Veronica Speedwell Mysteries 1-9
It was a month-long reading project to finish the (currently) nine Veronica Speedwell Mysteries, by Deanna Raybourn. That was a long enough period of time to become immersed in the characters. I get anxious when Veronica and Stoker are (frequently) abducted. And sad when they are at outs. I'm looking forward to the eventual book 10.
Excelsior: softwood shavings used for packing
A Curious Beginning
3/10/24-3/12/24
June 1887
Veronica proves her identity at the bank with Chester, her stuffed mouse.
Stoker to Veronica about Lady Cordelia: I was merely thinking that it may have been a very grave mistake to introduce you to Lady C. If the pair of you ever put your minds to it, you could probably topple governments together.
I amused myself by reciting poetry under my breath-not Keats; I found Byron to be much more appropriate for an abduction.
Veronica does not want to go to Ireland because the climate is appalling-nothing but mist: It is gloomy. Butterflies like the sun. Ireland is for the moth people.
Lady Cordelia had been nominated to the Hippolyta Club, aka the Curiosity Club, on the strength of a paper she had written upon the subject of hyperintegers,
Stoker to Veronica: This one fact-your legitimacy-is the first domino in a series of events that could topple thrones.
Veronica to Stoker: I have received seventeen marriage proposals and that is by far the most halfhearted.
Veronica to Stoker: More than one or two questions without answers. What is the identity of the puppet master-or mistress, rather-pulling at Sir Hugo’s strings? What has become of Edmund de Clare and have we heard the last of him? And was he telling the truth when he said the baron’s death was an accident?
A Perilous Undertaking
3/12/24-3/18/24
September 1887
I had changed into my butterfly-hunting clothes, a peculiar and eminently suitable ensemble of my own design. I donned a clean shirtwaist and a pair of slim trousers, tucking them securely into flat, sturdy boots laced neatly up the front. Over it all I buttoned a fitted jacket and a long skirt with concealed slits and a clever arrangement of buttons that permitted me to drape the garment according to my activities. I had not designed a configuration for pursuing murderers, but I suspected the one I used for stalking butterflies would prove adequate.
Lady Wellingtonia is the puppet master who pulled Sir Hugo’s strings. (And his godmother.)
Stoker to Veronica: When I most had need of you, you did not leave me. Whatever this thing is that makes us different, this thing that makes quicksilver of us when the rest of the world is mud, it binds us. To break that would be to fly in the face of nature.
A Treacherous Curse
February 1888
3/18/24-3/21/24
balloon flight to Tiverton Hall
Horus Stihl to his son Henry with something like admiration: I am rather surprised to find you had it in you, son. There is a bit of Stihl in your spine after all.
A Dangerous Collaboration
March 1888, the same day that the previous book ends; then 6 months later (after Madeira)
3/22/24-3/24/24
As for myself, I never permit petty irritations to dissuade me from my purpose. (For most people, a potentially murderous viscount, a missing host, and a vengeful ghost might seem out of the realm of petty irritations. But then, most people have not led my life.)
Stoker to Veronica, finally: Veronica Speedwell, I meant it then and I mean it now and I shall mean it with every breath until my last. I love you.
A Murderous Relation
3/24/24-3/26/24
Even I realized that the note from Pennybaker at the end was a trap.
The last of de Clare and Inspector Archibond
Patricia the tortoise’s wedding: Stoker perform the ceremony, the earl is giving away the bride, Lady Wellie was asked to provide her with a bit of Honiton lace for a veil, Veronica is to be a bridesmaid
Lavinia Templeton-Vane to Sir Rupert: I am always hearing from you and Tiberius about the grand adventures Stoker and Miss Speedwell are getting up to. Did it never occur to you that I might like a grand adventure myself?
Stoker: I do not care for Gilbert and Sullivan
Mornaday: What sort of Englishman doesn’t care for Gilbert and Sullivan? They are national treasures, they are.
