Bloody Lessons: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery

by Locke, M. Louisa

  A soft knock on the door was followed by Kathleen’s entrance. When she saw Laura, she threw up her hands and said, “Oh my, don’t you look grand.”

  “Indeed she does, Kathleen,” said Esther Stein, who’d followed Kathleen into the increasingly crowded room. “You will turn some heads this evening, young lady.”

  Coming over to where Annie stood by the fireplace, Esther gave her a swift kiss. “Here, I brought you both some gloves. They’ve always been too tight for me. Goodness knows why I held on to them. But I thought they would be just the thing for tonight.”

  “Oh, Esther, silk. How elegant. Thank you,” said Annie. “Do check to see which pair fits Laura best. She was just saying that her brother didn’t understand exactly what going to the theater entails for a woman. All he has to do is add a silk tie to his usual formal wear, and he’ll be ready to go.”

  When Esther raised her eyebrows at this comment, Annie laughed. “I know, I know. I shouldn’t complain. This is rather a treat. But if you will remember, last summer when Nate invited me to the theater, he cancelled at the last minute. I just hope he shows up, or everyone’s work to get us ready will be for naught!” Annie deliberately kept her tone light, not wanting to reintroduce the subject she had been thinking about constantly since Esther and Beatrice had their “heart-to-heart” with her––whether or not she was ready to move forward in her relationship with Nate.

  Esther smiled and patted her on her cheek, then went over to Laura and Miss Millie. Kathleen came up to Annie and held out her dressing gown, which she put on over her corset and petticoat, and directed her to a chair, saying, “And you, ma’am, sit, so I can do up your hair. Miss Minnie says she will be down with your dress in about ten minutes.”

  As Kathleen began deftly to arrange Annie’s red-gold curls, she said very quietly, “Please, ma’am, I need to tell you something. I was hoping I would get a chance to speak to you when you were alone, but I don’t think it should wait.”

  “Good heavens, Kathleen,” Annie responded in a whisper. “What’s wrong? Go ahead, Esther and Laura aren’t listening.”

  “Right before dinner, my brother Ian stopped by the kitchen on his way home. He’d been off with David Chapman and Jamie trying to fly a kite up on Lone Mountain.”

  “That was nice of Mr. Chapman.”

  “Yes, although I think he hoped Mrs. Hewitt would accompany them.”

  Oh poor Mr. Chapman. No wonder he’s made no headway with Barbara. Not when there’s the possibility that her legal husband is alive somewhere. Annie shook off this melancholy thought and told Kathleen to get to the point.

  “Well, Ma’am, he told me that he and Jamie have a plan to catch the man who attacked Laura. When Jamie’s ma told him about keeping an eye out for that Buck or any man who seemed to be hanging around the house, he got it into his head that someone’s been following them home from Clement Grammar. They think it must be the same person who’s been hanging out in the alley, disturbing Dandy so.”

  “Oh dear, did Ian say why Jamie thought someone was following them?”

  “He says Jamie can feel someone’s eyes on the back of his head as he walks down the street. You know boys. They’ve got themselves all worked up to be heroes.”

  Annie smiled. “So what is their plan?”

  “Ian said next Wednesday he’s going to run up from his school, you know he goes to Eighth Street Grammar, and get up to Clement in time to hide out at Foster’s store where he could see out the window if any man seemed to be following all of you. He figures if he saw someone that he’d follow and see where the man goes, maybe figure out where he lives.”

  Annie turned to look at Kathleen, who sharply told her to sit still. Staring forward again she said, “That’s actually a clever idea. Someone could be loitering up Leavenworth a block, and we’d never notice them. But Ian shouldn’t do it. What if Buck, or whoever, caught him at it?”

  “That’s what I told him. I said that this was something for Mr. Dawson to take care of and under no circumstances should he carry out the plan.”

  “Do you think he will listen to you?”

  “I don’t know. And what if Jamie tries to catch the man himself? I thought Mrs. Hewitt should know. Will you tell her?” Kathleen then said, “There, your hair is done.”

