Red Dog Conspiracy

Chapter 3

The Wedding

The hall burst with riotous color. Men, women, children from all over Merca, nay the world, had come to celebrate the marriage of one of their own. Zeppelin pilots in their ceremonial uniforms, the Travelers’ Board in full regalia. A banner at the far end: Vig And Natalia Forever.

I sat in the left corner nearest the door, staring dully at the spray of flowers on my table. Apparently one didn’t wear full mourning to a wedding in Bridges, so instead I wore Anna Goren’s deep purple dress and veil. With the crush of dignitaries in the room, no one gave me any notice.

But I was well-guarded.

My loyal footman Skip Honor stood behind me, dressed in his finest. The housekeeper of my apartments, Mary Spadros, sat beside me to my left. Her husband (and my apartments’ butler) Blitz sat beside her, their little daughter Ariana bouncing in his arms.

Acevedo Spadros III, just a month old, lay sleeping in his pram to my right, his nursemaid Daisy beside him. His guards — two men close by, two more stationed farther away — had been assigned the task by my husband Tony.

One of these was Tony’s first cousin and right hand man, Ten Hogan, also called Sawbuck. He loomed a few feet away from Acevedo, looking bored. Sawbuck had wanted little to do with the boy, not even visiting when he was born, and had only given him a glance when assigned the duty.

Tony hadn’t wanted me to bring the child. Tony’s parents insisted.

“It’d be too much for you or me to go,” Roy had said. “Particularly since they don’t want us.” Though he lived in our quadrant, Vígharður Vikenti had a particular dislike for the Spadros Family. “But since the Travelers’ Board will be there, in our quadrant, one of us must attend. And who better than our new little Heir?”

I thought it a masterful move. Vig and I were old friends, and who could fault a new mother for bringing her babe?

The calculated irony of it all.

The room buzzed with lively conversation. Families laughed, children ran about. Everyone seemed so alive.

I felt in a half-world, neither living nor dead. My bleeding had stopped. My color had mostly returned, my strength almost what it had been. But even at the wedding of two dear friends, I felt a terrible lonely emptiness inside.

Acevedo slept now, with the noise and bustle around him, but at Spadros Manor he cried day and night. Dr. Salmon called it colic, and said it should abate on its own “in a month or two.”

Another two months of this and I feared I would go mad.

At times I wished only to die. The one thing which stopped me was the vow I made to Jonathan Diamond before his death: to find a way to be happy.

Jonathan had died after carrying me from a trap meant for him. His cry when he fell, dropping me into that cobblestone alley, ever rang in my head.

Why did you leave the house?

Tony’s words kept repeating. But little Ante, the messenger boy, said he’d seen Josie. I’d only wanted to help find her.

Don’t you see what you’re doing? How long will you go on like this? How many more are dead because of your ‘help’?

My eyes stung.

Seeing Jonathan’s face before me with his twin Jack’s deep voice, his cutting tone ... it only made the words more painful.

If only I’d paid attention to little Ante, he’d be alive.

Yes, the boy had tried to stab me but he was a boy, and a small one at that. He just wanted to avenge his brother.

If I’d only been stronger. If only I’d been able to bear the pain.

Why did I let Jon carry me? If I’d been more forceful, stubbornly refused to let Jon do it, he still might be alive.

How many more are dead because of your ‘help’?

A waiter came by. “Some wine, mum?”

I shook my head, looking away, but in my heart I wanted the whole bottle, and all its kin.

Blitz gave me a quick glance. “None for this table, thanks.” He’d brought Ariana’s little tall chair, and set her now into it, then handed her a hard biscuit to gnaw on. Once the man left, he said to me, “Sorry about that.”

I’d just recovered from bleeding near to death. Drinking would have only made things worse.

That was what my mind said. My heart thought perhaps death would at least bring me a chance of being with Jonathan once more.

I gazed at Acevedo, asleep bundled in his pram.

And I felt nothing.

Daisy and I exchanged a glance. She doted on the boy, tending to him day and night, with soft cooing and various amusements, nursing him as often as he wished. Barely a month after his near-death in my womb, his dreadful pallor had turned to rosy cheeks, his hair coming in full, dark brown and wavy.

He’s a strong child, Dr. Salmon told me. Barring any tragedy, he should live to become a mighty Heir.

He’s a strong childBarring any tragedy, he should live to become a mighty Heir.The doctor had given a full interview to the Bridges Daily, one of many articles trying to sate the frenzy around the boy. After his birth, crowds had choked the streets outside of Spadros Manor, I suppose hoping for a glimpse of him.

Yet so far, no one seemed to have noticed us here.

The wedding itself had been private, Travelers only. I’d paid to rent the hall: my gift to Vig.

We came to the reception hall early to escape the rush and only a very few reporters had been there. Setting up their cameras, they seemed not to notice our entry. But we’d have to leave sooner or later.

I owed Vig my life. Yet everyone around me died. Would Vig be the next?

A man shouted, “They’re here!”

The crowd hurried over to the door on our side of the hall.

I sat unmoving. From where we were, we’d be able to see most everything.

Vig had no brothers, no sisters. His mother had died of a coronary after Roy’s men destroyed Vig’s saloon in retaliation for not informing to Roy on my whereabouts. But Natalia’s parents were there, her sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, with a host of children.

They all looked so happy.

The wedding couple strode in, an easy joy upon their faces I’d never seen in either of them before. Arm in arm, they greeted the cheers, beaming with delight.