Veronica and Eddie both have velvet mice named Chester: His Royal Highness, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, is also Earl of Chester.
An Unexpected Peril
3/26/24-3/30/24
January 1889
Stoker, describing Alpenwald: One mountain, one small city, one castle, and seventy varieties of beer
Lepidoptery was not without its scoundrels- let any collector get so much of a whisper of a Rajah Brooke’s Birdwing in the vicinity and blows might easily be exchanged.
The Belvedere: It was, in due course, to serve as a museum once the contents were properly sorted and arranged for the edification of the general public. The fact that Stoker and I were the only two people working to organize the thousands of items meant that the museum was projected to open sometime in the middle of the next century.
Stoker: My old nanny has a boardinghouse in Brighton that is fitted with an electric generator because she blackmailed my father into giving her half of my mother’s jewels.
If every man from the Alpenwald sported moustaches and a summit badge, we should be overwhelmed by possible villains.
Veronica to Stoker, while dressed formally as a princess: I cannot eat. I cannot bend. I cannot breathe. In short, I cannot do anything for which the human body is fashioned. I am an automaton for the evening, a doll, dressed and polished for your amusement.
Stoker to Veronica: You are all that I want and more than I deserve, and I will go to my grave thanking a god in whom I do not believe for bringing me to you.
The jeweled order of St. Otthild: a gem-encrusted otter rampant with a sprig of St. Otthild’s wort gripped in his tiny diamond teeth.
Veronica to the baroness: Fecklessness! We are never feckless. We are full to the brim with feck.
An Impossible Impostor
3/30/24-4/1/24
April 1889
Stoker had once taken me to a demonstration of Mr. Babbage’s computational machines. The whirring and clicking and sharp manipulation of information put me greatly in mind of J. J.’ s efforts.
Adventure beckoned, and although I deplored spending any more time than necessary with Harry, I could only appreciate the situation in which we now found ourselves. A priceless diamond! A thief in the night! A man returned from the dead! A mortal enemy determined to ensure his destruction! It was all thoroughly satisfactory, I reflected.
A Sinister Revenge
4/1/24-4/2/24
September 1889
Stoker to Veronica: I am finished with running after you and dancing to your tune. It. Is. Your. Turn.
Danse Macabre was composed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1874: It took the musicians a moment longer to grasp the gravity of the situation. They had just struck the first notes of “Danse Macabre” when Collins, white-faced with shock, gestured them abruptly to silence.
Veronica to Stoker: Stoker, I loved you when the world was new. I love you now. And I will love you until the Earth is burnt away and the stars themselves turn to dust. For we are two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat as one.
Stoker: You learnt Keats for me.
Veronica: Learnt Keats? My beloved, I would burn the Earth to cinders and blow the ashes to the four winds just to be near you.
A Grave Robbery
4/2/24-4/5/24
October 1889
I like the investigative team of four: Veronica, Stoker, J.J. and Mornaday
Veronica about the pangolin: I have seldom beheld a mammal so interesting.
Necropolis railway: established some thirty years ago to carry the dead (and their mourners) to Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey
Lady Wellie: Yes, the Beauclerks have more than our share of eccentricity. We may have a Galápagos tortoise in the shrubbery and a hermit in the garden, but that is no more than any other noble family might have.
Veronica: Since when do we have a hermit?
The hermit Spyridon: I have known Stoker since he was the worst surgeon’s mate on board the Luna.
Plumtree: I have studied the workings of the criminal mind, you see. It is one of my little hobbies, the sort of thing I used to do to keep busy in the country. I am also fond of quilling and the accordion.
Stoker gives Veronica his sailor’s earring: It was the first piece of jewellery he had given me, and though there would be other tokens of his affection through the years, none would ever move me quite so deeply as that slender gold ring. I promised myself I would wear it always, and I did-whether in peacefulness, passion, or peril, it was my constant companion through the escapades to come.