A Gilded Grave (32 page)

O
n the day Swan, the obeah man, awoke to consciousness, Francis Woodruff breathed his last.

Will picked Joe and Deanna up in a hansom on his way to the hospital.

“I probably shouldn’t let you in on my conversation with Swan, but since you were both so involved in the outcome, you may listen.” He gave Deanna a pointed look. “Listen.”

She nodded.

Will showed his badge first at the front desk and then to the officer assigned to sit outside the door of Swan’s private room.

Swan was sitting up in bed in a white hospital robe, which made his complexion seem even darker. His eyes were nearly black until he looked up.

Then his eyes widened and flashed, and he seemed to shrink a bit beneath sheet. But he didn’t look away as he watched Will approach.

And he didn’t hesitate when Will asked his first question.

He told them that Lord David and Madeline, whose names were really Harry and Mary Osbourne, had in fact been brother and sister, but not plantation owners. They were actors.

“Two actors whose company had been stranded by their manager when the money ran out. They found me by the road. I was an obeah man in Barbados, but my people beat me, drove me from my village, and left me to die by the road because the chief’s son died and I could not bring him back to life. Harry and Mary found me and took me in. We became . . .”

“Swindlers,” Joe interjected.

“Yes, swindlers. Harry was very good at it. It was the way he and Mary survived, by trickery, when they could not find an acting job.

“We are on the same steamer to Barbados with Mr. Woodruff. He gambles—not very well—and consorts with the ladies, Mary included. He loses. Every night he loses and takes Mary off to his bed.”

Deanna reeled on her feet. Father and son. Madeline had seduced both. It was horrifying.

“We get close to Barbados; he is more reckless. He loses all the money he is to pay for sugar, then he gives Harry stocks so he can lose some more.”

“When we dock and he realizes what he has done, he begs my master to hold on to the stocks until he can buy them back. The three of them concoct a plan for my master to be this Lord David and come to Newport for more money.

“Mr. Woodruff, he thinks he can raise more money, then return to Barbados for the sugar.” Swan tapped his temple with a long finger. “But Harry, he is very clever. He don’t tell Mr. Woodruff, but he plans to sell those stocks to the big sugar man in New York.”

“Havemeyer,” Joe said in disgust.

“Yes, that is him. He pays very much for them, much more than they’re worth, my master says. Now Harry has much money.”

“Except that he drowned in the ocean.”

“Perhaps. You have found him?”

“Not yet,” Will admitted. “We may never recover his body. The currents are swift there.”

“Or perhaps that is because he doesn’t wish to be found.”

“If he sets foot on American soil, he’ll be arrested and sent to prison.”

Swan shrugged. Not smug, or triumphant, just accepting.

“Did this Harry Osbourne kill Daisy and Claire, the servant girls?”

“He did not.”

“Did you?”

“I do not kill.”

Will looked incredulous. “What about your suicide note?”

“Not written by me. That maid saves me. I am grateful.”

“I’ll tell her,” Deanna said.

Swan nodded.

“Then who killed them?” Will asked, impatience lacing his words.

“She-devil.”

“That would be Mary?”

“Mary,” Swan said.

“Why?” Deanna asked.

“Because the first saw her pour poison into medicine. The second, because she was afraid of what the girl might know.”

“Madeline—Mary saw her talking to me and Elspeth.”

“Deanna,” Will warned.

Swan was looking steadily at Deanna. He nodded solemnly. “She would have killed you next. I told your Elspeth to leave, but she is a stubborn woman.”

Deanna nodded.

Will scoffed. “I’m having a hard time believing that a woman of her size and stature could’ve overpowered them and then carried their bodies out to the cliff and thrown them over the side. Can you explain how she managed that?”

A slash of a smile from Swan, then he was expressionless again. “She strangled the first one, pushed the second one down the steps. I, Swan, took them to the cliffs.”

“That makes you an accessory after the fact.”

“That makes me a man whose life she held in her hands. Is she really dead?”

“Yes.”

“We shall see.”

“You’re not really afraid her spirit will come back to haunt you?”

“To punish me for telling her that I would not do more, no more. I would not do that again. She try to kill me, too. She puts poison in my drink. She doesn’t like weak.”

“Is that why she put poison in Mr. Woodruff’s medicine?”

“Like me, he begin to feel bad about what he has done, especially when he sees her with his son. He wants to confess, to tell his son to leave her alone. He rages, he begs, he goes a little crazy. She don’t like him no more. She puts him out of the way. But she can’t kill him right away.” Swan closed his eyes.

“Why?” Will asked.

