Dear Thaddeus,
I know that you don’t approve of my tone and language. You never did, before
you started to teach me how a lady speaks, and acts and all the rest of the
things an educated woman should and should not do. This snake has drawn my ire
and it’s not my concern as to whether or not anyone likes it (no offence meant,
Thaddeus, as I regard you as my second father but the idea is the same.) There
is nothing that will fix my anger on this situation until either Henri or I am
dead. Final as it sounds, that is the way of things and I am not apt to change
my mind on that at all. And as for the feud, I remember what it is for. It
would never have gotten out of hand had his family kept their noses out of our
business and lives. They fired the first shot; we simply continued to follow
with our own throughout the years. And being as how it seems that Henri has
never bothered to become a man and marry to carry on his hateful line, the feud
will die with him. Or with me, such as the case may turn out to be. You’ve
always taught me more of right from not so acceptable. And I give you credit
for such teachings, as well as taking my education to its peak. However, in
this case and respect, I would have let sleeping dogs lie had he just died like
his family of vermin was wont to do. Face down in a vat of their own
distilling, drowned like the drunken bastards they are.
That being said, I will speak to Arnold
as soon as possible then. To fill him in on what I am going to do and have him
help me to make my plans. He is a cunning one, Arnold is. He’s very crafty when
he sets his brilliance to something and I have no doubt that this will not be
any different. I can’t say it surprises me much to find out about his court
appearances, being that when he’s of a mind and angered, death wouldn’t be too
far from his mind. His claws may yet have more use than he intended for them to
have, but just as sure as I am about that I have no doubt that he won’t mind
helping me clean up house just this once. If we play our cards right, he won’t
tarnish his record of his appearances ending in claims of self-defense. I have
just the idea that he will find to his liking and more than likely, we will not
need outside help to accomplish it. The bastard may cheat like his family, but I
would much rather use the resources I have gathered myself as a means to my
end. The fact that I have at least one more ally than he will is going to make
the difference, I can assure you. No need to worry about my methods, Thaddeus.
This will be simple, easy, and clean if all goes well.
The fact that he is travelling so slowly simply means that the few months
he’s at sea will give Arnold and I all the time in the world to plan and pool
what we have to combat and neutralize him in a timely and efficient manner.
When he finally comes to do what he thinks he will do, Arnold and I will have a
trap laid out that will assuredly end the way I know it will end. Someone will
be fine, someone will be injured and someone will die. I can tell how sure I am
of who will be who, but for now I will leave it at that. And the fact that
Babbage is a remote location simply adds to the fact that since no one will
know him from anyone else, (and he will more than likely sneak into port to off
me “quicker”) that will assure that our job will be silent, deadly
and more than likely blamed on Babbage’s luck as a city. When this goes off the
way I know it will, I will have just one more reason to love this place.
I am glad that you are not in any more danger. I have lost one father; I
couldn’t bear to lose another. I miss you Thaddeus and if it were not so
difficult for you to travel, I would ask you to visit as soon as possible. The
one detail about Arnold
that did throw me off a bit was that he just offered to come with me with no
prior guidance from you. I will ask him very soon as to his reasoning why. And
yes, I know haven’t shared much with him before now. I would venture to say it
was because we were simply classmates before. We’ve weathered a bit more
personal things now, so I can say that I know with absolute surety that he
won’t go running off to the first person he sees to let loose his lips. He is a
private enough being that I can begin to divulge everything to him (naturally
the first session will be for our current issue.) As for speaking to the future
Mrs Quack, I won’t even be near the harpy if I can help it. She’s a rotten
woman and I wish that she’d stay as far from us as possible, but unfortunately,
Arnold’s luck assures me that we’ll see her quite a bit with her new bruised
plum. I will continue to speak to Mrs Pearse, and will consider speaking to my
employer about my personal issues. Thank you for the advice on that. It simply
assures that I will speak to someone when I need it.
Your student,
Maddox
P.s. – As for the flying pigs, there are enough dirigible vehicles out here
to start a flying pig revolution. I have a feeling that you would love to
sight-see here, if not just for that alone.
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