Chapter 35

The name plate on the reference librarian's desk at the Georgetown University library read "Maureen Marston". The woman behind the desk was probably in her early forties; she looked up as Kendra approached and said, "Yes, may I help you?"

"Hello, Ms. Marston. My name is Kendra Davis, and I'm with the Federal Counterintelligence Agency. I'm here on my own time, though, doing research on Georgetown during the Civil War."

"Ah, yes, the Agency," Maureen smiled. "My mother was the receptionist and gatekeeper over there until the reorganization, when she decided to take early retirement. She still keeps in touch with Lee and Amanda Stetson, and with Billy Melrose, of course."

"Your mother is the redoubtable Mavis Marston?"

"Oh, yes, and that's a very accurate term for her. You must have been with the Agency for some time if you know about my mother."

"Well, I'm dating Phillip King, so I spend a lot of time with the family."

"Interesting. How can I help you, Kendra?"

"I was over at the guest house – you know the one I mean, the one that used to be the Agency hospital?"

"Yes, of course. The old Bishop-Davis house."

"That's right. I found a book about Georgetown during the Civil War there that mentioned the house, and I think there's a chance that the Davis family mentioned is my father's family."

"I wondered if that might be what brought you here when you said your name is Davis."

"Amanda suggested it."

"We do have the book you're referring to, of course, but if you really want to know more about this area during the war, the person you need to talk to is my mother. Let me call her and see if she can see you, if you have some time today?"

"I'm free until lunchtime."

"Let me check, then. We just live a few blocks from the Agency, on P Street."

She dialed a number and, after a few seconds, said, "Hi, Mother. I have a customer here, Kendra Davis, who thinks she might be related to the Davis family that owned the guest house. She's Agency too, and she's dating Amanda's son Phillip. She says she's free until lunchtime. I will. See you tonight."

She cradled the receiver, wrote an address on a notepad, and handed the sheet to Kendra. "Here's the address; Mother is expecting you."

"Thank you very much."

Five minutes later Kendra rang the doorbell of a lovely Federal-style row house only a block or so from the Agency. The door opened to reveal a woman who could have been anywhere between fifty and seventy; she smiled. "Kendra Davis? I'm Mavis Marston. Come in; can I offer you tea, or something cold?"

"Just water will be fine, Mrs. Marston."

"A good choice in this sultry heat. Come back to the kitchen with me."

Kendra followed her through the house, accepted a glass of ice- cold water, flavored with a slice of fresh lemon, and then followed her hostess to a comfortable room that got the morning sun.

"I spend most of my days here," Mavis said. "I do the usual errands, of course, and occasionally I'll fill in for Maureen at the library, just as a volunteer, you know, but I like it here."

"It's a lovely room. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

"Not at all. I'm quite intrigued by the possibility that you might be related to the Davis family that used to own the guest house. What can you tell me about your father's family?"

"My dad, Matthew Davis IV, is a colonel in the army, West Point Class of 1972. He's assigned to Fort Monroe just now, but he's about to retire. His father is Major General Robert Davis, who was commander of the 12th Air Force at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona when he retired. He's Class of 1949. Poppy's father was Matthew Davis III, Class of June 1918; he was shot down over Germany in 1943 while commanding a heavy bombardment group assigned to the 8th Air Force. You're familiar with the Regensburg-Schweinfurt raid in August 1943?"

"Yes, of course; I was only thirteen when it happened, but the loss of our bomber crews on that mission was in all the papers. Yes, it's the same family, Miss Davis. The Matthew Davis who was your great-great-great-grandfather married Amanda Bishop in 1862, and they lived in that house until Major Davis was reassigned from the War Department intelligence staff, where he worked for an ancestor of my old boss at the Agency, Harry V. Thornton, to General Grant's staff in early 1863. Amanda went back to Illinois to live with his family, and their son Matthew Lee, junior was born there."

"Oh, my. I can hardly wait to tell my parents and grandparents about this. My parents divorced about seven years ago, but they were reconciled and remarried on Wednesday. Lee arranged for them to spend a few days at the Cumberland, but before they left yesterday, they spent the night in the guest house, but with no idea that our family had ever owned the house. My mother left some things there and my dad asked me to go over and pick them up, and since I had some extra time, I decided to explore the place. That's when I found the book. It mentions a Mrs. Stetson. Was she any relation to Lee?"

"She was his great-great – grandmother. I tried to tell him that years ago – my late husband's family has owned this house since the 1830's and Matthew Davis even rented it for a short time in 1862 and early 1863 before he was reassigned to General Grant's staff – but Lee Stetson has been let down so many times that he wasn't interested in hearing about what he called 'ancient history'. Oh, he was polite, he was always polite, but he was very firm: the past was the past, and he intended to live only in the present. That began to change when he fell in love with Amanda, but he's still very cautious."

"Yes. If you know the family history, you probably know that he and my dad are second cousins?"

"I hadn't worked out the exact relationship, but I knew the Stetson and Davis families had intermarried many years ago."

"My Poppy, General Davis, and I worked it out: Lee's grandmother was Poppy's Aunt Mary, but she died of cancer when he was only seven years old, so he barely remembers her. He and Matthew Stetson, his first cousin, were fairly close, although Matthew was eight years older than Poppy. When Matthew and Jennie Stetson were killed in 1955, Poppy and Nana were in Japan with the Air Force. They'd lost my dad's baby sister, Mary Frances, to leukemia and had come home to bury her; when they went back to Japan, Poppy wrote Matthew to tell him they'd returned safely and didn't get an answer for a long time. When they did, it was from Thomas Blackthorne, and it was all lies; it said Lee had died in the crash, that the bodies were all cremated and the ashes scattered. We only just found out the extent of Blackthorne's treachery and perfidy very recently."

"Oh, my. Well, if Lee is willing to listen, you can tell him that the Stetson family that owned that house was his family."

"I will, and I think he's starting to come around. Meeting up with my parents and my grandparents seems to have helped; he and Daddy had some past history that wasn't very positive, but they're doing all right now, and he really hit it off with my Poppy."

"Good."

"Do you know anything more about the house across the street, or what was the house across the street, where the Agency is now? The book talked about a secret passageway."

"Oh, it was there, all right. Let me show you something in the library."