A Cauldron of Secrets

Ignorance is bliss, unless the world is out to kill you...

An investigation into a strange cauldron and a dead thief in Ben Franklin's parlor leaves Katerina Dashkova, Russian princess in exile, as the main suspect. With her memory damaged and Ben Franklin missing, Kat must navigate the treacherous waters of American politics to solve the mystery while ominous rumblings threaten to drag the country into a new war.

Chapter One
Business was bad even before the Warden found the dead body. I was deep inside the guts of the printing press trying to recover a lost “T” that had fallen off the carriage and lodged itself under the foot assembly when the dainty bell rattled at the door.
The smell of jasmine drifted into the back room, followed by a woman's voice inquiring about the proprietor of the press. Her voice had that high diction quality that was common to Philadelphia Federalists, especially those who had desires for stronger ties with England and the monarchy. The tone had a whiff of embellishment that could only be learned by one who aspired to live there without having actually visited, which left me less than intrigued.
It didn't help that I'd weaseled my hand through the support structure and my fingers were inches away from grasping the piece of movable type. I was almost close enough to reach it and it had taken me ten minutes to maneuver my hand to this point, so I was feeling unsympathetic to my potential customer. Unfortunately, I also had a mountain of debt owned by the Bank of North America ready to crush me in an avalanche.
When the bell rattled again, I cursed under my breath and yanked my hand free, ripping the sleeve of my homespun brown linen coat, and hurried after my fleeing customer.
"Madam! I'm in the back. My industry was wanting," I shouted after her, hoping to relay a proper sense of urgency, a central piece of advice that my dear old Ben had given me a year ago, before his unexpected disappearance.
The woman standing at the threshold wore a daytime pelisse trimmed with chinchilla and secured around her shoulders with an aqua ribbon of upstanding quality that glimmered in the late afternoon sun. Beneath the coat, a fine silk dress of midnight blue peeked out, matching the curls of ribbon pinned on the back of her head. The outfit surprised me, as it meant she couldn't have ridden a horse, and her station indicated she probably hadn't walked far, but I didn't hear the sounds of a steam carriage idling outside either.
The searing look I received reminded me that I was wearing men's clothing and that they were torn and grease stained at that. The woman made a noise under her breath that sounded like dismissal and I was certain she would leave, until she glanced down the street and then stepped back inside. At this point, I was certain she stayed out of curiosity, much like seeing one of the grand airships that made the journey across the ocean for the first time.
"Are you the printer's wife?" she asked in that condescending tone I'd had my fill of when I traveled through England.
A sudden premonition hit me that I knew the woman, even though I'd never seen her in my life. It was a phantom pain that haunted me even as I spoke.
"Madam, I am the printer. And it would be my pleasure to produce your pamphlet or whatever needs you have of my humble printing press," I said, trying to come to grasp with the strong sense of déjà vu.
Her smooth white skin wrinkled at the brow. "You have a slight French accent, but you are not French." It was a question posed as a statement, full of aristocratic distaste.
Seizing the moment to introduce myself in a way that would keep my true identity hidden, I bowed, ignoring the second flicker of disapproval casting across her gaze.
"I am Katerina Carmontelle, Russian by birth, American by choice. I was born in St. Petersburg, where French was the language spoken at the dinner table," I said, leaving out a history that could fill a dozen books.
In truth, my real name was Yekaterina Romanovna Vorontsova-Dashkova, sometimes called Princess Dashkova, or Catherine the Little. I'd been the close confidant of Catherine the Great, and had helped put her on the throne in my youth. I was also called Kat, by that rogue Ben Franklin, though I'd not heard that name uttered in over a year. But for the citizens of Philadelphia, my chosen home, I was known as Katerina Carmontelle, owner of the printing press called the Patriot Letters.
Since I'd only secured a few desperate customers in my first year of business, it might have been a stretch to call it a press. I had taken up the profession to give reason for my existence in town, while I supported Ben in his quest to understand the otherworldly occurrences which had plagued the city in recent years. Which was why my debts had reached a critical point—I had not been attentive to my business during these investigations—and without Ben Franklin's sponsorship, it would be difficult to extend terms.
"You may call me Mrs. Bingham," she said with an eyebrow arched and her chin held at a regal angle. "What affliction has befallen you that you must toil in a man's trade? Are you not suitable to wed?"
Oh, the pithy responses that leapt to my lips, waiting to slice her petty arrogance to ribbons. I'd been a princess of the Russian Empire, the first woman Director of the Russian Academy of Science, and a friend to royalty from Moscow to London. I'd launched revolutions with whispers and quills, and been a colonel in the Russian military. When I traveled through Europe I had to stay incognito, as my advice was sought after by the kings and queens of each great nation.
Despite the plainness of my clothes and the dreadful state of my hair, since my head had been jammed against the carriage as I tried to retrieve the escaping type, I must have exuded some hint of social status as I prepared my response, because Mrs. Bingham pulled her white-gloved hands against her pelisse as if I might chop them off with a saber.
