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The DARK SECRET of the Gilded Age Mansion Built to Spy on Guests · History Dark

0:03
Speaker 1: The walls were listening, and by the time anyone realized it,
0:06
Speaker 1: their secrets had already sealed their fate. Providence, Rhode Island,
0:11
Speaker 1: November 1891. The city hummed with the electric promise of progress,
0:17
Speaker 1: even as gas lamps still flickered in the gathering dusk.
0:21
Speaker 1: Steel mills clanged their industrial symphony along the riverbanks, their
0:25
Speaker 1: smokestacks painting the autumn sky in shades of gray and amber.
0:29
Speaker 1: Textile factories churned out fortunes as surely as they churned
0:33
Speaker 1: out cotton, and the old money families clutched their pearls
0:37
Speaker 1: as new wealth stormed through the gates of high society,
0:40
Speaker 1: like an invading army armed with banknotes instead of bayonets.
0:45
Speaker 1: The air smelled of coal smoke, salt water from Narragansett Bay,
0:50
Speaker 1: and the peculiar mixture of ambition and desperation that defined
0:54
Speaker 1: the American experiment in its most rapacious hour. Among the
0:59
Speaker 1: newly rich stood Edgar Vandermeer, a rail baron whose fortune
1:03
Speaker 1: had been built on cross-country expansion, government contracts secured through
1:08
Speaker 1: methods no one examined too closely, and a talent for
1:11
Speaker 1: knowing exactly which palms needed greasing and which spines needed stiffening.
1:16
Speaker 1: His reputation had been carefully constructed on calculated charm, strategic philanthropy,
1:23
Speaker 1: and an uncanny ability to always be three steps ahead
1:27
Speaker 1: of his competitors. His mansion on Benefit Street rose above
1:31
Speaker 1: the city like a crown, its limestone façade gleaming white
1:35
Speaker 1: against the perpetual fog that rolled in from the bay,
1:38
Speaker 1: four stories of Beaux-Arts excess that announced to everyone who
1:42
Speaker 1: saw it, Edgar Vandermeer had arrived, and he intended to stay.
1:47
Speaker 1: Before continuing, check right now if already this incrito on
1:50
Speaker 1: the channel, and tell me in the comments where is
1:53
Speaker 1: accompanying us. I want to see if there's someone from
1:56
Speaker 1: my city here. But Edgar Vandermeer had not built his
1:59
Speaker 1: empire on charm alone. He had built it on secrets.
2:04
Speaker 1: Secrets whispered in dark corners, secrets traded like currency, secrets
2:09
Speaker 1: that could elevate a man to power or dash him
2:12
Speaker 1: against the rocks of public scandal. And his mansion, that
2:16
Speaker 1: gleaming monument to the Gilded Age, was not merely a home.
2:20
Speaker 1: It was a machine. a carefully engineered instrument designed for
2:25
Speaker 1: one singular purpose, to capture every secret that crossed its threshold.
2:30
Speaker 1: The November rain hammered against the carriage windows with the
2:33
Speaker 1: persistence of an unwanted creditor as Catherine Ashford pressed her
2:37
Speaker 1: gloved hand against the cold glass, watching the Vandermeer mansion
2:41
Speaker 1: materialize through the sheets of water like a ship emerging
2:45
Speaker 1: from fog. At twenty-eight, she had already buried one husband,
2:50
Speaker 1: survived a scandal that would have destroyed a lesser woman,
2:54
Speaker 1: and learned through bitter experience that survival in Providence society
2:59
Speaker 1: required more than good breeding and a pleasant face. It
3:03
Speaker 1: required information. It required knowing who owed whom, who hated whom,
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Speaker 1: who was sleeping with whom. It required treating every conversation
3:13
Speaker 1: as a negotiation and every smile as a weapon. Her husband,
3:18
Speaker 1: Richard Ashford, had been a banker with expensive tastes and
3:21
Speaker 1: poor judgment. He'd gambled away most of their money on
3:25
Speaker 1: bad investments and worse poker hands before putting a pistol
3:28
Speaker 1: in his mouth one humid August evening. Catherine had found
3:32
Speaker 1: him in his study, slumped over his mahogany desk, blood
3:36
Speaker 1: pooling on the ledgers that documented his failures. The scandal
3:40
Speaker 1: had been immediate and merciless. Whispers followed her everywhere. Poor Catherine.
3:47
Speaker 1: so young to be a widow. But had she driven
3:50
Speaker 1: him to it, surely she must have known about his debts.
3:54
Speaker 1: Perhaps she'd even encouraged his recklessness, hoping to inherit what
3:58
Speaker 1: little remained. She'd learned quickly that sympathy was a finite
4:02
Speaker 1: resource in high society, exhausted within weeks. But information never depreciated.
4:09
Speaker 1: Information could be parlayed into favor, into protection, into survival itself.
4:14
Speaker 1: So Catherine had reinvented herself as a woman who knew things,
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Speaker 1: who could be counted on to remember who had been
4:21
Speaker 1: seen with whom at which gathering, who could discreetly mention
4:25
Speaker 1: that a certain gentleman's business was on shaky ground, or
4:28
Speaker 1: that a certain lady's daughter was perhaps too friendly with
4:31
Speaker 1: the stable boy. It was this reputation that had earned
4:35
Speaker 1: her the invitation to Edgar Vandermeer's autumn gala, and it
4:39
Speaker 1: was this reputation that made her dangerous. You're certain he'll
4:43
Speaker 1: be here tonight? Catherine asked, not turning from the window
4:47
Speaker 1: where raindrops raced each other down the glass like tears.
4:51
Speaker 1: Her companion, a sharp-featured woman named Margaret Sinclair, adjusted the
4:56
Speaker 1: ostrich feathers in her elaborate coiffure, which had been constructed
4:59
Speaker 1: that afternoon by a French lady's maid at considerable expense.
5:04
Speaker 1: Margaret was forty-two, never married, and possessed a fortune inherited
5:08
Speaker 1: from a father who'd made his money in whaling before
5:11
Speaker 1: that industry started its long, slow decline. She spent her
5:16
Speaker 1: days managing charitable organizations and her evenings collecting gossip with
5:21
Speaker 1: the dedication of a museum curator. Harrison Blackwell attends every
5:26
Speaker 1: Vandermeer gathering, Margaret replied, her voice carrying the faint trace
5:30
Speaker 1: of a Boston accent she'd never quite managed to erase,
5:33
Speaker 1: despite decades in Providence. The man thinks he's untouchable since
5:38
Speaker 1: his shipping company secured those government contracts. Military supplies to
5:42
Speaker 1: Fort Adams, I hear. Blankets and salt pork and God
5:46
Speaker 1: knows what else. The profit margins must be extraordinary. No
5:50
Speaker 1: one is untouchable. Catherine murmured, watching the mansion grow larger
5:55
Speaker 1: as they approached. Everyone has something to hide. Everyone has
5:59
Speaker 1: done something they'd rather the world didn't know about. The
6:02
Speaker 1: trick is finding out what it is before they find
6:04
Speaker 1: out what you've done. Margaret gave her a sidelong glance.
6:09
Speaker 1: You've become rather cynical, my dear. I've become rather realistic.
6:14
Speaker 1: There's a difference. The carriage rolled to a stop beneath
6:17
Speaker 1: the mansion's port cocher, and liveried footmen descended with umbrellas
6:22
Speaker 1: like a choreographed ballet, their movements precise and practiced. Catherine
6:27
Speaker 1: stepped out into the November cold, her emerald gown immediately
6:31
Speaker 1: soaked at the hem despite their best efforts. The fabric
6:35
Speaker 1: clung to her legs, heavy with water. The mansion loomed
6:39
Speaker 1: above her, four stories of bozar architecture that seemed to
6:42
Speaker 1: absorb light rather than reflect it. Gargoyles perched along the roofline,
6:47
Speaker 1: their stone mouths open in silent screams, water streaming from
6:52
Speaker 1: their eyes like tears of grief for sins not yet committed.
6:56
Speaker 1: The massive front doors were carved from oak and reinforced
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Speaker 1: with iron bands that looked like they could withstand a siege.
7:03
Speaker 1: They swung open as Catherine approached, revealing a butler so
7:07
Speaker 1: tall and gaunt he might have been assembled from spare
7:10
Speaker 1: parts scavenged from a mortuary. His face held all the
7:14
Speaker 1: warmth and expression of the gargoyles above.' Mrs. Ashford, Mrs. Sinclair. Welcome,'
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Speaker 1: the butler intoned, his voice carrying the hollow resonance of
7:25
Speaker 1: a man speaking from the bottom of a well.' Mr.
7:29
Speaker 1: Vandermeer will receive guests in the Grand Salon. May I
7:33
Speaker 1: take your coats?' The entry hall stole Catherine's breath, not
7:38
Speaker 1: with beauty but with overwhelming, almost oppressive opulence. It was
7:43
Speaker 1: the kind of wealth that didn't whisper but shouted, that
7:47
Speaker 1: didn't suggest prosperity but demanded acknowledgement of power. Marble columns
7:53
Speaker 1: rose to a frescoed ceiling where gilt-winged angels danced among
7:57
Speaker 1: clouds painted in shades of cerulean and cream. Twin staircases
8:02
Speaker 1: curved upward like embracing arms. Their banisters carved from mahogany
8:07
Speaker 1: shipped from the Philippines at God only knew what expense.
