The Iron Man [Serial]

The Velvet Mafia

Upstairs, there were two bedrooms, both large and having several beds. Angelo and Estasi had already taken beds in one of the rooms. "Is it acceptable for you to share a room?" Miranda asked, she paused only a moment, "that is, Angelo, Estasi and I were all taught by nuns and accustomed to be divided in groups by our gender, but," she paused again, but even more briefly, "that is not a means of avoiding temptation for all of us." She touched her left hand to a button just below her collar. "And, that sometimes--"

"It's quite all right," I said, smiling quite intentionally, "You don't have to explain more."

"You are a hospitable host to explain and to consider our honor," Sina added. We glanced to each other, before Sina answered for us both, "We will say that we all shared a room as each others chaperons." Sina laughed softly at this.

I was beginning to think that Murphy was more concerned with Sina's honor than Sina herself, but truthfully I did not yet understand enough about their family's customs to make such a judgement.

We went into the bedroom to sleep, taking turns to leave to use the washroom for washing or changing as needed. I saw that Miranda knelt beside her bed to pray before sleeping, but otherwise, I closed my eyes and slept.

In the morning, Estasi and Miranda had woken first and gone downstairs to start their daily business. Sina was in the bedroom at prayer when I woke. And Angelo came to the washroom as I was leaving. When I came to the dining room, Miranda was there reading the review and Estasi was at the stove.

"Buongiorno, Jade," Miranda said. She lowered her paper. "There are some shoes for you to try near the stairs."

I turned back and saw several pair of chopines along the floor. "Thank you," I said. I took a knee near the doorway to the staircase in order to measure the shoes by my foot. Of the suitable pairs, I chose one that had the platforms divided between the ball and heel.

"You take coffee in the morning?" Estasi asked.

"Please." I stepped into the first shoe, with one hand to the jamb of the door.

"How do you take it?"

I did not answer right away, but shifted my weight to step up into the second shoe. I was balanced on the raised platforms, perhaps a hands-breadth high, one hand touching the wall. "A friend told me there is steam-brewed coffee in Italia."

"Sì, sì, the cafes have espresso machines, but we have just a little machine, a moka pot." Estasi turned to look me up and down, as I shuffled toward the table. "I will make you a drink and you tell me if you like it."

"Yes." I reached and touched the table. "Miranda, might I make use of your wirefax?"

She leaned slightly to her right, no doubt in order to view my feet. "If you can walk that far," she answered.

I wobbled on the next step.

"It might help to think of it like marching."

I regained balance and then drew a deep breath as I focused on the far doorway to Miranda's office. There was the loom between here and there, and the sofas and chairs, but I thought I saw a zig-zagging path. Marching, I thought, and took conscious steps, lifting and placing each foot.

I stumbled forward.

"Shoulders back," Estasi called.

I heard Miranda laugh behind me.

Finally, I reached Miranda's office, and promptly sank into her desk chair. I removed the notes and sketches from my sketchbook, started up the wirefax, then took from a hidden pocket of my jacket a set of numbers Murphy had given me. I clacked at the machine, then fed the pages into its tray. Rollers spun and advanced the pages. Bright light leaked from the machine's seams as it read the pages.

When I returned to the dining room, Estasi was still at the stove, where Angelo was now beside her tending a skillet. Sina came from the washroom. She laughed when she saw me.

I almost tripped. "I forgot I was wearing them," I said, having walked from the office without much concentration.

"There are a few more pairs," Miranda said.

Estasi brought me a wide mug of coffee. I took it by the handle, keeping my left hand on the dining table. "It has a good aroma."

"I put cocoa and milk in it." Estasi smiled.

"I love cocoa. I used to drink it-- I mean, I lived where we were able to import it sometimes." I was forgetting my cover story. Even if Miranda was an ally, it was important.

"This is African cocoa," Miranda answered, "It's a little less expensive."

"Sometimes Captain Ken brings us a tin," Estasi said with a wide smile.

"He must like you," I said.

Estasi bowed her head and returned to the stove.

"He's a decent man," Miranda said, "a personal friend to our family. Captain of a Mercantile Navy ship. If you and Murphy had not arrived, I planned to go to him. My allegiance remains the same."

"Of course," I whispered, "We do as we must." I took a sip of my coffee. It was deliciously bittersweet.

When everyone had broken their fast, we went down to the workshop. I'd not been able to take the stairs in chopines, but I was determined to master the shoes once on the ground floor. Sina seemed to have some small amount of trouble with hers, so I repeated the advice Estasi and Miranda had given me.

The others carried on with their usual duties. Although much was automated, the three weavers still were required to load supplies into each machine, to clack the commands for the next process, and sometimes to transport cloth from one of the large machines to another. It was not so different from the work I had done in the dhobitorium.

There was some blue dress velvet to secure and wind onto a roller for its final polish. New spools of white silk were loaded on the loom, and Miranda handled the threading. Estasi sewed a length of white cotton velvet into a loop in preparation for dying.

As the day continued, I checked the office several times, to see if some reply had come by wirefax. When there was none, I reminded myself that Murphy would be at the train station and may not reply until his priority assignment was complete. The train station was actually closer to Miranda's workshop in than to the hotel on the Lido, so I had some hope Murphy would stop on his way back.

As I was returning downstairs for the last time, there was a knock at the door. I paused on the staircase, struck by the curiosity that there was a knock just as I had hoped Murphy might visit. I heard Estasi from around the corner, "Could it be Ken?"

Being near the doors, I faintly hear voices outside. I saw Sina and Miranda approaching. As I reached into my jacket for one of my Bulldog revolvers, Sina spun out of line of sight with the doors and landed in a lunge. Closeby, Miranda turned her head to speak over her shoulder and made a series of wide waving with her right arm.

The doors broke open. I admit I winced at the sudden motion and for a moment afterward registered only shapes against the shifting light: a figure in top hat center, one more indistinct to the left, and closest to me a slender figure in skirt and frock coat.

I beheld them then. Morté at the left in snug chocolate-brown trousers and shirt sleeves, with some manner of strap across his chest. The mysterious friend beside him in black velvet tailcoat, wearing a turquoise-blue cravat that picked out the color of his decidedly smokey eyes. And Pallador, with wondrously coiffed hair and rosy cheeks, wearing a red velvet frock coat and a terribly familiar style of black kilt.

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Double-sized 40th chapter!

Happy Halloween!