Dance of the Damned by Alan Bligh

Author:Alan Bligh [Bligh, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781589949706
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Publishing
Published: 2011-10-30T07:00:00+00:00

* * *

Daisy Walker looked down at the over-large measure of cherry brandy in her hand and swallowed hard, not knowing whether to try and knock it down in one belt or surreptitiously hide it behind one of the many curios and bizarre objet d’art scattered about the over-stuffed room in Professor Walters’s house in Arkham.

“Ah yes, sit here, this one’s quite passing clean,” her host ventured fussily, slapping dust from a padded dining chair quite out of place in the sprawling study.

Daisy sat, the chair making an amusing humph noise as she did so, causing her to blush slightly as she concealed her still-untouched glass behind a handy portmanteau on a cluttered church pew close to hand.

Unceremoniously dumping a stack of first editions atop an already teetering pile of manuscripts in a way that made the librarian in Daisy wince, Harvey Walters cleared a seat across from her and sat down with a satisfied smile.

Daisy couldn’t help but smile to herself as she took the professor in, captured here in his sanctum sanctorum of crazily stacked books, over-filled pipe racks, fearsome tribal masks, and a somewhat sad-looking stuffed crocodile hovering precariously overhead.

“Now, Miss Walker, to what do I owe this singular honor, as late as the hour might be… Oh, ought you really to be here at all? I mean, a bachelor professor like myself entertaining a young female faculty member in his study after six o’clock? I must consider your reputation.”

Daisy couldn’t help but let out a little good-natured laugh. Harvey Walters had more than enough years under his belt to be her grandfather, and was the very model of old Yankee propriety, making the thought of any impropriety by anybody that knew him somewhat inconceivable. He was a spry old gent, to be sure, and with his fluffy mutton chop sideburns, monocle, and more than slightly eccentric beliefs, Daisy was very fond of him, and she respected his intelligence as one of the few genuine polymaths she’d ever met. In terms of habits and manners, he was stuck somewhere in the last century, but at least he was nothing like some of the faculty “old guard” like Tompkins, for whom a woman with her own opinions was about as shocking as a bicycling fish.

“That’s all right, Professor Walters,” she began brightly. “I won’t stop long, and your secretary and housekeeper are in the next room to play chaperone if needed,” she demurred.

“Well, if you’re sure, Miss Walker,” he said, nodding, his attention wandering slightly to the front page of an old newspaper his disturbance of the room’s top layer of detritus had uncovered.

Notionally a visiting professor (although he’d been in residence at the Miskatonic longer than she had), Harvey Walters had enough academic clout to be left alone to do pretty much anything he liked, and was also de jure outside of university politics. Moreover, he had always shown her kindness and respect in their dealings, and been close friends with Professor Armitage, not to mention a benefactor of the library, all of which was why she was here, looking for answers.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.