Swan’s eyelids fluttered. “She need him until Harry collects all the money and they can disappear.”

“Why was it necessary to destroy so many lives?” Will asked.

“To Harry, it was a game to be played for money. But she—she was insatiable.”

“So she didn’t really fall in love with Charles, like she said?” Deanna asked.

Swan coughed a laugh. “Not that one. First the father, then the son. She was insatiable in this, too. Her own brother. She took them all. And all were powerless against her desire.”

Deanna shuddered, as did the others. She didn’t want to hear more.

“Okay, that’s it,” Joe said. “I’m taking Deanna outside.”

For once, Deanna didn’t protest. She was more than ready to go.

They waited for Will on the steps of the hospital. It was only a few minutes before he joined them.

“I shouldn’t have let you come.”

“You couldn’t stop me. I would have come on my own.”

“Bob would kill us both for subjecting you to that.”

“Perhaps, but if you recall, I was the one who told you about seeing those two kissing on the landing.” Something she would not forget for a long time. And wished she’d never seen in the first place.

She’d have to ask Gran Gwen about women like that. Were they fiends? Or was it the way most women outside of society were? She couldn’t ask Joe or Will.

“At least now it’s over,” Joe said. “Did they really think they could get away with it?”

Will passed his hand over his face. “According to Swan, they always did before. I believe this wasn’t even the first time that Mary resorted to murder.”

Deanna shuddered. “What will happen to Swan? Will he go to jail?”

Will shrugged. “That isn’t up to me. But it doesn’t look like he has much of a future. Jail or sending him back to Barbados, where it doesn’t sound like he’ll be welcomed. He may be a victim of circumstance, but we can’t just set him free to roam the streets of Newport.”

“It’s all so sad,” Deanna said.

“It’s life,” said Will.

W
ithin a fortnight of the announcement of Francis Woodruff’s death, Charles learned the full extent of his father’s debt. Not only had he gone through Mrs. Woodruff’s millions as well as his own, he also owed vast amounts to his gambling companions.

Charles was obliged to put Seacrest up for sale, including the furnishings and stables, and the family made plans to move to Nevada, where they hoped Mrs. Woodruff’s father would take them in and help the family start over again.

On their last day in town, Charles drove his mother and sister to Randolph House to say good-bye. Cassie and her mother only came in for a few short minutes. Charles waited at the curb.

Deanna and her father walked them to the street, and Mr. Randolph helped Mrs. Woodruff into the carriage.

Deanna gave her friend a heartfelt hug.

Cassie clung to her. “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too. I wish I were going with you.”

“How can you say that? No more Newport. No more life. I’ll never marry Vlady now.”

Deanna was afraid that was true. “Perhaps not. But think
of all the adventures awaiting you, instead of being stuck here and strangled by society.”

“But I want to be strangled by society! I want to marry Vlady.”

“Come, dear, it’s time to say good-bye.” Mrs. Woodruff smiled, but it trembled on her lips. She gave her hand to Mr. Randolph. “Thank you. I’ll send you the money for our trip as soon as I can. But I’m afraid there might not be anything we can do about the business for a long, long time.”

“Don’t you worry about either. I’m sure with Charles’s business sense you’ll recover quickly. I just wished things had turned out differently for you.”

“Oh, don’t mind me. I’ve never been afraid of hard work. That’s where I started before Papa discovered the silver lode. I only hope he’ll forgive my marrying a scoundrel and take us in.” She sniffed. “That’s what Papa called Francis then and I’m afraid he was right. Maybe he’ll help us get started again.”

“I’m sure he must.”

“We’ll take Tillie with us, of course. That might make things a little more difficult. They never have made up. It’s time they did.” She straightened. “And it won’t be bad for Charles and Cassie to work; that way they’ll appreciate success all the more.”

“But I don’t want to do hard work,” Cassie wailed. “I want things to go back to the way they were!”

Which was something that none of them could give her.

The last Deanna saw of her lifelong friend was Cassie leaning out of the carriage and waving, the pink ostrich plumes of her hat swaying in the breeze.

“Poor Cassie. Poor Mrs. Woodruff.” Deanna sighed.

“Not poor Charles?” asked her father.

“I guess, but he wasn’t faithful to Adelaide.”

“It’s a blessing we found that out before she married him.”

“Yes, I guess. Is she disappointed?”

“More humiliated than disappointed, I think. But a nice long trip to Geneva will go a long way to helping her forget. And how about you, my dear? Are you contemplating any more adventures more appropriate to dime novels than to a young lady of fashion?”

“Not me. I’ve had enough of that kind of excitement to last me a lifetime.”

