Finding The Way
Jim was kind enough to get back with me as to the details on the letter. So they are retconned below. Thanks, Jim!--Maer
Thursday, May 28, 1868
Josephine's Mews
Little York Place, London
Morning
Josephine took the letter from Evie and stepped inside, waiting until her partner had cleared the door before shutting it and throwing the locks. The shock that had galvanized her on her doorstep had faded now, replaced by a thin-lipped expression that Evie had never seen before on her partner. Josephine marched over to her desk and clearing it of loose miscellanea with a sweep of her arm, she placed the letter in the middle of her blotter and glared at it.
Evie tilted her head a little as she looked at Miss Jo. She would've thought Jo would be happy finding out that her pop wasn't missing any more. She walked over to the desk and stood behind Josephine, looking over her shoulder. "What's wrong, Jo?"
"This letter," Josephine said evenly from behind her teeth. She moved it square with her desk with a careful fingertip. Her hand trembled and she fisted it. "'My Darling Josephine, I believe I've discovered the key to everything. I need your help. Meet me in this town,'" she said, stumbling over the pronunciation, "'in Wales. Love, Poppa.'"
She looked up from the paper, her expression intense and ... odd.
"It's not him. He never referred to himself as Poppa. And he never referred to me as Darling. It's not him and right now, I want to know who did this." She thrust a stiff finger at the blotter, almost but not quite touching the letter. Her nail left a dent in the green surface, her fingertip white from the pressure. But not half as white as her face.
Evie wanted to touch Jo, try and reassure her that things would work out, but Josephine was running a red one right now and Evie was afraid she might get her arm ripped off. "You're too smart not to get it figured out. Even if it ain't him, maybe whoever wrote it knows the chant on where he is."
She looked at the note again. "What could be important in Wales?"
"I don't know." Josephine pulled a vesta from somewhere on her person and struck it against the desk, lighting the oil lamp that had missed her sweep. She left the chimney off and held the single page of the letter to the lamp. "Watermark is ... hmm. Red Lion Paper Company. 1859. Nothing too custom. Quality is medium, cotton bond, but nothing approaching full rag or linen. Not from a hotel of any great note in any case, but possibly ... a stationer's?"
Josephine slowly sat and regarded the letter an oblique angle, allowing the lamplight to scrape across its surface.
"Even pressure, very little gouging from the nib. But what gouging there is comes from a single point, not a bifurcated one a pen nib leaves behind. Somewhat uneven application of ink, given the occasional blots, despite meticulous dipping. Yet this was not a letter penned in a hurry. There are no spatters or skips. Even formation of letters, no sign of jarring. This was not penned in transit, as on a train. The ascenders on the letters f, h, k, l, and t are not his. I need not even check for the start stroke on his uppercase M to know it is not his hand that wrote ... this thing. Still ..."
Her expression sliding to something a fraction less cold, she waved the letter over the flame, pausing a few seconds and pulling it away before it could scorch.
It was often mentioned among the group of adventurers that Evie and Josephine didn't have any magic available to them, but the things that Josephine knew and could do felt like magic to Evie sometimes. Oh, she knew that it was not magic, but a lifetime of devotion applied to a skill set. But regardless, it felt like Josephine had her own brand of magic and Evie just stood there quietly, watching Josephine come to her conclusions.
Josephine warmed the letter for a moment, frowned, and drew it to her nose for a good long sniff.
"No lemon juice, no milk, no scent." She held it to the lamp again, looking through the paper. "No holes. No extraneous or unexplained marks. No secret writing." She sighed and smoothed the letter on the blotter before taking up the envelope and subjecting it to the same scrutiny. "Same results here. Postmark is illegible, the stamp painfully common. It could have come from anywhere in the Empire. As a forgery, I've seen better. As a puzzle, I've seen worse. As a trick, however, it is the cruelest of all." Josephine shot up from her desk and slammed through the door behind into her storeroom kitchen. Crockery rattled alarmingly, followed by a clang.
Evie listened to the sounds of Josephine banging around in the kitchen and kept her distance, instead choosing to start picking up the teacup and saucer that Jo had swept aside in her fury to study the letter. Evie understood how sometimes a cutter needed to just be able to spit out the anger by their lonesome. Sometimes you need company, sometimes you just got to work it out on your own.
