NOTE: THIS IS A MAJOR DEPARTURE FROM THE UNDERSTOOD INFORMATION REGARDING DR. ESSEX'S LIFE. NO FRUIT THROWING PLEASE.
Over a century earlier…
"Doctor Essex, there is a woman here to see you," said the man who sometimes was nice enough to butler for the strange scientist that everyone had apparently shunned as uncultured. There were also rumors that he had been directly responsible for the death of his wife, but charges being unbrought, they were only unsubstantiated hall talk as some would say.
"Tell her to go away," was the reply he got from beyond the door. He never went into the Doctor's lab proper, only to the outside door. If he got an answer when he spoke, he knew the doctor was listening, if not, it certainly wasn't important enough to invade a man's privacy.
"Sir, she told me to tell you that she will not leave until you have seen her and it is rather urgent," he took the tone of one long suffering and the truth was he had been suffering with this particular situation for over an hour. She had come to the door and simply refused to be removed from the premise, despite his attempts at coaxing, cajoling, and finally threatening until she was seen by the Master of the house in all his rather dubious glory. Roderick had seen the man behind the name, and was hardly impressed.
The door opened with a quickness he wasn't expecting and the doctor himself issued forth, his waistcoat undone and the look on his face that of a thundercloud just looking for somewhere to unload.
The woman who was the subject of the conversation was standing the drawing room when he stormed in, hardly the picture of decorum. Apparently he had been dragged away from something he considered much more important than the whims of some unknown female of the species. She turned to fix her gaze upon him, her parasol still held primly between two black lace gloved hands. Her hair was pulled up into a bun and primarily covered with a funeral veil. His arrival didn't appear to cause her any untoward feeling at all.
"Doctor Essex," she said with a voice that managed to sound both sultry and shy. "How kind of you to grant me your attention for a few brief moments."
"Lady," he stopped a few feet from her, and as if suddenly remembering himself started to address the issues of his appearance. "You have drawn me away from a rather delicate experiment at an inopportune time." His speech was cordial, his tone anything but. "State your business and be gone."
She looked past him to his butler, for only a second, but long enough to make it understood that she wanted the older man gone before she would continue any further with what she had to say.
"I think, Dr. Essex, that once I have stated that which has brought me to your door that having me leave again will be the last thing you request."
"Lady," he waved the butler away. Roderick went to busy himself with anything out of sight of the house owner. "What exactly could you possibly have to say that I would find so fascinating?"
She seated herself without his permission, turning her face away so that her eyes were hidden from him.
"It has come to my attention through various channels, ask not how for I shall not answer, that you know many things about humanity that your peers will neither admit to nor discuss. I have not come to speak with you about the merits of your research. I am a scientist myself and understand that sometimes there are sacrifices that must be made in the name of knowledge. I have only come seeking your assistance in my own predicament."
Nathan buried his impatience under the interest that was beginning to stir. She knew of his reputation, both above and below, and yet she did not seem at all disgusted by his choices. Interesting considering the undue worth so many had placed upon human life.
"And what predicament do you find yourself in, Lady…"
"Ascher, Lenneth Ascher, Dr. Essex. And I find myself with a strange ability to affect things in odd ways."
"You will have to explain yourself further, Lady Ascher."
"I understand. Perhaps it would be better for you to simply watch. Would you be so kind as to give me a bit of brandy in that snifter glass?" She had raised her head enough to indicate a bottle of brandy and a pale blue snifter glass that Roderick had certainly left out for his own use. It was a large, heavy crystal affair with a bit of blue veining that seemed to change the hue of the entire glass. He brought her both the glass and the bottle and watched, brow furrowing with impatience, as she drank the brandy from the glass. Then, only seconds later, she spat back into the glass. When she was done, there was less liquid than had been there when the brandy was poured, but not by much.
"Here, smell." He looked at her with a surprise. "Please," she insisted.
Taking the glass, he held it up to his nose. It had the smell of a much purer alcohol, the kind one would use for wounds.
"How…"
"Apparently, I have the ability to chemically change things which I bring into my body. Now, if you would hand me back the glass." Stunned, he handed it back to her. She swallowed what was in the glass without a second thought. Then she simply held the glass between her palms. A thin veneer of what looked like a purple fluid exuded from her skin, greasing the glass. Then it shattered, eaten before his very eyes. The shards of glass left over from it hit the floor, and small holes began to appear in his carpet.
"My apologies, Doctor Essex, my abilities are far from strictly controlled." Lenneth Ascher was looking down at the small burn marks appearing his floor.
"Something I will be more than happy to help you with." For the first time since this woman had thrust herself into his life, Nathaniel Essex smiled.
It would become clear after a few years in her company that Lenneth truly wanted something beyond simply the role of pupil to his master, or subject to his experimenter. It was then that she pressed for a deepening of their bond, and a trip to the local minister. The possibility of her leaving and taking with her the abilities that were vindication of every theory he had formulated was the only reason he had decided to do as she asked. At least, at first. When the one who would be called Apocalypse appeared, he had to admit to himself that he was perhaps more deeply invested in her than he had originally admitted or anticipated. The argument between them had been epic for the quiet pair.
