by Tony Verna

Created on: September 09, 2009

When we left our story, it was two days before Christmas 1862.

Our heroine, Jancy Hall had been traveling the streets of Washington DC where she found hr lover, Tonio de Aldo' signaling her that he was moving ahead to wreak his revenge. But unknown to them, there was another carriage headed toward the same destination.

* * * *

At the same time that Jancy was rendezvousing with her Tonio, another carriage, a long, dark carriage with its shades drawn tight was riding past the large homes of H- Street. It continued along the northwest quarter of the city until it hit the bright lights coming from the larger mansions, a sure indication that the New Year was approaching and that the social season was in full swing.

December 1862. The weather dark and bitter cold. A half hour's drive brought Jancy up a winding road and down a graveled driveway, between an avenue of gnarled dark cedars to a beautiful white-columned mansion. All was ready for an evening of music, merriment, and the supernatural-ready for the first of thirteen chapters in the life of Jancy Hall as it extended...Beyond the Blue and the Gray.

Through the muddy streets, past the boarding houses and livery stables, Chester and the Professor rode to where a few impressive, warm-wooded mansions stood, harboring snobbery and social distinctions as frosty as the weather and as cold as the marble back on Capitol Hill. For the socially elite, the war had not shut down party-giving, as was evident by the number of guests being welcomed at the front door.

A hurried survey of the mansion was in order for Chester and the Professor, but the sight of an oncoming carriage delayed their plans. The long dark coach with its windows shielded rolled to a stop, and a big puffy man dressed as a naval commander emerged as its only passenger. He was immediately identified by the Professor as Commodore Whitehead, a man as phony as his uniform but as high ranking as any when it comes to power-and its abuse.

From the distance they watched the Commodore move past the other guests to be greeted by Major Raithburn, a hard-faced military man serving as a commanding officer in the Signal Corps. The Major had a major nose and a major mean streak and, according to the Professor, also had the distinction of being chosen by his West Point classmates as the one most likely to stab someone in an alley. A large spray of festive balloons did little to soften the Major's iron graciousness as he stood proudly on the threshold of his mansion.

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