Her reaction reminded me that I wasn't supposed to be a woman born of privilege, but an immigrant making my way in this land of opportunity. If my presence in the Americas was known, Emperor Paul would send his assassins after me to remove one of the few remaining links to Catherine. Though it had happened forty years before, the fact that I'd engineered the coup that had put Catherine on the throne weighed heavily on the paranoid Emperor's mind. So I twisted the words that had arrayed themselves on my tongue.
"I am a printer, madam. The noblest of professions in America," I said.
"Is it noble to starve, or have to scramble around in the dirt like a common workman?" she asked, wrinkling her nose and eyeing the grease stain on my sleeve with distaste.
"Better to own the tools of mobility, than be hooked to a lusty stallion that could break the bonds to your carriage whenever he so pleased," I said.
"Hrmph," said Mrs. Bingham, swallowing as if I'd fed her a spoonful of bitters. "What could one such as yourself know about the life I lead?"
She said it as a taunt, slipping the hook into her question, hoping I would take it and reveal whatever I was keeping hidden. Her crystal blue eyes searched my face, creasing at the corners. I almost felt she knew me, too, though couldn't remember the encounter. Maybe we had crossed paths at one point without true introductions.
"Madam," I said, trying to keep my tone level, "do you have any business for my humble shop?"
Mrs. Bingham made a guttural snicker and slowly walked around the small front room of the press. There was barely enough room for the both of us. She strolled in a circle, hand flopping lazily from her wrist as she examined the meager contents of the room with a pinched face and thin, white lips.
"I was out sampling the wares of the new chocolate shop in town, when I saw your sign. I stopped because I had not seen it before and I don't suppose I will see it here much longer," she said. "You haven't had much business, have you? I see these pathetic handbills. You can't have received much more than a pittance for them."
She was leafing through a few sample pamphlets I'd made for the Agrarian Party of Philadelphia. They'd barely promised me enough to cover costs, and I would only receive payment on completion of the job, but the appearance of industry might bring more business, and I still had much to learn about the art of printing.
"The amount would surprise you," I said, holding my tongue.
"I doubt it," she said, craning her head back in a way one might hold a smelly piece of laundry with an outstretched hand.
A growl slipped out of my throat, despite my desire to appear civil. When I wasn't even as tall as the dinner table, my father used to call me a wolfling, and I would growl at him in response. Mrs. Bingham did not smile like my father would have, instead she took a hasty step backwards and scowled in my direction, flattening her lips to pale.
"Unsurprising," she muttered.
"Madam, do you have business for me, or did your leash become unclipped?" I said, forgetting myself.
The wild-eyed glance I received told me I'd gone a step too far. "Friend," she said in a way that meant anything but the word, "I will give you some advice, since it seems your business acumen is lacking. First, I was looking for a pamphleteer of the highest quality, for I am hosting a party in one week's time for President Washington and his wife, Lady Washington, a frequent visitor to my salon. Two days afterwards, we will be celebrating the christening of a new airship, The Brave Eagle, that may one day soon have to be employed against those imperialistic dogs in Russia." She flashed her blue eyes at the word dogs as if she'd just made up a new insult. "I do not think your establishment exceeds the proper quality expected by the class of people that will be attending this celebration. And second, I doubt my husband, William Bingham, President of the Bank of North America, would want me throwing away good coin to a business that will soon be bankrupt."
The nature of her husband's profession hit me like a hammer strike to the chest. While it was doubtful she would know that my debts were held by her husband's bank, if she took the time to inquire, the Patriot Letters would be out of business sooner than expected.
"It seems this business negotiation has come to an end," I said, trying to salvage my pride. "Good day to you, madam."
"Good day?" She laughed. "A good day will be when I see your Russian hide marching out of town, preferably with a wooden stock latched around your head and wrists."
I took a step forward, eliciting a cry of alarm from Mrs. Bingham's lips. Though I had no intention of touching her bodily person, the response did give me an ephemeral thrill. I was about to ask her to leave when I saw a brief flicker of hurried movement pass by my store window, a person running with great haste.
Before Mrs. Bingham could move, I stepped into the street to get a better look at the person. I recognized the profile of the tricorn hat with a peacock feather on the gentleman moving away. It was Warden Simon Snyder, head constable of Philadelphia, and another person I had no desire to see, except that he was moving towards the Franklin Estate on Arch Street.
My first thought was that Ben had returned from whatever journey he had put himself on, though another part of me feared that something had befallen him and only his body had made the trip.
In my moment of indecision, Mrs. Bingham pushed past me in a most uncharacteristic manner. Something hard and heavy in the front pocket of her pelisse knocked against my hip.
I was not a thief by nature or practice, having relied on my wits or the generosity of my patrons to survive, but I was aware of the principles of the arts of legerdemain. When Mrs. Bingham bumped into my person a second time, I used the distraction to liberate her of the object in her pelisse, dropping it into my sleeve without her notice.
"Good day," she said, the words dripping with venom as she swept down the street, moving in the opposition direction of the Franklin Estate.
Without Mrs. Bingham clogging up my thoughts with her presence, I could fully focus on what was happening with the Warden. So I smoothed back the rip in my brown linen sleeve, dropped my new prize into a coat pocket, and marched down the cobblestone street towards my patron's estate, hoping that Warden Snyder would not be too upset by my timely arrival.