"You cannot be serious. Serve him and he will give you eternity? Since when have you been so willing to allow another to dictate your course?"
"Lenneth, I have decided. I will hear no more about this from you."
"If you think I will be silent, Nathan, you are wrong. I will not watch you debase yourself before another, not even one such as he who claims so much power. Have you forgotten your pride?"
"I have forgotten nothing, Lady Essex," he snapped coldly. "And I have spoken my last on this. Be silent or take yourself to your room and sulk that I may eat in peace."
The way she tossed her dark hair and squared her shoulders said that this fight was far from over, but they were interrupted by the arrival of the guest about which they had been quarrelling. The man was unremarkable, the kind one passed a hundred times a day on a London street and didn't pay one moment's notice to. But the way he brushed in and seated himself between the two of them had all the markings of a snake charmer who knows he's got his mark.
"My offer, you have considered it?"
"It is a rather considerable offer," returned Nathan. "But my wife does not agree."
"She does not," the stranger turned to look at her, measuring her with his eyes. "And she objects why?"
"I object, sir," she spoke over Nathan. "Because I doubt your claims and do not think so kindly of the idea of my husband being taken in by a charlatan."
The stranger laughed, a sound that made the marrow of bones quiver in suppressed terror, though it was supposed to be a jovial sound.
"A charlatan, Lady," said the stranger finally. A moment later, he was standing beside her, his fingers into the light curls of her dark hair. "Perhaps I should show you my power, with your husband's permission." The final part was simply an add-on; Nathan would not have disagreed if the stranger had been asking him to give him half his weight in flesh. The proverbial carrot was simply too tempting to pass up.
Lenneth's breath slowed as she willed the feelings of fear to subside. His breath was he breathing? was coursing across the skin of her throat; his fingers had closed around her hair. Every nerve screamed to pull away, but to where and for what?
"Shall I show her what I have offered you, Essex? Place her fears of fakery to rest."
"Whatever you see fit." That smile was back, only this time is it was tinged with the same cruelty that she had become all too accustom to.
Nathaniel spent the night in his laboratory, pouring over the finely written notes his wife had been keeping of his experiments. She had always been a much neater hand than his, more careful about her numbers, allowing no mistakes to make it into the final set of papers that she would hand him at the end of the experiment. His mind kept telling him that Lenneth needed this lesson; she needed to understand that he was making a decision that could be more momentous than anything he had discovered so far. And who better than the one who was going to make it possible for him to truly see his dreams through to fruition? He would find a way out of the deal later, but until then, he would make sure to put to use this great gift he was being given. And if she wanted to remain by his side, she would accept that.
The next morning, Lenneth came down to the lab, her materials in hand as always to take measurements and notes on the various patients under his 'care'. There were shadows behind her eyes whenever their eyes met, but she said nothing, nor did she say anything more about his decision to indebt himself to the stranger. That night, he could hear her crying quietly in her dressing room, but still there were no words.
After he had taken on his mantle of immortality, he had returned home to find her eating quietly by herself, the candles of the dining room unlit save for the candelabra closest to her plate.
"Lenneth," he called to her across the darkened room. She looked up quickly and finding his form in the dark, said,
"Nathan… is something the matter?"
"No, Lenneth, not at all." She picked up the candles and started toward him.
"Leave them and come to me." Without protest, she set the candles back down on the table and stepped up to face him.
"Nathan, what's going on?"
"Hush, my wife, hush. It will all be much better now." He drew her to him, bringing her lips to his. It was a kiss much more than polite, but perhaps less than one would expect from ardent lovers.
"Of course, my husband, as you say," she replied.
BACK TO THE PRESENT
"My, my, another present? Is there an anniversary I've forgotten?"
"Our anniversary, love? No. Not this month. Nor a birthday. Perhaps once you see your present, you'll understand."
The door before them opened easily under her pushing hand. Nathan followed her in. Before them in the living room were several pieces of well appointed furniture, fronted by a coffee table upon which sat a covered dish.
"A meal," he guessed, knowing that to be far too obvious for his darling. She only sighed and sat down in an over-stuffed chair to the right of the table. "Of course not. Something so simple would hardly be considered a present by you."
"Why on earth would I consider a meal a present? Food is something we can get easily enough. No. It is something you'll like far better."
Nathaniel approached the table and placed his hand on top of the dish, meeting Lenneth's eyes over the top of it. Then he uncovered it with a waiter's flourish.
Seated in the center of a polished silver platter was the head of Ambassador Bryant, obviously recently severed from the congealing blood beneath his abruptly ended neck. On top of his open and staring eyes were two rings, each of gold. Picking them up, he looked to his wife curiously, his amusement evident in the curling of the edges of his lips.
"For me," he asked archly.
"I've never seen the need to kill for anyone else, love." She held her hand out to him. "I know they aren't our wedding rings, but yours is somewhere in London and mine is in the sea off the Australian coast, but I thought they would be wonderful stand-ins."
"Is this to say that you have finally returned to me fully?" He started to put the ring on her finger.
"Better to say that I never truly left." Once she had her ring on, she placed his on his hand. "A perfect fit. There are some things that I shall never forget."
"Then never forget again, my wife, that you are mine. You will keep your vows this time."
"Of course, my husband, as you say."
