“Bloody hell, it's
cold!”
The two of them
staggered, shocked by the chilled air, the harsh winds and the
stench. Of these, the most shocking to a pair who had never left a
climate controlled hub, was the cold.
On the elder Andy's
advice they had ported directly into the centre of London, in close
proximity to a banking district. However, the shock caused them to
exchange one brief glance and then Andy simply said “Indoors!” as
they swept towards the nearest inviting looking entrance.
They ducked under the
low slung doorway and peered into the darkened interior. After a few
minutes, her eyes had adjusted and Melissa was able to see a shocked
man staring straight at her. Unaccustomed to such open
disapprobation, she flinched and retreated behind Andy. He also
responded to the stranger's rudeness by stepping forward to shield
her with the immense bulk of his greatcoat. The stranger flushed and
dropped his gaze;
“Eh, excuse me, sir!
How can I help you?”
“I am looking for a
bank. I was given to understand this was the correct building, but
presumably not!”
“Oh! Indeed, sir,
forgive me, the sign fell off the building in the high winds
overnight. The bank is two streets down – you need to look for the
white frame around a blue door.”
Andy nodded haughtily
and steered Melissa out of the door. Once out in the biting cold he
apologised to her. “No idea what that was, Mel, but it seems women
aren't welcome!” She'd later found out it was a smoking club, and
women were indeed wholly unwelcome. Even whores didn't enter smoking
clubs, although they were welcome enough in certain rooms of a
gentleman's club.
There was a silence
between them as Melissa tried to recover. She had spent her whole
life doing more or less as she pleased within the bounds of law and
had never been looked at with such judgementalism. IT was deeply
hurtful, and immediately imbued her with a feeling of overwhelming
shame. But she had done nothing wrong! It was bewildering – because
that man had so clearly believed he had the right to look down upon
her, despite her visible trappings of wealth, she had felt inferior.
This world was very
different to the one she was used to.
They reached the bank –
there was a clear sign welcoming them and Andy escorted her in. He
covered her hand as it rested on his arm and pulled her reassuringly
close to him. She battled against the feeling of inferiority and fear
that maybe she wasn't supposed to be here. She'd never before had her
worth questioned – she'd always been accepted and judged only when
her contribution wasn't up to the expected standard. In the face of
such questioning, she had no defence or self assurance.
The interior of this
room as much different to the previous. Whereas before they had
entered a low ceilinged dingy corridor, they moved now into a wide
open space with pillars, marbled surfaces and high ceilings. They
moved forwards and a scurrying clerk came forward to meet them. After
a brief series of enquiries, Andy had convinced the clerk they wanted
to open account, with gems and precious metals as security.
They were ushered into
the presence of the bank manager. Andy had been handling things
magnificently, but Melissa felt a space for her to contribute. As
they sat, she was the one to respond to the manager's enquiry as to
how he could help.
“My cousin and I,”
she nodded at Andy, “are newly arrived from the Americas. Our
fathers were in a joint venture to retrieve some sunken treasure.
They were successful, some years ago, in retrieving a haul from a
sunken Spanish privateer. When we expressed an interest in coming to
England to set up new lives here, our fathers recommended we take our
share of the treasure, rather than exchange it for other securities
before setting off. As a result, we are now in England, but have no
money with which to purchase the basic necessities.”
The manager nodded
understandingly. “I can set up an account against the security of a
portion of the goods you possess and arrange to store the rest on
your behalf. It depends entirely on the cash value of the goods you
carry as to the size of the account. Might I be permitted to view
your valuables?”
Melissa removed the
pouch belt, and handed it over. “This is the bulk of it,” she
affirmed. “We will require an account each, if you can split the
value to half for each of us.”
The manager nodded, and
opened the first pocket. His eyes widened involuntarily as he saw the
quality of the stones it contained. He shifted through them, then
moved onwards to the next pouch. As he worked through them, a small
pile mounted on the table. At the end of the process, he leaned back,
inhaled deeply and nodded.
“My dear sir, and
madam, might I suggest that you initially trade approximately twenty
percent of this value into government bonds? In that way you may live
off the interest accumulated perfectly comfortably. With,” he
pulled five cut gems from the pile, “these, you can easily purchase
a residence each and sufficient staff to run them. Madam, I believe
in America single ladies may have more license than they do here –
you will I am convinced, understand that you will need to hire a
companion if you wish to live alone. But that is well within your
means.”
“I intend to travel.”
Andy interjected firmly.
“Indeed sir, we can
most assuredly form an account that you may draw upon in most major
cities. Obviously, travel upon the continent is a little difficult at
these times, but for the most part you will be able to live as you
will wherever you are.”
“And the rest?”
“As I intimated
earlier, I am perfectly happy to place a strongbox at your disposal.
However, before taking responsibility for these items, I will need to
ensure that you have appropriate legal documentation transferring
your property to a specific individual in the event of your untimely
demise.”
Andy and Melissa
glanced at each other. “We will each make the other the principle
beneficiary. Can we add an additional clause that entitles the bearer
of a specific document to access the entirety of our property?”
Andy glanced at her, slightly surprised. “For instance,” she
expounded, looking straight into Andy's eyes: “In fifty years time,
if you have not heard from one or both of us and an individual
arrives, I would want them to be able to draw upon my funds.” Andy
suddenly caught on and nodded fervently.
