TALES FROM THE CITADEL

CHAPTER FORTY

RIVERBOAT

PART TWO

THE GENTLEMAN

Author's Note: There is no Alexis or Gina in this story.

New York City 1849-1861

Richard Rodgers never knew his father or even his full name. All that he knew was that his mother said it was Alexander and Rick was the result of a one- night stand. Martha didn't intend it to be that way, she was in love with the man she'd met only three weeks before. He just disappeared after that night. Martha never knew if he abandoned her or something terrible had happened to him. She chose to believe the latter.

It didn't matter to her self-righteous parents. When she told them about Richard, there was a terrible row. Her father stormed:

"Get out of this house, you Jezebel, and take that bastard of yours with you. Do not ever show your face in this town again. We have no daughter and no grandchild. You are both dead to us."

they disavowed her and the baby. She and her baby wouldn't have survived those first few years if it hadn't been for Martha's uncle.

A generous, kindly man, he despised his tight-fisted self-righteous brother and equally self-righteous wife. Gerald Rodgers having neither wife nor children, set up a monthly stipend for Martha and Richard. It wasn't a large sum, but it was enough to keep a roof over their heads, food in their stomachs and allow Richard to go to school.

He suffered taunts and bullying because of his bastardy and the fact that his mother was an actress. When he grew old enough and big enough one of Martha's boyfriends taught Rick how to fight, teaching him that the only fair fight was in the boxing or wrestling ring. Although Rick never knew it, Gerald Rodgers kept track of him.

New York City. 1861-1865

At twelve years old, Richard Rodgers was big for his age. He appeared to be fourteen. He argued his mother into allowing him to enlist in the army. She was reluctant, but she knew her son well enough that if she didn't allow him, he's just run off and find a way on his own.

She wrote the permission slip stating that Rick was fourteen a harmless enough lie. She hid her fears and bid her son a tearful goodbye, sad but proud. He enlisted in the 69th New York Volunteer Infantry as a drummer boy. The 69th was the first regiment of the Irish Brigade, "The Fighting 69th" It was one of the few state volunteer units that fought all throughout the war. At fourteen, Rick was bigger than most sixteen-year old's and went from drummer boy to a regular infantry private. His sharp eye and quick reflexes made him one of the best shots in the regiment. He was wounded twice, once at Gettysburg and again at Cold Harbor. He was cited for bravery three times. The colonel of the regiment was so impressed that he offered Rick a commission as a second lieutenant in two years if he stayed in the New York militia after the war. But Rick had seen too much and had enough so, he refused and was discharged in 1865 as a sergeant.

New York City 1865-1880

After discharge, Rick returned to New York intending to look for work.

There wasn't much to be found, as there were so many returning veterans. Rick however, was fortunate. During the war, Gerald's business had flourished. He was one of the few contractors charging the government fair prices for quality goods and thus landed more than his fair share of co0ntracts. When the war ended, he was a very wealthy and influential man.

Gerald had managed to keep track of Rick and as soon as Rick was back in the city Gerald got in touch with him and told him that he would pay his way if he finished school and would pay for his education at NYU if Rick's grades were good enough. Rick studied hard and with Gerald's influence landed a part time job as a deliveryman for the New York Times.

One of Martha's friends a professional gambler, taught Rick all he knew about poker, Chemin de Fer, Vingh-un, roulette, and the various dice games. He also taught him to never draw into an inside straight and never bet all he had on any game and to know when it was time to pull out of a game.

Finishing school in the top third of his class, Rick was enrolled at NYU fully funded by Gerald, studying Journalism with a minor in history. In his sophomore year, at a mixer with the women's college of Mount Saint Vincent Rick met a girl named Kyra Blaine. She was beautiful and smart. Rick fell in love with her. He saw her exclusively throughout the rest of college. He was ready to propose marriage as soon as he graduated as he already had a job promised him at the Times. But Kyra's rich, snobbish mother didn't approve of Rick and wanted Kyra out of Rick's life. The weak-willed Kyra caved to her mother's pressure and one month before graduation, Kyra told Rick that she was leaving for Paris and could never see him again.

Rick was deeply hurt, but not devastated as the bitch Sheila Blaine expected him to be. It did cause him to distrust women for a time so there were dalliances but no permanent relationships for a couple of years.

