A Curious Beginning

Veronica and Stoker slept head-to-foot, so she wakes to his feet on her pillow. She wakes him and admires his physique despite her insistence she will not have a sexual relationship with him, given her rules about never having sex with Englishmen. When Stoker falls asleep again, she laments his skill as a supposed abductor. When he awakens, he criticizes Veronica for reading a detective novel, which he derides as “cheap literature.” She retorts that the lady detective in her book is “a thoroughly modern woman [who] is intelligent and intrepid and shrinks from nothing” (95).

Veronica visits the professor and his conjoined brother, Otto, who communicates only through music. She enquires about the act she and Stoker will perform, and the professor reveals this is a knife-throwing act, a skill Stoker learned in childhood. The professor seeks details about Stoker’s vision with feigned concern. Veronica tells him the truth: Stoker can see from the injured eye but tires easily. The professor is cruelly dismissive of his brother, whose musical skills Veronica compliments.

Back in the caravan, Stoker bursts in, soap still in his hair. He realized Veronica could escape while he bathed. Veronica insists she could have escaped or harmed him in many ways already, and they must agree she is there not as a prisoner. She instructs him to finish his bath so they can practice their act.

Stoker returns from his bath to find Veronica inexpertly mending one of his shirts. She compares his physique to a painting but does not disclose that the painting she references is of a fallen Lucifer. He teases her for behaving in a domestic, wifely manner. She retorts she did it for her own sake, not for his, because orderliness helps her think.

Salome knocks at the door with an offer to help Veronica assemble a costume for the act. Stoker is suspicious about Salome’s motives, but Veronica asserts that the woman likely wishes to gossip about Stoker, with whom she clearly had a previous sexual relationship. Veronica and Stoker spend the morning preparing for their act. Stoker sharpens his knives and Veronica helps him tailor his too-tight coat, though Stoker’s impatient movements cause him to be stabbed with several of the pins. Veronica applies first aid while admiring the neat stitching of the person who helped Stoker after his injury.

Veronica goes to Salome’s caravan, which is sumptuously decorated but untidy. Salome is scornful of Veronica, calling her “cold,” but she reveals the origin of the feud between Stoker and Colosso: When Stoker traveled with the show, four years prior, he helped a woman named Alice find a new act. Alice did not have legs, so the professor had assigned her an act that sat her in a carriage like a baby. Alice disliked this, so Stoker made her a mermaid-like tail, which allowed Alice to swim expertly and move about freely in water. The professor was angry over this change, as the “Baby Alice” act was lucrative. Stoker helped her find a place in another show that would let her perform the mermaid act. The professor thus blames Stoker for the financial loss. Colosso was in love with Alice and so blames Stoker for separating them.

Salome lends Veronica a beautiful and revealing costume. She accuses Veronica of not truly loving Stoker, citing her lack of jealousy over Salome and Stoker’s past relationship as proof. Veronica wheedles Salome into admitting that she is an Englishwoman named Sally Barnes, not, as her act suggests, “an Eastern princess driven by misfortune to make her way in the world by dancing for the public” (113). She confesses, moreover, that the professor has not paid her in a month and that she believes the show to be in dire financial straits. Salome warns Veronica that nothing stays secret in the camp.

Salome helps Veronica don an elaborate costume. Stoker gapes at her outfit even as Veronica admires his face without its thick beard. She notes how close his scar travels to his jugular, marveling at how close he came to death. They practice for the act, Stoker fastening Veronica’s limbs against a large painted target, though he notes this is for dramatic effect. She can pull herself loose if needed. He warns, however, that she must stay still. If she moves unexpectedly while he’s throwing, she could be injured. When the practice round is finished, her knees buckle, and she falls into Stoker’s embrace briefly. She promises she will not be so nervous during the real show.

