'm doing whatever the hell I want, too. Gavin's trying to stop him just made him worse. And Samuel continued to exert himself in ways no man of that age should be trying to do."
"Because Samuel had to rest so much, and Gavin was in the house, we finally got to know each other. Gavin was entertaining, and engaging, and so much closer to my age and sensibilities, we became fast friends. We knew Samuel wouldn't like that, so we kept our cold distance whenever he was around. Gavin started teaching me the books, so I could help him. He understood I had a mind, and I ate up everything he'd teach me. I learned more about the business in those nine years than I'd learned in the twenty-nine years I'd already been Samuel's wife."
"Samuel got worse and worse, and continued to drink even though he knew it was killing him. We started preparing for everything that would have to be done when he was gone. Gavin would have to petition the King for the title, since he wasn't Samuel's direct heir. At the last moment, Samuel did name Gavin heir, but he resented having to do it. But Samuel had run the house, financially, into the ground. We knew we had some serious work ahead of us."
Juliana drinks again, and actually eats some before she goes on. "I was very distraught when Samuel died. I felt guilty, that I'd never given him the son he wanted so badly. Gavin and I never discussed that I would stay on in the house and help him. I had him. He had his mother and me. That was the scope of our world. I'd been out of society since my wedding, and he'd never really been in it. It didn't cross our minds that we might be considered lovers. Until it happened, anyway." She shrugs.
"Once we did give in to that loneliness and I can't say it was much more than that for me we both woke up to the fact that when or if either of us tried to re-enter society, we'd run into big problems. So he gave me the 'City House,' a small place in Amber City with six suites and a small dining room and sitting areas on the first floor. I moved there. I visited him for a few weeks a year, and we kept it quiet. I couldn't stand to be in the city and watch some of the things that went on there, and that's how I got involved with the prostitutes. I could have so easily been one of them. I met Janet on the street, and she was pregnant and working. I was so upset, I brought her food, I handed her money. I just couldn't stand to see her on the street, showing, and she was married! I was so shocked when I found out she was married. So I went to her husband and bought her time. They needed the money I saw that right away. He couldn't read, and just took whatever work he could find "
"I'm going off again. My mind flies back at times like this." She eats some more and drinks some more. "Well, City House. I went to live in the city, and do business for the house. I was able to find enough people who would work with a woman that I started to make the house a good amount of money. More than enough to support my strain on it's resources. I was meeting, for the first time in my life, other men. I started trying to pull away from Gavin. I was beginning to feel like I was paying my keep with our relationship, and I couldn't accept that while begging these other women to take their lives back."
"Gavin was an artist. I know he worked with my image more than once. During this time, when I was trying to remove myself from the role I suddenly felt forced into, he became fixated on me. More than a little. He was obsessed. I could not reason with him. I finally confronted him out in the hunting lodge it's a full day's ride from the house where we'd meet. I couldn't be with Gavin in 'Samuel's house.' We fought and he got really rather violent. He burned the lodge that night, after I'd fled. But he came back later, shocked by his behavior that night, and he told me I'd never have anything to fear from him again. And while he did back off, he'd scared the hell out of me, and it was a long long time before I met another man I could open myself up to."
"Gavin was happy for me when I came to tell him I was marrying Phillip. He was supportive. He offered to give me away, if my father could not come. He was at the wedding and was wonderful about the whole thing. I wrote him more when we first left Amber, but it dropped off to the annual Yuletide posting after about fifty years. I'd just written him, not long ago, letting him know I wanted to come out to see him, and visit Samuel's grave. He didn't answer, so I sent another, inviting him to visit us. But I thought perhaps he was embarrassed by our wealth, or his lack of it."
"I really don't know why he did this. Lady Abigail is involved in some way, I don't know why, but he must have been involved in something criminal. Or it must be related. I wish I did know what was going on, but I don't. I don't know what we'll find in there. I wanted you to be prepared that we might find art that isn't flattering to me, or perhaps much too flattering to me. I don't know if he kept a journal, and what he might have written about me in it, but if we have gotten out here before Abigail if she has time to come at all I might have to remove some of these things. I can't have old scandals coming to bite at Phillip when he's trying so hard to establish his Dukedom. I even worry about the suicide note. If Abigail is here, I am sure I can explain things to her, and she will manage discretion on the issue."
Juliana drinks whatever alcohol is left. "Then there is the issue of ghosts. There is no wardstone here to keep them out. We could meet one. Unicorn help me," she shakes a little, "I really don't know what I'll do if Samuel or Gavin, or even Samuel's sister Susana come and visit us. I might faint, but I can't hope to be so lucky. They all died in the house. So this should be interesting."
