Beloved Scoundrel (15 page)

“About the value of the work you were doing and that I would have no choice but to help, should he call on me!”

The actor looked amused. “He said all that to you?”

“Yes. And he twisted my arm painfully!”

“What did you tell him?”

“Nothing.”

“You are sure?” Booth worried. “You must recall word for word what you said to him.”

“I said very little!”

“Did you mention me?”

“No! At least hardly anything. I did say you were party to his game!”

“And he said?”

“That we were all in it together. He become angry when I told him I wanted no part of it.”

John ran a hand through his thick dark hair and moved away looking worried. “I’m sorry for what happened.”

“You should be!”

He gave her a troubled glance. “That hunchback is a madman. A bill collector who thinks himself a secret agent. A lunatic!”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t believe you!”

He came to her and took her in his arms. “I swear to you the fellow will not bother you again.”

“What have you been mixed up in, John?” she asked him.

He laughed softly, the mad light showing in his eyes again, as he said, “In the South they call me Dr. Booth!”

“Dr. Booth?”

“Can you guess why?”

“No.”

“A doctor has a certain familiarity with quinine!”

She stared at him. “And?”

“You would not know,” her lover said. “You have kept yourself ignorant of what is going on. The hospitals in the South are desperate for quinine!”

“And you are part of a ring smuggling it to them?”

“I have organized the ring,” he said proudly.

“But that is wrong!” she protested.

“Would you rather the sick and wounded suffered? Is the pain any less for those in Southern hospitals than for those in the North?”

She hesitated, knowing that he had some reason to argue. At least he was not dealing in arms. She said, “How do you manage it?”

“In horse collars and so forth,” he said with one of his charming smiles. “You’d be surprised at what an expert smuggler I’ve become.”

Fanny shook her head. “You know this must end as soon as we reach New York. All your efforts must go into making the theatre season a success.”

He laughed softly and held her close. “I promise! We shall be the royalty of the New York stage. When brother Edwin returns he will find his crown worn by me!”

She listened with a feeling of melancholy and fear. She was certain he was merely telling her what she wanted him to say. That when the time came his allegiance would not be to her and the company but to his network of spies.

Major Furlong and his wife hosted a fine party for the company following their last performance in Washington. It was a glittering affair with the ladies in lovely gowns and most of the males in colorful uniforms. Optimism was in the air, with word that the new General Grant was turning out to be a genius. John Wilkes Booth proved himself an excellent actor offstage as well as on, by pretending to receive this information with enthusiasm.

“Could mean the final blow for the Feds,” Booth suggested to his host.

Major Furlong gravely agreed. “It is past time. Hospitals on both sides of the border are filled to overflowing and the count of the dead is sickening. There must soon be an end to it!”

Nancy Ray was there with the blinded Tom Miller, who had been included on the guest list at the request of Fanny. The young man now wore smoked glasses and his youthful face lit up when he was introduced to John Wilkes Booth.

The blind young man said, “I still have my interest for the stage. Soon I will have a play ready to offer.”

Fanny smiled at the proud Nancy, who held onto the blind actor’s arm, and then told John Wilkes Booth, “Tom has promised to give us the first reading of it.”

“Good!” John Wilkes Booth enthused. “Just be sure there is a good part in it for me!”

“Don’t worry about that, Mr. Booth,” Tom said. “I have always admired your acting!”

Later Fanny and John enjoyed a waltz together. She said, “Thank you for being nice to the boy. He is pinning a great deal of his hope on this play.”

He asked, “Is Nancy going to marry him?”

“She will if he asks her. She cares deeply for him.”

“That is why she is remaining in Washington?”

“Yes.”

John swung her around and nodded to another couple with a pleasant smile. “Then we must try and produce the play if it is any good at all.”

“I think it will be,” she said.

“Let us hope so,” her partner agreed as the waltz ended. He applauded the orchestra and said, “I shall miss these fine Washington parties.”

“There will be New York.”

“I’m not so sure about New York,” he said. “I hear they are in a much more somber mood. We may not get invited out as we have been here.”

She gave him a knowing glance as they left the ballroom floor. “And being invited out in New York might not be as helpful to you as being invited out in Washington, where nearly everyone is in government and the war effort.”

John Wilkes Booth gave her a mocking look and said, “You suggest I’m more interested in the information I receive than in the company?”

She nodded. “Yes, Dr. Booth,” she said with meaning. She had not forgotten his reference to his being a smuggler of quinine and other medical supplies to the Feds.

The actor had no opportunity to make a reply to this as Major Furlong came to join them and handed Booth a sealed envelope. He said, “This came for you just now. It was delivered by a messenger.”

Booth raised his eyebrows. “He did not wait for a reply?”

”No,” their host said. “Possibly no reply is needed. But I felt I should get it to you at once.”

“Thank you,” Booth said absently and as Major Furlong moved away he tore open the envelope and studied its contents. A grim look crossed his handsome face as he scanned the single sheet. Then he glanced up at her. “I shall have to leave!’

“What is wrong?”

He folded the note and placed it in an inner pocket. “I have to meet someone at once!’

“Who?”

“Does it matter?” he asked, almost angrily. “I can only assure you it is urgent.”

“More of your spying,” she said in a low voice.

“I do not wish to discuss that,” John Wilkes Booth told her. “You may remain here for the balance of the party. I’m sure we can find someone to accompany you back to the hotel.”

She made up her mind quickly, “No,” she said. “I will go with you.”

He frowned. “I’d rather you didn’t. There might be some danger!’

