10/22 - 10-31 (10 days) Medium Coeli; True Node in Virgo; Venus in Capricorn

[Zulfiya]

For those of you who are reading and following the schedule, this is the delayed post. Please post your comments below. I will do my best to play the catch up game

[Becky]

I am in the middle of Venus in Capricorn and this is the first chapter I have enjoyed in a while. Thats not entirely fair, True Node was a good chapter but I got so angry at the uselessness of Frost and the rage of Mannering. I was very interested by the further questions it posed, however, such as what did Sook really know about Staines?

I really have no idea whats happening with Staines, but I am beginning to suspect that Anna really never knew that her dresses were laced with gold. It stated that she got the dresses from off a wrecked ship, and we have already seen Carver/Lydia involved with using laced dresses to get past customs. Maybe they were all that heavy when she bought them and never noticed? That seems unlikely, but she doesnt seem to be one of the brighter character.

Lydia Wells, on the other hand, I am VERY much enjoying her chapter. I have no idea how Gascoigne failed to miss that Anna meeting Lydia might be dangerous as all the papers are touting that Lydia is the widow of whatshisname. I like had Lydia is very self-possessed so far, while Anna has just seemed all flustered all of the time.

Will post more after I finish the last chapter.

[Becky]

After finishing Venus in Capricorn I really believe that it is Lydia that has the twinkle.

Also, are we to believe that she isnt actually a prostitute? That she never was, or is she just misleading Gascoigne this way?

[SusanK]

Says Lydia,"The paranormal is not a trick...The ether is not a cheat". Meanwhile, her roulette wheel in her casino is weighted; Lydia is a cheat. She draws up cosmic birth charts...the astrologer is a cheat? Twinkles of all sorts, indeed.

My, that gold gets around. Following the money in this story is no easy trick.

February 1866 is a month without a moon. Does this have any meaning beyond just a historical reference?

[Mary Anne]

SusanK wrote: "My, that gold gets around. Following the money in this story is no easy trick."

Right? I feel like I need to take notes.

[Alana]

I am so confused by the end of these chapters. There are so many characters to follow and this gold ends up EVERYWHERE! It's being told in such a convoluted fashion that I'm finding it all very difficult to follow. I can't tell if that's poor writing on the author's part, needing to be edited a great deal, or if it's in fact brilliant, because all of these men are apparently getting all of their stories together and probably getting just as convoluted a story as we are, and it is up to us to "detective" out the real story. I feel that a great many of them are lying to one degree or another, and sorting it all out will most certainly take up the rest of the remaining 500-ish pages.