  Annie stood up and turned to Kathleen. “Thanks so much for letting me know. I’ll tell Mrs. Hewitt tomorrow, and I will bring it up to Nate tonight if I get a chance. But here’s Miss Minnie. I need to get dressed if I don’t want to be late. You go on down to answer the door; Mr. Dawson should be here any minute.”

  *****

  Sitting in the first balcony of the California Theater and looking around, Laura’s senses were overwhelmed. The heady aroma of perfume and flowers overlaid the distinct smell of gas emanating from the lights mounted on the walls and the gigantic chandelier that hung down from the ornate ceiling nearly four stories above her. The voices of the two thousand people in attendance rose to a deafening roar above the discordant sounds of the orchestra musicians tuning their instruments. Every wall was heavily decorated with gilded plaster frescos that framed murals portraying familiar San Francisco landmarks. The limelights at the edge of the stage were so bright it was if the San Francisco Bay panorama painted on the curtain was in full sunlight. Yet all the beauty of the building’s interior couldn’t out-shine the visual splendor of the crowd itself. Like enormous flowers, the women’s dresses were of every color and hue imaginable; the plain black formal dress of the gentlemen who were present only enhanced the vibrancy of the women’s outfits.

  “Laura, does this meet with your expectations?” Annie leaned across Nate to touch her arm.

  “Oh, my, it exceeds my expectations.” Laura tucked her arm through Nate’s and said, “Thank you so much for bringing us. I have never seen so many people, so beautifully dressed, in one place in my life. However did you get the tickets? I feel like I could lean over the railing and practically touch the stage.”

  “My new law partner, Cranston, has season tickets. But he is too caught up in the trial, so he offered them to me. I didn’t realize it was a Burlesque, though. I’m not sure how Mother would feel about me taking you to see something this…”

  “Unrefined? Scandalous?” Laura laughed. “Seems to me that after centuries of civilized people going to see plays by Shakespeare where the female roles were played by men, no one should complain about women playing men’s roles. Turnabout is fair play, I say!”

  Annie laughed and said, “Bravo, Laura. I did read that Miss Roseau is excellent in the role of Manrico, the wandering minstrel. Since both Laura and I are quite familiar with what a woman’s nether regions look like when encased in bloomers and hose, I would think that it is you, Nate, who might find this opera too risqué.”

  Laura felt her brother stiffen.

  Then he took a deep breath, laughed weakly, and said, “In that case, I beg both of you to keep the information that I attended such a play from my parents. I wouldn’t want them to lose respect for me.”

  Laura gave his arm another squeeze then looked at the large playbill Nate had bought for her when they entered the building. Amused by what she read, she said, “This should be fun. Listen to this. The playbill says that the 'Ill Treated Il Trovatore or The Mother, The Maiden, and The Musicianer’ is ‘an Original Burlesque…founded on a famous though somewhat confused Opera.’”

  Laura continued to read the synopsis of the play silently, looking to see if she recognized any of the songs but mostly trying not to eavesdrop on what Nate and Annie were saying to each other. She’d gathered from Annie that last Sunday, after she had left them alone in the small parlor, they’d disagreed about the next step to take in their pursuit of the anonymous letter writer. She hoped they were working that out.

  At Annie’s urging, she’d apologized to Nate this evening for her own loss of temper on Sunday. She came down to the parlor first and found him looking very stiff and handsome. He’d obviously remembered, f
or once, to go to the barber’s. His collar and cuffs were starched to perfection, and he’d even put in the heavy gold studs their father gave him as a graduation present from college. Because he was quick to compliment her on her dress and didn’t say a word about the neckline, she got up the nerve to tell him about writing Seth Timmons. She explained that she thought Seth should know right away about her seeing Buck and that he had written back a short note. He’d reported that he hadn’t found out yet if Buck was in the city when she was attacked, but he planned to travel to Cupertino Creek this weekend to see what he could learn. Nate frowned but didn’t say anything. Thankfully, Annie had come into the room right then, which seemed to have rendered him speechless.

