Keeper: Chapter 14

Sorry for the delay.  Had to work out some plot issues. v

Chapter 14

Jamie returned to the parlor and took a seat in the red striped chair while Del showed the High Talbot to a guest bathroom Jamie hadn’t known existed. He wondered if the house had secret rooms it only revealed when there was need of them. He sipped his cooling tea. In time Del escorted the High Talbot back to the parlor. Jamie idly wondered if this was protocol or if the brownie didn’t really want to leave anyone, no matter what the rank, free to prowl around unescorted. Jamie rose from his chair as they entered. He set his cup down on the small table with the slight chink of china on china as it met the saucer. The High Talbot was still dabbing at a barely discernable smudge on his shirt.



“This is appears will be as good as can be expected,” The High Talbot said deliberately looking away from the spot.



“I’m sorry,” Jamie said somewhat hesitantly. “Is there something else…?” His comments were waved away.”



“No Keeper your housekeeper has been most helpful. What I need now is merely a change of clothing.”



“I see,” Jamie said. He wondered exactly what type of Fey the High Talbot was and if all of his ilk were this obsessive.



“Meanwhile I will have someone sent to remove the remains of the bag from your porch as well as to remove the detritus upstairs.”



“Thank you,” Jamie replied. “I really appreciate it.” The High Talbot waved away Jamie’s gratitude.



“It is nothing,” he said. He fixed his piercing blue eyes on Jamie who suddenly had to fight the urge to squirm. “The Keeper maintains order and balance. I wish you luck in a speedy resolve to your situation.”



“Thank you,” Jamie said realizing the problem of who was trying to kill him was all his.



“I will send any information gleaned from the remains to you. If the man who tried to bluff his way into Keeper status is found any information gleaned there will be returned to you as well.” Jamie again relayed his thanks as the High Talbot took his hat and coat from Del and prepared to leave. At the door, which Del held open, the High Talbot paused and looked at Jamie as if he wanted to say something. He thought better of it and instead merely gave a formal parting. Jamie wondered if he had driven to the house and mentally pictured a carriage drawn by horses breathing fire. Del shut the door before Jamie could see any sort of vehicle and when Jamie looked out of the sidelight the High Talbot was gone.



“Well that was certainly interesting,” he said. Del snorted.



“Interesting is not exactly the word I’d be using.”



“Probably not,” Jamie conceded. He thought of the burned spot on the bedroom floor. “Will we need to put water on the upstairs floorboards to keep them from burning down the house?”



“No,” Del told him. There was an amused glint in his eyes and Jamie had the feeling his ignorance was amusing. “The clean up crew will deal with it.” As if on cue footsteps sounded on the porch. Del opened the door before anyone could knock. The two of them looked out on what Jamie privately thought of as a Fey decontamination crew. They were shorter than Del by about a foot but what type of people they were was hard to tell as they all wore some sort of miniature hazmat suit.



“Good timing,” Del told them. “We have this nasty bit on the porch and a mess in the bedroom to clear.”



“Don’t forget the calling cards,” Jamie said, wanting them out of the house as well since all of the information had been taken from them. All three of the decontamination crew turned and stared at him. No one moved. Del sighed.

“You are making them nervous Keeper. Best if you go on about your business and I’ll deal with them.”



“Ah,” Jamie said. “Well then I’ll be in the library.” Jamie turned and left. As he stepped away he heard the sounds of movement and assumed the crew was dealing with the decimated luggage. He was curious and wanted to watch but figured he would rather have it done right then have some one forget something because they were jumpy from observation. Upstairs, Jamie avoided Albe’s room and paced between the library and the study as he tried to determine his next move.



As he moved he looked at the empty spot on the shelf where Albe’s most recent journal would have been placed. The other books had been ordered from the catalog and with luck would arrive soon, bearing with them some sort of clarification. The journal could not be replaced. Jamie stopped and scanned the arranged volumes wondering what Albe had seen, not only in the last few weeks but over his lifetime as Keeper. The volumes were dated but it didn’t look like Albe had followed the one volume for every year. The dates on the spines appeared to be hand written. The first date was the date of the first entry in the volume and the second date the same as the final entry. Some volumes spanned several years while other years seemed to take up several volumes.



