Heuck, the proprietor, pointed past the one-man act on the stage to a corner table where Graham sat hunched over his stein.That didn’t look good.Ezekiel had ever only seen the man with a drink once in his life, about five years ago.Normally he was a teetotaler, but he’d claimed it necessary to gain the courage to do something he didn’t want to do but needed to for the sake of a loved one.If he had a drink now and he’d been worried over Ezekiel’s revelation about Nora yesterday, did that mean the two were connected?
Ezekiel ordered two coffees and carried them over to the table.“Liquid courage isn’t the answer for whatever you’re facing.”He switched the coffee for the full mug of lager, and placed the mug on a passing tray.
Graham grabbed it back.“If you’re here to press me about Nora and her family, then I certainly do.”He took a gulp, made a face, then pushed the stein to the edge of the table.“Never mind.Cof- fee works.”He followed the comment with a cleansing sip that heswished around his mouth before swallowing.“Youarehere to talk about the Davises, aren’t you?”
“What’s your connection to them?The whole truth.No evasion.”
“You truly must be taken with Nora.”When Ezekiel didn’t comment, Graham sighed and leaned back in his chair.“Katherine, or rather Constanza, is my half sister.”
“Your what?”How would Nora not know Graham if he was her uncle?
“My half sister.Our father was a man of many mistresses, and we are his illegitimate children.Katherine and I banded together to survive after our mums turned us out.She studied under an opera master in London while I supported us through working at the music hall where she got her start.”
That explained the familial connection but not the current lack of a relationship with the Davises.Until their walk yesterday, he’d never heard Graham mention Katherine Yates, Constanza Brisbane, or Mrs.Davis.“If you are related, how does Nora not know you?”
“Differences of opinion and eventually circumstances led to Katherine casting me out of her life.”Graham fell silent.
Ezekiel waited for the rest of the story, but when Graham obstinately studied his drink instead of speaking, Ezekiel pulled the mug toward himself.“The story, Graham.I want it all.”Until he understood Graham’s connection to Adler and Mrs.Reed, he couldn’t turn to him for help.
“It’s not a pretty story, and I’m certain you’ll never look at me the same.I know I don’t.”He waited for Ezekiel to change his mind, then reclaimed his mug and took a long drink before beginning.“Katherine was desperate to be seen and loved, and the stage promised that.Winston—or Adler, as you know him—took advantage of her ambitions and lured her into his traveling troupe with his sister, Ursula, and her husband, Xavier.They promised her fame, riches, and a sense of family.We fought like enemies at the Battle of Waterloo over the decision.I didn’t trust the man and demanded she refuse his offer.She wanted more than the hand-to-mouth lifeof a second-rate music hall and argued this was her only chance for something bigger.She won and went on to travel with the troupe.I carried on with my own life, slowly making the connections that have served me since.
“I wrote to her on occasion with opportunities with reputable people, but she never returned my letters.All I ever received was one from Katherine saying she had no need of or desire for ahalfbrother anymore, and it would be best to forget I ever knew her.”All the decades of hurt and anger were directed into a scowl as he glared at his mug.“I washed my hands of Katherine.I didn’t write again.The next time I saw her, it was when she came to me.”Face still hard, he met Ezekiel’s gaze.“How much do you know of the Katherine Yates scandal?”
“I only know that Nora’s ma claimed to be her, but nothing else.”Graham’s grip on the mug whitened.“Only God knows why I still love that woman.She’s made one poor choice after another, all at the expense of other people’s lives.How I pray this time it doesn’t end in another loss of life.”
“Another?”Ezekiel could understand the man’s secrecy about his connection to Constanza after the hurt she’d inflicted upon Graham, but this sounded far more serious than acrimony.
“I didn’t know it until Katherine came to me in desperation, but the life she wanted had come at a criminal price.After helping Winston, Ursula, and Xavier to steal for years, she watched without interference as Xavier killed the maid who’d caught Katherine in the act.Katherine claimed to be frozen in place as she realized what sort of person she’d become.That’s when she came to me, begging me to help her escape from the life she’d trapped herself in.When I told her to shove off because she didn’t have a brother anymore, just like she wanted, we discovered Ursula had withheld my letters to Katherine and written the other to keep me from luring Katherine back.
“I took Katherine to Scotland Yard, and we made a deal where she would return the stolen jewels and testify against Winston, Ursula, and Xavier in exchange for not being charged.Xavier hung.Winstonand Ursula were sent to the Tower.We stayed in London working in those music halls Katherine once shunned until friends warned us of Ursula’s early release and the threats to Katherine’s life.We fled to America for a new start.