8:11
Speaker 1: Crystal chandeliers hung from bronze chains, so massive they could
8:15
Speaker 1: have moored ships, each one containing enough candles to light
8:18
Speaker 1: a small village for a week. The floor was Italian marble,
8:22
Speaker 1: black and white arranged in a dizzying geometric pattern that
8:25
Speaker 1: seemed to shift and move if you stared at it
8:27
Speaker 1: too long. The air smelled of expensive cigars imported from Cuba.
8:33
Speaker 1: French perfume that cost more per ounce. than most workers
8:36
Speaker 1: earned in a month, and something else Catherine couldn't quite identify.
8:41
Speaker 1: Something metallic and cold, like the inside of a bank vault.
8:45
Speaker 1: Like the smell of money, if money had a smell
8:48
Speaker 1: beyond ink and paper. They followed the butler through corridors
8:52
Speaker 1: lined with oil paintings of stern-faced ancestors who probably weren't
8:56
Speaker 1: Vandermeer's actual relatives at all. New money always tried to
9:01
Speaker 1: buy old legitimacy. commissioning portraits of noble-looking strangers and claiming
9:06
Speaker 1: them as great-grandfathers. Catherine studied the walls as they walked,
9:12
Speaker 1: noting details that seemed slightly off. The walls were unusually thick,
9:17
Speaker 1: she realized. The sounds of the gathering party ahead should
9:21
Speaker 1: have been louder, clearer. Instead, they seemed dampened, swallowed by
9:27
Speaker 1: something more than just expensive wallpaper and heavy drapes. The
9:31
Speaker 1: Grand Salon glittered with Providence's elite and those who aspired
9:35
Speaker 1: to join their ranks. Women dripped with diamonds that caught
9:39
Speaker 1: the chandelier light and threw rainbows across the Persian carpets,
9:43
Speaker 1: their necks and wrists and ears decorated with fortunes that
9:47
Speaker 1: could have fed entire neighborhoods. Men clustered in tight groups,
9:51
Speaker 1: their conversations a low rumble of stock prices, political maneuvers,
9:56
Speaker 1: and carefully veiled threats disguised as business proposals. A string
10:01
Speaker 1: quartet played Vivaldi in the corner with professional competence, though
10:05
Speaker 1: no one seemed to be listening. The music was simply
10:09
Speaker 1: another expensive accessory, like the champagne or the imported flowers
10:14
Speaker 1: or the liveried servants who glided between the guests like ghosts.
10:19
Speaker 1: Edgar Vandermeer stood near the fireplace, holding court like a
10:23
Speaker 1: king among courtiers. He was handsome in the way powerful
10:26
Speaker 1: men often are, not through any particular beauty of feature,
10:30
Speaker 1: but through the confidence that comes from knowing you can
10:33
Speaker 1: destroy anyone in the room with a word or a signature.
10:38
Speaker 1: His dark hair was slicked back with pomade that smelled
10:41
Speaker 1: of bergamot and something spicy. His evening coat was cut
10:45
Speaker 1: from English wool. his waistcoat embroidered with silver thread, his
10:50
Speaker 1: cravat pinned with a diamond the size of a robin's egg.
10:54
Speaker 1: His smile was practiced and empty, reaching his lips but
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Speaker 1: never quite making it to his eyes, which were the
11:00
Speaker 1: cold grey colour of January rain. Catherine Ashford, he said,
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Speaker 1: his voice carrying across the room despite the din, cutting
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Speaker 1: through conversations like a knife through butter. You honour my
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Speaker 1: home with your presence, Mr. Vandermeer. Catherine offered her hand,
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Speaker 1: which he kissed with theatrical precision, his lips barely brushing
11:24
Speaker 1: her glove. Your reputation for hospitality precedes you, though I
11:29
Speaker 1: must say the reality exceeds even the most extravagant rumors.
11:33
Speaker 1: I've heard this mansion described as the finest private residence
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Speaker 1: between New York and Boston, and I'm inclined to believe it.
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Speaker 1: I believe our homes should reflect our aspirations, Vandermeer said.
11:46
Speaker 1: his eyes never leaving hers, studying her with an intensity
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Speaker 1: that felt almost predatory. Tell me, Mrs. Ashford, what are
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Speaker 1: your aspirations? What do you dream about in the small
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Speaker 1: hours of the morning when sleep won't come and the
12:00
Speaker 1: world is quiet? The question was too intimate for a
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Speaker 1: casual social gathering, too probing. Catherine felt Margaret stiffen beside her,
12:10
Speaker 1: but she'd been asked worse questions and survived them. To
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Speaker 1: survive the winter without pneumonia, she replied lightly, earning a
12:18
Speaker 1: laugh from the nearby guests. And perhaps to see my
12:22
Speaker 1: garden bloom again in spring. Simple pleasures, mister. Vandermeer, I'm
12:28
Speaker 1: afraid I lack your grand vision. Survival is such a
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Speaker 1: limited goal, he said still watching her with those cold
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Speaker 1: grey eyes. I prefer to aim higher. Dominance, perhaps, or control.
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Speaker 1: the ability to shape the world rather than simply endure it.
12:45
Speaker 1: Before Catherine could respond, a portly man in an ill-fitting
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Speaker 1: evening coat interrupted, clapping Vandermeer on the shoulder with the
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Speaker 1: familiarity of long acquaintance or significant financial investment. Vandermeer, you
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Speaker 1: old devil! I hear your railway expansion into the Western
13:02
Speaker 1: Territories is proceeding ahead of schedule. The transcontinental connection, isn't
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Speaker 1: that what you're calling it? Vandermeer's smile shifted, becoming warmer.
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Speaker 1: more genuine. Senator Pemberton, I'm pleased to report that we've
13:15
Speaker 1: laid track through three mountain passes that engineers said were
13:19
Speaker 1: impossible to cross. We'll be connecting Denver to Salt Lake
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Speaker 1: City by spring, God willing and weather permitting. Catherine drifted
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Speaker 1: away from the conversation as it turned to technical details
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Speaker 1: of railway construction, finding herself a glass of champagne from
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Speaker 1: a passing tray. She sipped it slowly, the bubbles tickling
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Speaker 1: her nose and and surveyed the room with the practiced
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Speaker 1: eye of someone who'd learned to read gatherings the way
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Speaker 1: scholars read books. There in the corner was Harrison Blackwell,
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Speaker 1: the shipping magnate Margaret had mentioned. He was a thick-bodied
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Speaker 1: man with mutton-chop whiskers gone grey and small, mean eyes
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Speaker 1: that darted constantly, as if searching for threats or opportunities.
14:02
Speaker 1: He stood with a group of younger men who hung
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Speaker 1: on his every word, laughing too loud at jokes that
14:07
Speaker 1: probably weren't funny, competing for his attention like dogs begging
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Speaker 1: for scraps. Near the window stood a couple Catherine recognized,
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Speaker 1: Thomas and Eleanor Caldwell, old money trying desperately to maintain
14:21
Speaker 1: relevance in a world that increasingly valued innovation over pedigree.
14:27
Speaker 1: Thomas's family fortune was came from textile mills established before
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Speaker 1: the Revolution, but foreign competition was eating into their profits
14:35
Speaker 1: year after year. Eleanor's pearls were real, but the diamonds
14:40
Speaker 1: in her ears were paste, a detail most people wouldn't
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Speaker 1: notice but Catherine had learned to spot. And everywhere weaving
14:47
Speaker 1: between the guests with the efficiency of worker ants were
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Speaker 1: Vandermeer's servants. Too many of them, Catherine realized. far more
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Speaker 1: than were strictly necessary for a gathering of this size,
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Speaker 1: and they moved with a strange uniformity, their eyes constantly scanning, watching, observing.
15:06
Speaker 1: The evening progressed with the predictable rhythm of high society affairs.
15:11
Speaker 1: Champagne flowed like the rain outside, an endless river of
15:15
Speaker 1: French bubbles that loosened tongues and lowered inhibitions. Servants glided
15:20
Speaker 1: through the crowds with silver trays of oysters on ice,
15:23
Speaker 1: foie gras on crackers, caviar from the Caspian Sea, and
15:27
Speaker 1: delicacies Catherine couldn't identify but ate anyway. She made conversation
15:32
Speaker 1: with senators' wives who pretended to care about charity work
15:36
Speaker 1: while mentally calculating the social advantage of each interaction. She
15:40
Speaker 1: laughed at bankers' jokes that weren't funny but served as
15:43
Speaker 1: loyalty tests. She complimented women on jewelry she knew they
15:48
Speaker 1: couldn't afford, and listened to men brag about business deals
15:52
Speaker 1: she suspected were illegal. And all the while, she kept
15:56
Speaker 1: one eye on Harrison Blackwell, trying to determine the best approach.
16:00
Speaker 1: She needed information about his shipping contracts, specifically about a
16:04
Speaker 1: certain cargo that had arrived at the Providence docks three
16:07
Speaker 1: weeks ago and immediately disappeared into warehouses owned by shell companies.
16:13
Speaker 1: Margaret had heard rumours that Whispers of irregularities, of manifests
16:18
Speaker 1: that didn't match the actual contents of crates. If Catherine
16:22
Speaker 1: could confirm those rumors, she could use that information to
16:25
Speaker 1: secure Blackwell's cooperation in another matter entirely, a property dispute
16:29
Speaker 1: involving a widow who'd hired Catherine to help protect her
16:32
Speaker 1: late husband's estate from predatory creditors. Dance with me. Catherine
16:39
Speaker 1: turned to find a young man at her elbow. He
16:42
Speaker 1: couldn't have been more than twenty-five, with sandy hair that
16:45
Speaker 1: refused to lie flat despite obvious applications of pomade, and
16:50
Speaker 1: earnest blue eyes that seemed almost childlike in this den
16:54
Speaker 1: of practiced deceit. He had the kind of face that
16:57
Speaker 1: belonged in a Sunday school class, not a Providence Society gathering.'
