Chapter 16
Sixteen
Annaliese shifted on the seat of the Pullman car, one she felt as if she’d been sitting on for months instead of a few days, setting aside the glass container that held the spiders that had finally emerged from the sac Seth had given her before they’d left Chicago.
Normally, after she observed a spider for a day, two at the most, and then completed her notes and drawings, she returned it back into the wild.
However, she found herself reluctant to part ways with these particular spiders as they were the sweetest little spiders she’d ever seen—although she knew full well that sweetness was a direct result of Seth having given them to her.
There was simply something about a gentleman who’d realized she would appreciate the spider sac over the crimson leaves he’d originally been intending to give her that left her feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, even with them being in the midst of what they’d been referring to as a bring-Norma-Jean-home quest.
In all honesty, that quest was turning into a marathon event instead of the sprint they’d assumed it would be.
The sprint assumption had been formed after they’d discovered exactly what train Norma Jean had taken that was bound for Florida—information they’d gleaned because Miranda, the mermaid lady, was a lady who attracted attention, and more than one person had seen her getting on a train with Norma Jean by her side.
Regrettably, by the time they’d been able to get two private Pullman cars—one being Seth’s and one loaned to them by Elena Zambarello, who’d been furious to learn the part two of her daughters had played in the skunk diversion plot—attached to a private engine, almost five hours had passed from the time Norma Jean’s train had departed from the station and Annaliese’s train got underway.
Given that their train, being private, wasn’t required to make any stops, Seth, after doing some of his mathematical calculations, figured that they’d be able to overtake Norma Jean’s train within two days’ time.
However, even though his calculations had been accurate, and they’d caught up with Norma Jean’s train in Tennessee, they soon discovered that a wrench had been thrown into the mix because Norma Jean and Miranda had changed their travel plans and had departed from that particular train to board another.
Why they’d done that had been anyone’s guess, but precious hours had been spent trying to uncover exactly where they’d gone next until Flick, who’d decided to join them since he was currently unemployed and wanted to have an opportunity to see Miranda one last time, ran across another strongman who went by the name of Brutus at the Tennessee train station.
Brutus, it turned out, had always been infatuated with Miranda and hadn’t hesitated to tell Flick how he’d run across the woman he’d been dreaming about for years, and run across her in that very station.
Unfortunately for Brutus, Miranda hadn’t hesitated to turn down the man’s impromptu proposal of marriage, stating she was an independent working girl now—or more specifically, a reputable chaperone—on her way to escort her charge to Pensacola.
According to Brutus, before he’d had time to plead his case regarding the whole marriage business, the young lady who was with Miranda—that being Norma Jean, of course—hauled Miranda away from the strongman, saying something about their travel plans being on the hush-hush before they’d disappeared from Brutus’s sight.
Equipped with this latest information, Annaliese had been anxious to get back on the tracks, but, unfortunately, their departure got delayed after Harriet, being Harriet, tried to relieve a lady of her pearls while waiting to board a train and had been caught monkey handed.
Hysterics on the part of the pearl-clutching lady had immediately commenced, and it wasn’t as if Annaliese could blame her because it wasn’t a usual circumstance to be waiting for a train and have a monkey jump on your back.
Accusations had been hurled at Annaliese by the pearl-clutching lady, who’d decided that Annaliese was the mastermind behind Harriet’s attempted theft.
Authorities had been summoned, but thankfully no charges had been filed after Annaliese offered to pay the lady a large sum for her troubles, as well as promised the lady she’d keep a closer eye on her misbehaving monkey.
After offering the lady one last apology, Annaliese had tugged a rather chagrined Harriet back to their Pullman car, which had gotten on the tracks again, this time heading toward Pensacola.
Bad weather had then delayed their progress with catching up with Norma Jean, which was why they were still trundling toward Pensacola three days later.
“I think I’ve found something,” Louisa suddenly declared, drawing Annaliese’s attention before she gestured to one of the newspapers she’d been reading that she’d picked up at the train station in Tennessee. “It’s right there, the reason Norma Jean changed her route.”