Josephine got the banked fire in her stove going nice and hot and stood staring through the firebox door, her knuckles white around the poker she held.
When Evie heard the crash, there weren't no more thoughts about letting Jo work it out on her own. She just reacted instinctively, running for the kitchen and throwing the door open. And there was Jo, on the floor, her arms crossed over her knees and her face buried away, trying to hide her soft sobbing. Evie padded over and took the poker that was in Jo's right hand and carefully put it on the floor. Then she just wrapped her arms around her partner and let her cry. Jo had done the same for Evie when she had been sad about her mother and Evie wanted to be to able to do the same for Jo. "It's going to be all right, Miss Jo. I love you, we'll get it all figured out."
Josephine mewed deep in her throat, a desperate stifled cry. She gripped her partner with her free hand and turned her face into Evie's chest and keened, "He's gone, Evie—." Josephine choked and like a dam bursting, everything she'd held back came pouring out of her. Between her sobs she tried to speak, but her despair was too great and nothing intelligible emerged.
"You don't know that, Jo," Evie said, hugging her partner close to her. "The note might not be him, but maybe someone's got him and is using this to get your attention. Can't give up hope. There's always hope." She rubbed Josephine's back, not sure what else she could say that might comfort her.
"If he had someone write it for him, then where is the counterphrase? He—I—," Josephine gulped and pulled herself together. "This is not to leave this room, but I tell you now, my father is—was—a spy for the Crown. He taught me many things, Evie, and one of them was how to verify if a letter came from him or from someone who had written it for him or if it was a forgery in his name. If that letter was by his hand, he would have given me some sign, some phrase or code that he'd taught me to show me it was his. If nothing else, he would have let me know if he'd written it under observation or duress and there is nothing of the sort anywhere on that letter."
Josephine grew calmer as she spoke, her surety a steadying influence on her emotions.
"If it is a trap meant to draw me out, it is a clumsy one but nevertheless effective for the purpose. I need a map," she growled and scrambled up from the floor. Josephine stalked to the shelves toward the front of the room, her ballroom heels ringing sharp on the flagstone underfoot. She turned left and disappeared behind a stack and rustling punctuated her words. "Wales might be a mystery to some, but the Royal Geographical Society is making great inroads toward mapping it. No ... no ... no ... yes."
She reappeared with a map the size of a large tablecloth in her hands, its hanging rod still gripping its edge. Josephine spread it on the floor and went right back to fetch her railway map and timetable, a pencil clutched in her fingers from a cup she kept on each stand of shelves.
"Now ... we're here," she said, tapping the metropolis at one end of the map. "And that town is ... here." She very lightly circled it. "The best route west is ..." She trailed off, comparing the two maps and muttering about departure times and layovers and various names in between, falling into her work with an intensity almost frightening.
Evie let loose a small sigh of relief. She had never seen Jo so angry and upset before and it had unnerved her a little. Seeing Jo back to planning and calm made Evie feel a little better. "So we'll be going soon then."
"Perhaps." Josephine sat back on her heels and frowned at the maps and the notes in front of her. She'd fetched some foolscap and had sketched several routes to her destination, some of them ranging far from the mark before closing in again. Times and dates and other names adorned some of the lines she'd drawn, others were left blank. "Leaving right this minute might be unwise if we're being watched, but neither is delaying too long. One would leave us vulnerable to watchers set to waylay us, the other would rouse their suspicion. Either way, we must be cautious. That is ...," Josephine paused and looked at Evie, her expression carefully neutral. "If you wish to come with me."
"Why wouldn't I?" Evie was a bit confused. Had she said something that would imply that she didn't want to come along? Hadn't she comforted Jo and told her that they'd figure things out? Unless...
That's right, Eglantine Varney. Or should I say, Evangeline Bond? Her inner voice seemed particularly harsh today. Gone off and abandoned everything that you cared about and cared about you for the sake of some shinies, have you?
"Is there something you wanted to talk to me about then, Miss Jo?" Evie kept her face just as free of emotion as Jo did. She could play that game as well as anyone.
