Page 38 of The Christmas Spirits on Tradd Street
Jack reached for the shoebox and began riffling through the contents before he pulled out a thin piece of paper, holding it out triumphantly. “I knew I recognized the name. Eliza was the one who purchased the first peacocks on the plantation. This is a purchase order for three pair, and her name appears at the bottom.”
“Well done,” Yvonne said, smiling at Jack as if he were her protégé.
I looked down at the paper Yvonne had given us; at the top-left corner there was what appeared to be an image from an oil painting, but the copy had all but blacked out her face.
Yvonne saw what I was looking at and explained, “The original portrait of Eliza is hanging at Gallen Hall. Of course you can’t see it here, but she was reputedly a real beauty. She left many broken hearts in her wake, both British and American.”
“An equal opportunity heartbreaker,” Jack said, examining the smudge of black ink as if to see beneath it.
“Hers was the first body to be interred in the second mausoleum,” Yvonne continued. “The first mausoleum remained empty until it was demolished. The first of three bodies interred in the newly built one, all in the same year—1782. To this day, they are the only three bodies in the mausoleum, and there were no further burials in the cemetery after that year, although the house was inhabited for more than two centuries afterward.”
“So sad,” I said, squinting at the larger print of her birth date on the bio: 1758. I recalled all the ways Sophie had told me a person could reach an early grave back in the days before antibiotics. “She was only twenty-three. Was it illness?”
Yvonne shook her head. “There’s nothing in the official record—which made me curious, of course. So I went back through the papers in the shoebox and found a letter from Carrollton Vanderhorst, the owner of Gallen Hall at the time, to the reverend at the local church about a substantial donation in return for a favor.”
Jack nodded eagerly. “I remember seeing that—something about requiring a particular area in the cemetery to be set aside for a new mausoleum, and asking the reverend if he could make it happen.” He began flipping through the papers again, finally pulling out a yellowed piece of thin paper, delicate ink strokes scratched on one side. “Here it is. ‘In such circumstances, whereby church dictates a soul cannot be buried in consecrated ground, my heartbroken wife and I implore you to do whatever is necessary to allow a place where a soul might find peace, despite an unholy demise.’”
“When I read that,” Yvonne said, “I could think of only one thing.”
“Suicide,” Jack said quietly.
Yvonne nodded. “Yes, very tragic. Especially since she was beloved by the Vanderhorsts enough that they would make sure she was interred in the family cemetery. There’s nothing mentioning suicide anywhere, of course, because that would have been a terrible scandal. There’s simply no reference to what she died from, but back then dying young wasn’t as rare as it is now.”
“Why should Eliza be important to us?” I asked.
Yvonne said, “I wasn’t sure at first, either, so I kept digging. Jack mentioned that there were two mausoleums built in the same place, two years apart, and I saw the plans you sent me. So far, I haven’t seen anything that might explain why they tore down the first one, or what that cryptic message about a ‘Marie Claire’ might have meant. Except...” She slid another page in our direction.
Whoever had printed this page from what appeared to be an army supply journal had made sure that the font size had been blown up enough so I could read it. Not that it mattered, because it appeared to be only a list of four items: cognac, feathers of goldfinch, kitchen maid, Burgundy wine. “What is this?” I asked.
“Do you know who the Swamp Fox was?” Yvonne asked.
“Of course,” Jack said.
“No clue,” I said simultaneously.
We exchanged a quick glance before returning our focus to Yvonne.
“Francis Marion. During the Siege of Charleston he and his menused guerrilla warfare to attack the British. He was never captured and he managed to wreak devastating losses on the British and bolster the morale of the patriots. Many patriot sympathizers hid him in their houses as he moved through the Lowcountry. I’m assuming the Vanderhorsts must have been sympathizers since the name Gallen Hall was mentioned in his personal papers.”
“And this list...” Jack began.
“Came from Francis Marion’s personal documents from the war. I found it when I did an archive computer search using the words ‘Gallen Hall.’ It’s amazing what computers can do these days, isn’t it? And to think everything used to be in these little card files....”
“Oh, I still use card files,” I began, but Jack cut me off with a throat clearing before turning his attention back to Yvonne. “So, what did this list tell you?”
“Well, nothing at first. These items were apparently a shipment that originated in Virginia and was headed to Gallen Hall, and given to the Swamp Fox for safe transportation.” She slid another page in our direction. “Which I might have overlooked, Jack, if you hadn’t scanned those papers for me last night. Because this is from the housekeeping journal at Gallen Hall, showing a delivery of the exact same items on March 27, 1781.”
Jack’s brow furrowed. “And because there’s no such thing as coincidence, this must mean something?”
“But of course,” Yvonne said. “I haven’t had a chance to go through everything you sent yet—I just need a couple more days to do a thorough job—but here’s a few more things I think you might find interesting before we get back to our sweet Eliza.” She slid three more pages toward us.
She pointed at the first one. “This is a timeline of the American Revolution. I wanted to know what was going on in Virginia in 1781, just in case that might shed some light on all this.”
“The Siege of Yorktown,” Jack offered.
I looked at him with surprise and admiration, wondering where he’d kept this nerdy side hidden from me and finding it rather sexy.
Yvonne looked at Jack like a teacher encouraging her favorite student. “And who was the commander in charge of the American forces there?”
