Breath and Bones (12 page)

Famke received this news with a shock that surprised even herself.

“She fell into the canal,” Rasmussen said helpfully. “She was—er—”

“She was drunk,” Famke said.

“
Nej
, sadly, she was set upon by thieves. They were never found, but they took even her gold tooth.”

There was no predicting what might happen—accidents, footpads—oh, Albert!

Famke swallowed. “I have come to ask about a letter,” she said, willing her voice to steady itself. “My husband was to have written me here. His
name is Albert Castle, and mine is Famke—or Ursula.” She didn't know which name Albert might use in writing her, or whether he'd try giving her a last name.

Ole Rasmussen opened his door wider, and for the first time Famke saw into the landlord's lair. It was the dirtiest place she had ever seen—broken-down furniture and newspapers, indeed papers of every sort, everywhere, and a thick pall of dust choking the air itself. Fru Strand had left a filthy mess for her nephew; but then, judging by his shirt, filth appeared to be a family trait.

Rasmussen gestured at the moldering papers that had burst from a pigeonholed desk like stuffing from a sofa. “There may be something,” he said. “
Fanden
, I think there is. I remember your name, and your husband's, from one of my aunt's record books—she kept several, in various places—and perhaps your name was on a letter as well. But I must sort through all of that again before I can say for certain.”

Famke's heart leapt. “I could help you,” she said.

“
Puhha
.” Rasmussen blew out, and she smelled the herring on his breath. “I don't have time to look for a letter today. There's a window to fix upstairs first, and I have the glass waiting.”

It seemed terribly cruel that Famke should be kept from Albert's letter—if there was such a letter—by a violence that Albert himself had done to the building. She wondered if Rasmussen might have been more inclined to help if she hadn't introduced herself as a married woman.

“I could look for myself,” she offered. “And I could sort the papers for you. I am employed as a housekeeper . . . just until my husband returns.”

But her employment was no guarantee to Herr Rasmussen, who looked distressed at the thought of a strange woman excavating the desk before he had his chance. There could be money in those heaps . . . He blinked at her with palpable suspicion.

“Or I can come back,” she said, mustering her dignity. “Perhaps in two weeks?” It would be at least that long before she had another half day.

“Maybe.” He coughed into his already grimy sleeve, then sighed and extricated a handkerchief that had worked its way up to his elbow. He blew his nose. “Or you can leave me your address and the money for postage, and if there is something for you I will send it on.” He tucked the crumpled handkerchief back into his cuff, clearly aware of having offered her a great favor.

Famke realized that whether she accepted this offer or not, she would have to tip the man a
Krone
for his goodwill. She might as well add the few
Øre
needed for a local-delivery stamp; though she disliked giving money away, that would be the fastest means of getting Albert's letter, when it was found. She wrote out her new address and handed it to Ole Rasmussen with the coins. Still, she resolved that she would keep visiting until Rasmussen told her for certain whether a letter for her might lie somewhere in Fru Strand's pigeonholes.

“Thank you so much,” she said as she turned away, preparing herself for the long walk back with neither more nor less hope than had accompanied her into town.

Famke tried not to think about a letter. She tried not to run for Skatkammer's post when, at the strokes of ten and three, it arrived each day. She set herself other tasks—memorizing lists of English words as she dusted the collections, practicing the gestures of the Three Graces as she made Herr Skatkammer's bed. She learned the solemn Saints' names, Erastus Mortensen and Heber Goodhouse, and found out as much as she could about them. Though they still had brown hairs among the gray, they both looked old to Famke, perhaps even older than Frøken Grubbe, though not so old as Herr Skatkammer. They earned her gratitude for using none of the pomade she had to wash out of the antimacassars when other visitors left; they smelled only of the plain soap she was used to and liked. They wore round spectacles and always had a book in hand—
En Sandheds Röst, En Røst fra Landet Zion, Mormons Bog
.

Ah, Mormons. Famke had heard of Mormons before; in Dragør there was a man who'd come to proselytize—maybe one of these very two—and she had heard that right by the town well he had preached crazy miracles and said the Garden of Eden was in a place called Missouri. The good Lutherans of the village had chased him away with pitchforks, and for weeks afterward they warned their women that when a Mormon came to town, it was to steal Danish girls and lock them inside a hidden temple. They also reported that the patriarchs married their own daughters. Everyone knew that the Mormon symbol was the beehive, which they claimed signified
hard work and sweet rewards, but which others knew meant a tower of pain and poison to outsiders. These two looked harmless enough, but now Famke saw them through the misty veil of legend. They were both wicked and alluring.

She began to listen behind the office door when they were there, and even hung out the windows to get a last look as they left. She learned that Mortensen's father had been Danish, a good friend of Herr Skatkammer in the days when both were Lutheran. This long-dead friendship explained why Herr Skatkammer indulged the frequent visits—this, and perhaps the same kind of fascinated curiosity that drew Famke to them. Otherwise she could not explain his hospitality, for Herr Skatkammer had to listen to endless pleas for money.

“We have engaged a ship to transport us from England,” Mortensen said one day in his near-perfect Danish. “The
Olivia
will leave Liverpool in a fortnight. We have over three hundred converts eager to reach Zion, and nearly half of them lack the funds for the journey.”