Rick graduated in 1872 and immediately went to work at the Times as a copywriter and junior editor He worked diligently, but what he really wanted to do was write novels. His first published, successful novel written under the pen name Richard Castle, was published while he was still in college. It was a historical adventure-romance set in the time of King Arthur, The Saxon Arrow. It was quite popular. He wrote three more novels in the same genre, over the next year. One set in Persia Desert Lances, one a swashbuckler set in the court of Louis XIII, Queen Anne's Courtier and one a spy novel set in the American revolution, The Masked Captain.

In July of 1874, Martha introduced Rick to one of her young protégé's, Meredith Lee. She was a beautiful, sexy redhead and was a good enough actress to get past Rick's defenses. Martha had bragged about her son's successful writing ventures and Meredith, smelled money. Basically, a predator she set her cap for Rick using all the lures at her disposal hoping for a proposal of marriage. Her trap almost worked. It would have, if not for her over-active libido.

One man, no matter how handsome and talented was not enough for her. She almost had Rick on the hook but another woman also an actress, told Rick about Meredith's sexual escapades, hoping to step into Meredith's shoes. It wouldn't work, but she informed Rick of an assignation between Meredith and a producer in the producer's office in the theater. Meredith had told Rick that she was going to the theater for an audition.

Rick went to the theater, entering through a side door the actress had left unlocked.

Rick heard the illicit lovers talking and waited until he was sure that he could catch them in the act or at least preparing for it. He threw the door open and barged into the office.

Meredith was naked and reclining on a couch. Her lover was just in his drawers, preparing to take them off. The man was tall and rather skinny, with a thin moustache, goatee and pomaded dark hair.

Meredith screamed and the surprised man turned, yelling who the hell are you?

"I was supposed to be this trollop's fiancé, you worthless whoreson."

The man grabbed a candlestick and swung it at Rick's head. Rick easily dodged it and grabbed his arm holding him in place, ramming a very hard knee into the man's groin. The man screamed and fell to the ground, sobbing with pain. Rick said;

"Pierre I'd go back to Canada if I were you, staying in New York wouldn't be very productive or healthy." He then gave a contemptuous look at the naked, very pale woman.

"Meredith, you are nothing more than a cheap trollop I'd advise you to take the next train to San Francisco. My mother and I will ensure that you are finished in New York."

With the faithless woman out of his life, He wrote harder than ever. turning to the relatively recent mystery genre. Writing The Woman in Black. Diamonds and Death and Murder at Midnight. All three best sellers. He quit his job at the paper as his novels were taking all of his time.

In June of 1875, Gerald Rodgers passed away, leaving a large part of his estate to Rick. When everything was liquidated, in amounted to a little over half a million dollars, a considerable sum in 1875.

Rick had a long talk with Gerald's attorney and banker. They agreed that Rick should deposit four hundred thousand dollars in four different banks in interest bearing accounts and invest the rest in a new company called Standard Oil. Added to what Rick's books had earned he was now very comfortable.

Rick withdrew part of his funds from the bank and bought a large brownstone. A few months later, Martha's boyfriend looted Martha's meagre savings and skipped town. Rick took Martha in as the brownstone had a large master bedroom a large guest bedroom and two smaller bedrooms, a kitchen with a pantry, a bathroom and a salon. But since it was his house, he set some strict limits on his mother. No parties were to be held in the house and he kept his wines under lock and key, allowing Martha only what he gave her. Anything she bought on her own was another story. After Martha was settled in, Rick had a private detective track the thief down. The money was gone, but the detective, threatened the man into signing a confession of fraud and thievery. He was turned into the police and served a year in prison. The detective had something similar happen to his sister so the case was personal to him.

While the thief was in prison the Detective, acting on his own, hired another prisoner to dispense additional punishment. After he got out, the thief wouldn't be seducing any more women, not with a badly scarred face and trauma caused impotence.

Rick continued to write, turning out three to four books a year. Rotating between mysteries and adventure-romance novels, one novel, A Captain of Spain was turned into a stage play and brought Rick's name to the attention of producers. A Princess in Peril and The Missing Heiress both were tapped for plays. He even wrote and published a volume of civil war themed poetry

In 1879 Rockefeller decided that he wanted to have more control resting with the family. Substantial sums of money were offered for stock. Rick was happy to sell his stock at Rockefeller's first offer it netted him half a million dollars, bringing his net worth o just a little over a million dollars.

New York City to New Orleans 1880-1882

Rick's novels were selling well and bringing in a significant some of money but Rick was getting somewhat bored with the two main genre he was writing. Even the offers to do more playwriting didn't interest him. He had invested two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in railroad stocks and those ventures were doing well. Carefully managed he wouldn't have to work for the rest of his life, but he wasn't the sort to sit idle.