17:02
Speaker 1: I don't believe we've been introduced,' Catherine said. studying him
17:06
Speaker 1: with the wariness of someone who'd learned that earnest faces
17:10
Speaker 1: could hide calculating minds. Thomas Whitfield, he said, offering his
17:15
Speaker 1: arm with a slight bow that was charmingly old-fashioned. My
17:18
Speaker 1: father owns the Whitfield Steelworks. I've been trying to get
17:22
Speaker 1: up the courage to approach you all evening. The truth is,
17:25
Speaker 1: I've wanted to speak with you for quite some time,
17:28
Speaker 1: but I could never quite find the right moment or
17:30
Speaker 1: the right words. Intrigued, despite herself, Catherine accepted his arm,
17:35
Speaker 1: and allowed him to lead her to the dance floor,
17:38
Speaker 1: where couples swirled to a waltz the quartet was playing
17:41
Speaker 1: with mechanical precision. Thomas proved to be an adequate dancer,
17:46
Speaker 1: but an enthusiastic one, his steps perhaps a bit too large,
17:50
Speaker 1: his turns a bit too energetic. As they moved across
17:54
Speaker 1: the polished floor, Catherine noticed something odd. Every few moments
17:59
Speaker 1: Thomas would glance toward the walls and His expression troubled,
18:03
Speaker 1: his jaw tightening as if he was fighting some internal battle.
18:08
Speaker 1: You seem distracted, Mr. Whitfield, Catherine said, raising her voice
18:12
Speaker 1: slightly to be heard over the music. I apologize, he
18:17
Speaker 1: said quickly, his face flushing. It's just this house. Don't
18:21
Speaker 1: you find it strange? Don't you feel like something is
18:24
Speaker 1: fundamentally wrong here, even if you can't quite put your
18:27
Speaker 1: finger on what it is? Strange how? Thomas lowered his voice.
18:31
Speaker 1: Leaning closer as they turned, his breath smelled of peppermint
18:35
Speaker 1: and nervousness. The mirrors, look at them, really look, don't
18:40
Speaker 1: just glance, actually study them. Catherine turned her attention to
18:44
Speaker 1: the enormous gilt mirrors that lined the salon walls. At
18:48
Speaker 1: first glance they appeared normal, expensive certainly. Venetian glass set
18:53
Speaker 1: in elaborate frames carved with cherubs and grapevines and classical motifs.
18:59
Speaker 1: but as she studied them more closely during the next turn,
19:02
Speaker 1: she noticed something peculiar. The reflections were slightly off, as
19:06
Speaker 1: if the glass was thicker than it should be. The
19:09
Speaker 1: images were fractionally delayed, a heartbeat behind the actual movements
19:14
Speaker 1: they reflected. And in the candlelight, when the angle was
19:18
Speaker 1: just right, she could swear she saw movement behind the surface.
19:22
Speaker 1: Shadows that didn't match any guest in the room, shapes
19:25
Speaker 1: that shouldn't exist in a simple reflection. You're imagining things,
19:29
Speaker 1: she said, but her pulse quickened. Her instincts, honed by
19:34
Speaker 1: months of navigating dangerous social waters, told her that Thomas
19:38
Speaker 1: was right. Something was wrong here. Am I? Thomas's voice
19:43
Speaker 1: dropped even lower, becoming barely a whisper. Three weeks ago
19:47
Speaker 1: I attended a dinner party here, a small gathering. gathering,
19:50
Speaker 1: maybe twenty people. I had too much wine, more than
19:53
Speaker 1: I should have, and I wandered off looking for the
19:56
Speaker 1: water closet. I got lost in the east wing. The
19:59
Speaker 1: corridors here don't make sense, Mrs. Ashford. They twist and
20:03
Speaker 1: turn in ways that don't match the mansion's exterior dimensions,
20:08
Speaker 1: and the doors there Mrs. Ashford, they don't lead to
20:11
Speaker 1: normal rooms. Catherine's mouth went dry. What do you mean?
20:17
Speaker 1: I found a corridor that ran parallel to the main hallway, narrow,
20:21
Speaker 1: barely wide enough for a man to stand. And it
20:24
Speaker 1: had openings, small gaps in the wall covered with metal grating.
20:29
Speaker 1: You could see through them into the bedrooms, into the
20:31
Speaker 1: private spaces where guests were staying. That's absurd. Is it?
20:37
Speaker 1: Last week my father's business rival, a man named Cornelius Hatch,
20:42
Speaker 1: somehow knew about a private conversation my father had during
20:45
Speaker 1: a card game. A conversation about a pending railway contract,
20:50
Speaker 1: about which companies my father intended to support and which
20:54
Speaker 1: he intended to undermine. The conversation took place in one
20:58
Speaker 1: of Vandermeer's smoking rooms late at night, with no one
21:01
Speaker 1: else present. My father checked. He made absolutely certain they
21:05
Speaker 1: were alone. And yet, Three days later, Hatch confronted him
21:10
Speaker 1: with exact quotes from that conversation. Exact words, Mrs. Ashford.
21:15
Speaker 1: Not paraphrases or educated guesses. Verbatim quotations. The waltz ended.
21:22
Speaker 1: Catherine stepped back, her mind racing through implications and possibilities.
21:27
Speaker 1: If what Thomas was suggesting was true, if Vandermeer had
21:30
Speaker 1: actually built his mansion as some kind of elaborate listening device,
21:34
Speaker 1: then the ramifications were staggering. Every conversation held here, every
21:39
Speaker 1: private moment, every secret shared in what people assumed was safety,
21:44
Speaker 1: all of it could be compromised. All of it could
21:47
Speaker 1: be weaponized. Why are you telling me this? Catherine asked,
21:52
Speaker 1: studying Thomas's face for signs of deception or manipulation. Because
21:58
Speaker 1: I've heard things about you, Thomas said, meeting her eyes
22:01
Speaker 1: with that earnest gaze that seemed too innocent to be fake.
22:05
Speaker 1: They say you're clever. that you survived your husband's scandal
22:09
Speaker 1: by being three steps ahead of everyone else, that you
22:12
Speaker 1: turned tragedy into advantage through sheer force of will and intelligence.
22:17
Speaker 1: If something is wrong here, if Vandermeer is using this
22:20
Speaker 1: house for something sinister, someone needs to expose it. Someone
22:25
Speaker 1: brave enough to look. Someone smart enough to survive. I
22:29
Speaker 1: think you might be that person. Before Catherine could respond,
22:33
Speaker 1: a commotion erupted near the entrance hall. Raised voices. A
22:37
Speaker 1: woman's scream quickly muffled. The music stuttered to a halt.
22:42
Speaker 1: The conversations died like candle flames in a sudden wind.
22:46
Speaker 1: Every eye in the mansion turned toward the source of
22:48
Speaker 1: the disturbance. A woman had collapsed near the grand staircase,
22:53
Speaker 1: her champagne glass shattering on the marble floor in a
22:56
Speaker 1: spray of crystal shards and golden liquid. She was young,
23:00
Speaker 1: maybe twenty-two, wearing a pink gown that spread around her
23:03
Speaker 1: like petals. Her face was pale as milk. Her eyes
23:07
Speaker 1: rolled back to show the whites. Two servants rushed to
23:10
Speaker 1: her side, but not before Catherine noticed something. The woman's
23:14
Speaker 1: lips were blue. Not just pale from shock, but actually blue,
23:19
Speaker 1: the color of suffocation or poison. People surged forward, voices
23:24
Speaker 1: rising in alarm and concern. In the confusion, Catherine noticed
23:28
Speaker 1: Edgar Vandermeer slip out of the salon through a side door,
23:32
Speaker 1: moving with the quiet purpose of someone who didn't want
23:35
Speaker 1: to be observed. She made a decision, perhaps not a
23:38
Speaker 1: wise one, but the kind of decision that had kept
23:41
Speaker 1: her alive and relatively prosperous in a world designed to
23:45
Speaker 1: destroy widows and other inconvenient women. She followed. The corridor
23:50
Speaker 1: beyond the salon was dimly lit. The gas lamps turned
23:54
Speaker 1: low to conserve fuel, or perhaps to maintain atmosphere. The
23:58
Speaker 1: walls here were different from the public spaces, less ornate,
24:02
Speaker 1: more functional. Service corridors, Catherine realized. the passages servants used
24:07
Speaker 1: to move through the mansion without disturbing their betters. Catherine
24:11
Speaker 1: moved quickly but quietly, her years of navigating society's treacherous
24:16
Speaker 1: waters having taught her how to be both present and invisible.
24:20
Speaker 1: She learned to walk in a way that made minimal noise,
24:23
Speaker 1: to breathe shallowly so her presence wouldn't disturb the air,
24:27
Speaker 1: to exist as a ghost when necessary. Ahead of her,
24:31
Speaker 1: Vandermeer moved with purpose. his footsteps echoing on the hardwood floor,
24:36
Speaker 1: confident that no one would dare follow him into his
24:39
Speaker 1: private domain. He turned a corner, then another, leading deeper
24:44
Speaker 1: into the mansion's labyrinthine interior. Catherine counted her turns, trying
24:49
Speaker 1: to maintain her mental map of the house's layout, but
24:53
Speaker 1: she quickly became disoriented. The corridors here didn't follow logical patterns.
