All Bedlam Courses Past (part two hundred twenty-nine)

All Bedlam Courses Past

Chapter Eight

Things Relative

(part two hundred twenty-nine)

They sat in awareness of Mr. Rowan, of the dead Beacon, of Ebrach’s purchasing the remains from Regina, of Weem’s being the vehicle, of Rowan’s downfall. The vehicle…not the facilitator, who was Élucide’s father.

Monaghan said: “Well. Onwards, I think, to Mrs. Demrose and her finances.”

“Her banker,” Phelan said, “is a Mr. Thigpen. He provides a picture of Mrs. Demrose un…it seems in keeping, Miss…able to grasp the import of dipping into her husband’s capital.”

“But you mean Moult.”

“Indeed. I err. Her late husband.”

Regina took newspapers in every city she visited. They trailed her movements from interiors to balconies, the papers, and the pencils for marking them. Mr. Demrose, Monaghan said, reported his wife showing him this and that daylong, curiosities, letters, poetic verses, properties for sale.

And if seeking compliments for one’s headstone, bright and interested would do. Élucide had written phrases to Myra: So very sad and unexpected. Your mother was a lovely person.

She ought to have said, the energy of women in America goes sadly unchanneled, let me share with you an essay I’ve written. Let Myra’s dislike for her find its ground. Regina had from her father a passion for houses. He had taken her around visiting, and walking home had walked his young daughter in discourse through the faults: the siting, the garden, the hallways and stairs, for narrowness, chimneys for smokiness, cellars for mustiness. He had made his neighbors offers, mostly refused.

This was Phelan’s thrust, informed by Mr. Thigpen. “You nod, Miss. You’d heard the anecdote from Mrs. Demrose, perhaps.”

Annoying… Expecting you to answer while supplying your answer unsolicited. Weakly, then: “She liked showing off the things she owned.”

“However, to gain them, she borrowed.”

Two men of business sat at the table; a hush followed.

“There are loans outstanding?”

“Not such sums, sir, as may not be discharged, by the sale of… The acreage I’d mentioned. A few rented houses. Mr. Demrose could put himself right, sacrificing income, to rid himself of the debt the rents were only covering, after all.”

Élucide’s father wished to put in it did no harm proving yourself a good risk. Always advised the young men coming up not to fight shy on financing.

“And so,” Monaghan said. “Begging your pardon, sir. Demrose had cause to worry over the spending, had had words with his wife.”

“Did he have words?” asked Weem.

“Unless it were done by pantomime.”

This was a hard-meant joke, and Weem gave a false chuckle. “I wouldn’t write ‘had words’, which the general public takes to mean a shouting match, if I meant bantered, cajoled, shot the breeze.”

241

Bedlam

All Bedlam Courses Past (part two hundred thirty)

(2025, Stephanie Foster)