Page 105 of Affair

Baxter settled himself on the seat across from Charlotte. His eyes were very fierce behind the lenses of his spectacles. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.” She looked down at Juliana sprawled on the floor of the carriage. “And Miss Post is alive, thank heavens.”

Baxter leaned down to touch the side of Juliana’s throat. “So she is.”

“She must have been overcome by the incense. I’m almost certain that it was not the same mixture of herbs she used the last time I visited her. This vapor reminded me of the noxious smoke Hamilton and his friends used the other night. But this was stronger.”

“Yes.” Baxter studied Juliana. His face was set in hard, bleak lines. “I do not believe that Miss Post was accidentally overcome by that incense.”

Charlotte met Baxter’s eyes across Juliana’s motionless form. “The magician tried to murder her.”

“Yes.”

His name is Malcolm Janner. I loved him and he tried to kill me.” Juliana, freshly bathed and garbed in one of Ariel’s wrappers, huddled on the sofa in front of the parlor fire. Her voice was still hoarse from the smoky incense. Her eyes were reddened and damp with tears. “I thought he loved me.”

Charlotte paused in the act of pouring another cup of tea. She touched Juliana’s hand. “He is a monster. Monsters do not respond to love.”

Baxter stirred slightly near the mantel. Charlotte felt his gaze on her. When she glanced at him, she saw that he was watching her closely. But he made no comment.

She turned back to Juliana. “What happened today?”

“He asked me to read the cards for him. He does that quite often. It was one of the things I never comprehended about him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Malcolm is a man of keen intellect but he is obsessed with metaphysical and occult science. He believes that I really can tell fortunes. Indeed, I think that was the reason why he pretended to love me. I never dared to let him know that my fortune-telling skills were nothing more than an act I had created in order to make my living.”

“Why the incense?” Baxter asked.

Juliana glanced at him. “He is forever experimenting with it. He has created a special mixture that he says heightens the faculties and elevates one’s sense of awareness. He feels it helps him contact the forces of the metaphysical plane.”

“Was that what was burning in the brazier?” Charlotte asked.

“Yes. But the incense is very potent. It must be used carefully. A small amount of it has the effect of altering the way one perceives things. But too much can kill.”

“There was certainly far too much of it in your parlor today,” Charlotte said.

“After I read the cards for him this morning, he put more incense on the brazier.” Juliana closed her eyes in mute anguish. “When I told him that it frightened me, he said that he would make certain that I was safe. He put on his mask, the one he dons whenever he wishes to remain unaffected by the incense. I grew very dazed and disoriented.”

“Go on,” Charlotte said gently.

Juliana opened her eyes. Tears streamed down her face. “He picked me up. Placed me on the sofa. I thought he was going to make love to me as he often does after I read the cards for him. I could no longer see him clearly but I shall never forget his voice when he told me that he did not need me anymore. That I had become a problem. He promised that I would feel no pain. I would simply go to sleep and never awaken.”

“Dear God,” Charlotte whispered. “You were on the floor when I found you. You must have fallen from the sofa.”

Baxter frowned. “That is no doubt what allowed you to live long enough for Charlotte to discover you and pull you to safety, Miss Post.”

Juliana glanced at him in wan surprise. “What do you mean?”

“In the course of my experiments I have frequently observed that smoky vapors tend to be lighter than other airs. In a sense, they seek to rise and float above them. The air that was closest to the floor in your parlor therefore remained less tainted with the incense.”

Charlotte was impressed. “A very clever analysis of the situation, Baxter.”

He gave her a wry look. “Thank you. I like to think that not all of my time in my laboratory is wasted.”

Juliana shuddered. “Whatever the case, I owe my life to you, Miss Arkendale. If you had not come to see me when you did, I would have expired from the effects of that ghastly incense. What stroke of fortune made you decide to visit me today?”

“It was not fortune,” Charlotte said briskly. “It was logic. And, well, perhaps a bit of luck. Let us say that I had obtained some information that caused me to conclude that the voice of this man of mystery was the key to the whole affair. You were the one person I knew who could quite possibly put a face to that voice.”

---