24:59
Speaker 1: They curved when they should have been straight, intersected at
25:02
Speaker 1: odd angles, created spaces that shouldn't exist within the mansion's footprint.
25:08
Speaker 1: Catherine stopped at a T-junction, uncertain which way Vandermeer had gone.
25:13
Speaker 1: She could hear nothing but her own heartbeat, thundering so
25:17
Speaker 1: loud she was certain anyone within fifty feet could hear it.
25:21
Speaker 1: She chose left, following some instinct she couldn't articulate, and
25:25
Speaker 1: found herself in a gallery hung with portraits of men
25:28
Speaker 1: in outdated fashions. powdered wigs and knee-breeches, the style of
25:33
Speaker 1: the previous century. The painted eyes seemed to follow her
25:36
Speaker 1: as she passed. The air here felt different. Colder, despite
25:41
Speaker 1: the November chill being uniform throughout the mansion. The sounds
25:45
Speaker 1: of the party had faded to a distant murmur, as
25:48
Speaker 1: if the house itself was swallowing the noise, digesting it,
25:52
Speaker 1: transforming it into silence. She was about to turn back,
25:56
Speaker 1: to abandon this fool's errand. and returned to the party
25:59
Speaker 1: before her absence was noted, when she heard voices. They
26:03
Speaker 1: came from behind the wall to her right, muffled but
26:06
Speaker 1: distinct enough to make out words. The senator is wavering
26:10
Speaker 1: on the railway bill. That was Vandermeer's voice, no question.
26:15
Speaker 1: His support is crucial. Without it, the transcontinental connection dies
26:20
Speaker 1: in committee. Then we'll need to persuade him. A woman's voice,
26:24
Speaker 1: cultured but hard. Educated accent, probably Boston or New York.
26:30
Speaker 1: The kind of voice that came from expensive boarding schools
26:33
Speaker 1: and European finishing tours. I have what we need, his
26:37
Speaker 1: letter to the actress. The one where he promised to
26:40
Speaker 1: leave his wife. Where he detailed his plans for divorce
26:44
Speaker 1: and remarriage. Quite touching, really. He has a way with words,
26:48
Speaker 1: our senator. Very poetic. Very incriminating. Excellent. And what about Blackwell?
26:56
Speaker 1: His shipping contracts are crucial to our operations. Blackwell is
27:00
Speaker 1: a fool who thinks his contracts protect him. He doesn't
27:03
Speaker 1: know I have records of every bribe he paid to
27:06
Speaker 1: secure them. Names, dates, amounts, everything documented and notarized. If
27:12
Speaker 1: he ever becomes troublesome, I can destroy him with a
27:15
Speaker 1: single letter to the newspapers. Catherine's blood ran cold. She'd
27:20
Speaker 1: suspected Vandermeer was ruthless, that he used information as currency.
27:25
Speaker 1: But this was different. This was systematic. Industrial. He wasn't
27:30
Speaker 1: just gathering gossip to trade at parties. He was building
27:33
Speaker 1: an arsenal of secrets, weapons to be deployed against anyone
27:38
Speaker 1: who opposed him. This wasn't social maneuvering. This was warfare.
27:42
Speaker 1: She needed to find the source of these voices. Catherine
27:46
Speaker 1: ran her hands along the wall, searching for a seam,
27:49
Speaker 1: a hidden door, anything that might explain how sound was
27:53
Speaker 1: traveling through solid construction. Her fingers found a slight indentation
27:57
Speaker 1: in the carved molding, a place where the wood didn't
28:00
Speaker 1: quite meet the wallpaper. She pressed, and a section of
28:04
Speaker 1: the wall swung inward with a soft click that sounded
28:08
Speaker 1: deafening in the silence. The passage beyond was narrow, just
28:12
Speaker 1: as Thomas had described. The walls were bare wood, rough
28:16
Speaker 1: and unfinished, the kind of construction that never saw daylight
28:20
Speaker 1: or public eyes. A single gas lamp burned at intervals,
28:24
Speaker 1: casting dancing shadows that made the passage seem to twist
28:27
Speaker 1: and writhe like something alive. Catherine could hear her own
28:31
Speaker 1: heartbeat thundering in her ears as she moved forward, one
28:34
Speaker 1: hand trailing along the wall for balance. Openings appeared in
28:38
Speaker 1: the wall at regular intervals, small slots covered with metal grating,
28:43
Speaker 1: the kind used in heating ducts. Catherine peered through one
28:47
Speaker 1: and found herself looking into a bedroom. She could see
28:51
Speaker 1: the four-poster bed, the vanity with its array of perfume
28:55
Speaker 1: bottles and cosmetics, the wardrobe with its door slightly ajar.
29:00
Speaker 1: Another opening revealed a study, its desk covered with papers
29:05
Speaker 1: weighted down by a brass paperweight. A third showed a bathroom,
29:09
Speaker 1: the copper tub gleaming in the lamplight, still steaming from
29:13
Speaker 1: recent use. Every room, every corner. The entire mansion was
29:19
Speaker 1: designed to be observed, to have no truly private spaces,
29:22
Speaker 1: to render its inhabitants as transparent as the windows they
29:25
Speaker 1: looked through. Catherine heard footsteps approaching from ahead and quickly
29:30
Speaker 1: pressed herself against the wall, making herself as small and
29:34
Speaker 1: still as possible. A figure passed by the opening she'd
29:37
Speaker 1: entered through, silhouetted against the light from the gallery. She
29:41
Speaker 1: held her breath until her lungs burned, praying the shadows
29:45
Speaker 1: would hide her, praying that whoever was moving through these
29:48
Speaker 1: passages was too focused on their own mission to notice
29:51
Speaker 1: an intruder. The footsteps faded. Catherine exhaled slowly, her breath
29:57
Speaker 1: misting in the cold air. She continued forward, the passage
30:01
Speaker 1: twisting and turning, following the mansion's perimeter like a parasite
30:05
Speaker 1: following a body's circulatory system. She passed more viewing slots,
30:09
Speaker 1: each offering a window into the private spaces of Vandermeer's guests.
30:14
Speaker 1: Through one, she saw a couple arguing in hushed, angry whispers.
30:19
Speaker 1: The man's face was red with barely contained rage. The
30:23
Speaker 1: woman's eyes glittered with tears she refused to shed. Through another,
30:28
Speaker 1: she saw a man counting money from a leather satchel,
30:31
Speaker 1: his fingers moving with practiced speed as he sorted bills
30:34
Speaker 1: into neat stacks. Through a third, she saw a woman
30:38
Speaker 1: reading a letter, her expression shifting from hope to despair
30:42
Speaker 1: as her eyes travelled down the page. All of it watched.
30:47
Speaker 1: All of it recorded. If not on paper, then in
30:50
Speaker 1: the mind of whoever travelled these passages. All of it weaponised,
30:55
Speaker 1: transformed from private moments into potential instruments of control. The
31:00
Speaker 1: corridor ended at a heavy wooden door, reinforced with iron
31:04
Speaker 1: bands that spoke of serious security measures. Catherine tried the handle. Locked, naturally.
31:11
Speaker 1: But through the gap at the bottom, she could see light.
31:15
Speaker 1: And she could hear voices again, clearer now, multiple speakers
31:19
Speaker 1: in animated conversation. Congressman Riley will vote against the labor
31:23
Speaker 1: bill if we threaten to expose his gambling debts. He
31:26
Speaker 1: owes $ 17, 000 to various establishments, some of them quite unsavory.
31:33
Speaker 1: And Senator Morrison? His opposition could be problematic. His daughter's
31:39
Speaker 1: indiscretion at the boarding school in Connecticut. We have testimony
31:43
Speaker 1: from three witnesses who saw her with the stable boy.
31:46
Speaker 1: In her condition, marriage will be urgent. The scandal would
31:50
Speaker 1: destroy Morrison's chances for re-election. What about the Caldwell textile situation?
31:56
Speaker 1: Thomas Caldwell is on the verge of bankruptcy. He's been
31:59
Speaker 1: hiding it well, but our informants tell us he's three
32:02
Speaker 1: months behind on payments to his suppliers. One word to
32:05
Speaker 1: his creditors and they'll force him into liquidation. His mills
32:09
Speaker 1: will sell at auction for pennies on the dollar. Catherine's
32:13
Speaker 1: hands trembled. She needed to get out of these passages,
32:17
Speaker 1: back to the party, and then out of this cursed
32:19
Speaker 1: house entirely. She needed to tell someone what she'd discovered.
32:24
Speaker 1: But who? The police? Half of them were probably in
32:28
Speaker 1: Vandermeer's files. The newspapers? The editors depended on Vandermeer's advertising
32:34
Speaker 1: revenue and political connections. She turned to retrace her steps
32:38
Speaker 1: and found her path blocked. Edgar Vandermeer stood in the
32:42
Speaker 1: narrow corridor, his expression unreadable in the dim light. Behind him,
32:47
Speaker 1: blocking any hope of retreat, stood two of his footmen.
32:51
Speaker 1: Large men with the dead eyes of people who'd seen
32:53
Speaker 1: too much and felt too little. Mrs. Ashford, Vandermeer said quietly,
32:59
Speaker 1: his voice carrying an almost sad quality. I had hoped
33:03
Speaker 1: you would have better sense than to go exploring. I
33:06
Speaker 1: really did. You seemed like a woman who understood the
33:10
Speaker 1: value of discretion. Catherine's mind raced through options, calculating odds,
33:16
Speaker 1: searching for leverage. I got lost looking for the powder room.
