Insanity

[Brian]

"Jus' that you were saying you didn't trust anyone with what you'd found," she says, shrugging.  "But it seems thieves and murderers are after you and it, so it doesn't strike me as being mad, now."

The elder Shuker looks like he might have something to add, but instead shakes his head.  "At the moment, the vault is still closed," he says.  "So at least we know that Hathoway doesn't have it."  He pauses thoughtfully, then says, "I wonder...."  With that, he leans forward, sticking his head through the vault.

"No luck," he says a moment later, shaking his head.  "Too dark for me to copy anything from it."

[Rezantis]

"Well, then I guess we either need the key or a safecracker," Nathan grumbles, "unless the two of you have any ideas I might ask Holmes about that."

Nathan shrugs.

"In the meantime I'm somewhat at a loss as to what to do - except sift through some of these notes and eat dinner."

[Brian]

Janson chooses that moment to return, wheeling in a small cart.  On the top is a covered silver tray.  "Your dinner, Master Shuker," he calls, stopping only when the cart reaches the desk.  "I've prepared your favorite; lobster bisque."

"As good a plan as any," the elder Shuker says.  "I'd just as soon not deal with Hathoway, all told.  And a change of locks would keep anyone from walking in the front door again, either."

"Janson!" Molly protests to the servant who can't see him.  "You know he likes fresh ground pepper!  Oh, you hoodlum."  She balls her hands into fists at her hips when Janson ignores her, bowing to Nathan.

"I've taken the liberty of bringing you fresh water, if there's nothing else, I will await your summons," he says, rising.

[Rezantis]

"Thank you, Janson," Nathan says once the man is finished, "There is one thing.  Could you, tomorrow, send someone out to fetch a good locksmith?  The door locks need to be changed, and I'd like to speak to one."

[Brian]

"I could," Janson says hesitantly, "but tomorrow's the fair, and all.  I imagine most everyone who doesn't sell food is taking the day off.  Will you be wanting to stay in, then?"

[Rezantis]

"Oh.  Of course.  With . . . what happened today, I'd forgotten.  It'll do me good to get out and about then, I think.  We'll worry about locks the day after."  

Nathan shakes his head.

"Thank you, Janson; that will be all for now."

[Brian]

"Very good, Sir," Janson says, bowing again as he leaves the study.

Molly looks after him for a minute, then says, "I'll be going to see what's going on, Master Shuker.  Make sure none of the other staff is slacking of."  With that, she marches to the doorway.

Once she's gone, the elder Shuker shakes his head and says, "As if that wasn't awkward enough before....  And I suppose you don't remember why my son kept her around?  I never did get a straight answer from him."

[Rezantis]

"I don't remember much of anything," Nathan responds sourly, "not details, not names; just how to do things.  It would make things infinitely easier if I did."

He opens his mouth to say something else, then closes it again, looking across at the cart.  "Dinner sounds like a good idea right now."

[Brian]

Wah~!  Beneath the silver dome is a tureen of still-boiling soup, a bowl, a ladle, a spoon, and some freshly baked bread with butter to one side.  It smells delicious -- far superior to the sandwiches of the pre-thug-shooting-meal, or the asylum's tasteless gruel.

"I'll let you enjoy yourself, then," the elder Shuker says.  "You should relax a bit, after the asylum."

[Rezantis]

"Mm."

Nathan sounds non-comittal - but he IS hungry and the food looks good, so it has his full attention for quite a while.

[Brian]

The soup is pretty good, once Nathan lets it cool down a bit.  The bread's not bad, either.

No cookies, though.  Something will have to be done about that....

In the meantime, looking around, Nathan notices a previously missed pull-cord near the door.  Probably to summon servants to, say, clear the cart away once Nathan's done with it.  Other than that, for the first time in far too long, he's left alone.

With an awful lot of papers.

[Rezantis]

Once done, Nathan makes use of the pull-cord to have the cart removed!

Assuming nothing particularly untoward happens in the process of dinner-removage, he then proceeds to start . . . sifting through the papers - partly in the hope that he'll find out he actually does know a little of this stuff, but mostly to try and, well, learn a little more about the world - and his field of 'expertise'.

[Brian]

Janson appears and pulls the cart away, only pausing to ask if Nathan needs anything else.  For the papers....  Lots and lots of notes on researching, most of which seem to be complied from books.  Some of the books are on the shelves, and some of them aren't in sight.

One of the interesting things that comes up once Nathan looks into the drawers of the desk is a list of 'attainable normally' vs. 'attained through various means' resources ... many of the books that aren't on the shelves are on the 'various means' list.

The subject of research seems to be pre-Church society, which for Anabara, little information remains.  The notes of Nathan's otherself suggest that he's probably gotten his hands on every resource that is around, through ... well ... various means.  And the end conclusion is that he'll need to leave Anabara through a Gate to find out more.

The notes and papers are very professional, though.  No one else is named, such as the fiancee, or the elder Shuker.

[Rezantis]

Interesting.

Nathan's sets to looking around the study - perhaps (unlikely) the books are just in a cabinet rather than on public display.

If that's not the case, he's going to leave the study and go explore the house briefly - familiarise himself with the layout, check over his father's study, and generally just work out where things are.

[Brian]

The cabinet holds within it ... LIQUOR!  And quite a variety, too.

None of the books that Nathan has in his library are the ones on the theoretically forbidden list.  After that, house exploration time.

The place is egregiously large, though shortly after Nathan begins searching, Molly appears, pointing out which rooms are which, and which corridors are the servants' passages (and stairs).  The house has all manner of rooms.

A proper library, with a great volume of books (apparently, not as related to the other-Nathan's research), a ballroom (bleah), several empty bedrooms (about eighteen of them), parlors, galleries....

The place is sprawling.  It even has towers -- one of which looks like a mad scientist's lab.  Apparently, the Shuker grandfather (the elder Shuker's father) experimented here.  It's dusty and cobwebbed at the moment.

There's a basement, too, but Molly says it's full of rats -- which scare her, so she'd rather not go down.