Arnold’s Journal: July 12th – 17th

Tuesday, July 12th:  Parley?

Today we spent most of our time in doors, though we were able to finally confirm that Henri Metier has arrived.  He spoke with Mr. Harvey about setting up a meeting with her in peace and she could bring as many people as she wanted.  Maddox wanted to instantly refuse, but Mr. Harvey pointed out that the man would probably become even more cross if they were to do that.

We talked about where we could meet and eventually the Bucket of Blood was settled on as the safest place for us, and least safe for him.  It didn’t occur to me until much later that night what I’d just agreed to.  I did NOT want to go back to the Bucket.  The last time I went there I got struck by lightning!

But it was too late…we’d already sent word and that’s where he would be going.  I still intended to spend the night in Clockhaven afterwards…as long as I didn’t sleepwalk that should help.

Wed, July 13th :  The meeting at the Bucket

I spent the day working and at times going back to the submarine and taking everything we’d need from it, all the essentials, to the hospital.  I also made sure to take the wards with me too though I handled them as little as possible.  I’d have taken the dynamite too but if that went off in the hospital…

I’ve been looking over the blueprints with Harvey for some time and while I think this design is a vast improvement to the last there’s still the problem of flooding should an explosive go off.  If someone were to set a bomb in one of the upper corners under the glass windows no one would probably even notice since it could be placed under the pillows.

Fortunately Mr. Harvey does believe in making everything as safe as possible so he didn’t get rid of the diving suits he had gotten the last time I brought up the weaknesses of the hospital and center.

When the time had arrived I didn’t want to go and I confess that I spent most of the time watching Henri silently, but also ready to jump at the slightest hint that anything else might go wrong.  Something had in fact gone wrong from the start because Henri had apparently performed some kind of ritual or prayer, and Underby was insisting that he get out.

I can’t say that I was sorry to see him leave, but we had no idea what he had wanted now.  We ended up having to confront him just outside, which I was grateful for.

To say that the meeting went horribly is an understatement.  Sonnerstein had already told everyone that Henri said that all of this could also be solved with a marriage, and Henri ended up explaining that if she got married and changed her last name, then he wouldn’t have to kill her.

He was very insistent that the two of them had no choice and that their blood would make them do it, and that she herself would have trouble separating his actions from his families and would probably often forget that they never met. 

I’d be lying if I said the claims weren’t…discomforting.  I’d seen some evidence of this in her behavior from time to time, and when she talked of this Metier she did sometimes forget she had never met this particular man before…but that could happen over any loss and with enough familiarity with something which she apparently had with his brother.  So that didn’t prove Henri was right, but I decided to keep an eye on Miss Sinclaire anyways.  If he did so happen to actually know what he was talking about, as doubtful as that is, she might just go off to some duel to the death with him and die.

He departed very abruptly after telling us about the prayer he’d used to give us a day or two before we could do harm to one another, and that he had given us his terms for resolution.

We discussed other options at length with the others present, such as changing Maddox’s name legally, and Lionheart did offer to marry her.  I think the two of them would kill each other in a week. 

We didn’t settle on anything except for the fact that she would be staying at the hospital with us for safety.

Thursday and Friday, July 14th and 15th:  Days in waiting.

The next day it felt like something had been wiped clean and that something horrible had happened to me, and I had no clue what it was.  I eventually had to give up trying to figure out what it could be as I focused on the situations on hand.

Since we weren’t supposed to move against Henri, even though I considered doing so anyways and just accepting the consequences on the off chance he had known what he was doing, I set about work that day as usual.  We were working on the hospital, and Mr. Harvey wanted it ready soon and that meant a lot of work still had to be done, I especially didn’t think we’d be done with the steam vents in time.

I wondered what their purpose was, and Mr. Harvey explained that it would be a good way to keep warm within the building since it was deep under water.  While working with the boiler though I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if someone were to pour something else into it, like poison, instead of water.  Would that even work?  Perhaps I should talk to Mr. Harvey about it.

Another thing that I should probably talk to him about is what Henri had said about marrying Maddox or making her marry someone else, but when we do talk he’s got enough on his hands trying to take care of the new hospital. 

Maddox herself is a wreck and I can practically feel the fear oozing out of her from almost all of my basic senses.  She’s already thinking of doing something stupid, like giving into his demands that she get married.  If I thought it would do her any good I’d dunk her head in the ocean, but at this point that would make her feel worse.  Sonnerstein seems to be of my opinion and temperament at the moment, at least as far as her marrying anyone just to get this one man to leave her alone.  Perhaps with his help I will be able to talk some sense into her.