Goodhouse, whose mother had been a Dane from Jutland, added, “We also need a ship to bring them to England. And once they have arrived in Zion, we would like to establish them in the silk-growing industry—we shall need mulberry trees and worm eggs, spindles and wheels . . .”

Herr Skatkammer merely grunted. He must have pulled the bell that rang for servants, because Frøken Grubbe turned up immediately. She glared at Famke as she opened the office door.

“More cakes,” said Herr Skatkammer.

The three men peered past Frøken Grubbe and saw Famke. “Have Ursula bring them,” Herr Skatkammer added.

So Mortensen and Goodhouse learned Famke's name, too. From that day on, the slightly younger one, Goodhouse, took to greeting her as they passed. “
Goddag
, Ursula.”

“
Goddag
,” she replied, stealing a last look as the housekeeper whisked her away. Americans spoke through their noses.

On another visit, Goodhouse managed to get her into a corner. She thought with momentary dread of her virtue but was relieved when he merely whispered, “Can you read, Ursula?”

“Yes,” she whispered back, eagerly and in English, “and I read your tongue, too. Do you wish to give me a book?”

So, when Frøken Grubbe wasn't looking, Famke accepted the same tracts the Saints had brought for Herr Skatkammer:
A Voice of Truth, A Voice from the Land of Zion, The Book of Mormon
.

She was glad to get them. Now she could read of these fantastic people who married many women; in a household that refused to gossip, these books would tell her about the world. Even better, she would learn how to make English sentences. The dictionary was thick going, and she still considered it of utmost importance to become fluent.

You never can know the future
, she reminded herself.
Any day there might be a letter
. She must remember that great work,
The Revenge of Nimue
, whose success would surely make Albert think of her . . .

Famke's roommate noticed the tracts (disappointingly dry, Famke had discovered, but useful for the English) and reported them to Frøken Grubbe.

“You'd better take care,” the housekeeper warned as she broke the pamphlets in her hands and consigned them to the kitchen stove. “Do not be foolish. I told you what happens to their women.”

Famke replied with confidence, “I am not that kind of woman,” even as she reminded herself:
This parting, darling, would be no crime
.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it
.

M
ATTHEW
13:45, 46

And in that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name to take away our reproach
.

B
OOK OF
M
ORMON
, 2 N
EPHI
14:1

Ye Saints who dwell on Europe's shore,

Prepare yourselves with many more

To leave behind your native land,

For sure God's judgments are at hand
.

“T
HE
H
ANDCART
S
ONG
”

New worlds for old,” Famke whispered. It was a phrase she had read in one of Herr Skatkammer's English newspapers, and she'd remembered it because it reminded her of Albert: building, upon the ruins, a new and perfect world. “
Nye Verdener for gamle
.”

A dark wind swallowed her words; but they did not sound so good in Danish anyway. She had never known such a wind: It seemed to come from some deep part of the sky, well away from any known world; for it was an effortless wind that carried none of the heat that propelled the ship forward. Rather, it buffeted the steam engines, forcing them to chug and labor for every inch they won from the constantly shifting waves.

Beneath that blast and under an arc of star-pricked, moon-tinted blue, the earth had become a flat plane of deep black; when she stood at the rear of the steerage deck and looked backward, she was the only figure in the landscape. Out of its braids, her hair made a tunnel over the water; and overhead, against the dark canvas of the sky, that wind hurled the white engine smoke straight back, like an arm reaching toward its home port. Nonetheless, Famke, with plain pink hands clenched around a ship's iron railing, was being carried forward, to America.

America: where Albert had gone in search of new mythologies, colorful new mysteries for his art. Mountains, goldmines, deserts. Savages. It was a printed fact.

Back in Hellerup, Famke had been on the rear stairwell with an armful
of Herr Skatkammer's foreign newspapers, which were needed in the kitchen, when a small paragraph in English caught her eye:

. . .
The passenger list of the
S. S. Lucrece
will include one lately a student at the Royal Academy, so nonplussed by the Academy's return of what he had hoped would hang in its annual Exhibition that he has determined to try his fortunes in the farthest reaches of the land to the West. Claiming that the flames of inspiration have suffocated in our cold climes, he has, we are told, exchanged the rejected work for his passage to the desert. It is to be hoped that, on shores less known for artistic achievement, the miners and ranchers of his eventual destination will be more receptive to Albert Castle's style and subject matter
. . .

The name leapt from the page as if inscribed in red letters; as if it were itself a picture of Albert's green eyes, his thin hair, his cheeks flushed with excitement.

Famke sat weakly down on the stairs, newspapers sliding away from her in a great fan. So Albert had gone to America, left England and his father and the hope of joining the Brotherhood. She barely noticed that
Nimue
(she, Famke) had been sold to some ship's owner or captain.

She dropped to her knees and scrabbled through the newspaper's scattered leaves until she found the
Lucrece
's date of embarkation: June 29.

Today was June 30.

Famke refused to feel dismay. If she could not sail on the same ship as her love, she would take one soon afterward. This was the sign she had been waiting for, the kind of message that prompted people to do great deeds.

She ran up to her room to put on the despised stays, which she thought gave her an air of respectability, tied up her few possessions in her yellow shawl, and began the walk into Copenhagen, to the address printed inside the Mormon tracts.

Heber Goodhouse was palpably surprised to see her. “Ursula! Do you have a message from Herr Skatkammer?” he asked hopefully. He spoke English, and Famke realized she might not hear her native tongue again for a long, long time.