"Inexplicable, if you ask me," Harcourt said. "I do not understand what you see in the man."
"I appreciate his wit, my lord."
"As compensation for your lack of it, I imagine," Harcourt said with a wave of his hand. "It's not pertinent to the matter at hand."
"I reckon we should set a deal, then," Cora said, draining her glass. James reached over and refilled it.
"Of course," Harcourt said. "I'll get right to the point, then. I am prepared to offer you a total sum of four thousand American dollars if you manage to eliminate this threat to my investment."
Cora's glass paused on the way to her lips. "Come again?"
"I take this matter quite seriously, madam. If word of this were to reach the Court, I would become the laughing stock of Buckingham."
"Really?" Cora asked, her right eyebrow arching. "You all take vampires lightly over yonder?"
"Vampires are not considered a proper topic for discussion among nobility," Harcourt said, his tone indignant. "I am not so daft as to complain of my problems with the undead to the House of Lords. No, madam, the source of my humiliation would be the failure of my venture here. There are some who believe speculation in the American silver panic is foolhardy, and the loss of my mine would provide them with ample reason to question my judgment."
"OK," Cora said. The word hung in the air for a second. "What's the matter with that?"
Harcourt lifted his chin. "The problem with that, my dear, is that the political situation at court is remarkably delicate. Were my judgment in financial matters to be called into question, it might upset the balance of power in the House of Lords and destabilize the British government."
"You've got that much clout, huh?"
"I may be flattering myself, but yes, I believe so." Harcourt took a sip of brandy, staring into the fire. Cora watched the firelight play in the old man's spectacles. She shifted in her chair and emptied her glass, but he didn't stir. The fire snapped and sparked. She glanced at James, but he just returned an even gaze.
Harcourt finally took a deep breath and looked back up at her. "Regardless of my reasons, Mrs Oglesby, I want those monsters out of my mines so my workers can return to their jobs. Are you willing to help me or not?"
Cora grinned at the British lord as she set her empty glass on the table. "Cleaning out a nest of vampires is powerful dangerous work, Mr Harcourt, so I'll tell you what: throw in another thousand dollars and I'll make sure your boy George there is still alive and well when the job's done."
"I doubt he's worth that much," Harcourt replied.
"I must respectfully disagree, my lord," James said, his face breaking out in red spots.
Harcourt regarded Cora with narrow eyes. The fire popped. James Townsend quietly cleared his throat. "Very well," Harcourt said at last. "A bonus of one thousand American dollars if you keep my retainer alive."
"Glad to hear it," Cora said. "Now, what exactly are we up against?"
"James can explain the particulars of the situation," Harcourt said.
James cleared his throat again. "The first victim was discovered three weeks ago in one of the recent expansion tunnels. After eliminating all known natural causes of death from the list of possibilities, the foreman contacted me, requesting my expertise to confirm supernatural involvement. In the time it took me to travel from London to Leadville, an additional seven miners were discovered diseased, and all of the victims had become reanimated.
"Upon my arrival, I immediately recognized the signs of a vrykolakas attack and took appropriate measures. The infected wing of the mine was quarantined, I erected crosses and cloves of garlic at each access point, and equipped the crews working the other wings with holy water."
"Sounds right so far," Cora said. "So what went wrong?"
"Well," James said, looking down at his hands, "what I had believed to be a single vrykolakas turned out to be an entire nest of them. I haven't determined the exact number, though I believe their ranks to have grown since the attacks began. Several more miners disappeared in the mines after my arrival."
"Why is that?" Cora asked. "Don't matter if it's one or a hundred vampires if you've got the crosses and other truck in place."
"That was exactly my line of thinking," James said. "I was at a loss to explain their constant advancements into the other areas of the mine despite my efforts."