“I hope so, because your mother is certain you’ll cause a scandal if I let you stay in Newport without her. Promise me you’ll behave.”

“Yes, Papa. I’ll do absolutely everything Gran Gwen tells me to do.”

“I shudder to think.” He reached over and kissed her forehead. They walked back into the house arm in arm.

She didn’t know what her father was thinking, but Deanna was thinking that as soon as she got to Gran Gwen’s, she would take off her corset and order a tennis outfit and one of those new bathing costumes.

And then she was going out to buy herself a bicycle.

The Gilded Age, named by Mark Twain because of its conspicuous consumption, lasted from the 1880s until after the turn of the twentieth century. It was a time of outrageous spending, ruthless business practices, and the rise of monopolies, but it also saw a blossoming of scientific progress, political unrest, and women’s rights.

At the height of this turbulent era Newport, Rhode Island, was known as the “Queen of Resorts.”

The Newport Season during the Gilded Age lasted six to eight weeks, from the middle of July through August. During that time exorbitant amounts were spent on entertainment and outdoing everyone else on the social ladder—a very exclusive ladder.

No expense was spared for the building and outfitting of the “cottages” where the Astors, Belmonts, Vanderbilts, and their peers displayed their wealth and partied for a few weeks a year. The best of European art and architecture was utilized, the most talented craftsmen employed for these edifices, whose constructions ran to millions of dollars: Marble House, Belcourt, Rosecliff, The Elms. The largest and most expensive of all, The Breakers, built for Alice Vanderbilt and finished just
in time for the 1895 season when
A Gilded Grave
takes place, cost $12 million (about $315 million today).

Entertainment was lavish and closed to all but the best families. Dinners often cost many thousands of dollars, balls even more. Entertainment budgets for the few weeks could run into the hundreds of thousands.

While the men spent their weekdays in the city, the women’s days were carefully scheduled, with time allotted for visiting, the beach, tennis, afternoon teas, evening soirees. Participation in society required changing dresses six to eight times a day, up to ninety new gowns a season, mostly from Parisian designers. Designer dresses cost from $100 to $500 (approximately $3,000 to $13,000 today) and most were worn only once.

On the weekends the men would return aboard luxurious ferries to attend their wives’ extravaganzas and spend time on their yachts or at the several men’s clubs in town. One such club was the Reading Room, a frame house in the center of Newport, used less as a place of reading and more as a retreat where the men drank and smoked, and where talk and gossip ran from business to racier subjects.

The staffs of the cottages were made up largely of local Newporters who might take a dim view of the summer people but depended on them for their livelihood. Local shopkeepers overcharged them during the summer months so they could live for the rest of the year. The townspeople had their own entertainments and never mingled with the cottagers.

In the 1890s, American dime novels—cheap paper-covered novels with bold cover pictures of bloodshed, Western adventures, heroes in action, as well as those geared toward young women, often innocent maidens under the power of dastardly villains—were inexpensive enough to be popular with the
working classes. The era also saw the rise of female detectives like Kate Goelet, Loveday Brookes, and Cad Metti, who inspired Deanna and Elspeth with their daring deeds and even more so by their ingenuity at outsmarting criminals.

The story in the magazine Elspeth and Deanna find in Daisy’s room is based on Dr. William Pritchard, a Glasgow physician convicted in 1865 of poisoning his mother-in-law, his wife, and possibly a household maid. Pritchard was a popular subject for these lurid tales. The actual cover I used was inspired by a 1913 copy of
Pritchard the Poisoner
by H. L. Adam. But it was so perfect I appropriated it for my 1895 story.

I likewise appropriated on Joe’s behalf the inventions of John Arbuckle, a Philadelphia coffee merchant and wholesale grocer who in 1898 introduced automated packaging of his coffee beans and also began to repackage sugar. In
A Gilded Grave
, Joe is working on a series of inventions that would make sugar refining safer and more efficient, including a bagging machine.

Until that time, sugar was sold in large cones of hard compact sugar. The grocer would break off the amount requested with a pair of heavy pinchers and wrap it in paper for the customer to take home and store. In real life, Arbuckle was no match for the tactics of Havemeyer’s Sugar Trust and, after a lengthy battle, was put out of business.

When the trust was declared illegal in 1891, Havemeyer and partners reopened as the American Sugar Refining Company. In 1900 the name was changed to Domino Sugar, and Havemeyer became the undisputed supplier of sugar in the United States. (I thought it was only right that R and W Sugar in
A Gilded Grave
should try to beat the trust as its own game.)

For more about life in Gilded Age Newport, visit shelley
freydont.com.