From The Seduction of Emy and Other Stories

Copyright 2023 A. R. Gregory

 

Gentleman's Doll

Thaddeus Grandtower walked to his foyer. As he collected the morning mail that had just fallen through the letter slot, he happened to glance out one of his leaded glass sidelights. He lurched backward at the sight of Madam Radzukova bustling from her next-door townhouse. Anything to deny the old bat the sight of him. But to Thad's relief, Madam Radzukova merely crossed the sidewalk, then climbed into her waiting carriage.

“Practitioner of poppycock!” he growled and shook his head. How the old Russian émigré, the self-proclaimed “mistress of the Hermetic arts,” got away with plying her parlor tricks in his respectable neighborhood beggared the imagination. Tarot cards, palm readings, even séances? In the name of all that was rational, he rolled his eyes. When he peeked out the sidelight again, her carriage was lumbering off down Carrington Street.

“Good riddance,” he sniffed. The Tsar himself, whom she claimed was her cousin, probably booted the old charlatan from her homeland.

The shameless old busybody had her prying tendrils entwined around every inch of the neighborhood grapevine. She seemed privy to every scrap of dubious gossip about Beatrice and him. Had Beatrice herself, his now erstwhilebetrothed, shared the particulars of their discord with the meddlesome old faker? Lady Beatrice Moore, so prim of ardour, so unbridled in her vengeance.

“Women!” he sniffed, gritting his teeth. “Hell indeed hath no fury.” Why else would Madam Radzukova have proffered him her ready counsel? The horrid crone even offered to lecture him on “conjugal harmony.” He clenched his jaws even tighter. As if a man of science and reason would countenance such a mountebank. Why, save for sheer spite, would Beatrice disclose even the tiniest impropriety to such a hideous crone?

As he leafed through his mail, a missive from the Society for Scientific and Engineering Enterprise came to his attention. Forget Beatrice and the old bat. He ripped the envelope open, devoured the contents of the letter it had borne....