Chapter 4

Phileas received a report from Mr. Evans week after he turned Major Anderson's many papers over to him. Phileas had become proficient in business matters in the years since his inheritance, but the jumble of papers, bills, and other things he found in Major Anderson's effects had been more than he could fathom.

Fogg had referred the matter to Melody's brother in Kent first, but Charles Anderson's letter back to him had been dismissive, reserved and hostile all at the same time. It had confirmed everything Melody had said about her brother's attitude concerning their father. Jules had been with him when the mail arrived that day. As they had become companion suitors, Phileas had read the letter aloud.

Mr. Phileas Fogg,

Whatever is found in the way of money or valuable possessions in my father's effects now belongs to my sister alone. My father and I settled my inheritance many years ago. You may organize it, preserve it or discard it as you see fit once I formally turn the care of my sister's welfare over to you. It will all be part of her dowry goods when I receive the references requested. I have to date received only one reference from a Sir Jonathan Chatsworth. When I receive the others I have required, and have word from my sister that you have recovered your health, we will deal with that.

Sincerely,

Charles Anderson

Phileas closed his eyes and exhaled. "If Sir Jonathan had sent the man a copy of what we read, there could be more reasons than family disaffection for the snappish tone. Whatever possessed Rebecca to ask anything of Chatsworth on my behalf?"

"You may have read more into it than there is, Fogg," Jules said. "You have said her brother and father did not get along. You might consider your own paternal disaffections when looking at this. Would you have written it any different had the situation been reversed?"

Fogg frowned at his friend's comment. It had been an honest assessment, as were all things Jules said, but this was not the time to bring up his issues with the dead.

At Phileas's glare, Jules immediately apologized.

"It's all right, Verne," Phileas said, dismissing it and attempting a lighter mood. "This whole matter has me on edge."

Jules, still feeling he had spoken out of turn, made excuses to leave the room. He moved to the parlor to enjoy Melody's company.

Well, there is no help for it.

Phileas mentally consigned Chatsworth to an afterlife in a warm climate. Turning his mind back to the present, he concentrated on Mr. Evan's report.

In it was listed the bills that had never been paid before Melody's departure, a list of stock certificates and their present values, a list of mining interests the Major had had in India and a record of the bank account the Major had held in Egypt and what existed in the account here in London. If Phileas were any judge, the Major had been well set to start his breeding stables. Overall, when the debts were paid, Melody would be a modestly wealthy woman in her own right. What the report didn't say was why anyone would have been so determined to kidnap the Major's daughter after his death.

Phileas also wondered why the staff clerk the Colonel had sent had done such a poor job of seeing to Melody's business. It didn't look to him or to Mr. Evans as if anything had been done other than a cursory searching of his papers and a transfer of funds from Egypt to England.

The Army isn't that incompetent, Phileas thought in disgust. When a colonel tells a corporal to see to a deceased superior officer's papers before his orphaned daughter is sent back to England, said corporal should have done so far more thoroughly than this.

What was worse, Melody didn't know what her father did and didn't have in the way of assets. He had readily allowed her to manage his household, but nothing else. If anything were missing, she wouldn't know it. Phileas shook his head, which didn't pain him so much anymore. That isn't unusual. It was customary for women to be shielded from such concerns. It was, in this case, unnecessary.

Melody had a firm grasp of both management and accounting. She had, by her telling, been sent to one of England's premiere finishing schools as a girl. That school taught her all manner of domestic responsibilities, including the management of large estates.

Melody had also received a first-class education. If Phileas were any judge, his wife had what might add up to a university degree in liberal arts with a wide range of interesting side studies. She spoke four languages, had a firm command of history, geography, literature, and accounting math. She could fence, cook, knew horticulture, the basics of nursing and a great deal about medicinal plants.

When they had spoken of her education together, he had wondered at the variety of it. Melody had simply said that she had taken on extra studies and developed hobbies to fill her extra time. "I didn't leave school very often."

Phileas had not thought schools for young women taught such things. He remembered vividly Rebecca's complaints about the one she had been sent to. She had been bored out of her mind and had run away from the place twice.

Making inquiries of acquaintances, Fogg discovered that the Morrison Academy for Young Ladies was a progressive school paving the way for thoughts toward giving young girls a serious education. The Queen had even given the place her endorsement.