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He turned. Megan Fox was there.
He cocked his head to the side. “Oh. Ah, Alex. That’s Megan Fox. Your sister-in-law,” he said mundanely.
Stunned, Alex stared at the girl, and then at Cody.
“We’ve just met,” Cody said.
“Oh?” Alex inquired politely.
Cole bent slightly to whisper audibly to Alex, “Yes. She’s just like Cody.”
“I think we should go inside,” Cody said.
“Martha’s inside,” Cole said pleasantly, getting Alex’s bags. “But, by all means, let’s.”
He led the way, then carried Alex’s bags upstairs while she hugged the hostess. Alex knew Martha from when she’d lived in D.C., right at the outbreak of the war. She’d been engaged once before, prior to meeting Cody; her fiancé had perished at the first route at Manassas, a battle for which people had actually taken carriages out to the fields to witness the entertainment—until they had seen how bloody and devastating that entertainment would become.
When Cole came back downstairs, Brendan, Cody and Alex were at the table. Martha was still fussing over Alex, and Megan was busy setting large platters of fluffy scrambled eggs, bread and heated dried beef with gravy on the table.
“My journey was fine, and without incident,” Alex was saying as Cole took a seat on the other side of the table. “Long, of course, but you all know how long it can be. My papers were in order, and though we passed through different checkpoints, with soldiers on both sides stopping us for identification, I wasn’t detained at any point.”
“Dear, dear, it’s only going to get worse,” Martha said. “They say that Lee is planning another invasion into the North.”
“He’s the world’s finest general!” Megan said, her adoration for the man evident.
Cole himself admired Lee. Still, he’d never been sure that the general’s determination to invade the North had been a wise choice and he’d been right—the Battle of Gettysburg had been a massive boon to the North and a horror for the South. But he figured the general had been weary of the battles being fought on Southern soil. Every battle cost the people of a region—it devastated the land, and it meant feeding tens of thousands of soldiers with the South’s own stores, which couldn’t last forever.
He noted then that Martha looked at Megan and gave her a knowing nod.
It occurred to him then that their hostess had known their surprise guest even before Cody had brought them together. For the time he’d keep his silence—and a careful watch on both women. There had been as many young women swept up with the war effort as there had been young men, and he knew that loyalties in war could be passionate, sometimes out of control. But his team’s work wasn’t about the known war, and he didn’t want anyone’s loyalties getting in the way of what had to be done.
“You two are looking mighty suspicious,” Brendan said, voicing Cole’s thoughts out loud.
“Suspicious? Regarding breakfast?” Megan asked.
“You’re just looking mighty suspicious,” Brendan told her. “And it’s time to take heed to the truth of what has happened. The South will lose. General Lee was beaten back bad at Gettysburg, and the knots around the Confederacy are drawing tighter all the time.”
“But that hasn’t been the way of the entire war,” Megan pointed out. “The South has won many—”
“Antietam Creek cannot be considered a win by anyone,” Cole heard himself say, though he had meant to stay out of the argument. “Fifty-thousand Americans dead. That’s not a win for anyone in my book.”
Megan looked at him, quiet.
“Now, now, please!” Martha said, drawing out a chair to join them at last. Cole, Cody and Brendan stood quickly to assist her, but she raised a hand and slid into her own seat. “We’re trying to have a nice civil breakfast here, and there’s going to be no talk of the war, if you all don’t mind. Not one of us here can solve it, that’s the simple truth, and it’s the arguing that got us all into it from the get-go, so…My, my! Cole, have you been in Washington before? Can you see how it’s changed? My, my, from sleepy little place to giant industrial city in just a matter of a few years. And the construction going on! Why, President Lincoln has seen to it that the work on the Capitol Building continues. It will go up—he is determined.”
Brendan Vincent was quite taken with Martha Graybow. “Indeed, dear lady. The city grew by nearly sixty-thousand souls in just a few years, so it did. Imagine this marshland becoming such a cultural center.”
They were still in the process of finishing the meal when a knock sounded from the front door. Cody nodded at Cole and they both excused themselves, Cody holding back while Cole stepped to the door.
“Cole Granger, are you asking me in? Or leaving a lady on the steps?” said a mischievous voice on the other side.
And Lisette Annalise, actress by trade and newly minted agent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, had arrived.
Cole opened the door with a smile on his face. “Why, Miss Annalise, no man in his right mind would leave you waiting anywhere,” he replied, inviting her in with a flourish. Cole had met her briefly years earlier when she had been performing in Faint Heart Never Won Fair Ladies on the Western circuit. She was a young Jenny Lind, a stunning, petite woman with the voice of an angel. Lisette had most recently telegraphed Cole, having heard about the success his town of Victory, Texas, had in fighting off a ruthless gang of outlaws.
Some loathed her fellow “Pinks,” as they were called. Some thought that they were a viable private enterprise. But there was no denying that war changed everything, and the Pinkertons were becoming a true power. The Pinkerton National Detective Agency had been founded in Chicago by Allan Pinkerton as a private security agency for rich and important businessmen and their interests. As president-elect, Lincoln himself had hired them, which tended to mean that Lisette would mention, almost right from the beginning of any encounter, that she’d met the man and admired him greatly, both of them enjoying the theater.