33:21
Speaker 1: In a secret passage behind the walls, Vandermeer stepped closer,
33:25
Speaker 1: and Catherine could smell his cologne, expensive and cloying. Please
33:30
Speaker 1: don't insult either of our intelligence. We're both too clever
33:33
Speaker 1: for such transparent lies. What is this place? Insurance, Vandermeer said,
33:39
Speaker 1: his voice matter-of-fact, as if he was discussing portfolio diversification
33:44
Speaker 1: or crop futures. In business, Mrs. Ashford, information is the
33:48
Speaker 1: only currency that never devalues. Stocks crash, banks fail, fortunes
33:54
Speaker 1: evaporate overnight. But secrets? Secrets retain their worth indefinitely. These
34:01
Speaker 1: passages allow me to gather that currency, to see what
34:04
Speaker 1: people really are when they think no one is watching,
34:07
Speaker 1: to hear what they say when they believe their words
34:10
Speaker 1: are private. You're blackmailing them, all of them. Blackmail is
34:15
Speaker 1: such an ugly word, don't you think? I prefer to
34:18
Speaker 1: think of it as strategic leverage. Providence is built on influence, Mrs. Ashford.
34:24
Speaker 1: Fortunes rise and fall based on who knows what about whom.
34:28
Speaker 1: Political careers hinge on carefully managed reputations. Social standing depends
34:34
Speaker 1: on maintaining certain appearances. I simply ensured I would always
34:38
Speaker 1: know more than anyone else. That I would always have
34:41
Speaker 1: the leverage necessary to protect my interests and advance my goals.
34:46
Speaker 1: The people at your party tonight, they're all being watched.
34:51
Speaker 1: Right now. Of course. As we speak, my associates are
34:55
Speaker 1: cataloging every conversation, every gesture, every secret whispered in what
35:00
Speaker 1: they believe are secure corners. By tomorrow morning, I'll have
35:04
Speaker 1: enough material to influence a dozen votes in the state legislature,
35:08
Speaker 1: secure three business contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,
35:12
Speaker 1: and destroy at least two reputations completely. It's quite efficient, really.
35:17
Speaker 1: Catherine's stomach turned. You're a monster. I'm a pragmatist who
35:23
Speaker 1: understands how the world actually works, rather than how people
35:27
Speaker 1: pretend it works. And you, Mrs. Ashford, are now part
35:31
Speaker 1: of a very exclusive group. You know my secret. Which
35:35
Speaker 1: means you've become a liability. A problem that requires solution.
35:40
Speaker 1: The temperature in the passage seemed to drop twenty degrees.
35:44
Speaker 1: Catherine's eyes darted past Vandermeer, calculating if she could slip
35:48
Speaker 1: past him, run back the way she'd come. somehow reach
35:52
Speaker 1: the party and scream for help. Don't be foolish, Vandermeer said,
35:57
Speaker 1: reading her intention with the ease of someone who'd spent
35:59
Speaker 1: years studying human behavior. There are six exits from these passages,
36:04
Speaker 1: and I have men stationed at each one. You cannot escape.
36:08
Speaker 1: The house won't let you. But I'm not an unreasonable man.
36:12
Speaker 1: Despite what you think of me, despite the harsh words
36:14
Speaker 1: you just used, I'm willing to offer you a choice.
36:18
Speaker 1: More generosity than I've shown others in your position, I
36:21
Speaker 1: might add. What choice? Join me. Use that clever mind
36:27
Speaker 1: of yours, that talent for observation and deduction, to help
36:31
Speaker 1: me expand this operation. You have access to circles I
36:35
Speaker 1: cannot penetrate. The women's charity organizations, the church committees, the
36:40
Speaker 1: afternoon tea gatherings where real power in this city is
36:43
Speaker 1: negotiated behind china cups and polite conversation— Help me put
36:47
Speaker 1: ears in those rooms, and I'll make you wealthy beyond
36:50
Speaker 1: your current imagination. You'll never have to worry about money again,
36:54
Speaker 1: never have to debase yourself gathering scraps of gossip to
36:58
Speaker 1: sell to the highest bidder. You'll have real power, Mrs. Ashford,
37:02
Speaker 1: the kind that lasts. And if I refuse, Vandermeer's smile
37:07
Speaker 1: was colder than the November rain hammering against the mansion's windows,
37:12
Speaker 1: then I'm afraid you'll have to join the other guests
37:14
Speaker 1: who discovered my secret. They're buried in the cellar, beneath
37:18
Speaker 1: the wine storage. The foundation is quite deep, you see.
37:23
Speaker 1: We dug it extra deep when we built the mansion.
37:25
Speaker 1: Very convenient for... disposal. No one will ever find them.
37:30
Speaker 1: And no one will ever find you. Catherine's blood turned
37:34
Speaker 1: to ice. You've killed people. Multiple people. Only those who
37:39
Speaker 1: gave me no choice. Only those who threatened to expose
37:43
Speaker 1: what I've built here. the newspaper editor who started asking
37:47
Speaker 1: questions about how I seemed to know things I shouldn't,
37:51
Speaker 1: the private investigator hired by a suspicious wife whose husband
37:55
Speaker 1: had confided the wrong secrets in my guest bedroom, a
37:59
Speaker 1: former business partner who developed an inconvenient conscience after learning
38:03
Speaker 1: about my methods. They're all quite comfortable now, quite beyond
38:08
Speaker 1: caring about such earthly concerns. He spoke of murder the
38:11
Speaker 1: way other men spoke of firing incompetent employees. Casual. Necessary. Unpleasant,
38:18
Speaker 1: but ultimately justified by the bottom line. You seem like
38:22
Speaker 1: a reasonable woman, Mrs. Ashford. Surely you can see the
38:26
Speaker 1: wisdom in cooperation over resistance. You've already proven yourself adaptable.
38:31
Speaker 1: You survived your husband's scandal through intelligence and determination. You've
38:35
Speaker 1: built a new life from the ashes of the old one.
38:38
Speaker 1: This is simply the next adaptation. The next evolution. She
38:42
Speaker 1: could scream. But would anyone hear her through these thick walls,
38:47
Speaker 1: through the layers of insulation and careful construction designed specifically
38:52
Speaker 1: to muffle sound? Would anyone come, or would Vandermeer simply
38:57
Speaker 1: claim she'd taken ill, had to leave early, met with
39:01
Speaker 1: some unfortunate accident on the fog-shrouded streets of Providence? I
39:06
Speaker 1: need time to think, Catherine said, forcing her voice to
39:10
Speaker 1: remain steady despite the terror clawing at her throat. Of course.
39:15
Speaker 1: A reasonable request. Take until midnight. I'll have someone escort
39:20
Speaker 1: you to the blue room. It's quite comfortable. Locked, naturally,
39:24
Speaker 1: for your own protection. We wouldn't want you to have
39:27
Speaker 1: any more unfortunate wanderings. When the clock strikes twelve, I'll
39:31
Speaker 1: return for your answer. Choose wisely, Mrs. Ashford. Your life
39:35
Speaker 1: depends on it, quite literally. One of the footmen grabbed
39:39
Speaker 1: her arm with professional efficiency, his grip just tight enough
39:42
Speaker 1: to hurt without leaving visible bruises. They led her down
39:46
Speaker 1: the passage, through a concealed door hidden behind a full-length mirror,
39:51
Speaker 1: and up a servant's staircase that smelled of lye soap
39:53
Speaker 1: and boiled cabbage. The mansion's secret skeleton, the infrastructure that
39:58
Speaker 1: supported its gleaming façade. The blue room lived up to
40:02
Speaker 1: its name. Every surface was covered in varying shades of blue,
40:06
Speaker 1: from the sapphire velvet curtains to the midnight silk bedspread
40:10
Speaker 1: to the powder blue wallpaper, decorated with delicate silver filigree.
40:15
Speaker 1: A fire crackled in the marble fireplace, but it did
40:18
Speaker 1: nothing to warm the chill in Catherine's bones. This wasn't
40:22
Speaker 1: cold from temperature. This was the cold of absolute terror.
40:27
Speaker 1: The footman left without a word. She heard the lock click,
40:31
Speaker 1: solid and final. The windows, when she checked them, were
40:35
Speaker 1: sealed shut, their handles removed. Someone had thought of everything.
40:40
Speaker 1: Someone had planned for this contingency. Catherine paced the room.
40:45
Speaker 1: her mind spinning through scenarios like a gambler shuffling cards.
40:50
Speaker 1: She could agree to Vandermeer's proposal, pretend to cooperate, then
40:54
Speaker 1: find a way to expose him later. But he was
40:57
Speaker 1: clearly too smart for such an obvious ploy. He'd test
41:01
Speaker 1: her loyalty, probably by having her gather information that would
41:05
Speaker 1: implicate her in his schemes. Once she was compromised, once
41:09
Speaker 1: her hands were dirty, she'd never be able to turn
41:12
Speaker 1: on him without destroying herself. She could try to escape,
41:16
Speaker 1: but how? The door was locked solid. The windows were sealed.
41:21
Speaker 1: Even if she managed to break free, Vandermeer had men
41:24
Speaker 1: throughout the mansion. She'd never make it to the street,
41:28
Speaker 1: and if she did, who would believe her? A widow
41:31
Speaker 1: with a scandalous past accusing one of Providence's most prominent
41:35
Speaker 1: citizens of murder and espionage. They'd think she'd lost her mind.
