The Fall Of White City (Gilded Age Mysteries Book 1) (23 page)

“No!” he said urgently. “I cannot allow this! You don’t belong here,
Engie
.”

“Jonathan...,” she began to protest, but he roughly pulled her away from the entrance.

His voice carried an undertone of menace that she had never heard before. “I will not have you polluted by contact with anything this vile! Come away,
Engie
! I don't wish to be seen here, nor should you!”

Under normal circumstances, Evangeline would have done as she pleased, but she was too stunned by the raw emotion that
Blackthorne
was exhibiting. He hadn't released his grip on her arm, and she believed he would have dragged her away if she resisted.

“Very well, Jonathan,” she murmured in a small voice. “As you wish. I’ll go along peaceably.”

She allowed herself to be led back to the central path.
Blackthorne
said nothing the whole time. His composure didn't return until the beating drums and wailing music from the theater in the Street of Cairo were well behind them. Evangeline wasn’t quite sure what reaction she had expected to provoke but the one she received was far beyond anything she anticipated.

Affecting a sweet smile, she steered him in another direction. “Perhaps you’re right, Jonathan. Perhaps we should confine ourselves to more dignified pursuits.” She linked her arm through his.

He seemed to relax by degrees as the couple strolled further down the Midway. As if on impulse, Evangeline came to a dead stop in the middle of the
Plaisance
. “I know what we should do next!”

Blackthorne
looked at her quizzically.

“Let’s take a ride on the Ferris wheel!”

She watched him closely to judge his reaction. She could have sworn his swarthy complexion had turned pale. He tried to sound unruffled but she was attuned to a certain nervous tone in his voice. “Why whatever for,
Engie
? You must have been on that ride before.”

“Of course I’ve been, Jonathan.” She added, almost as an afterthought, “I have little doubt that you must have been there too, but the view is so spectacular I can’t resist.”

Blackthorne
seemed to hover on the brink of refusal, but he finally relented. “As you wish. I’ve already disappointed you once. I have no wish to do so again. Lead on, my dear, lead on.”

They traveled the short distance to the base of the gigantic wheel that dominated the fairground. A fence had been constructed around the ride so that only paying customers could ascend the stairs that would lead them to even more Olympian heights. Evangeline happened to notice a young woman standing alone near the ticket booth, obviously waiting for someone.

With reckless bravado, she exclaimed, “Oh, what a shame! To be left all alone at the Fair.”

Blackthorne
followed her gaze but said nothing.

“I wonder if some kind gentleman will take pity on her and show her the sights. Wouldn’t that be a fine thing for her, Jonathan?”

“Yes, a fine thing, I’m sure.” His voice was noncommittal, but his foot had begun to tap.

Evangeline paused, seeming to be in a quandary. “And yet, there are so many tricksters and confidence men around the fairgrounds. One never knows whom an innocent girl might meet here.”

Blackthorne
turned to face her directly. He regarded her intently for several seconds. “An innocent girl,” he echoed skeptically. “Innocence is nothing more than a sham virtue, an attempt to manipulate a response of pity out of one’s fellow man.”

Evangeline tried to match his slow, smooth tone. “Then, I take it, you don’t pretend to be your sister’s keeper?”

He laughed lightly. “I feel no moral obligation to support hypocrisy no matter what guise it assumes, whether female or male, sister or brother!”

With a languid movement he reached his hand out to touch her cheek. His hand moved down until it came to rest on her neck. She could feel his thumb pressing ever so slightly against the side of her throat. In a low voice, he said, “But since you’re so concerned about her welfare, perhaps you should warn her... ,” he paused. “Yes. Perhaps you should warn her of the wolves lurking in the shadows all around, the wolves that prey on innocence.”

A shock of electricity traveled through Evangeline’s spine at his words. She tried to laugh, but failed. She stepped back to take herself out of his reach. “What nonsense you talk, Jonathan. I don’t see any wolves lurking around here.”

“Don’t you,
Engie
?”
Blackthorne’s
eyes had grown very cold. A thin smile formed on his lips. “Forgive me. I must have been mistaken.”

The silence that followed opened like a chasm between them. After what seemed like several hours,
Blackthorne
finally asked, “Shall we go up?” He held out his hand to help his companion ascend the stairs to the ride. Evangeline wordlessly complied as he sent her to the loading platform while he went to the ticket booth to pay for their admission.

While she waited, she studied the construction of the wonder to end all wonders. The immense wheel had thirty-six wooden cars suspended from it. Each one looked like a cable car turned sideways. In total, the observation cars could hold over two-thousand passengers at a time.
Blackthorne
returned to escort her inside. The minute the car door was secure, the giant wheel lurched into life.

Evangeline looked around in surprise—at the dozens of empty seats, at the ground receding below them. “Jonathan, we’re all alone. Where are all the other passengers?”

Her companion chuckled. “I thought it would be a delightful diversion that in this
White
City
of thousands, we should have an island to ourselves at the top of the world.”

Evangeline was too shocked to speak. She continued to stare at
Blackthorne
in amazement until he added, “I bought all the seats in this car. It’s surprising how much solitude twenty dollars can buy.”

“But the conductor,” Evangeline protested. “The last time I rode the Ferris wheel, the car had a conductor who locked the door from the inside.”

Blackthorne
seemed highly amused at some private joke. “I gave ours a slight monetary incentive to rest his feet for a while. He did argue with me about safety. I simply asked if he thought I appeared to be the sort of fellow who would take chances. He said he didn’t think so.”
Blackthorne
paused before adding, “Do you think I would,
Engie
?”