“She promised to stay off the stage, but that didn’t last more than a year.She was terrible at all things domestic, and poverty nipped at our heels.When she heard Marcellus Brisbane was putting together a troupe, she took it upon herself tosaveus.She reinvented herself as Constanza, even though the opera world is so small everyone knew the scandal attached to her, and she took to the stage again.I knew the risk she was taking.Ursula would have no trouble finding her.But Katherine does what Katherine wants.She married Marcellus and allowed me no further part in her life, and I went off to start my own family.”
What a tumultuous life Graham had shared with Nora’s ma, but he must still be holding back pieces of the story.“Then how do you know Nora’s family as the Davises?After Nora’s kidnapping, her father had them disappear with new names and a new life.”
“No, her father and I worked together to make them disappear.I was there the night Nora was taken.As much as Katherine hurt me, when those same friends in England who warned us before contacted me again, I couldn’tnotnotify her.The now-freed Winston and Ursula had gathered funds to sail to America, and I knew why they were coming.I warned her, but neither she nor Marcellus were concerned enough to cancel her engagements and quit opera.
“If it weren’t for Nora, I might have left Katherine to suffer whatever plans they had for her.But my own daughter was only a few years younger, and I couldn’t in good conscience allow Nora to suffer potential harm if I could prevent it.I attended all of Katherine’s shows for the next week, trying to get another audience with her and to convince her that her family was worth leaving the opera for.When Katherine didn’t come back on the stage that night, I knew something had happened.She and Marcellus didn’t fight my presence.Katherine was too distraught, so I helped describe Winston and Ursula to the police.
“The hours waiting were awful.I could see Katherine breaking before me.Marcellus wasn’t much better.When the police said they had Nora but that Winston and Ursula had escaped, Katherine and Marcellus went to Nora while I set to work getting them packed and buying train tickets to Cincinnati, where I already lived.I’d hoped to be a part of Katherine’s life again, for my daughter to know her cousin, but Marcellus was too afraid that my connections to the opera world would put them at risk.I agreed but continued to quietly observe them and keep an ear out for trouble.I watched Nora grow up ...and my sister go mad with paranoia.”
Graham turned the mug’s handle back and forth in his hands.Deep wrinkles of regret aged him far beyond his years.“The last time we met in person, I stopped Katherine’s attack on an innocent stranger.Wild with fear, she attacked me instead, while Nora screamed and begged her to stop.The police came, and I knew I could no longer allow Katherine the freedom to ruin her family’s life.”He stopped twisting the mug and looked Ezekiel directly in the eyes.“I pressed charges and suggested a ruling of insanity.I knew an asylum was the safest place for Katherine and would give Nora the best future.Marcellus was livid, but eventually even he could see the wisdom in it.He convinced Katherine to go willingly.”
Unfortunately Ezekiel understood the difficulty of needing to place a loved one in the asylum for their safety, but to believe that it was best for the child as well?That showed an abysmal understanding of the weight a parent’s asylum stay had on a child, no matter the age.“It might have been best for Nora’s ma, but it certainly did nothing to aid Nora’s future.”
“You don’t understand.Katherine was a danger to society, herself, and even Nora.You see Nora now, as a woman who has come into her own and living a life free of managing her mum’s paranoia.Five years ago, Nora was a shell of the woman she is now.Katherine’s move to the asylum might have hurt, but the responsibility for her care was no longer Nora’s.”
What utter foolishness.Yes, a stay at an asylum may becomenecessary for healing, but it never removed the weight of responsibility for their care.Although he and Nora might be in the minority in that belief.People pushed off loved ones into the asylum all the time to be rid of their burden on the family.Either way, that didn’t change the impact it had on Nora and him.Every visit brought the delicate task of managing their parents’ emotions and well-being while fulfilling their own needs for a mother’s presence in their lives.Every week of absence in between carried its own grief, guilt, and faltering hope.Life was not better by shoving their parents into the recesses of their lives.But despite Graham’s misguided belief, it did appear he had a strong love for and desire to protect Nora.
“How did you know that Adler was Winston and in town?”Ezekiel asked.
“I attended one of the performances and recognized him and Ursula.His role was listed in the program, so I knew his new name, but Ursula’s was amongst a list of chorus members.I tried to discover which was hers but couldn’t without exposing myself.If they discovered I was here, they’d have suspected Katherine’s and Nora’s presences too.”
Ezekiel groaned.“And then I went and tipped off Adler anyway.”What a mess.“You were right.I did bring danger to Nora’s door.Mrs.Reed must be the Ursula you recognized, and she lives only a few doors down from the Davises.I believe she and Adler are scheming to make Nora appear mad, even to herself.”
“You know where they are, and you left Nora unprotected?”Graham pushed his chair back and stood.“I should have gone straight to Marcellus when you first mentioned Adler instead of trying to fix this on my own.We must go to them at once.”
Ezekiel stood as well, glad to have Graham as an ally.“I left Nora in the care of one of her friends.We’ll go there and then to her father.I think if we work together, we can keep everyone safe without Nora and Mr.Davis disappearing again.”