She stands up and brushes herself off. "I'm going to go over to this little pine borough over here, and pray a moment. Then I'll be ready to clean this up and go on up to the house. And if you want to ask me anything about any of this, I'll answer them on the way. Okay?"
[The Duchess goes and prays like she hasn't prayed since the beginning of Carnival.]
The Duchess may notice as she returns that Nicholas has eaten less then one might expect of a swordsman, a fighter; and has only barely touched his wine.
"Hmm, ghosts again." There is a touch of annoyance in Nicholas' voice but it disappears as he shifts mental gears, "Well your grace, I begin to understand your concerns now, as well as the reasons for a number of your "good' works. However, there are still the unexplained issues of the "suicide" note and where you or the Duke truly believes the potential dangers to you are originating. And how these possibilities will truly socially embarrass your house name or its financial and political climb. Your Grace, what scandal do you fear will bring you and the Duke low?"
Juliana sighs. "It's not that I really think there is much here that could impact our House in a serious way, but rather that everything matters right now. It's one thing to gossip and speculate about whether or not I had an affair with my late husband's nephew, but it's quite another for that to become public 'fact.' Most business people wouldn't hold such a thing against the Duke, but it only takes one good offer being withdrawn to start a House on a downslide. Then there are the social consequences. The older ladies of the 'old school' type, who don't condone a woman having a life outside of marriage because 'it degrades the social order' or 'keeps men of eligible standing from following the proper path and marrying a deserving woman,' will immediately go into an uproar. The Dowager will do everything she can to quiet it, by making comments like, 'but you see she is quite reformed, much as is the Duke, and they are quite dedicated to one another.' And 'They are the model of what a marriage should be.'"
"But whatever path she takes, they will always lead it back to the fact that I have not given the Duke an heir, that being married well over two hundred years we should have a slew of children by now, and that clearly shows that I am negligent in my duty as a wife. Or worse," she chokes, "that I should find a way to separate myself from him so he can continue his line."
"Most of the men really won't care, but their wives will be all over them if they approach us socially. Some of them won't care about that either, but a good number of them will consider the situation and decide that keeping tranquility in their homes is more important that whatever we might have to offer them. And such things build like an avalanche. We'll be shunned."
"I've never cared, personally, what society thinks of me, except for how it affects me and mine. And this would affect our house on nearly every level. I think we'd survive it, because the Duke has wisely invested our resources widely, not just in Amber but throughout the Golden Circle and beyond. But it would still be a blow, and smaller things have brought people low. If I can avoid it I will."
She puts her riding gloves back on. "The note, though, if it is in fact a suicide letter, I am simply concerned it will have the things in it about regrets that those things often do. Newell, as well, doesn't know about the nature of my relationship with her son, although it's likely she suspects. She is one person I can not stop from being hurt. But if he has written something about me, either I have to get rid of that before the DCI comes, which I really don't think I can do, for it's a crime in itself, or I have to convince her to keep it quiet. I don't think either of these things would be easy... and it makes me dizzy trying to decide which way to lean. Pile sins on top of sins, or answer all of Abigail's questions."
She rubs down her riding dress, brushing off stray bits of grass and such, and calls the horses back with a whistle. "What really worries me though is the idea that Gavin might have had something to do with Samuel's death. Gavin was impatient for him to die, so that he could run things the way he wanted to. He often asked me how I was, trying to discern if I had gotten pregnant again or not. Samuel seemed to die naturally, considering his age and habits, but how would anyone really know if he was tampered with in some way? So if Gavin wrote things in the wrong order, making it seem like we were close earlier in our association than we were, and then placing some kind of regret about Samuel's death after that time, the DCI might very well think I had something to do with it. So I have many hopes and prayers riding on top of one another in this. If Gavin did write or imply that he killed Samuel, and I can not convince the DCI that I really did nothing wrong, that will be it for me."
Her eyes fill with tears, but they're not overflowing. She speaks with that tight-throat-pained sound of someone trying to keep it under control. "Then I would have to convince Phillip to petition the King to dissolve the marriage. Unicorn knows he'd have grounds enough. I'd just have to convince him."
"Your Grace, I am your man." And with a very quick movement draws his sword, and salutes her.
Juliana smiles at Nicholas through her tears and says, "We should get moving, we can talk on the way. I want to go in slow so if anyone is there they can see us coming."
-- Main.LizTrumitch - 23 Oct 2004