He decided to travel and see if those travels would trigger some new areas to write about. Those travels took him west and he dabbled with the idea of writing about the characters he met there but so many authors were doing "dime novels" about cowboys, Indians and the cavalry that his interest quickly waned. However, one of the gamblers he met in a saloon had been a riverboat gambler along the Mississippi and told Rick about that life. The stories intrigued Rick enough that he decided to travel back east and south and research that life.

He decided the best way to research that lifestyle was to live it. He had the solid knowledge of the various games of chance but only a little experience in it. He knew how much he was willing to risk to learn, so when he reached New Orleans, he wired his bank to send him a draft for twenty thousand dollars. listening to an old gambler's advice, Rick bought a matched pair of Smith and Wesson double action .44s, a .41 derringer and one really nasty piece A double barrel shotgun with the stock cut off behind the pistol grip and the muzzles cut half an inch in front of the fore stock.

He rented a room by the month, in a small but elegant hotel in Natchez Mississippi and s started out in a gambling parlor there, staying in small stakes games while gaining experience. He stayed in Natchez for four months, winning some, losing more but viewing that as the price of his education He lost about five thousand dollars before he began winning steadily. Never really big pots, but enough to begin rebuilding his stake. One of the things his old mentor had warned him about were the bar girls that some houses used to distract the players, getting them to drink as they gambled and sometimes try to read a player's cards for a gambler at the table. Rick didn't fall for any of their tricks and always shielded his cards.

He didn't go for the flashy clothes many gamblers like to sport but stuck to plain blue or gray frock coats and trousers a cream -colored vest and a black flat brimmed low crown hat.

One night he won a big pot, nearly three thousand dollars and noticed as he left the gambling hall that two men were following him. He kept to the main, well- lit street He was fairly sure that they wouldn't try to jump him on the street, but wait until they thought him asleep and break into his room. He decided to lay a trap for them. If nothing happened, all he'd lose would be a little sleep. If they did as he anticipated, he was ready for them. He opened the curtains so that the room was bathed in moonlight, blew out the lamp and crawled into bed, fully clothed except for his shoes. He hid the shotgun under the covers. He didn't have long to wait. The door was forced open and two men entered the room. One drew a knife and approached the bed. His knife was raised to strike when Rick rolled out of bed and fired the shotgun, the first load of buckshot struck the bandit in the chest. The second robber turned to flee but the second load took out his left knee. he fell out into the hallway screaming.

The gunshots awakened the whole hotel and within a minute, the night manager ran up the stairs, a revolver in his hand. Calming him, Rick said;

"Call the authorities. These two tried to rob and murder me."

It took a deputy about half an hour to arrive. He looked over the scene, saw the knife on the floor then said;

"You've got nothing to worry about Mr. Rodgers In fact, you've got some reward money coming. The dead man is Deane Lambert. There is a five-hundred-dollar reward, dead or alive. The wounded man is Jack Keane. No reward on him but he's been under suspicion of assault and robbery. We'll jail him if he survives the amputation."

Rick didn't want the reward but couldn't see any way of refusing it. There was one benefit to come out of it. The word was all over town the next day. The new gambler was a bad man to mess with.

Two weeks later, Rick left town on one of the big stern wheeler river boats both a transport and a floating casino. He was going to try his luck on the river. Whether Rick was an empath or just highly observant didn't really matter, but he won far more than he lost. Even playing in a few high -stake games. After a year on the river, he'd not only recouped all of his losses but was ten thousand dollars ahead. and this brought him to New Orleans.

Rick wanted a rest from the river for a while and again rented a room in a small hotel in the French Quarter. He wanted to explore the famous old city, so he hired a well-referenced guide to help him get acquainted with the layout of the city. The guide warned him not to carry more than fifty dollars on him and always go armed. Also, to avoid Delancey and Bourbon streets, after dark if he was alone.

He followed the guide's advice and when he was familiar of the entertainment area of the city, decided to try his luck in the city's gambling halls. He was always careful to only patronize the better casinos, that had hired guards available for their patrons, if needed.

As he had in Natchez and on the river, he was steadily winning, although not indulging in a high stakes game until he grew familiar with several of the establishments and some of the regular patrons and their style of play. This brought him to Demming's Gilded Lady in the summer of 1882 and a series of events that would change his life.

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