“Busy time,” Jamie concluded. He scanned to the earliest volume. Its start date was listed as May 12, 1937. Jamie did some quick math and realized Albe would have been in his twenties at the time. Jamie slid the volume off the shelf and flipped to the first entry.



May 12, 1937



Grandfather is dead. That thought keeps swimming through my head in an inescapable loop. He was a force and thinking of him as gone is like thinking of the world without rain or wind. It is as though the natural order has been upended. Perhaps it merely seems that way because I am now alone in the house. His house. The family has all gone to their respective homes leaving enough covered dishes behind to feed me for a month. I did not tell them that much of it will spoil before I get around to eating it. I also did not tell them that I felt relief at their leaving. If I had to hear one more time about Elizabeth’s theory of threes I would have lost what little patience remained. I had run out of my store of logical arguments by the end. While I admit both grandfather’s passing and the Hindenburg’s crashing were both tragedies I hardly thing they are on the same level even if they did happen on the same day and I refuse to live in fear of the third tragedy Elizabeth believes to be waiting somewhere around the corner. I tried pointing out to her that if the two events were equated Grandfather’s death was one death and the dirigible’s demise signaled the deaths of 36 others bringing the entire count up to 37 individual tragedies. She burst into tears exclaiming that my pronouncement meant two more deaths were on the way. I did not try to ferret out the logic of this as I was too busy being chastised by Aunt Margret for disregarding Elizabeth’s delicate constitution. I suppose that complaining about delicate cousin Elizabeth was not what Grandfather meant me to record when he told me that I must keep a journal during my time as Keeper of the Crossroads just as the others before me had done. I wish he had told me what the Keeper of the Crossroads was and what I’m supposed to do other then just hand me a dusty volume of rules and an odd little necklace.



Jamie smiled at the entry. At least he wasn’t the only one thrown into the deep end of the pool without swim fins. Jamie closed the journal as a thought struck him.



“All of the Keepers kept journals,” he said. “Or they were supposed to.” If the Lune Merdos occurred on the Day of the Dead then details might have been recorded in previous years. Jamie flipped through the journal until he reached November 2nd. There were some notes about a war in Spain but no mention of Lune Merdos. He scanned over the few days prior to the second and learned that Albe had met a very pretty woman named Eleanor when he had run some errands in town and had several conversations with a fairy. Jamie shrugged, no longer thinking such entries were unusual.



“After all I spent a good portion of today talking to a brownie and a sentient house.” He replaced the book on the shelf and picked up another volume with November 2nd entries. This one was for 1938. Again nothing mentioning Lune Merdos. “Maybe it doesn’t happen every year.” He mused. Jamie continued to the end of Albe’s journals. He found vague references to world events and odd happenings in the realm of the fey. He also found that Albe had married pretty Eleanor and that she had died in childbirth. She and the baby, who did not live past the birthing, were buried in a small family cemetery on the property. Jamie never remembered seeing a cemetery on any of his walks with Albe. He made a mental note to look for it’s location on the property maps and pay a visit. Even if there was no burial, he could put a marker there for Albe. Jamie closed the last of the journals. He found no mention of Lune Merdos.



“It can’t be a one time thing,” Jamie said to himself. “Maybe it happens only every one hundred years.” In that case he would need some of the older journals. Jamie put Albe’s journal back on the shelf and walked over to the desk. If the journals weren’t stored in the library or study then they had to be in one of the back rooms. Jamie quickly flipped through pages, dismissing furniture and jewelry in a way that would have made his mother gasp in horror. Midway through the inventory he found what he was looking for. It was a list entitled Journals. Below it was a list of names and years.



“Now I just have to figure out what room they called Storage room 3.” Jamie smiled. “I guess I get to go on a scavenger hunt after all.”