Heads up that this is a Halloween episode?

I suppose a word of warning.

They sometimes get pretty, Halloween-ish.

This is the memory palace.

I'm Nate D'Ameyau.

They were in demand.

Henry Rathmone was the son of the mayor of Albany, and his father's untimely death when

Henry was a teenager left him a fortune.

His widowed mother went on to Mary a senator, himself a widower, with four children of his

own, the sort of complicated blending of families and fortunes that kept the powerful, powerful.

And from this union came another.

Henry Rathmone was introduced to Clara Harris.

His pretty new step-sister.

They became friends, and became more as the Civil War came.

Right to their doorstep, with the Potomac River, the border that separated warring nations,

just a dozen miles away from Clara's home just across the park from the White House.

And they got engaged right before Henry went to join the fight.

And when he returned in one piece, the reunited couple looked ahead to a glorious future.

They were young, they were rich, they were in love, they were step-siblings, but I swear

that wasn't weird then.

And they had all the right friends.

In fact, when the Lincoln's were looking to go to the theater in April of 1865, that

...