Josephine's eyes narrowed then widened in comprehension, shredding her control to lay bare her thoughts beneath: Did she think I believed her false? Dear God, she's all I have. Aloud she said, "I cannot risk you the way I've risked the others, but I must let you choose. You're a woman grown now, Evie. I cannot command you to stay or go."
"Well, then I choose to go then." Evie's face had a fierce look of defiance. "I owe you everything, Jo. And even if I didn't, you're my friend. Until the road ends. And it ain't ending yet."
Josephine threw her arms around Evie and hugged the catgirl hard. She took a deep breath, drawing in the clean scent of her partner's fur, and whispered, "Thank you."
A shudder racked her and then Josephine put the steel back in her spine and let Evie go. She rose with the foolscap in hand and lifting the stove lid off the stove, she thrust the foolscap in pieces inside to burn. She stirred the bits with her poker and spoke as she watched the paper curl and disintegrate irrevocably into ashes.
"I know life has been moving fast for you of late, rather like an express train bound for Brighton. I've held my tongue over the recent developments because I could see opportunities that I myself could never give you and I did not want to cheat you of them. But I think we're at a crossroads, Evie, and you will have to accommodate your recent good fortune from this point on with what you want to do with your life."
Josephine turned and got the tea started, filling the kettle and putting it on to boil.
"I can offer you a life that is always moving, seeking out information, solving puzzles, thwarting enemies of the Crown. I won't lie to you. I cannot promise it will be a life of ease at my income level, but it will never be boring. However, you and I will no longer be equals. You are to be a Duchess and that shall give you resources I do not have, while I am to be what I have always striven to be—what I've chosen to make of myself. And what I've chosen," she added with a breath of a laugh, "refuses to be neatly pigeonholed. I'm afraid it changes on a daily basis."
"Me, Eglantine Varney, a Duchess. It don't seem real, like the shadow from a dream that will disappear when I wake up." She pulled on one ear as she was wont to do when she was thinking hard. "My mum would be so proud of me, don't you think?"
"I know she is." Josephine took the kettle off before it could scream. She poured the water into the pot she'd prepared when she first entered her kitchen. She turned to face her partner again and smiled. "I know I am. More than I can say."
As she waited for the tea to steep, she retrieved the map from the floor and stowed it with its mates, tidying everything until there was no trace of her activity. Then without a word, she hugged Evie again, holding the catgirl and hoping it would tell her everything she couldn't express. Funny, Josephine thought, you can extract the origin of a newspaper scrap by noting its type and the paper the words are printed on, but you cannot find the words to say what you feel deep down in your heart. There's something wrong with that. She released Evie and got the tea things together.
"I am reluctant to go to the Colonel with this, but in truth I cannot go haring off on a personal matter of this magnitude without clearing it with him first. He may need me for a task that trumps this. And that means a trip up North and imposing on their hospitality. This is not a matter to trust to the post or the telegraph. For security's sake it must be dealt with in person." She poured the tea and offered Evie the first cup. "How do you feel about taking a train ride the next day or so, once he's settled with Katherine and Ezekiel and Selene? London feels too ... small ... right this moment. I need sky over me."
"Can I ask you something, Jo?"
"Anything." Josephine saw no reason to withhold anything or impose restrictions. Not after laying herself bare with her deepest hurts. "Just ask."
"What would you do if you were me? I mean, I know you're not, but I wanna know." Evie still wasn't sure. Everything was happening head over heels fast, but they hadn't yet stamped and clamped her with the title. She wanted to be reassured that she wasn't a complete blinkin' sod.
Josephine puffed her cheeks with a startled breath. You did say 'anything', Jo... "I don't know. I never seriously entertained that line of thought." Josephine grew quiet as she considered it. "If you were to combine that sphere with mine ... it would take some doing but in diplomatic terms, as a Duchess you would find fewer doors closed to you than before. And while I have my personal reasons to covet that unenviable ability to travel where I wished in pursuit of my chosen profession, there are downsides that would also be a hindrance I would find virtually impossible to overcome. A Duchess, for instance, cannot be observed consorting with low folk in the gutter, no matter how vital a source of information they would be to—." Josephine broke off and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Evie. I realize that wasn't the answer to your question. I am afraid my mission-mind took over and missed your intent completely. If by asking you wanted to know if you must cut all ties to your former life and your friends, the answer is ultimately no, you needn't. You must simply be more discreet. It can be done and your title coupled with the illusion charm you wear would shield you greatly. And no matter which path you choose, I will always be your partner. And I would be ever so honored if you counted me yours."
