featuring Madame Serena looking mystical and ethereal in her turban. If this was all
Ted had to go on when it came to judging mediums, maybe it wasn’t so surprising he thought mocking them was the safest bet.
Madame Serena, from my twenty-first-century perspective, did look a bit silly. I smiled at her picture, though. For all her
theatrical ways and her deaf insistence on calling me Simple Cat, I kind of liked her.
The next thing I came across was a number of newspaper clippings from September 1888. A large headline declared
Shocked Spiritualists Stunned by Maggie Fox’s Exposé.
Another screamed
Renowned Medium Confesses Hoax — Famous Fox Sister States Spiritualism a Fraud!
This was exactly what Alex had been talking about. It couldn’t be a coincidence she had known so much about it. Maybe it was
the contents of this very album that had gotten her so interested in the Spiritualists. Losing all track of time, I absorbed
myself in reading every word of the articles.
The local newspapers reported that Maggie Fox’s revelation had stunned and angered the country, and devastated the Spiritualist
community. Both of the articles mentioned that the owners of the Whispering Pines Mountain House were concerned by the news,
since a Spiritualist medium was residing and doing business there. I guess that’s why they were included in the scrapbook.
Someone named Agatha Kenyon was quoted as saying that she would be recommending to the Kenyon men that all Spiritualists,
including Madame Serena, be henceforth banned from the Mountain House.
There was one other article that caught my eye, a short one. The headline read
Skepticism Greets Madame Serena in the Wake of the Fox Scandal.
The article recapped Maggie Fox’s confession, and related that as the country began to reject the Spiritualists, the local
community had turned against Madame Serena, calling her a fraud and a criminal. It mentioned Agatha Kenyon’s threat to ban
all Spiritualists from the Mountain House, and said that all of Madame Serena’s clients had abandoned her save for one.
I sat up and read the article through again. It was dated December 14th, 1888. There were no other articles in the scrapbook
about Madame Serena or the Spiritualists. Based on all that I’d read, and based on what Madame Serena herself had told me,
I had a more complete idea of why she was stuck here, and the climate surrounding her final days.
Pleased with myself, I leafed through the last few pages of the scrapbook again, and this time I saw something I hadn’t noticed
before. It looked as if the article had been ripped out of the scrapbook, then taped back in, then partially ripped out a
second time. I could make out the headline.
Murder at Whispering Pines — a Diabolical Act on the Famous Resort’s Fifth Floor.
The article had been torn out several lines below the heading. I was only able to make out that a female guest of the hotel
had been murdered. It didn’t give the woman’s name, or the number of the room in which she’d been killed, or any other details.
Whatever else the newspaper had to report had been long since torn away.
But I knew perfectly well which room it was.
Chapter 15
The weather went from bad to worse — the sky was an ominous gray-green, and the rain had turned into a heavy downpour.
I grabbed one of my books and went in search of the reading room and its fireplace. Every time I explored the main floor,
another room or corridor seemed to pop up that I’d never seen before. The floor plan resembled a well-played Scrabble game,
with stuff tacked on in any direction it could be squashed in.
I was enjoying exploring, and deliberately chose not to ask an employee how to get to the reading room. It was more fun blundering
around on my own. It made me think of Lucy and her siblings exploring the big country house in
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
During my search, I passed a set of glass double doors
Ted had to go on when it came to judging mediums, maybe it wasn’t so surprising he thought mocking them was the safest bet.
Madame Serena, from my twenty-first-century perspective, did look a bit silly. I smiled at her picture, though. For all her
theatrical ways and her deaf insistence on calling me Simple Cat, I kind of liked her.
The next thing I came across was a number of newspaper clippings from September 1888. A large headline declared
Shocked Spiritualists Stunned by Maggie Fox’s Exposé.
Another screamed
Renowned Medium Confesses Hoax — Famous Fox Sister States Spiritualism a Fraud!
This was exactly what Alex had been talking about. It couldn’t be a coincidence she had known so much about it. Maybe it was
the contents of this very album that had gotten her so interested in the Spiritualists. Losing all track of time, I absorbed
myself in reading every word of the articles.
The local newspapers reported that Maggie Fox’s revelation had stunned and angered the country, and devastated the Spiritualist
community. Both of the articles mentioned that the owners of the Whispering Pines Mountain House were concerned by the news,
since a Spiritualist medium was residing and doing business there. I guess that’s why they were included in the scrapbook.
Someone named Agatha Kenyon was quoted as saying that she would be recommending to the Kenyon men that all Spiritualists,
including Madame Serena, be henceforth banned from the Mountain House.
There was one other article that caught my eye, a short one. The headline read
Skepticism Greets Madame Serena in the Wake of the Fox Scandal.
The article recapped Maggie Fox’s confession, and related that as the country began to reject the Spiritualists, the local
community had turned against Madame Serena, calling her a fraud and a criminal. It mentioned Agatha Kenyon’s threat to ban
all Spiritualists from the Mountain House, and said that all of Madame Serena’s clients had abandoned her save for one.
I sat up and read the article through again. It was dated December 14th, 1888. There were no other articles in the scrapbook
about Madame Serena or the Spiritualists. Based on all that I’d read, and based on what Madame Serena herself had told me,
I had a more complete idea of why she was stuck here, and the climate surrounding her final days.
Pleased with myself, I leafed through the last few pages of the scrapbook again, and this time I saw something I hadn’t noticed
before. It looked as if the article had been ripped out of the scrapbook, then taped back in, then partially ripped out a
second time. I could make out the headline.
Murder at Whispering Pines — a Diabolical Act on the Famous Resort’s Fifth Floor.
The article had been torn out several lines below the heading. I was only able to make out that a female guest of the hotel
had been murdered. It didn’t give the woman’s name, or the number of the room in which she’d been killed, or any other details.
Whatever else the newspaper had to report had been long since torn away.
But I knew perfectly well which room it was.
Chapter 15
The weather went from bad to worse — the sky was an ominous gray-green, and the rain had turned into a heavy downpour.
I grabbed one of my books and went in search of the reading room and its fireplace. Every time I explored the main floor,
another room or corridor seemed to pop up that I’d never seen before. The floor plan resembled a well-played Scrabble game,
with stuff tacked on in any direction it could be squashed in.
I was enjoying exploring, and deliberately chose not to ask an employee how to get to the reading room. It was more fun blundering
around on my own. It made me think of Lucy and her siblings exploring the big country house in
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
During my search, I passed a set of glass double doors
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