Watson & the Countess 04 The Clairvoyant Curse by Anna Lord

Author:Anna Lord
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: feng shui, camera obscura, murder, biarritz, tarot, medium, sherlock, seance, magic lantern, steamship
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13 - SS Pleiades

The SS Pleiades was an elegant vessel with a sleek black hull; a hybrid yacht-cum-paddle steamer, longer and more slender than the paddle steamers that plied the Mississippi or the Swiss lakes, though her wheel was well hidden. She had a huge red funnel with a black riband at the top that resembled a giant cigarette, especially when she blew smoke. The funnel was set halfway between two masts, one fore and one aft. Sails were still de rigeur on steamer ships to catch the wind and save on coal whenever the chance arose.

She would eventually ply the waters between Le Havre, St Malo and the Channel islands of Jersey and Guernsey when she went into service, thus she was not as large as the new steam ships being commissioned in the Glasgow shipyards for trans-Atlantic crossings. They were true dreadnoughts, massive, with the capacity for 100 first class passengers and another 100 in steerage. Because she was not yet in service, she was doing this leg of the journey with a half crew. There was no chief mate or second officer, no physician or nurse, fewer servants and kitchen hands, however, this was not envisaged to be too much of a problem.

The SS Pleiades had eight first class cabins on the Promenade deck. The rest of the space was taken up by the wheelhouse, instrument room and telegraph room. Public state rooms were to be found one level below: the lounge saloon, dining saloon, library, billiard room and so forth were state of the art regarding comfort and style with gilded mouldings and plush furnishings not unworthy of a luxurious Mayfair mansion. A massive lantern roof maximized natural light.

Soon after boarding, a dilemma arose concerning the cabins, not that there was anything wrong with them, but this was a superstitious group of passengers and the chief steward had failed to foresee the hidden pitfalls.

Dr Hu had been allocated cabin 4, however in the Chinese language the word for ‘four’ sounded like the word for ‘death’. This was catastrophic to a Chinaman. Dr Hu insisted on being moved to a more suitable cabin, meaning one with a more fortunate number. Alas, all the cabins on the Promenade deck had been allocated and everyone’s bags had already been deposited in their respective rooms.

Monsieur Bresant was at a loss to know what to do. It was thanks to Dr Watson that the problem was solved. He agreed to swap cabins, and as he had cabin 8, a most fortunate number according to the Chinese, all was amicably settled. Dr Watson did not know it at the time but he had won a friend for life in Monsieur Bresant.

However, the incident caused the other passengers to cast a jaundiced eye over their cabin numbers. Reverend Blackadder insisted on having cabin 7, a cosmic number of vital significance to Theosophists.

“A Septenary system is fundamental to Theosophy,” he stated forthrightly. “There are seven forces in nature, seven planes of being, and seven states of consciousness.

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.