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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 3812583" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Two-hundred-seven, “The Paternity Test”, Saturday, June 17th, 11:00 A.M.Edwin Booth is chatting with Kate on her doorstep. He smiles and says, "Well, I have what we need right here in the case. Shall we go see your Mr. Booth?" "It's quite pleasant to hear you say 'My Mr. Booth.'" Kate smiled and took his arm. "Let us solve this mystery once and for all." They walk together to the Booth residence and knock. He comes to the door and lets them in. He says, "I came by after the play to see you Kate but your lights were all off and Doctor Eaton said you were all healed." Kate replies, "Doctor Eaton removed the bullet and stitched my arm up, it will heal. I went to bed early, the elixir he gave me against the pain made me feel very strange and sleepy when it wore off."Conrad turns to Edwin and asks "How are you sir?" Edwin replies, "A little worse for the wear but otherwise alright." He turns to Kate and says, "And if I am to follow my Doctor's orders and not use the arm you will need to assist me with the artifact." He hands her the case. Kate says, "Of course. Perhaps you should explain what it is? And how to use it, of course." He hands her a key to unlock the case. Inside is paper packing materials and then an finely carved wooden chest made of a dark wood that is six-inches high by eight-inches long and wide. It too has a metal lock and he tells her which key to use on it. She lifts the lid and inside set in velvet is an ornate thick glass ball held within a thick frame made of gold with red jewels on it. A metal lid sits tightly atop the orb and four metal feet are at the base to sit it down.He says, "That item was made in the 11th century for the Holy Roman Emperor, whose name by the way ,was of all things, Conrad II. It was used to confirm his paternity of his daughter Matilda before she was to marry King Henry I of France. It confirmed her identity but she actually died before the union took place. For many centuries thereafter the French monarchy used it whenever there was any question of royal paternity." He reaches into his suit jacket pocket with his good hand and gives Kate a metal flask. He tells her "Remove the lid on the orb and pour this inside. I will then recite an incantation. Conrad and I will then each make a small cut on our hands and let three drops of blood fall inside the sphere."Kate carefully pulled the metal lid off, then pulled the flask open. She looked at both men, then slowly poured the liquid into the glass ball. "Whenever you're ready, gentlemen," Kate said softly. Conrad takes out a small leather-bound book from his other pocket and turns to a page. Kate sees that the yellowed pages are hand written in French script. He recites the words in French that translate as "Wondrous sphere of knowledge, grant us insight and wisdom." The liquid within the orb begins to swirl around in a counterclockwise direction.Conrad takes a knife and makes a slight cut on his left pinkie finger, allowing three drops to drip into the liquid. Amazingly, upon the third drop hitting the water stops spinning, then reverses the spin into a clockwise direction. Edwin hands a second knife to Kate and holding out his hand says, "Will you do the honors?" She hesitated and took the knife in her hand. It was not so different from nursing, sometimes you had to cut instead of sew. She gently drew the knife across Edwin's pinky finger, just enough so a thin stream of blood appeared. A slight squeeze brought enough blood for three drops to fall into the swirling liquid.Edwin has her close the lid. He then says in French "Show us the results of your wisdom great orb." The liquid begins to bubble then swirl around in random directions. It changes color from clear to blue to red to pink to blue again and starts to turn red. Edwin says, "According to the directions it will reach a final color in around two minutes from the incantation. If I am indeed your father the color will become a bright crimson red."She looked up at Conrad and quietly took his hand. "It's a beautiful object, fitting for something used by royalty I suppose. Your French is excellent as well. I don't suppose you are of French descent?" Edwin replies, "Some, not much, but it is a language one needs to learn for theater work, just as one in the Opera needs to learn Italian." Kate feels the tension in Conrad's hand and the look of hope in his eyes. The color fades from red into more of a purple. It finally stops changing color, settling upon