41:40
Speaker 1: Or she could refuse his offer. and accept whatever fate
41:43
Speaker 1: he'd planned for those who defied him. Join the bodies
41:47
Speaker 1: in the cellar, become another disappeared person, another unsolved mystery.
41:52
Speaker 1: None of the options ended well. As the hours crept
41:56
Speaker 1: toward midnight, Catherine studied every inch of the blue room,
42:00
Speaker 1: searching for something, anything that might help her. She examined
42:04
Speaker 1: the fireplace, wondering if the chimney might offer escape, but
42:08
Speaker 1: it was too narrow and filled with smoke. She checked
42:11
Speaker 1: the floorboards, hoping for a loose one that might hide
42:14
Speaker 1: something useful, but they were solid and well-maintained. She even
42:18
Speaker 1: examined the furniture, looking for anything that might be weaponized,
42:22
Speaker 1: but everything was too heavy or too delicate to be
42:25
Speaker 1: of use. The clock on the mantle showed eleven-thirty. Thirty
42:29
Speaker 1: minutes until Vandermeer returned. Thirty minutes to decide between death
42:34
Speaker 1: and damnation. That's when she noticed something odd about the
42:39
Speaker 1: mirror above the vanity. It was slightly askew, hanging at
42:43
Speaker 1: an angle that didn't match the room's otherwise perfect symmetry.
42:47
Speaker 1: Catherine approached it slowly, studying its reflection. And then she
42:51
Speaker 1: saw it. A faint seam in the wall behind the mirror.
42:55
Speaker 1: Another hidden door. Her heart racing, Catherine carefully lifted the
42:59
Speaker 1: mirror from its hooks and set it aside. The seam
43:03
Speaker 1: became more visible. She pressed on it, and a section
43:06
Speaker 1: of walls swung inward, revealing another of those narrow passages.
43:11
Speaker 1: Catherine didn't hesitate. She slipped into the darkness. This passage
43:15
Speaker 1: was different from the one she'd been caught in earlier. Rougher,
43:19
Speaker 1: less maintained. Cobwebs stretched across the ceiling. Dust lay thick
43:25
Speaker 1: on the floor. This wasn't part of Vandermeer's regular surveillance network.
43:30
Speaker 1: This was something older, probably original to the house's construction.
43:34
Speaker 1: She moved forward, guided only by faint light filtering through
43:39
Speaker 1: cracks in the walls. The passage twisted and descended, taking
43:43
Speaker 1: her down into the mansion's lower levels. She passed openings
43:47
Speaker 1: that showed the kitchen, where servants cleaned up from the party.
43:51
Speaker 1: She passed slots that revealed wine cellars, storage rooms, coal bins,
43:56
Speaker 1: and then she found the door. Heavy wood, reinforced with iron,
44:01
Speaker 1: exactly like the one she'd seen in the surveillance passages,
44:04
Speaker 1: but this one was slightly ajar. Catherine pushed it open,
44:09
Speaker 1: and immediately wished she hadn't. The chamber beyond was larger
44:13
Speaker 1: than she'd expected, carved out of the bedrock beneath the mansion.
44:17
Speaker 1: Gas lamps flickered along the walls, casting dancing shadows across
44:21
Speaker 1: the horror laid out before her. Bodies. Not three, as
44:25
Speaker 1: Vandermeer had said. At least a dozen, maybe more, arranged
44:29
Speaker 1: in neat rows along one wall. Some were wrapped in canvas,
44:34
Speaker 1: others in simple wooden boxes. The smell was overpowering despite
44:39
Speaker 1: the lime scattered across the floor. Death and decay and
44:43
Speaker 1: the sweet, sickly odor of bodies returning to the earth.
44:47
Speaker 1: But that wasn't the worst of it. Along the opposite
44:51
Speaker 1: wall was a desk covered with papers, files stacked in
44:54
Speaker 1: careful organization. Catherine recognized names on the folders. Senator Morrison.
45:01
Speaker 1: Congressman Riley. Harrison Blackwell. The Caldwells. Names she recognized from
45:07
Speaker 1: the party upstairs, from Providence Society, from newspaper headlines. And
45:12
Speaker 1: behind the desk, working by lamplight, was someone Catherine recognized.
45:18
Speaker 1: Margaret Sinclair, her supposed friend, sat examining documents with the
45:23
Speaker 1: focused attention of a scholar studying sacred texts. Margaret looked up,
45:28
Speaker 1: saw Catherine, and sighed. Well, Margaret said, setting down her papers.
45:35
Speaker 1: This is unfortunate. Catherine's world tilted sideways. You work for him.
45:41
Speaker 1: You brought me here. I work with him, actually. There's
45:44
Speaker 1: a distinction. Edgar provides the infrastructure. I provide the access.
45:49
Speaker 1: Between us, we've created something quite remarkable. A network of
45:53
Speaker 1: information that spans this entire city. Every secret, every scandal,
45:58
Speaker 1: every weakness. All catalogued, all available for use. You invited
46:04
Speaker 1: me to this party knowing what would happen. I invited
46:08
Speaker 1: you because Edgar wanted to test you. To see if
46:11
Speaker 1: you'd notice the inconsistencies, if you'd go looking for answers.
46:15
Speaker 1: He has a talent for identifying people who might be
46:18
Speaker 1: useful to our operation. You've survived where others failed, Catherine.
46:23
Speaker 1: You've adapted to changing circumstances. Those are valuable traits. So
46:29
Speaker 1: this was all a set-up. Thomas Whitfield, the collapsed woman, everything.
46:34
Speaker 1: Thomas is genuine, poor fool. He actually did stumble onto
46:38
Speaker 1: the passages, and he's been suspicious ever since. We've been
46:42
Speaker 1: monitoring him to see if he'll become a problem. The
46:45
Speaker 1: woman who collapsed had a weak heart. We knew the
46:48
Speaker 1: excitement might trigger an episode. Unfortunate, but useful as a distraction.
46:54
Speaker 1: Catherine's mind reeled. How many people are involved in this?
47:00
Speaker 1: In Providence, perhaps two dozen who know the full scope.
47:03
Speaker 1: Many more who provide pieces of information without understanding the
47:07
Speaker 1: larger picture. Servants who listen, society ladies who share gossip,
47:11
Speaker 1: businessmen who pass along financial intelligence. It's a beautiful system, really.
47:16
Speaker 1: Everyone contributes, everyone benefits, or at least everyone who cooperates benefits.
47:22
Speaker 1: And those who don't cooperate end up down here. Only
47:26
Speaker 1: when necessary. Edgar doesn't enjoy killing, contrary to what you
47:31
Speaker 1: might think. It's simply a cost of doing business, like
47:34
Speaker 1: paying taxes or maintaining equipment. Footsteps echoed in the passage
47:39
Speaker 1: behind Catherine. Edgar Vandermeer emerged from the shadows, followed by
47:45
Speaker 1: two of his footmen. Mrs. Ashford, he said, checking his
47:49
Speaker 1: pocket watch. You're early, and you've found our archive. I
47:54
Speaker 1: must say I'm impressed. Most people trapped in the blue
47:57
Speaker 1: room never think to check behind the mirror. You truly
48:00
Speaker 1: are remarkable. You planned this, Catherine said, her voice hollow.
48:06
Speaker 1: All of it. I gave you a choice. The room,
48:09
Speaker 1: the time, the pressure. All designed to help you make
48:13
Speaker 1: the correct decision. But I also gave you tools, hints,
48:17
Speaker 1: opportunities to demonstrate your resourcefulness. The mirror, the passage, even
48:22
Speaker 1: Margaret's presence here. All of it a test. What kind
48:26
Speaker 1: of monster are you? The successful kind, Vandermeer replied. the
48:32
Speaker 1: kind who understands that power comes not from what you own,
48:35
Speaker 1: but from what you know. Now, Mrs. Ashford, you've seen everything.
48:40
Speaker 1: You understand the scope of what we've built. So I'll
48:43
Speaker 1: ask you one final time. Will you join us or
48:46
Speaker 1: will you join them? He gestured toward the bodies. Catherine
48:50
Speaker 1: looked at Margaret, who watched her with cool appraisal. She
48:54
Speaker 1: looked at Vandermeer, who waited with patient certainty. She looked
48:59
Speaker 1: at the files, the records of destruction, the evidence of
49:02
Speaker 1: systematic evil. And then she looked at the bodies. Human
49:08
Speaker 1: beings reduced to problems, to complications, to waste products of
49:12
Speaker 1: an efficient system. I need to know something first, Catherine said,
49:18
Speaker 1: her voice steadier than she felt. The woman who collapsed tonight.
49:23
Speaker 1: Did you poison her? Vandermeer's expression didn't change. Yes. She
49:29
Speaker 1: was the sister of a newspaper editor who was getting
49:31
Speaker 1: too curious. Her death will serve as a warning to him.
49:35
Speaker 1: He'll understand the message. So you're not just blackmailing people,
49:39
Speaker 1: you're killing them, actively, continuously, when necessary. It's all quite
49:45
Speaker 1: logical if you think about it dispassionately. Catherine nodded slowly,
49:50
Speaker 1: as if considering this, as if weighing the logic of
49:53
Speaker 1: mass murder against the benefits of survival. She took a
49:57
Speaker 1: step forward, closing the distance between herself and Vandermeer. I
50:02
Speaker 1: have one more question, she said. Yes? How many people
50:07
Speaker 1: know about this room? This specific chamber? Vandermeer glanced at Margaret.