As the show approaches, Veronica drinks to steady her nerves. Stoker, dismayed to find her drunk, plies her with food and coffee before dunking her face into cold water. He is moderately satisfied, though he tells her not to speak during the act, lest she give away her inebriation. She admires Stoker’s entrancing act as he engages the crowd and throws the knives, though she is less impressed when he carries her out of the tent over his shoulder to the laughter of the audience. At the caravan, he places her down, and they lean in close to one another. Stoker comments that they cannot get close again. Veronica agrees.

Stoker wakes Veronica early the next morning, urging haste, as the camp is departing soon. A handsome groom named Mornaday brings horses for Veronica and Stoker, complimenting Veronica for her bravery in the knife-throwing act. They begin their ten-mile ride. Stoker is initially frosty, which Veronica attributes to their near-kiss the night before, though he soon thaws. He praises Veronica’s bravery and chastises himself for doubting her.

Stoker reports that a friend will forward the London paper as soon as they publish information about the baron’s death. Veronica considers sharing her own information about de Clare but decides against it. Veronica feels more herself on the journey and recognizes that the months spent in her village, nursing Aunt Nell, went against her adventurer’s spirit.

The troupe arrives at their destination and sets up camp, though Stoker’s irritability leads him and Veronica into an argument. To calm herself, Veronica hunts butterflies. Mornaday sees her setting out and directs her down a riverbank toward a reported butterfly sighting. By his description, however, the butterfly he saw could not be found in England. Veronica asks why he attempted to get her alone. He confesses that he was concerned for her when he overheard the loud argument with Stoker. She assures him she is safe, and he insists that she can call upon him for aid, if needed.

When Veronica returns from hunting an hour later, she shows Stoker her small collection of butterflies. Stoker, however, was worried when he could not find her. They quarrel, and she declares him impossible to live with, causing him to glance at her prop ring. She looks inside and finds an inscription that indicates Stoker was married five years prior, which makes her regret her comments.

Veronica overhears Salome interrogating Stoker about his relationship with Veronica. Salome makes advances that Stoker rejects. He warns her against threatening Veronica. When Salome leaves the caravan, she feigns surprise to see Veronica. Like Stoker, Veronica rebuffs Salome’s questions about their relationship. Veronica sees Salome retreat with Mornaday. She enters the caravan where she teases that she has no objections to his having an affair with Salome, if he is discreet to protect their story. Their quibbling leads to a near kiss.

During the show, Veronica notes that Stoker still seems discomfited by their argument and embrace, though she doesn’t understand why. As the knife-throwing portion begins, she feels suddenly dizzy. She faints at an inopportune moment, causing Stoker’s knife to stab her in the arm. She regains consciousness during the painful process of removing the blade. Stoker is calm and competent as he tends her, even as the crowd gasps and screams in the background. He grows more upset as he stitches her wounds, though Veronica is too dizzy from blood loss to tell.

When she wakes, Stoker reveals she has been unconscious for two days. She says she has had malaria for three years; he then confesses that he was trained as a surgeon by the British navy. He chides her for not disclosing her illness, and they resolve to be more honest with one another and “[trade] confidences, tit for tat” (148).

She discloses that she was present for the 1883 eruption of the Krakatoa caldera in Indonesia, one of the deadliest volcanic events in recorded history, trying to remain detached as she recounts the horrific eruption. She explains that this leads her to only somewhat know of the Templeton-Vane Expedition that led Stoker to cease using his birth name.

Veronica urges Stoker to tell him the full story of the expedition, arguing that sharing the information might be healing. He claims he is not yet ready to share it, which Veronica takes as a positive sign. When Stoker remains silent over the next several days, however, a healing Veronica elects to “sleuth out” answers. Leopold gives Stoker a mysterious box; Veronica looks inside and finds a rebenque, a whip used by South American cattle herders. She deduces that Stoker, armed with the rebenque, is set to fight Colosso, as Stoker lacks a target for the knife-throwing act while Veronica recovers.