Natalia’s dress was white satin, with heavy embroidery of gold and red. Her dark hair was tied up in a headscarf to match, beads and jewels spilling down her shoulders. It was then I noticed many of the women there had similar, if less festive headscarves on.

And I’d never seen Vig wear such a splendid suit before: the finest blue silk, a suit worthy of a Patriarch.

Where did he get the money for all this?

Led to the front, the wedding couple were seated at tall chairs at a rectangular table draped in white, like a King and Queen overseeing their court.

Then the feasting began.

Whole pigs, sides of beef, dozens of roasted fowl and other platters were brought to the tables on each side. Chefs created plates for each person, which waiters brought first to the wedding couple, then to the room in order of their distance from them.

Blitz chuckled. “We’ll be here a while.”

It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

Musicians played, people talked. And I saw where the money came from. As maidens carrying large deep baskets danced slowly by, the men at each table deposited large bills and wads of cash into them.

Blitz turned to me, laughing. “Apparently, this is their tradition!”

When a girl danced around our table, Blitz had his dollar ready. I hoped he and Mary could afford such expense.

The food was good, dishes I’d not had before. People sang songs I’d never heard before, speaking in languages I didn’t understand. It was strange, it was so new to me. But it was all beautiful.

Jon would have liked this so much. Tears threatened to return. I felt real pain, deep in my heart.

Jon would have liked this so muchMary said, “More tea, mum?”

I took it. I didn’t care. Everything they offered: food, drink. I knew Mary and Blitz wouldn’t betray me.

Yet I felt divided.

I’d have to leave eventually. I wanted so badly to return with Blitz and Mary to my apartments, have the peace and quiet of life in my dear little home. To be free.

But I feared for them. Everyone around me died. Even Jon.

Nothing had been so fortunate for Blitz and Mary as for me to be forced to leave. Perhaps they’d survive whatever new horror the Red Dog g**g planned for me.

This made me think of my dear friend Josie, who’d suffered unimaginable torment because of me.

Why had they kidnapped Josephine Kerr? Could it have only been to kill Jon?

Tony’s men had found me and Jonathan dying beside the warehouse where Josie had been trapped. They found the little messenger boy Ante’s body.

But Tony’s men never found Josie. I could only hope she’d made her way to that place she spoke of, somewhere safe where her chains might be removed.

I’d sent messages to her home and received no reply. Her betrothed Etienne Hart, my half-brother and the Hart Inventor, had never returned to Spadros Manor, nor would he accept my mail.

And we’d heard nothing at all from the Diamonds.

In those weeks of lying bedridden, I considered well what Julius Diamond had done at the crossing a week after his son’s death. In the Families, denying men that Jonathan had named his closest allies the chance to attend his funeral was unforgivable.

But from all Jon had told me, Julius Diamond hadn’t been a good father, nor even a kind one. After so many years of grieving his son’s imminent death, to have it come so suddenly, without warning ...

Tony said I was only excusing the inexcusable. But what might I have done or said in the man’s place?

None of it mattered, not really.

Someone took Josie. Someone forged a letter from me to lure Jon there. They even hit me on the head and took me there, heavy with child. Then they herded the three of us to a point where ...

We had a clear escape. If I’d only been stronger, been able to bear the terrible, unnatural, searing pain, we might have made it to safety without any loss of life.

Acevedo stirred, then let out a sigh.

Those people went to immense effort to bring us there. The plan spoke of a precise mind, someone who knew everyone involved. The play had been carefully staged, even to the way Ante stepped back from the curb outside Spadros Manor, drawing me towards him and my imminent capture.

But what was the point?

They didn’t want me to die. From the writing Tony’s cousin Sawbuck and I had found on the note in my dead friend Marja’s hand, these people needed me alive for some reason.

So why do this?

They couldn’t possibly know about the condition inside me — Dr. Salmon had called it previa — that threatened to tear my child from my body and suffocate him before he even drew breath. Not even the doctor had known until he saw the afterbirth.

He’d gasped then, and turned pale, that old, old man who’d delivered both Tony and Roy in his day.

But the Red Dog g**g did know about Jon. The whole city knew about his illness. They knew he and I had a bond. They knew if I called, he would go to me.

And they used that to kill him.

Daisy reached across Acevedo’s pram and took my hand. “They say everyone cries at weddings.”

From down the long hall, Vig had been watching me. I forced myself to smile.

A waiter stood beside me. “Finished, mum?”

All the other plates had been taken. I nodded, and he took the half-empty plate and moved on. The room swayed, just a bit, when I stood. “I’m going out for a smoke.”

Mary took my left arm. “Let me come with you.”

We went past the guests, past the large dance floor. Vig rose, leading Natalia by the hand to start the first dance.

They looked so beautiful, so happy.

Past the kitchens, a narrow back door opened onto an equally narrow back alley, which stretched a full block in each direction. At least thirty men stood at either end: Travelers’ men, Vig’s men, Tony’s men. I almost laughed, wondering if they were managing to get along.

Mary pulled me to the left, speaking quietly. “Look, it’s that man. The one who came to the house that night.”

It was then I noticed him, a dozen yards my right. Tall, wearing workman’s clothing covered by a full apron, smoking a cigarette. His skin golden, well-muscled arms revealed by rolled-up sleeves. His eyes, just as green, just as hypnotic as I recalled.

A thrill ran all the way to my s*x as our eyes met.

For the first time in a month, I felt alive.

And in spite of everything he’d said and done, I still wanted him.