From Col. Mustard’s Correspondence File
01: The House of Jewels
Col. Edward Mustard
c/o Mrs Midgely’s Lodging House
41 Cockspur Street
London
21st May 1767, Oporto
Dear Ned
My most hearty Thanks for sending me those three young Subalterns, who seem capital Fellows, and for your strange accounting of how they were blooded in the Field. Were the Army able to make such tests of Character the Custom in Recruitment we might have more brave spirited Bucks like them and fewer idle Poltroons in the Service. I agree it only sensible to retain the youngest – Wainthrop is it not? – about you in London to grow a little in Inches and Wisdom before embarking on active Service. Not that Life around you seems any the less perilous than it is here with the Regiment in Portugal, where the main Dangers seem to be Pickpockets and poxed Doxies.
I am sure there are none of the latter to be found in the House of Jewels which seems a most elegant Establishment. Indeed it would seem that Madam Zelide is most keen to ensure that the former Scourge is not a Feature of her House, given her zealousness in investigating exactly how Mr Tasker had come to leave his pocketbook in Miss Opal’s chamber. I note also the diversity of its Clientele. I believe I was briefly introduced to Mr Blunt, along with your other Companions from the Turkish venture when you docked in Oporto on the return voyage. Wolfe seems a strange Cove. Of course we have all met Colonels who vanish whenever there is a Whiff of Action in the Air, but not in quite such a literal Sense. Evidently the work of a Enochian Toy of some Description. An odd choice of Device for a Field Officer – an Intelligencer perhaps? And a vanishing Lady too! One can see that if she be a Performer in the Circus that there might well be some Utility in such a Device. Passing Strange that two such similar Artefacts should be in the possession of two apparent Strangers that same Night at Madam Zelide’s. Or perhaps I have been out of London too long and these Things have become quite commonplace.
Once more you present me with the most phantastical of Tales in your Account of that Evening – though one entirely supported by the direct and confirming Witness of my new Subalterns. It seems that the strange Adventure you related to me regarding your Mission in the Levant has spawned further Consequences that may be following you and your Companion, Blunt, as Hounds follow a Spore. The green Glow about the Eyes of those possessed, the Aegyptian aspect of the dog-headed Dust Devils that assaulted you and the general sandy Aspect into which a Portion of London seems to have been briefly plunged all hark to your previous Experience. I am no Philosopher but it seems to me that perhaps some permanent Damage has been done by Mainborough’s infernal Engine to the Fabric that lies between our World and the One you glimpsed upon the other Side.
I note, too, that you and Blunt seem to have attracted the special Attention of these Manifestations. Is there some malign Intelligence behind them, or something about you that is more “noticed” by these Creatures because of your Experience beyond the Gate? There is much to ponder here.
Now to more regimental Business…
Your Obedient Servant
Nathaniel Pepper
Lieut. Col.