Evangeline glanced nervously around her. “I think you aren’t the sort of man to put yourself in jeopardy, Jonathan.”

She walked toward the window at the front of the car. It was covered with a thin screen of wire mesh to prevent anyone from jumping, or falling, out. She relaxed slightly after reassuring herself that there were no gaps in the mesh.

Although she stood perfectly still, she could see the ground receding below her just the same. The ride stopped at six different points to allow patrons to savor the view from different elevations. At its second stop, when the wheel paused midway in its ascent, Evangeline sighed. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have this perspective all the time? Look at how much one can see in a single glance.”

“There are some things not worth seeing,
Engie
. Take that, for instance.”
Blackthorne
pointed toward the sooty haze that overshadowed
Chicago
to the north, the contribution of the city’s innumerable factory smokestacks.

Evangeline gazed off into the distance. “I suppose you’d prefer to look there instead.” She gestured to the sterile purity of the
White
City
directly ahead of them.

“Yes, I find that particular prospect most pleasing."

 
“But it’s not real, is it. The only reality is that brown mass of burning coal and rotting garbage and slum flats seven miles to the north of us.”

Blackthorne
came to stand behind her to see the view from her perspective. He rested his hands on the window frame—pinning her within the span of his arms. He leaned down to match her eye level, his lips near her ear. He said softly, “The White City is a dream come to life. Of all man's aspirations—the crowning achievement.”

“And the brown city is the substance of man's achievements, in spite of his aspirations.” The soft tone of her voice belied the harshness of the sentiment.

Blackthorne
didn't stir. “For shame,
Engie
. I thought you were the idealist, not me.”

Evangeline continued to look at the city skyline. She answered sadly, “You mistake me. I am painfully idealistic. The money that built this Exposition might have been better spent on wage increases.”

She could feel his breath against her cheek as he whispered, “It must be lonely to be so much of an idealist.”

“On the contrary, I am never lonely.” She made the statement with far more certainty than she felt. Turning her eyes away from the real city, she looked out at the lake instead.
Blackthorne
remained motionless. He offered no comment.

When the giant wheel had paused once more and they were at the apex of their ascent,
Blackthorne
walked over to the door of the observation car. Without warning, he opened it and stepped forward to peer over the edge. Evangeline expected him every moment to invite her over to join him. He didn’t. Her natural curiosity couldn’t stand the strain any longer. Perfectly aware of the risk she was taking, she stepped toward the door.

“What do you see?”

He glanced casually over his shoulder at her. “What God must have seen on the seventh day, once his creation was complete.” He stood back from the open doorway, his eyes silently challenging her to join him at the edge of the world.

It wouldn’t have been in her nature to resist the dare. She expected he knew that. Stepping forward two paces more she stood with the tips of her boots protruding over the edge of the platform. Her left hand firmly grasped the door jamb as she peaked over the edge. There was no glass, no wire mesh separating her from thin air. She knew what a bird must feel like to breathe the intoxicating breeze that floated just above the reach of gravity.

“Look there!”
Blackthorne
swept his arm wide to point at something in the distance. He bumped her shoulder as his arm shot forward, knocking her off balance. Knocking her through the open doorway into the void.

Evangeline shrieked. Her left hand still held fast to the door jamb as her right clawed at the outside frame of the observation car. The only word she could manage to gasp was “h...
elp
!”

“
Engie
!” he cried. He seemed paralyzed by shock.

To her horror, she saw the Austrian village directly below her—no net, no platform intervening between her dangling toes and 266 feet of open air. She grew dizzy as she struggled to pull herself back into the car. She could see a crowd of people gathering on the ground below, pointing upward... pointing at her. With a sick sense of dread, she realized a hand had grasped her elbow. She waited, scarcely breathing, through the endless second it took to determine whether that hand meant to help her up or push her the rest of the way down.

The verdict came when
Blackthorne
grasped her by the waist and swung her back into the car. “Oh, my dear! Thank God!”

She fell to her knees, too much in shock to stand.

“Are you all right?” His hands cupped her face. He was on his knees beside her, the portrait of solicitude.

Drawing a deep breath, she took several seconds before replying. “Yes, quite.” She drew herself back up to her feet. He rushed to assist her.

“What a fright you gave me! I’m so sorry. How stupid of me! How careless!” He appeared seriously shaken.

As shaken as she herself was.

Smiling ruefully, she said, “As a child, I always wished I could fly. Little did I know I’d so nearly have the opportunity.”

Blackthorne
slammed the door decisively. “I’m a careless fool! I’ll never forgive myself for this! Never!”

Evangeline dusted off her sleeves in what she hoped was a show of nonchalance. “No harm done, Jonathan. Freddie always teased me that I have reflexes as quick as any cat. Fortunately for both of us, that proved to be true. You mustn’t carry on so.”

Blackthorne
looked at her worriedly. “It’s kind of you to make light of this, but I can’t.”

Evangeline inclined her head. “Take it as you wish. For my part, I don’t want to waste another minute of this glorious scenery that I so nearly became a part of.” She walked back to the window and stood resolutely contemplating the view. In part, it was to hide the fact that her hands were still shaking, and she had to bite her lower lip to keep it from trembling with the aftereffects of shock.

The wheel began to spin again ever so slowly, like the earth, so that the couple was unaware of the motion as it occurred. Neither one spoke again until the final jolt of gravity signaled that the ride was at an end. They escaped from the platform before the operators of the Ferris wheel were alerted to the fact that one of their riders had found a new and more thrilling vantage point for viewing the fairgrounds.