July 16th Saturday:

Miss Maddox and I had moved to another location, I won’t say where, so that Henri would have less of a chance of finding us now that his grace period was over.  Around one or so I did return to the hospital which was completely quiet.  Normally the sailors Mr. Harvey had hired were here, but then again they had their lunch at this time and they would have only just started to come back.  I went up to the hospital and found Blackberry on the ground, dying from a gunshot wound to the shoulder.  Henri’s scent was in the air, but it seemed faint and gone for now.  I went to him and checked the wound and it had appeared the attack had happened some time ago it seemed, and he had lost a lot of blood.

I took off my jacket and held it there in order to stop it from bleeding even more.  I asked questions to see if he was aware at all, but he couldn’t respond, his breathing was in short labored gasps.  I set his head back to reduce constriction of his air passages, unwilling to move him to the bed till I saw if I needed to breathe life back into him.

The motion itself was enough to ease his breathing for now, and I checked his pulse, which was incredibly weak.  I shouted at the top of my lungs for someone who could hear me, and called for Sonnerstein. 

I had to give up on the idea of help, despite the fact I did hear something moving about above me.  I carried Mr. Harvey to the Triage myself, and set him down.  It was a good thing the hospital had been stocked in the past day and I was able to give him an anesthetic.  I didn’t want to risk removing the bullet till it took effect or his situation had improved, and it didn’t seem like it was working.  I added a little touch of morphine at some point, hoping that might help with the pain at least he still seemed to be in.

Bookworm arrived around this time, though since I was in the other room I had to demand she state her name very clearly just in case he had returned.  I sent her to find Dr. Sonnerstein, who was already on his way.  Maybe a sailor had heard me yelling for him after all.

I told Miss Book what happened, and whose scent was in the air as Dr. Sonnerstein and I watched Mr. Harvey slowly improve enough to remove the bullets.

We worked and eventually we were able to stitch Mr. Harvey back up.  His wounds had been severe, and had passed all the way through leaving fragments here and there in his clavicle.  The muscles were torn and it had been broken, but it seems he would live.

That Doctor fellow, Cyberfaustus I think, arrived at the hospital after we had finished.  Mr. Harvey seemed stable and we brought him up to the finished patient rooms and laid him down.  Mr. Kuroe arrived with his friend I’d met the other night, who offered to guard Mr. Harvey and the hospital now whether anyone gave him permission to or not.

Mr. Harvey did regain conciouness at one point, and tried to say Henri’s name.  It turns out, if one could believe half mumbled words, that Henri was looking for Maddox but Harvey had not told him where to find her.

I went down and spoke with Mr. Kuroe for awhile and eventually he took me back to his place to lend me a rifle. It was much more cumbersome than the flintlock I used to carry, but I did need something.

I then made my way back and found Maddox had come back to the hospital with Sonnerstein.  She was so distraught by what Metier had done she began to think that she should just give herself up to him…my response was well controlled for the circumstances.

[19:23] Arnold: NO!
[19:23] Arnold: NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!
[19:23] Dr. Maddox Sinclaire: I have to. Otherwise this will continue to happen….
[19:23] Arnold: I will throttle you myself first!

I had to point out that the militia was hunting him, the urchins should probably all know about him unless one of them has been too busy to pay attention to their own network (raising kittens or something), Mr. Kuroe had his people on it as well now whoever they were, and she’d already apparently told Mr. Underby about the situation.  The man has already pretty much made himself an enemy of the state, he’d most likely be killed in the morning if not before!

July 17th Sunday:

*This entry was never written by the owner of the journal, although someone did add a small note to it.  Arnold had spoken with Mr. Harvey who had revealed he was talking to his bird and they came to the conclusion he was not entirely sane and Harvey mused that Henri might be willing to stop at nothing.  Maddox had gone to a party surrounded by dozens of friends and they had thought she needed such a break considering her nerves, but hearing Harvey’s assessment convinced Arnold to go retrieve her.  He went without the rifle since it would have slowed him down as he went to all fours.

Arnold pushed Maddox out of the way and was shot when Metier found them, and the cat had thrown the first thing he found in his pocket as a distraction and then had tried to claw Metier’s eyes out.  Two things when put together prevented this from having any chance of succeeding:  1.  Arnold had been shot and 2.  Henri was almost as tall as Dr. Sonnerstein whereas Arnold…was not.

Obviously he couldn’t write anything in his journal on the next few days, not that it will prevent us from telling you what he would have written later, but if he could have on Sunday night it might have gone something like this:*

#*$#&#&# *#*#$*@#*$@#*$*@#$*@* #$@ #*$((&@#*#$* @($@#($@) $*#@$*&

*Okay maybe not quite like that, he’d have actually mentioned that Sonnerstein was the one who found him and got him to the hospital, and that Maddox was blaming herself for this too, but it was close enough.*