50:13
Speaker 1: Just the three of us in this room. Why? Because
50:16
Speaker 1: you made a mistake, Catherine said, and screamed. She screamed
50:21
Speaker 1: with every ounce of air in her lungs, a sound
50:24
Speaker 1: of pure terror that echoed through the passages and up
50:27
Speaker 1: through the mansion's infrastructure. The thick walls that were designed
50:32
Speaker 1: to muffle sound from the surveillance passages didn't extend down here.
50:37
Speaker 1: Down here, in the mansion's bedrock, sound travelled differently. Vandermeer
50:42
Speaker 1: lunged for her, but Catherine was already moving, dodging past
50:45
Speaker 1: him toward the passage. One of the footmen grabbed her arm,
50:48
Speaker 1: but she twisted, using the momentum to swing around and
50:52
Speaker 1: drive her elbow into his throat. He released her with
50:56
Speaker 1: a choked gasp. She ran. Back through the passage, up
51:00
Speaker 1: the incline, her screams continuing, echoing, amplifying. She had no
51:05
Speaker 1: plan beyond making noise, beyond drawing attention, beyond ensuring that
51:10
Speaker 1: whatever happened next would not happen in quiet secrecy. She
51:14
Speaker 1: burst out of the passage into the kitchen, where servants
51:17
Speaker 1: froze in shock. She kept screaming, kept running, through the
51:22
Speaker 1: servants' corridor and into the main hallway. Behind her, she
51:26
Speaker 1: heard Vandermeer shouting orders, heard footsteps pounding in pursuit. The
51:31
Speaker 1: grand salon doors were still open, the party winding down
51:35
Speaker 1: but not yet over. Catherine ran through them, still screaming,
51:40
Speaker 1: blood on her dress from where she'd torn her arm
51:42
Speaker 1: on a rough edge of the passage, her hair wild,
51:45
Speaker 1: her face pale as death. The remaining guests stared in shock.
51:52
Speaker 1: Thomas Whitfield was there, his face going white as he
51:54
Speaker 1: recognized her distress. Harrison Blackwell stood near the window. his
51:59
Speaker 1: expression shifting from surprise to calculation. He's a murderer, Catherine screamed.
52:06
Speaker 1: Vandermeer kills people. There are bodies in the cellar. He
52:10
Speaker 1: watches everyone, spies on everything. The mansion is full of
52:14
Speaker 1: hidden passages. Vandermeer appeared in the doorway, his face a
52:19
Speaker 1: mask of concern. Mrs. Ashford has taken ill. The excitement,
52:25
Speaker 1: the champagne. She's clearly not herself. We need to get
52:28
Speaker 1: her somewhere quiet where she can rest. Liar. Catherine lunged
52:33
Speaker 1: toward the nearest guest. A senator she vaguely recognized. He
52:38
Speaker 1: has files on all of you. Every secret, every weakness.
52:42
Speaker 1: He's blackmailing the entire city. She's hysterical, Margaret said, appearing
52:48
Speaker 1: behind Vandermeer with perfect timing. Poor dear. She's never quite
52:53
Speaker 1: recovered from her husband's suicide. The strain has been too much.
52:58
Speaker 1: Catherine felt the room turning against her, saw the calculation
53:02
Speaker 1: in people's eyes, saw them weighing her credibility against Vandermeer's reputation,
53:08
Speaker 1: saw them choosing comfort over truth. And then Thomas Whitfield
53:14
Speaker 1: stepped forward. She's telling the truth, he said, his voice
53:19
Speaker 1: carrying despite his youth. I've seen the passages. Three weeks
53:23
Speaker 1: ago I told her about them. The mansion is built
53:26
Speaker 1: to spy on everyone who visits. Mr. Whitfield has been drinking,
53:31
Speaker 1: Vandermeer said smoothly. Both of them are clearly not themselves.
53:35
Speaker 1: Then let's search the house, Thomas said. Right now, if Mrs.
53:39
Speaker 1: Ashford is lying, if I'm lying, it will be obvious.
53:43
Speaker 1: But if we're telling the truth, everyone in this room
53:46
Speaker 1: deserves to know. For a moment, the balance teetered. Catherine
53:52
Speaker 1: could see Vandermeer calculating, weighing his options. He could try
53:57
Speaker 1: to deny everything, could attempt to remove both her and
54:00
Speaker 1: Thomas before they did more damage. But there were too
54:04
Speaker 1: many witnesses now, too many people who'd heard the accusations.
54:09
Speaker 1: Harrison Blackwell spoke up, his voice gruff. I'd like to
54:13
Speaker 1: see these passages, if they exist. As would I, said
54:18
Speaker 1: another voice. Senator Morrison stepped forward. If there's even a
54:22
Speaker 1: chance that my private conversations have been compromised, I need
54:26
Speaker 1: to know. Vandermeer's expression hardened. In that moment, Catherine saw
54:32
Speaker 1: him make his decision. Saw him choose to cut his
54:36
Speaker 1: losses rather than fight a battle he might not win.
54:40
Speaker 1: Very well, he said coldly. If you insist on searching
54:45
Speaker 1: my home based on the ravings of a disturbed woman
54:48
Speaker 1: and a drunk boy, I can hardly stop you. Though
54:51
Speaker 1: I'll remember this insult. They found the passages within minutes.
54:56
Speaker 1: The mirror slots. the hidden doors, the surveillance network that
55:00
Speaker 1: ran throughout the mansion like veins through a body. They
55:03
Speaker 1: found Vandermeer's office with its files, its carefully documented secrets.
55:08
Speaker 1: They found the recordings of conversations, the transcribed confessions, the
55:13
Speaker 1: weapons he'd built from other people's weaknesses. And in the cellar,
55:18
Speaker 1: wrapped in canvas and lime, they found the bodies. Thirteen
55:23
Speaker 1: of them. Newspaper editors. Private investigators, business rivals, a former
55:29
Speaker 1: servant who'd asked too many questions. All murdered. All hidden
55:35
Speaker 1: beneath the foundation of Providence's most magnificent mansion. The police
55:40
Speaker 1: were summoned. Captain Morrison arrived with a dozen officers, his
55:44
Speaker 1: face grey as he realised his own daughter's scandal was
55:48
Speaker 1: documented in Vandermeer's files. The mansion was sealed. Guests were
55:53
Speaker 1: detained for questioning. Evidence was collected in box after box,
55:58
Speaker 1: a paper trail of corruption and murder that stretched back years.
56:03
Speaker 1: Edgar Vandermeer was arrested in his own Grand Salon, surrounded
56:07
Speaker 1: by the very people he'd spent years controlling. He didn't resist,
56:11
Speaker 1: didn't try to run, just stood there with that cold smile,
56:16
Speaker 1: watching his empire crumble with the detachment of a man
56:19
Speaker 1: observing someone else's tragedy. Margaret Sinclair tried to slip away
56:24
Speaker 1: in the confusion, but Thomas Whitfield stopped her, holding her
56:27
Speaker 1: until the police could take her into custody. Her expression
56:31
Speaker 1: never changed. Even in defeat, she maintained that cool, calculating demeanour.
56:37
Speaker 1: The trial lasted six weeks and dominated every newspaper in
56:41
Speaker 1: New England. Witnesses testified to the secrets Vandermeer had collected,
56:46
Speaker 1: the pressure he'd applied, the lives he'd destroyed. The jury
56:51
Speaker 1: deliberated for less than two hours. Guilty on all counts.
56:57
Speaker 1: Edgar Vandermeer was hanged on a grey morning in March.
57:00
Speaker 1: The rain falling like the tears Providence itself should have shed,
57:04
Speaker 1: but didn't. Margaret Sinclair received a life sentence, shipped to
57:09
Speaker 1: a women's prison in Maine, where she would spend her
57:11
Speaker 1: remaining years in solitary contemplation of the system she'd helped build.
57:16
Speaker 1: The mansion on Benefit Street was seized by the state.
57:19
Speaker 1: and eventually sold at auction, but no one wanted to
57:22
Speaker 1: live in it. Stories spread about what had happened there,
57:26
Speaker 1: about the bodies in the cellar and the eyes in
57:29
Speaker 1: the walls. It changed hands several times, each owner trying
57:33
Speaker 1: and failing to erase its dark history. Some tried to
57:37
Speaker 1: convert it into apartments. The tenants complained of sounds in
57:40
Speaker 1: the walls, of feeling watched, of secrets whispered in the night.
57:45
Speaker 1: Others attempted to make it a hotel, but guests refused
57:48
Speaker 1: to stay more than one night, disturbed by the building's
57:51
Speaker 1: oppressive atmosphere. Eventually, the mansion was abandoned entirely. The city
57:57
Speaker 1: condemned it as structurally unsound, though everyone knew the structure
58:01
Speaker 1: was solid. What was unsound was its soul, if buildings
58:05
Speaker 1: could be said to have souls. It stood empty for years,
58:09
Speaker 1: slowly succumbing to weather and neglect, its windows broken, its
58:13
Speaker 1: grand staircase rotting, its surveillance passages gradually collapsing. Catherine Ashford
58:19
Speaker 1: left Providence a month after the trial ended. She moved
58:22
Speaker 1: to Boston, where she opened an office under a different name.