“I’ve known danger before.”

The handsome actor eyed her worriedly. “You would be better out of this! I promise you!”

“If you are bound to take risks I would like to share some of them,” she said. “It would seem to be the only way I can discourage you with this mad business.”

He sighed and looked about him impatiently. “Very well, if you insist on leaving with me. Perhaps it would look better. I must find the major and explain before the dancing begins again.”

She indicated, “I see him standing over there by the archway leading to the hall.”

“Then let us go quickly and make our excuses for leaving,” Booth said.

They did. And she was interested to hear John Wilkes Booth lie to his host, pretending they were being called away by news of the indisposition of a young lady member of the company. John was convincing in his explanation that the young lady’s illness created a major problem for the company in their move to New York. It all seemed quite valid and the affable Major saw them to their carriage and invited them to be his guests whenever they might return to Washington once again.

The carriage started off in the darkness and John relaxed in the seat beside her, his hands clasped on the head of his walking stick. He warned her, “We are going to a run-down section of the city!’

“How could you lie as you did to the poor Major?” she wanted to know.

Booth laughed softly. “I could see that was bothering you.”

“No one is ill in the company! I’m certain of that.”

He placed an arm around her. “There are times, my dear Fanny, when one in my position must lie and lie well.”

Reproach cloaked her lovely face. “We are on the way to our first successful New York season and you’re ready to risk it all with your spying for the Southerner!”

“I must do what I have to do,” he said shortly. “I have been asked to meet someone. Threatened with exposure if I did not. Would you want that?”

“It will come to that one day in any event,” she said bitterly. “I’m certain you will destroy yourself and your career.”

He smiled at her. “Are you afraid of my dragging you down with me, Fanny?”

“I think you should maintain a calm head in all this!”

“Impossible,” he said, glancing out the carriage window into the murky midnight. “We are close to where I must meet this fellow. I will have the carriage wait a distance away. You stay in it.”

“Why?”

“Because this could be terribly dangerous,” was his warning.

“Who are you meeting?”

“I cannot tell you!”

Fanny said plaintively, “At least let me help in some way!”

“The best thing you can do is remain in the carriage,” he told her.

They reached an intersection of narrow streets and he bade the driver to stop and keep the carriage waiting for him. He gave her a kiss and then quickly stepped down onto the dirty cobblestones and made his way along one of the streets. She saw him vanish in the darkness.

She then made her second decision. She also stepped down from the carriage and followed after John Wilkes Booth. She hurried down the street in which he had vanished and found that it ended in a sort of side alley. From the side alley she heard angry voices. One of them being John’s! She cautiously pushed on so she could glance into the alley.

There in the near darkness she saw a strange confrontation. John in his cape and tophat facing the hunchback she had come to know so well. As she watched, the hunchback drew out a revolver and raised it but John was too quick for him. As the hunchback raised the revolver John brought his walking stick down on his wrist and the revolver fell clattering to the cobblestones!

The hunchback screamed with dismay and tried to retrieve the weapon. As he did so John unsheathed the dagger in his walking stick and plunged its full length into the chest of the hunchback. His ugly face raised up to be highlighted by a sudden shaft of pale moonlight, then the moonbeams went under a cloud again. The hunchback fell back without uttering a sound. Booth leaned over him a moment, wiped off the blade on his clothing, then replaced it in his walking stick. After that he turned and hurried back out of the alley.

He halted when he saw her waiting for him where the alley joined the street and his handsome features were distorted by anger. “You little fool!” he hissed. “How dare you follow me as you have?”

She was still in shock from what she’d witnessed. She stared at him and managed, “You killed him!”

“Quiet!” he said in a low voice and seized her by the arm. “We must get away from here at once!”

She let him drag her along with him and at the same time questioned him in a near whisper, “Why? The hunchback was one of your own!”

“There was a reason!” Booth insisted. “Don’t ask me senseless questions. You must have seen that he meant to kill me!”

“Why?”

“Later,” the actor said sharply. And as they reached the carriage he shoved her inside at once and after telling the driver to take them to their hotel, he got inside with her.

She was trembling now. “What was it all about?” she asked in fear.

He looked grimly ahead as the carriage rode on. “Fortunes of war! Ask me no more!”

Nor would he tell her anything else. She attempted to learn more about the macabre events after they reached their rooms in the hotel but he coldly turned his back on her. At last she gave up. It became more clear to her than ever that she could never be sure of him. He simply could not be trusted. One day he would be the charming, ambitious actor and the next she’d find herself faced with the mad-eyed political fanatic! She intended to confide this in Barnum when they reached New York. She felt she owed this to her employer.

She spent an almost totally sleepless night. The murder remained vividly in her mind, for she could only think of it as murder. It was true the hunchback had produced a gun and seemed about to kill Booth, but what had followed had been a violent killing. Why could not have Booth been satisfied to wrest the gun from the hunchback and send him on his way? There seemed to be only one answer. Apparently Booth had felt he needed to silence the ugly, little man who had been his confederate.

There was also the important question of why this confederate had chosen to turn on Booth? She tossed in bed tormented by this question and many others, wondering if Booth would be linked somehow with the murder. Suppose others knew of the feud between the actor and the hunchback? Or suppose the cabby became suspicious and linked them with the murder? She might also be drawn into it. That was clearly why John Wilkes Booth had not wanted her to accompany him. He had tried to protect her. And she still did not doubt that this tormented man loved her, but his mad obsession about the war ruled him above all else.