Evie nodded her head as she thought it all through. "As long as you'll have me, Jo, I want to be your partner. I just don't think I can turn this down. And it ain't about the jink or even being a high up and getting respect. It's about a chance to do something right." Evie wasn't as in touch with God as Katherine's Ezekiel seemed to be and she couldn't decide whether that was why they were odds sometimes. But regardless, she knew that God didn't hand out chances like this every day.
"I'm scared, which I guess it means it's the right thing to do."
"And what is that right thing, Evie? Everyone has their own definition. I know mine and I think I've explained it well enough that you know what it is but what's yours?" Josephine blew on her tea and sipped it, settling on the floor, ballgown and all, and waited for her partner to respond. Could do with a proper table and chairs in here, Jo.
"Making it so us beasties get the rights we deserve, Jo. We're third class citizens, at best, and suddenly I have a chance where I'll have money and power and can try make it even." Evie poured herself a cup of tea, and thinking about her upcoming lessons on how to act properly, tried her best to make sure she poured her tea daintily.
"A dangerous path, like an icy roof in a high wind," Josephine said, her thoughts on history flickering behind her eyes. The past had far too many examples of those who chose to upset the status quo so completely yet despite their sanguinary ends, Josephine did not wish to discourage her partner. "Who better to tread it than you? You're already skilled in it. Just ... be careful, Evie. The people who have everything in the world have the most to lose, and they are as dangerous as the man who can lose nothing."
"Oh don't worry, I ain't going to suddenly stop being peery just because I've got a few words in front of my name," Evie said assuredly. "But nothing they can do can scare me. If I lose it all, then I'll know exactly where I'm going because I've been there before. They're not going to know what's hit 'em, Miss Jo." Evie had in mind that she was going to be a real blood, a duchess of the cross-trade. Sure, she was taking a dice but that's the thing about rolling, she thought. No risk meant no gain. And she had big gains in mind.
"No, they won't." Josephine smiled a small tightlipped smile at her tea before draining her cup and rising again. She gently set it in her sink to wash later. "None of them will."
"But I know what I'm going to do for me. What I can do for you?" Evie's eyes twinkled. "I mean, other than go with you to Wales?" Evie was suddenly about to have more money and power than she thought was ever possible. And she wanted to make sure the people that she loved...that had cared for her and loved her got to take advantage.
Josephine gripped her sink for a moment then turned to regard her friend, her partner, the daughter of her heart. All the world and time. They're hers now. Pass on the torch, Jo.
"You're already doing it, Evie." she said, aching with quiet pride. "Do as your heart tells you. It hasn't steered you wrong yet and I know it will lead you to victory."
"I'd offer to make you my head of security, but that'd just get in your way, wouldn't it?" Evie wrinkled her nose a little bit. It felt like she had taken everything and not given a lot back, but she was at a loss what to try to offer that didn't sound like she was trying to be snooty ahead of the game. "Well, you got me at your side for your trip to Wales at least."
"Not to worry. You'll find friends and partners don't keep score. Not that score, at any rate." Josephine could see Evie's conscience was troubled by her own non-answer. "Let us get to Wales if we can. We'll figure out the rest along the way."
Having said that, Josephine went back to her desk and regarded the letter a moment before carefully folding it back into its envelope.
"I love you, Jo," Evie said simply, looking down at her paws. "Thanks for not getting all barmy on me about me getting all wrapped up in a world I know you don't like. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing myself. So thanks for not making it harder."
Evie's voice came right behind her and Josephine only had to turn to wrap Evie in a hug. Cuts to the dark of it, she does. She never misses a trick. It was one of the many things she loved about Evie. Seeing her bright mind in action never failed to give her joy. Aloud, she only said, "I love you, too."
And hugged Evie hard.
Evie hugged Jo back as hard as she could. No matter what happened, Evie didn't plan to let Josephine go. This was just good practice for the future.
Since any campaign is a collaborative effort, Journal and RP entries by our other players can be read here.
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