58:26
Speaker 1: She helped women escape dangerous marriages, gathered evidence against corrupt businessmen,
58:32
Speaker 1: used the skills she'd learned from Vandermeer to fight the
58:35
Speaker 1: kind of evil he'd embodied. She never married again, never
58:40
Speaker 1: returned to Providence, never spoke of that November night except
58:44
Speaker 1: in her private journals, which she burned before her death
58:48
Speaker 1: at age 72. Thomas Whitefield inherited his father's steel company
58:53
Speaker 1: and used his fortune to support reform movements, labor rights,
58:57
Speaker 1: and anti-corruption campaigns. He married a schoolteacher and had four children,
59:03
Speaker 1: but he never attended another society gathering, never accepted another
59:08
Speaker 1: dinner invitation, spent his evenings at home where the walls
59:12
Speaker 1: were thin and ordinary and held no secrets. The survivors
59:15
Speaker 1: of Vandermeer's files tried to rebuild their reputations, but the
59:19
Speaker 1: stain never quite washed away. Senator Morrison lost his re-election bid.
59:25
Speaker 1: Harrison Blackwell's shipping company collapsed under the weight of investigations
59:29
Speaker 1: and into his government contracts. The Caldwell Textiles business went bankrupt.
59:35
Speaker 1: One by one, the people who danced in Vandermeer's Grand
59:39
Speaker 1: Salon discovered that their secrets, once exposed, couldn't be hidden again.
59:44
Speaker 1: Providence itself changed. The old certainties of the Gilded Age
59:49
Speaker 1: began to crumble. The gap between rich and poor became
59:53
Speaker 1: impossible to ignore. Reform movements gained strength. the casual corruption
59:58
Speaker 1: that had seemed normal began to look criminal. But the
1:00:02
Speaker 1: mansion remained, a monument to what happened when power went unchecked,
1:00:07
Speaker 1: when information became weaponized, when human beings were reduced to
1:00:12
Speaker 1: assets and liabilities in some vast inhuman calculation. Years later,
1:00:18
Speaker 1: on foggy November nights when the rain fell like it
1:00:21
Speaker 1: had that fatal evening, people swore they could still hear
1:00:24
Speaker 1: sounds from the abandoned mansion. Footsteps in empty corridors, whispers
1:00:30
Speaker 1: behind walls, the click of locks turning in rooms no
1:00:33
Speaker 1: one entered. The rustle of papers being filed, secrets being catalogued,
1:00:39
Speaker 1: lives being measured and found wanting. But Catherine Ashford knew
1:00:44
Speaker 1: better than to believe in ghosts. She'd learned in that
1:00:48
Speaker 1: mansion on Benefit Street that the real horror wasn't what
1:00:51
Speaker 1: might haunt a building after evil had departed. The real
1:00:55
Speaker 1: horror was what happened when evil was present, when the
1:00:59
Speaker 1: walls had eyes, when every word was recorded, when privacy
1:01:04
Speaker 1: itself became a fiction. Because in Edgar Vandermeer's house, nothing
1:01:09
Speaker 1: was ever safe, nothing was ever private, and the walls
1:01:13
Speaker 1: were always, always listening. The mansion stood for another twenty
1:01:18
Speaker 1: years before the city finally ordered its demolition. The work
1:01:22
Speaker 1: took six months. Workers reported strange things. Tools that went
1:01:27
Speaker 1: missing and reappeared in different locations. Sounds that came from
1:01:31
Speaker 1: parts of the building they'd already torn down. A sense
1:01:34
Speaker 1: of being watched even in rooms with no walls left
1:01:38
Speaker 1: to watch from. When they finally reached the foundation, they
1:01:41
Speaker 1: found more bodies. Not in the cellar where Vandermeer had
1:01:45
Speaker 1: stored his victims, but buried deeper, in the bedrock itself.
1:01:50
Speaker 1: Old bodies from before Vandermeer's time. Apparently, He hadn't been
1:01:54
Speaker 1: the first to build his fortune on buried secrets. The
1:01:58
Speaker 1: land itself seemed cursed, soaked in the sins of men
1:02:02
Speaker 1: who'd mistaken power for virtue and control for safety. They
1:02:06
Speaker 1: filled in the foundation, paved over the site, built a
1:02:10
Speaker 1: small park with benches and a fountain. Today it's a
1:02:13
Speaker 1: pleasant green space where mothers bring children to play and
1:02:17
Speaker 1: old men sit to feed pigeons. Few visitors know what
1:02:21
Speaker 1: once stood there, Fewer still know what happened in its halls.
1:02:26
Speaker 1: But on certain November evenings, when the fog rolls in
1:02:30
Speaker 1: from the bay and the rain begins to fall, some
1:02:33
Speaker 1: people claim they can still feel it. The weight of
1:02:36
Speaker 1: being watched. The sense that somewhere, somehow, the walls are
1:02:42
Speaker 1: still listening. And perhaps they're right. Because secrets don't die
1:02:47
Speaker 1: when the people who kept them die. They linger in
1:02:50
Speaker 1: the air, soaked into the ground, embedded in the very stones.
1:02:55
Speaker 1: They wait in the darkness, patient as death, ready to
1:02:58
Speaker 1: be discovered by the next person who believes that knowledge
1:03:01
Speaker 1: is power, that information is currency, that other people's weaknesses
1:03:06
Speaker 1: are weapons to be hoarded and deployed. The mansion is gone.
1:03:10
Speaker 1: Edgar Vandermeer is dead. Margaret Sinclair rotted in prison. But
1:03:15
Speaker 1: the temptation they embodied— the dark allure of knowing everyone
1:03:20
Speaker 1: else's secrets while keeping your own hidden. That temptation remains.
1:03:25
Speaker 1: It whispers in corridors of power. It lurks in databases
1:03:30
Speaker 1: and file cabinets. It hides behind mirrors and inside walls,
1:03:35
Speaker 1: waiting for someone else to build its temple, to worship
1:03:38
Speaker 1: at its altar, to sacrifice truth and privacy and human
1:03:42
Speaker 1: dignity on its blood-stained stone. Catherine Ashford understood this. In
1:03:48
Speaker 1: her final journal entry, written the night before she burned
1:03:51
Speaker 1: all the others, she wrote, We like to think evil
1:03:54
Speaker 1: is something external, something that comes from monsters like Vandermeer.
1:03:59
Speaker 1: But the truth is simpler and more terrible. Evil is
1:04:03
Speaker 1: what happens when ordinary people decide that winning matters more
1:04:07
Speaker 1: than goodness, that success justifies sin, that the ends really
1:04:11
Speaker 1: do justify the means. Vandermeer built his mansion on that lie.
1:04:17
Speaker 1: but all of Providence lived in it, danced in it,
1:04:21
Speaker 1: drank its champagne, and pretended not to see what was
1:04:24
Speaker 1: obvious to anyone willing to look. We were complicit in
1:04:28
Speaker 1: our own surveillance. We traded our privacy for the promise
1:04:31
Speaker 1: of prosperity. And we only objected when the walls finally
1:04:36
Speaker 1: spoke aloud the secrets we'd allowed them to collect. The
1:04:40
Speaker 1: park where the mansion once stood is quiet tonight. The
1:04:44
Speaker 1: rain has stopped. STARS PEEK THROUGH BREAKING CLOUDS. A MOTHER
1:04:50
Speaker 1: PUSHES HER CHILD ON A SWING, THE CHAINS CREAKING IN
1:04:53
Speaker 1: THE STILL AIR. THE CHILD LAUGHS, DELIGHTED BY THE SENSATION
1:04:57
Speaker 1: OF FLIGHT. THE MOTHER SMILES, GRATEFUL FOR THIS MOMENT OF
1:05:02
Speaker 1: SIMPLE JOY. AND BENEATH THEIR FEET, SIX FEET DOWN, WHERE
1:05:06
Speaker 1: THE FOUNDATION ONCE STOOD, WHERE BODIES ONCE RESTED, WHERE SECRETS
1:05:10
Speaker 1: ONCE ACCUMULATED LIKE INTEREST IN A BLOOD BANK, THE EARTH
1:05:14
Speaker 1: KEEPS ITS SILENCE. because some secrets are too heavy to
1:05:17
Speaker 1: speak aloud, some sins too deep to confess. And some houses,
1:05:22
Speaker 1: even when they've been torn down stone by stone and
1:05:25
Speaker 1: erased from the landscape, continue to cast shadows that no
1:05:29
Speaker 1: amount of sunlight can dispel. The mansion on Benefit Street
1:05:33
Speaker 1: is gone, but what it represented, what it embodied, what
1:05:37
Speaker 1: it taught us about the price of power and the
1:05:40
Speaker 1: cost of knowing too much, these lessons remain. They wait
1:05:44
Speaker 1: in the darkness between one breath and the next, one
1:05:48
Speaker 1: heartbeat and another, one secret and its inevitable exposure. They
1:05:53
Speaker 1: wait for us to forget that walls have ears, that
1:05:56
Speaker 1: privacy once lost can never truly be regained, that every
1:06:01
Speaker 1: system built on exploitation will eventually collapse under its own weight,
1:06:06
Speaker 1: and that somewhere, in some city, some ambitious soul is
1:06:10
Speaker 1: even now designing the next Vandermeer Mansion. the next architecture
1:06:14
Speaker 1: of surveillance, the next temple to the dark god of information.
1:06:19
Speaker 1: Because we never really learn, do we? We just keep
1:06:23
Speaker 1: building the same prisons and calling them homes. Now, I
1:06:27
Speaker 1: don't have good news. I love to produce these videos,
1:06:29
Speaker 1: but create them. It takes me a lot of time,
1:06:32
Speaker 1: and the only way I have to continue is to
1:06:35
Speaker 1: reach 1,000 subscribers, because this way I start receiving from
1:06:39
Speaker 1: YouTube information If you like our stories, do not let
1:06:42
Speaker 1: this channel die. Sign up and share our videos, since
1:06:46
Speaker 1: I am grateful.