a shade of deep royal purple. Kate feels Conrad's hand go limp and sees his shoulders sag from disappointment.She wrapped her other hand around his. "My dear, I'm so sorry. I know how much you wanted to know the rest of your family." Edwin says, "Not so fast, if we were unrelated the color would be a robin's egg blue. If you turn to the center pages of the book it will describe what the various other shades of blue, purple and red will indicate. You do read French don't you?" She replies, "Of course. Sometimes better than English." She released Conrad's hand and paged through the book until she found the listings of colors and what they meant.She finds the pages and sees descriptions of six different shades of purple. For Royal Purple it reads "The two individuals each share one parent while the other parent is different, thus they are half-siblings." Kate looked from one man to the other with wide eyes. "Well gentlemen, you are indeed related. Mr. Edwin Booth, please let me introduce you to your half-brother." Edwin says, "Well that makes a lot of sense. My father Junius Brutus Booth was in San Francisco longer than I was and spent more time in the company of various ladies from the theater."Conrad has a mixed expression on my face and says, "But...that means that my mother lied to me." Edwin says, "Not necessarily, as I said before, it is possible that I spent my final night in the city with her so she might have believed me to be the father while in reality you were sired by my own sire a short while prior to then." Kate interjects, "Don't assume the worst, my dear. Wait until you can talk to your mother and find out what she has to say. Until then, enjoy knowing exactly who you are. Perhaps you have lost the father you wished for, but you've also gained a brother. More than one, if I remember correctly."Edwin says, "Yes, my brother...our brother, Junius Junior lives in Massachusetts. I'm sorry that you never had the opportunity to meet our Father. He died in New Orleans just a few months after leaving San Francisco....that would have even been before your were born." “New Orleans?" Kate wished she could be sure enough of this man to ask him about his knowledge of magic. She suspected most of the Booth family to have some kind of wizard talent but the risk of being wrong was to great to bring it up. She says, "If your brother is willing, the next time we travel to Boston we could go to meet him, dear."Conrad says, "Well, I thank you brother for going to the effort of obtaining this device. This also explains how we look so similarly." Edwin says, "Think nothing of it, it is nice to have family. I am just glad I lived long enough for the test, it would have been most unfortunate if that man's aim last night were more accurate." Kate says, "Let us be thankful Watson needed liquid courage or it could have been much worse. Did you need to go get breakfast my dear, or were you almost ready to go. I'll need to go home and change my clothes before I head over to the Lady. They haven't told me if I'm needed, but I'd best dress the part just in case."Despite Conrad being attired in a good suit he says, "I should get changed myself and head on over. If I am not there at noon my entry fee will be forfeited." He turns to Edwin and says, "Did you have any problem withdrawing?" The elder Booth says, "Not at all, a young reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle, from a wealthy family, was in town to cover the Earp trial and was more than happy to take the vacancy." "Well, if you gentlemen have no further need of me I should go change and head over to the Lady myself. Mr. Booth, I'm sure you'll forgive me for a bit of a breech of manners," she said with a smile.Kate turned to Conrad, got up on her tiptoes and kissed him. "For luck. You're going to be wonderful." Conrad returns the kiss and says, "It has already been an excellent day regardless of how this tournament turns out." He sees her to the door. With a final squeeze of Conrad's hand, Kate hurried back home and put on the red dress she'd had made for the festival. It's elegance with in the fabric since the design was simple. The low, square neckline was lined with lace which no longer obscured her now more ample bosom. A pendant and a comb to hold up some of her hair finished her off and she hurried over to the Lucky Lady.Meanwhile, Chester walks up Fremont Street to the telegraph office opposite from the Lucky Lady. He finds a post to lean on as he watches the poker players filter in. And file in they do, a steady steam of famous and infamous gunslingers and gamblers arrive, some in pairs, some alone and