Cole liked Lisette, and he admired her. But she sometimes frightened him, as well. Her passion verged on fanaticism, and he’d never met a fanatic who could think with a straight head.
Overjoyed to see his old friend, Cole stepped out and quickly caught up with her about Victory, some common acquaintances and their business in the capitol.
“This is our contact?” Cody asked, suddenly appearing in the doorway, barring the way to the rear of the house.
“Yes, I’m sorry, forgive me,” Cole said, making the introductions.
Cody and Lisette exchanged greetings cordially but with some tension about them. “Did you tell her about Megan?” Cody asked Cole.
“Not yet,” Cole said.
“Ah,” Cody said, expressing what seemed to be the key sentiment of the moment.
Lisette had dark brown eyes and auburn hair, and flyaway eyebrows that rose in question.
“Cody discovered a long-lost sister just last night,” Cole explained.
“Megan,” Cody said.
“A sister?” Lisette said, her lips pursing into a bow. “Does that mean…?”
“Yes,” Cole said simply.
“Come along in, we’ll be suspicious out here,” Cole said, and gestured all into the house.
“Oh, of course. But I’m suspicious of this sudden sister already,” Lisette said, which Cole couldn’t help but smile at.
In the kitchen, introductions and greetings went around again. Martha was thrilled to meet Lisette. She had seen her perform onstage long ago in Richmond. Lisette was charming and said that she’d be performing in Washington soon.
“I find it so difficult these days, with so many soldiers out dying on the fields,” Lisette said.
“Oh, but you entertain those left behind at home. You help them bear the hours while their loved ones are away!” Martha said enthusiastically.
“Just how is it that you know each other?” Megan asked sweetly. Her eyes glittered gold, though she smiled as she asked the question.
“Well, Cole and I go back a long way,” Lisette said. She cast Cole a warm glance and lingered over the words, inviting all types of speculation as to what that exactly meant. “He wrote that he’d be here. May I ask you the same, Miss Fox? I’m always surprised that so many Southerners are enjoying a Union capital.”
“I had word that Cody would be in Washington. I was anxious to meet my brother.”
“Ah, yes, nothing like a little teasing sibling rivalry!” Lisette said.
Maybe it was natural that Lisette should subtly suggest that Megan Fox wasn’t here with the noblest of intentions, to insinuate to those who understood the undertone that Megan might possibly hold an agenda that involved infesting the capital with the plague—and thus getting the Union to capitulate to the South.
To her credit, Megan was composed. “Rivalry? Oh, Miss Annalise, I wouldn’t dream of attempting any form of rivalry with my brother. I’ve been hoping to meet him for so long! No, miss, I assure you, I shall do nothing but follow in my brother’s wake, and hope to be so fine a—being.”
“How utterly charming,” Lisette said. She rose from her position at the table, smiling graciously. “Would you please forgive us? In these dreadful times of war, we never know when we will meet. Cole and I would like to take a bit of a walk.” She smiled at him, blinking, as if she were about to burst into tears—as if there were far more between them than there had ever been. She was the ultimate actress.
Megan quickly and awkwardly rose, as well. “How nice! How very lovely. Yes, yes, the two of you must up and away for a lovely stroll. Pity the streets are little but mud and the dust flying about is terrible, but I’m sure you’ll have a charming walk, so sweet when time is precious and two people are together.”
One woman wanted his company, another was evidently more than anxious to get rid of him. He needed to see the one, and he was afraid to take his eyes off the other.
Megan was Cody’s sister. And Cody certainly knew the score.
“Of course, Lisette,” Cole said. “The streets are not so bad here—the house is not on a direct march line for the troops coming and going into and out of town. Let’s do stroll.”
“You will excuse us?” Lisette asked Martha, her beautiful smile all encompassing as she looked around the room.
They left by way of the rear door, the carriage entrance.
When they came around the front, Cole saw a sad-looking young woman standing on the front walk, an envelope and a clipboard in her hands. He started toward her.
“Cole, just walk, she’ll come,” Lisette said, taking his arm.
“She’ll come? Who is she?”
“It’s just Trudy.”
“Who is just Trudy and why is she standing there?” he demanded.
Lisette sighed. “She’s my assistant. The agency seems to think I need one, but I loathe being followed around. Luckily, she’s a little mouse and stands wherever I tell her.”
“You had her just standing outside while you came into the house?” Cole asked.
“Well, outside and around the corner. I wanted some time alone with you. Besides, it’s her job. She serves me. And she’s paid to do it,” Lisette said, waving a hand dismissively in the air.
She might be a mouse—a paid mouse—but Cole didn’t intend to be that rude. He walked over to the woman, extending his hand. “How do you do, Trudy? I’m Cole Granger.”
The young woman flushed and nervously shook his hand. “I’m fine, thank you, sir. How do you do?”
