Letters

Two days of preparation and one of principal shooting, we estimated, and set about making plans. Since the “D.C.” fracas, Ambrose’s authority seems to have waxed. Prinz’s return is more or less expected tomorrow or Saturday, but is far from certain (Merope, Cook declares, is unbelievably reconciled with Bray and has returned to live with him in Lily Dale!) Bruce & Brice make technical suggestions, but take their orders from Cook; and Cook and my fiancé, believe it or not, are in surprising general rapport on what the scene is to comprise. The historical text is still what they are calling the Ampersand Letter of A. B. Cook IV — the ciphered original begins with that character — which describes not only the operation against Washington but the move on Baltimore. As to the casting: Cook as before will play his ancestor; Ambrose (his cast and sling now exchanged for a wrist bandage) will take the part of F. S. Key, watching through the night from the decks of Baratarian—renamed Surprize after Admiral Cochrane’s temporary command-ship — to say whether he can see etc. In default of other leading ladies, I have agreed to play Brita

What about British support of the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War only 40 years later, I i

The constituency of the wedding party, too, has yet to be decided; we shall settle all that tomorrow.

But now it is tomorrow, Friday, 12 September, celebrated in this state as Defender’s Day by reason of the foregoing. It is in fact late evening, properly showering (as in 1814) and cooler, a wet touch of autumn. I did not, it turns out, go up to Baltimore today. Angie was rambunctious, Magda feeling down; I stayed behind to look after things. Now Ambrose has returned and reported; likewise shall I.

The day began with love, and so it has just ended (but not, this P.M., with lovemaking: our last night as lovers leaves us subdued, nervous, chaste). After Ambrose had made love with me this morning and left, I consoled dear Magda as best I could, not without some effect. I then reviewed this letter and did a deal of note-taking on the Fiction of the Bonapartes, against the possibility that I might after all be teaching this fall. As if conjured by that activity, a phone call came from John Schott, “feeling me out” again (his creepish term) on my “standby availability” should Mr Cook be unable etc. He has recommended to the board of regents that Ambrose’s degree be let stand after all, and though of course the decision is theirs, not his, he feels confident that etc. The 1960’s, after all, are etc. And he understands that Dr Mensch and I are about to Tie the Knot, Make It Legal, heh heh. Cook is to let him know definitely next week whether he can accept the Distinguished Visitorship.

I shall do likewise, I said. And the spring semester? He will cross that bridge when he draws nearer it, Schott declared. What the Faculty of Letters needs for the 1970’s, he foresees, is less trendy “relevance” and more Back-to-Basics: he is considering the restoration of required freshman courses in basic composition, prescriptive grammar, even spelling. He knows a first-chop teacher in that field, who has recently moved to the area…

I said — and say — no more. In any case, the afternoon brought a more serious jolt, which it shakes me afresh to record. Pacified at last with the (regressive) help of her Easter egg, Angie went out after lunch to fool about on the river shore as is her wont in every weather. As is our wont, I made certain to check on her from time to time from a window. At one point I saw her speaking with two men in a battered Volvo wagon parked at the road’s end, not far from the house. I hurried out, affecting nonchalance. Was at first relieved to see that the driver was Drew Mack: denim shirt, sandy-blond ponytail, flushed face, and white smile of greeting. Why was he not in Baltimore with the rest? They were just on their way, he declared; had some business here before he and his friend took over the night shift at Fort McHenry. Had I met Hank Burlingame?

You feel my heart catch. I lean down to manage a tight smile across Drew to his passenger. Angie shuffles her sneakers and snaps her fingers to melodies unheard. It is the same young man as at Harrison’s funeral: dark-haired and — eyed, lean-limbed and — featured, almost sallow; a polite smile and nod, a reticent, accented greeting; very European-looking clothes (black shoes and trousers, white dress shirt fastened at the neck, no jacket or tie). And eyes fiery as Franz Kafka’s. I asked how… did he do? He gazed through me and said Thank you. Angie came with me back to the house.

There is a shock I didn’t need, John, on my wedding eve. Angie “watched” them from an upper window through her egg, as if it were a telescope; I unabashedly tried Ambrose’s telescope — but “my son” was on the far side of the car. Drew himself was using binoculars, trained not on me but on the Choptank bridge, and seemed to be explaining something. Presently they left; moments later I saw their car pass over that same bridge, presumably towards Baltimore.

Well. By Ambrose’s return I was composed enough not to show my dismay or even, for the present, mention this encounter. I shall tell him when things are calmer, perhaps in “Stage Seven.” I held him tightly and then kept him talking of the day’s news, our wedding plans, as we made di

Never mind, I said, so long as he doesn’t terrorise our wedding. What had been decided in that line? Perhaps to chuck the whole McHenry circus and slip off to the nearest J.P.?

He kissed me. Nope. After Peter’s death, Ambrose had considered asking you, sir, to be his best man — your rejection of our honorary doctorate and your subsequent silence having played no small part in bringing him and me together. Given the exigencies of the movie “wrap-up,” however — and the erstwhile Director’s reappearance after all on the set today — it was decided that Reg Prinz, newly spectacled, will serve in that capacity! Now darling, I began — but then thought of Henry/Henri Burlingame VII, and other things. Well, I said, it’s the groom’s choice. But let there be no stunts or surprises on our wedding day. No stunts, Ambrose pledged; and if there are surprises, they won’t come from him. Prinz had agreed: let armistice and harmony prevail! Magda and Angie to be matron of honour and bridesmaid, respectively? Done. A. B. Cook, the double agent of 1814, to give the bride away? Well… done (I reported Schott’s call: the doctorate not after all to be revoked; the spectre of Jacob & Mrs Horner on the horizon. Ambrose agreed, to my immense relief, that if Angie could handle it we should all vacate this scene as soon as humanly feasible. Hurrah!). The MSU chaplain, faute de mieux, to officiate. We were to be on the set by noon.