some with friends or hangers on. Chumbley has set up on the doorstep hawking copies of the Promise City Mirror to people as they arrive. Dozens of townspeople also show up and Buck Fly arrives with his photographic equipment. Chester adjusts his position as the press gets in his line of sight. He tries to match the Wanted posters in the office to anyone in the gathering crowd.Inside, six people come down from upstairs, all of whom Jake recognize. Wearing royal blue arm bands reading "Lucky Lady Dealer" in gold script are Job Kane, Bradford Rhinehardt, Isaac Stevens and Marybeth Osborne. All are wearing tuxedos and bow ties except for Marybeth who has on a black gown and is also wearing Jake's gun held and Colt Peacemaker. Each also has a stack of six metal boxes. They are followed by Cornelius Van Horne whose arm bands are a deep purple reading "Lucky Lady Host". He too has a stack of six metal boxes. The last person is the house Faro dealer Darla Peacock with purple arm bands reading "Lucky Lady Hostess".Kate arrives at the Lucky Lady as the gamblers are showing up. She sees Cornelius Van Horne with the "Lucky Lady Host" arm bands and Darla Peacock with "Lucky Lady Hostess" arm bands greeting people as they arrive once they have surrendered any firearms to the security men Tim Finnegan and Jeff Mills. Stanley Barker is playing the piano. Kate sees the youngsters attentively waiting on the gamblers and patrons, making frequent trips to and from the kitchen. Harry Rote and Michael George are busy serving drinks to those at the bar as well as taking drink orders brought to them by Nakomo and Ginnie.Kate scanned the room, looking for Jake. He had to be here somewhere but she didn't see him yet. Instead she went over to the bar and said to Harry and Michael, "It doesn't seem I'm needed today, everything looks well in hand." Harry hands her a pair of green arm bands like those that he and the other employees are wearing with the gold "Lucky Lady" written on them and replies, "Stick around for the first hour until things settle. We'll probably also need you here to serve tonight once the children go home, I sincerely doubt their parents plan to let them work until the games break up at 2:30 A.M."Kate replies, "I suspect you're right. I'm to play for the intermissions tonight for the play, but I can slip out after the second intermission and be back here for the late evening shift." He replies, "Well, I'm sure you'll do a better job than the intermission pianist last night. I'd suggest you leave your gun behind." Kate slipped the green armbands onto her sleeves. "Probably I shouldn't have worn red." Harry gestures to the security men with the red arm bands and says, "I doubt anybody will mistake you for security." "So do I," she laughed. "I only meant the green is rather garish against the dress. But no one will be looking at me for anything other than a drink anyway, so it's of little matter."She nodded to the two men and then moved into the crowd to help with the orders, still keeping her eye out for any of her friends. She sees a number of familiar faces in the crowd. While the kitchen door is open she also sees Meghan O'Hara in the kitchen helping Maria. Kate caught Meghan's eye and waved as she went by, then got on about her work, greeting everyone pleasantly and gratefully noting that this was a bit higher-class crowd so she was unlikely to miss Maggie's bustle.As Minerva approaches the saloon she notices Chester standing against a post and walks over. "Buena Dias, Deputy Martin. It is a fine day for a tournament. I assume all is well so far?" Chester tips his hat. "Hello there priestess. It is a good day at that. Everything's going well, except for the shooting last night. I'm just watching out for criminals and other varmints. How are you?" She replies, "I am fine Deputy. It was a pity what happened last night. I tried to get into the jail yesterday to give Senor Earp spiritual comfort but that despicable man Leslie would have none of it. Honestly, I do not understand why he is allowed to wear a badge. How is Senor Earp holding up? Could you arrange for me to speak with him? After all it is my job to do so. " He replies, "I'll see what I can do. The sheriff's aren't guarding the jail anymore. The Army is, so I'll ask the Marshall about that. He's OK, I guess for a man facing a possible date with the hangman."Chester does a double-take when he sees the man whose face the vampire Mortimer Turner had been wearing enter. As the man was walking in during broad daylight however he is clearly a living and breathing human. Chester asks somebody who the man is and is told