The next afternoon, Veronica and Stoker retrieve a parcel from the post office containing the London papers and a note from Stoker’s friend. They find a secluded place to discuss the contents. The newspaper states that the baron’s death has been determined a murder, and Stoker is the chief suspect. Stoker explains that he did not seek the police’s aid because they “believe [him] a murderer” (158), which he confirms is because he killed “a man who deserved it [and] would do it again” (159). Veronica, merely relieved that Stoker had not killed his wife, takes this in stride.

Stoker is incredulous at Veronica’s acceptance, and she confesses the incident with de Clare. Stoker is annoyed that Veronica hid important information that could have led to his false imprisonment; they agree to be honest with each other from this point forward. They banter about the ways they irritate one another, though Veronica asserts that she likes Stoker despite his “prickles.”

Veronica reasons that, despite her commitment to tell Stoker all, the information about her ransacked cottage will wait. She does not wish to burden him before the rebenque fight that evening. She promises Stoker she will rest and recover, but slips off to watch the fight instead, not bothering to hide her presence from Stoker when she realizes the professor has advertised the fight using Stoker’s real name and his notoriety as a suspected murderer. Veronica wants them to leave immediately, but Stoker insists on waiting until after the fight, citing both his pride and the bill that the professor has presented them for their keep over the past few days. If he does not pay it, the professor can set the law against him as a debtor.

Veronica prepares to watch the fight and catches one of the show employees weighing the handle of the rebenque with lead so that Colosso’s weapon will be far more powerful than Stoker’s. She watches, hoping for a chance to warn Stoker, as the fight commences. When Colosso strikes Stoker with the weighted handle, however, Stoker recognizes the duplicity. Enraged, he quickly snatches the weighted whip away from Colosso before using it to render the strongman unconscious. The crowd, who had bet overwhelmingly in Colosso’s favor, is outraged at the short bout. Stoker and Veronica return to their caravan, where Veronica expresses understanding for Stoker’s intense anger. They plan to leave the camp immediately.

Stoker and Veronica walk through the night, taking an indirect route to town and then several trains, to confuse any would-be pursuers. Veronica calls Stoker “the most complex and contradictory man [she] has ever met” (172) and compliments his looks, though she promises she has no romantic designs in praising him. When they return to London, Veronica suggests they seek de Clare. He urges her to return to her cottage for her safety while he seeks further clues. She refuses and reports the ransacking, claiming she did not reveal it sooner as she assumed it was a random crime unrelated to the murder.

She recounts the entire story from the beginning, and Stoker laments not demanding more information from the baron. When Veronica comments that the baron no doubt intended to inform Stoker of details later, Stoker realizes Veronica was likely the original murder target, not Max. She insists nobody would want to kill her but confesses Max’s mysterious connection to her unknown mother. Stoker insists that Veronica must know something but allows that she may not recognize it is important.

Stoker probes into Veronica’s past, which she reluctantly agrees to reveal if it pertains to the investigation. He wonders why Max sought Veronica only after Nell’s death, not Lucy’s. They discuss money as a motive: Nell and Lucy had little but did receive a small annuity as a family legacy, though Veronica knows little about their family except that her aunts were born and raised in London. Stoker opines that they were hiding out after having committed a crime, which Veronica disregards as preposterous. He asserts, however, that the aunts may have kidnapped Veronica.

She presses him to consider the baron’s background. Stoker relays that Max was a childhood friend of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, and accompanied him to England after Albert’s marriage. Due to Albert’s death decades prior, they disregard this motive. Stoker and Max met when Stoker was a university student; later, after Stoker’s injury in Brazil, Max sailed to South America to bring a depressed and injured Stoker back to England. Max had no close friends and one elderly and loyal servant. His fortune was willed to museums, so no individual would benefit from his death.

Stoker argues they should go to the police, which will ensure Veronica’s protection if not his own. She refuses to risk his safety. They plan to retreat to a property owned by Lord Rosemorran, the client who hired Stoker to restore the elephant.