Annaliese rose from her seat and walked over to Louisa, taking the newspaper and scanning the article Louisa pointed out to her. “What does a retired sea captain have to do with Norma Jean changing her plan?”
Louisa wrinkled her nose. “You need to read the entire article, dear, not simply skim it, because that particular sea captain now spends his retirement sailing wealthy adventure-seekers around the Gulf of Mexico.” She settled back against the settee.
“I’m convinced, since Norma Jean is a voracious reader of newspapers, that she read this exact article at some point during her time on a train.
She would have then realized that sailing through the Gulf of Mexico would get her to that unchartered island faster than if she sailed around the tip of Florida.
” Louisa smiled. “After that, she would have realized, since she’s in possession of a great deal of Seth’s money, that she has the funds available to hire that retired sea captain. ”
Annaliese frowned. “I suppose that’s plausible, but only if Norma Jean actually read that article, but .
. . if she’s capable of recalling everything she reads or sees, don’t you think she would have realized sooner that the Gulf of Mexico would get her to the island faster than sailing around the tip of Florida? ”
“This perfect recall, for lack of a better word, that Norma Jean and I share is rather tricky as it’s not as if we can simply close our eyes and have whatever information we need pop front and center into our thoughts.
” Louisa took the newspaper back, laid it on the table, and tapped her finger against it.
“We need to have something trigger the information first. In Norma Jean’s case, I imagine she’d been scrolling through maps of the southern states from the time she got a glimpse of the treasure map but assumed she’d need to go to a big port on the east coast to find a ship to rent—until she saw this article.
That’s when all the pieces of those maps would have reorganized themselves in her mind, and she would have realized that taking the Gulf route would shave a few days off her journey. ”
“An impressive talent for sure.”
“Quite, although in all honesty, I’ve always wondered why God gave me, as well as Norma Jean, this particular talent since we are, after all, members of the feminine set.
Seems to me since women are given little opportunities to add much of value to our societies, that our unusual forte would have been better bestowed on a man since a man could do something useful with it. ”
“I’m sure you could find something useful to do with your forte as you called it, Mother, if you decide to keep yourself out of your sickroom once and for all.”
Annaliese turned and found Seth, in the company of Flick, walking into the Pullman car, the very sight of him leaving her pulse accelerating, the acceleration a direct result of the fact that Seth hadn’t abandoned his fashion-plate-worthy appearance and was looking downright dapper these days.
Gone were the days when his hair looked as if it hadn’t met a comb it liked, replaced with a tousled mop of dark curls that lent him a rather Lord Byronesque look, that look compounded by the fact that he was no longer wearing the mismatched trousers and jackets he’d sported before.
These days he seemed to prefer wearing pinstriped suits with pristine white shirts underneath that matched the cravats he knotted to perfection, with highly polished shoes to complete his outfit, and ones that never held so much as a single splatter of grease or oil on them.
Louisa was convinced that Seth was making more of an effort with his appearance because of Annaliese, and the very idea that a gentleman would make any type of effort at all because of her was a novel as well as delightful experience, and . . .
“I have no idea how I could use my specific talent, dear,” Louisa said, yanking Annaliese from her thoughts and leaving her realizing that she might have been perusing Seth a little too closely, something Phoebe and her friends would have certainly approved of—after they pointed out that her perusing might have been more on the lines of ogling.
“I’m sure there are more than a few organizations that would be happy to put your memorization skills to use,” Seth said.
“I must admit that I, at one time, thought the Pinkertons would benefit from hiring on an agent capable of memorizing crime reports.” Louisa picked up the newspaper and began fanning her face with it.
“However, I pushed those thoughts aside as, again, I am a woman, and now, well, I’m far too old to pursue that idea. ”
“You’re only fifty-five, Mother, not exactly ancient,” Seth pointed out.
“With that said, though, the Pinkertons would undoubtedly question you about what you’ve been doing for the past decade or so.
To be frank, I’m not sure they’d hire you after discovering you were suffering from scurvy, and before that, the plague. ”