  Annie certainly looked beautiful tonight. Miss Minnie had told Laura she was wearing a dress the Steins commissioned as a Christmas present for her, but they had altered it for evening wear by making it sleeveless, changing the neckline, and putting on a train. The material for the bodice was a dark royal-blue velvet, with a slightly lighter shade of satin for the skirt. The neck was square and cut quite low, but it and the straps that fit over her shoulders were trimmed with blue lace. The train was also satin, edged in embroidered velvet. As Laura had watched Nate’s first reaction to Annie’s appearance, she remembered reading once that the hero “devoured” the object of his love with his eyes. She’d never quite understood what that meant before.

  “But Nate, Frazier is our best lead.”

  Laura’s attention was caught by the frustration in Annie’s voice.

  “I said I would interview him, and I will,” Nate replied, sounding equally frustrated.

  “Della Thorndike mentioned that he played in this theater’s orchestra. Maybe at intermission, we could find him and talk to him together.” Annie picked up the playbill, and Laura could see her point at it. “See, there is an intermission between the two acts.”

  She missed Nate’s answer when there was a brief spurt of applause. She noticed that the orchestra had gone quiet and that there was a man in formal dress standing to the side of the stage next to the curtain. The noise of conversation began to sputter out, and a few stragglers moved hurriedly towards their seats. Laura leaned forward, scanning the house to take it all in once more before the curtain went up. Then she noticed a face that looked familiar across from her on the second balcony. Della Thorndike, her blonde hair nearly white in the gaslight, was standing near the end of an aisle, apparently waiting to take her seat.

  Laura turned to Nate and whispered, “Look, there’s Miss Thorndike. The teacher I am working with who leads the Normal class at Girls High. Isn’t she elegant?” Reaching over Nate to touch Annie’s arm and get her attention, Laura whispered, “Annie, Miss Thorndike. She looks wonderful in that grey-blue silk. I wonder who she’s with? Oh, there, that must be her escort.”

  Laura froze. All the gaiety of the evening evaporated for a moment as she watched Andrew Russell bow politely and help Della Thorndike into her seat.

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Late Saturday evening, February 7, 1880

  "The character of ‘Arlene' is taken by Miss Eme Roseau, and affords us another opportunity of noting what rapid process this gy-rating gy-url is making in the walks and talks of burlesque." ––San Francisco Chronicle, 1880

  We always try to be Quite Good, sang Laura in a surprisingly strong alto. “I loved that song by the chorus, although the performers were a little old to be playing girls at a finishing school. You went to a ladies’ academy, didn’t you, Annie? Tell me, did you ever spontaneously break out into song and dance?” She then squealed as the hansom cab made the turn onto O’Farrell, and she started to slide off the cab’s small pull-down seat.

  She had insisted in taking this seat across from them, apparently finding the precariousness of her position all part of the fun. Nate was pleased that his sister had regained her high spirits after the shock of seeing Andrew Russell at the theater. He wasn’t sure what upset her the most, that Russell was out with another woman so soon after Hattie’s death or that the woman was Della Thorndike, someone she’d previously quite liked. Laura flickered in and out of his vision like a magic lantern show as they passed the gas lamps evenly spaced along their route, and he mused on how grown up she looked in her fashionable gown. At the same time, watching her treat the carriage as some sort of carousel ride, he was reminded of what she was like at age ten when he took her to the county fair.

  As they arrived at the boarding house, Nate turned to Annie and said quietly, “Would you be willing to stay behind for a few moments, after Laura has gone in? You were correct; we do need some time to talk about what you have learned at Girls’ High and what we should investigate next.”

  After he had ushered Laura into the waiting arms of a sleepy Kathleen, who had obviously waited up to hear all about the evening, Nate told the hansom driver to wait and climbed back into the carriage. He brought back a shawl Kathleen had handed him, and he now wrapped this around Annie’s shoulders. The night was clear and very cold, and she was wearing a light lace wrap, which, while very pretty, did nothing to keep her warm.