“Well enough, thank you. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Lisette slipped her arm through his. “Come. I have things to discuss with you.” She moved ahead. Trudy waited, then followed them at a distance.
Lisette didn’t speak at first as they walked from the house toward the mall, all manner of men and women moving past them, many of them soldiers. Though it had grown immensely and was a bevy of storage, manufacturing, industry and all things associated with war, there was still something inviting about the Union capital. The president spoke daily with his constituents—and his enemies—in the White House. He took his carriage out daily, often with his Mary, and despite the fact that there were those who despised him for the war, Lincoln was a man of the people. Cole had only seen him at a distance and heard him speak to crowds; Alexandra Fox knew him. She had been arrested for knowing what she shouldn’t have known once because Alex had her own special gift. Her dreams could be prophetic. And she had tried to stop a battle, which had meant that she had found herself arrested for espionage. Lincoln had stepped in. They were friends.
Alex was no form of monster, as Cody sometimes called himself. But she was a different person. She had those dreams, or dream-visions. Alex often said that it might just be intuition, her senses warning her of what was to come.
She had never—she had assured Cole once—ever seen what the war would become.
“This is extremely distressing,” Lisette said, when they had come to the Mall at last, looking to make sure that Trudy was still a good distance behind them. The great expanse divided the streets and had been designed as park area—though it was now most often muddy terrain where troops drilled—and it finally seemed to afford Lisette some sense that they were isolated enough to speak freely. They stood in front of the Castle, the first building of the Smithsonian Institution, where even now, in the midst of the war, the work of scientists went on. James Smithson had never set foot in the United States, but the country’s dream of democracy had appealed to him, and he’d bequeathed the funds to an ideal. While troops drilled, business went on, and so the museum and the Mall were dreams and ideals loved by the people, constants amid chaos.
“This?” Cole asked.
“Megan Fox,” Lisette said.
“We didn’t bring her. She found us last night at the prison.”
“Convenient. Are you certain that she hadn’t been in the prison?”
“She had several chances to inflict damage on us and she didn’t,” Cole said. “She seemed to be fighting with us.”
“Seemed!” Lisette said.
Cole listened to the sounds of the street, children still being children, playing on doorsteps and in patches of grass, carriage wheels running over potholes, line riders avoiding those potholes and even the rustle of fabric as ladies picked up their cumbersome skirts to cross the streets.
“Seemed?” Lisette repeated sharply.
“Look,” Cole said. “I’m here with Cody and Brendan on a mission. I’m not here as part of a war. Cody says that she’s his sister, and that’s that in my book. I don’t believe she’s here on a sinister quest to rid the country of Union forces by setting forth a league of vampires. Take the war out of this when you’re speaking to me, or I’m done.”
Lisette had her hands on her hips as she stared at him; no one would mistake them for lovers at that point.
“I forget. You’re one of them,” she said. “Texas!” She nearly spit out the word.
“Humanity,” he said flatly. “Look, are you going to tell me where we stand and what’s needed, or are you going to spout political rhetoric?”
“The South will lose!”
He lowered his head for a minute. “Yes. Eventually. The blockades grow tighter, and for every Federal killed, another steps off a ship from another country, barely speaking English, ready to die like a canary sent into the coal mine of freedom. I’m done talking, Lisette. Tell me what you want, but, please, make no more references to the evil of Texas and my brethren. Just tell me where we are with the trauma at hand.”
She pursed her lips with displeasure. “You did well last night. Extremely well. But we know that a number of the creatures escaped.”
“How?”
“Have you seen the paper this morning?”
He shook his head. “No.”
She reached into her bag and produced the morning’s newspaper, unfolding it so that he could see the headline—Murder on Florida Avenue.
He took it from her hands and read the article. A Joshua Brandt, his wife, mother and two servants had been found dead. The bodies, white as sheets, had been discovered strewn about the house.
BREAKFAST HAD LONG been cleared away. Martha had gone to be with her children. Alex had tactfully taken Brendan for a “constitutional” walk. And Megan sat with Cody in the parlor, sensing what was coming next.
“You knew about me all your life?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “No, not all my life. But I knew about my father. Well, when I was young, my mother would tell me that he’d been a wonderful man, but that he didn’t stay long in one place. That he…that he had a quest in life, and that his quest was important and undertaken for the sake of all humanity. I never saw our father. I was born in North Carolina, where my mother had friends. I would tell the children that I played with at parties and so on that my father was a great man, but when I was about six, I think, one of the older boys told me that my father was a drifter and I was a bastard. Shortly after, we moved to Richmond, my mother married a fine man named Andrew Jennison and my life went on from there.”
She had barely finished speaking when the door opened and Cole stepped in. The woman, Lisette Annalise, was not with him. Megan had to admit she was glad. She didn’t like Cole Granger and she liked him less alongside the actress who seemed to think she was the Army of the Potomac.
Cole looked at them then closed the door carefully. He walked over to Cody, placing a newspaper on his lap.