that it is former Governor Anson Safford, who served as the Territorial Governor for a six-year term in the 1870's.Chester nudges Minerva. "Priestess, do you recognize that man? Our old friend Mortimer Turner? But he's living and apparently an ex-governor. I have to tell the Marshall and the others." Chester pauses, "Could you let Jake know? I can't be in two places at once." She replies, "Si, I will go find him. Por favor let me know when I am able to speak with Senor Earp." Minerva heads into the saloon to tell Jake of the Mortimer Turner look alike. Kate noticed Minerva enter the Lucky Lady and marveled at the hat the other woman was wearing. Kate had never really seen her wear one before and it quite changed her appearance.She had realized something last night when no one had checked on her even when she was still at the Lucky Lady. That it was entirely her own fault. There was no way to know for certain when she had started keeping herself separate, but it seemed to be a well ingrained habit by now. One that would be hard to break. Perhaps because these were the people whom she was often in danger with, the ones most likely to be lost, that she kept them at arm's length. But that was a disservice to them all and she knew it. So when she saw Minerva come into the saloon she smiled a friendly smile and waved even as she tried to navigate the busy saloon.Minerva smiles and gives Katherine a hearty wave, pleased that she is being friendly. Life must be going well for her, she looks quite happy She makes her way over to Kate. "Hola, You look quite busy. Do you know were Jake is? Chester wants me to deliver a message to him. Oh, you should be aware too. That man over there," she points to the former Governor. That is the face that Turner was wearing. I don't think it means anything other than that Turner borrowed his face but, you can not be to careful. You take care of yourself these next few days. I am sure that once the tournament is in full swing that tempers will be high. If you could find something for me to do I would appreciate it. I need a reason to be here. I am a bit uneasy about having the children here during this and I would not want Nakomo to think that I am keeping an eye on him."Kate answers, "Mr. Messier showed us a picture of that gentleman in the mines and told us he was used as one of the disguises. I'd guess it's nothing to worry about. If you need to tell Nakomo something you could tell him that you want to keep an eye on that man, just in case. Or an eye in me in my delicate condition," she laughed. "Or even that you suspect violence might erupt here and want to be handy for healing. If you really want I'm sure we could arrange for you to help out somewhere. As for Jake, I haven't seen him but I have a glass of bourbon with his name on it when I do.Minerva says, "I am sure that Jake will appreciate the thought and the bourbon. Now I am going to wander the room and see if I can guage the mood of the players. You keep yourself safe now." She says giving Katherine a quick hug. You'll probably see Jake before me. He'll scent that bourbon like a hound dog on the chase." she teases. When you do be sure and tell him about the ex Governor, would you?"Kate continues, “I wanted to wish him luck before the tournament starts even though my loyalties are a bit divided. I'm a little worried about being here myself, but considering I got shot sitting at a play the tournament can't be any more dangerous." Kate laid her hand on Minerva's arm. "I'm not making light of your warning. If I've learned anything living here it's that danger can come from anywhere." Minerva adjusts her hat and raises her chin a bit, confident that she poses a striking figure, and strolls through the crowd making small talk. She and Luna Keep their eyes and ears open.Chester waits until everyone has entered the Lucky Lady before finding Berg. Berg says, "Anything amiss, Deputy?" Chester whispers to Berg, "I saw a man who Mortimer Turner disguised himself as. Someone told me he was a recent governor, Anson Safford, I believe."Berg says, "Yes, I saw Governor Safford enter. I'm not surprised he is here, rumor is he enjoys a good poker game when he can find one. He also wouldn't miss a main event in the Territory, being a strong supporter of Arizona. I will keep an eye on him but I doubt that anything is amiss. Most likely Turner just planned to use this event as an opportunity to replace him, just as Johnny Ringo did with Mark Twain back during the festival. That would have put Turner into some very powerful circles."</blockquote>

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