  It also did nothing to keep Nate from the fantasy he had been obsessed with all evening. He kept imagining placing his fingers on that exposed place at the base of her neck, where her pulse beat, and slowly caressing her exposed skin, down, down, until he could slip his hand under the lace and velvet and cup her breast. Damn it. Can’t I even control myself in a public carriage?

  “Thank you, Nate. I was getting a little chilly,” she said quietly, pulling the shawl more tightly around her shoulders. “I do want to tell you how much I enjoyed this evening. The program was unbelievably silly, but I think we all needed something to lift our spirits. The music was the best part; I’m not surprised that Laura has some of the lyrics memorized already. I had no idea that she could sing so well. I wonder if I could talk her into joining the choir at a local church. It would be a good way for her to meet some new friends, maybe take her mind off of…well, you know.”

  Nate nodded. “Yes, I know. Thank goodness the play started right after she saw Russell and she could get caught up in the production. I thought at first that she was going to drag me across the theater to call him out, right then and there.”

  Annie put her hand on his arm. “At least she’d calmed down a bit by intermission, although I don’t think it was particularly diplomatic of you to point out that she, like Russell, was having a night out.”

  “I can’t believe I said that. I thought she was going to insist we leave, she was so overcome with guilt. I swear she was never this volatile before. I mean, certainly when she was little she could be full of high jinx one minute and in flat despair the next, but I thought she had grown out of that. I don’t know what to do.”

  Annie took his hands in hers. “Just give her time. Between the attack in the alley, Hattie’s apparent betrayal of their plans for the future, and her questions about Hattie’s death, it’s natural she is having trouble regaining her equilibrium.”

  Nate’s heart swelled. Annie could always make him feel better, calmer, more optimistic. She is the source of my equanimity, he thought. He said, “Annie, I can’t thank you enough for taking Laura under your wing. I’m not sure I could sleep at night if I didn’t know she was in your protection.”

  “Don’t thank me. I have quite fallen in love with your little sister, so even if…” Annie stopped and brought out her handkerchief.

  Nate felt an unexpected sense of dread. “What, Annie? What is the matter? What do you mean? ‘Even if.’”

  Annie looked away from him, then she continued, her voice artificially cheerful. “Why, Nate, even if she has your temper. Now, let’s discuss the case. Principal Swett is returning to town next Thursday, and Hoffmann is going to need his office back. I have scheduled a meeting with him on Wednesday, and I need to know if there is anything you want me to ask him.”

  There it was again, Annie’s sadness and her unwillingness to tell him why. I prom
ised not to push her, but damn it, why doesn’t she trust me enough to speak her mind?

  “Nate, what’s wrong?”

  Now it was time for Nate to pretend nothing was amiss. He knew enough not to open up this topic sitting in a hansom cab, with the driver listening in. So he replied, “I guess I am just having trouble understanding the motives of the letter writer. The notes don’t actually ask for anything.”

  “Like they would if it were a straight case of blackmail? You’re right. None of the letters have actually demanded, ‘Give me a job or I will make this charge public.’ If Hattie was the victim of the same anonymous letter writer, they did get the satisfaction of seeing her resign, but then it was Laura who got her job. Could this explain why Laura was attacked?”

  Nate thought about this a moment. Then he said, “Yes, I suppose that is possible. Didn’t she say that the man who grabbed her said something about ‘ruining my life?’ He could have been referring to losing Hattie’s job to Laura. Seems rather far-fetched to me. Did you find anyone who applied for both Hattie’s position and Mrs. Anderson’s this fall?”

  “No, I haven’t, but I would need access to Clement Grammar records to be sure. Another thing to track down.” Annie paused and then said with hesitation, “There is the theory that Laura came up with tonight.”

  “That Russell is after Hoffmann’s job, perhaps with Della Thorndike’s assistance?” Nate shook his head. “Do you think there could be any truth to that? I thought it was just her searching for another reason to blame him for everything.” Nate remembered how emotion had temporarily distorted his little sister’s face as she pointed across at Russell and whispered her accusations in Nate’s ear. It was troubling to see how angry she got whenever Russell was involved.