“Indeed,” he
confirmed. “We would want a specific, difficult to replicate
document; plus perhaps a pass phrase.”
The manager seemed
confused, but his covetous glances at their collection suggested they
could ask for anything and he would oblige and his rapid confirmation
of their request backed up this interpretation. “Absolutely. We can
add more security if I issue you with a key which will open a
strongbox, and the first item within the strongbox is a list of
instructions to the clerk, to ensure there can be no manipulation of
circumstances.”
Andy and Melissa
smiled. The man was devious and spoke like an addict of mystery
novels. This was exactly the kind of man they needed in control of
their finances.
Together they sat down
and worked out their security system to release the various levels of
their funds.
After almost an hour of
wrangling, discussion, and a series of introductions to potential
bonds dealers, both Andy and Melissa were happy with the situation
arranged for the management of their funds. A lawyer was called for
and the entire party partook of tea while they waited. Four hours
after entering the bank loaded with jewels, the pair departed with a
wad of papers and all the details they needed to ensure they could
access their funds at any time they were required.
Melissa also clutched a
small bound set of papers containing details of a housing agent which
the bank manager recommended. They went there immediately and within
a relatively short space of time offloaded the responsibility for
housing them and finding the necessary staff to the agency. In the
meantime, they were diverted to Grillons to stay for three nights
while a permanent residence was found for each of them.
Once settled in
Grillons, both parties made a point of contacting tailors,
dressmakers, milliners and hairdressers to establish their wardrobes
as a man and woman of fashion. Whilst at the hotel, Melissa
discovered that ladies traipsing the corridors to spend the night in
a man's room was severely frowned upon. It was yet another indication
that the world she enjoyed was a long way away and she began to feel
homesick, leading her to reflect on the difficulties that the elder
Andy must have experienced. Within a short while she acknowledged
that it was impossible for her to go home – her home would be
permanently destroyed if their mission was successful and she had t
come to terms with that and establish a new home.
It was not an easy fact
to come to terms with. Instead of contemplating it too seriously, she
took to her new role as a woman of fashion with gusto. She discovered
the masked balls and instantly ordered a domino. She decided that
walking around London was too uncomfortable, given the shoes that
were available to her and practised horse riding and hired a
carriage. The carriage on cobbles was deeply uncomfortable, but was
nothing compared to the excruciating pain of waking the day after her
first horse back experience. The decisions she began to make were all
focussed around her pleasure and comfort and she became more and more
conscious of just how easy her life had been until that point. She
had never experienced cold before – waking up in the night to a
draughty, fireless room with barely any warmth beneath the several;
blankets she had piled upon herself was deeply unpleasant. She had
never had muscle aches before – the chem streams cleared any toxins
immediately out of her system, the aeroscaff eradicated the need to
exert oneself excessively. She had never been nauseous before –
eating and drinking in the aeroscaff was not a common behaviour.
Instead, a drip system tended to allocate each individual the
nutrients they required to survive. Within a day of arriving both
Andy and Melissa had discovered themselves to be hungry and the
pleasure of eating was unfathomable. They had gorged, and Melissa had
spent the night retching hideously and awoken the next day with a
deeply unpleasant headache.
Andy had taken to the
alcoholic beverages available with gusto. He'd also discovered a
talent for certain games of chance which kept him occupied into the
late night most days. His circle of acquaintance was expanding
rapidly. Melissa was more isolated, but once her first new clothes
arrived and she took to driving a landaulet around the park,
gathering books from the central shopping area and experimenting at
masquerades, she discovered a frivolous life could rather suit her.
It was at the masked
ball that she met the man who would radically change her life from
one of parties, to one of work and adventure.
She had purchased her
house and settled in to life as a lady of leisure. Her neighbours
were fashionable and wealthy and the local ladies had made calls
which she returned as a matter of course. One or two found her
occasional social gaffes to be unbearable, but a few of the more
pleasant ascribed it to her supposed background of growing up in the
America's. Gossip about her walking the corridors of Grillons seeking
male company was written off as simply too outlandish to be possible.
The friendlier few gave her hints, tips and several items of reading
material to guide her footsteps in a more socially acceptable route.
The days she felt
confident she attended formal high society events. The days she felt
the need to be free, she attended the masked balls in the
reprehensible manner of a lady of questionable social morals. There
she met one or two men who she was able to release the frustrations
of her daily life with in quiet parts of the hedge maze. After one or
two encounters, she began to wish for something more comfortable –
cold nights and prickly hedges were not as enticing as a warm bedroom
and silken sheets.
It was after two weeks
that she fell ill. The elder Andy had been right – neither of them
had been able to avoid the onslaught of millions of bacteria and they
were both confined to their beds, deeply ill. She was deeply
delirious for some time, falling further and further into a dream
world. Eventually she awoke to the feeling of hot scratchy covers and
a cold cloth on her forehead. A gruff voice was telling her to be
calm, everything was going to be alright. She opened her eyes
groggily and a face swam into view. It had kind eyes, but that was
the nicest thing that could be said for it. Inderminite sex,
overweight, blotchy, sprouting hairs in random patches. There was a
black spot on one cheek with three coarse hairs sprouting from the
centre.
