by Rue Allyn
“Why did you visit my shop ma’am?”
“I believe you have framed some photographs for F. Lyn Whitson.”
The framer’s ruddy color paled, sweat beaded on his forehead, and he chewed on his lower lip.
“Oh yes. An artist,” Santiago enthused. “Do you know the photographer?”
Edith hoped Adolfo Santiago didn’t gamble because he was a very poor actor. His entire demeanor shouted that he knew of Kiera, but if Edith were a gambler, she’d lay money that the framer knew something about the murder her of which sister stood accused. “I’m familiar with Whitson’s work and hoped you could tell me how to contact the artist.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but Whitson was murdered several months ago.”
Edith looked the man squarely in the eye. “Come now, Mr. Santiago, you and I both know that the man who was murdered was not F. Lynn Whitson.”
“I know nothing of the kind.”
Edith tried a different approach. “You frame pornographic photographs for Madame Duval, do you not?”
“I would never … ”
“Denial would be useless as I have several such photographs in my possession with your mark on the frames.”
The framer swallowed. “If I agreed that those photographs were framed in my shop, what would you do with the information?”
“That would depend on what you know about Whitson and where the photographer can be found.” Edith gave a toothy smile.
“Since he is dead, he would be found in a graveyard.”
“That’s a pity. I would have paid five double eagles for the photographer’s last known address. If the photographer were still alive that is.”
Santiago’s eyes saucered.
Eileen turned her head to stare at Edith then looked back at their guest. “A person could do a lot with one hundred dollars,” she contributed.
“Yes indeed,” croaked the framer. He fiddled with his collar as if the band had suddenly grown too tight. “Perhaps you are right and the man who was murdered was mistaken for Whitson. Now that I think of it, I have a record of my most recent transaction with Whitson dated just last month.”
“Then Whitson must be alive.” Edith continued to smile.
“The information you want should be in that record.”
Edith nodded. “A good businessman always keeps thorough records. You must be an excellent businessman.”
Santiago preened. “I’ll have to return to the shop, but I should be able to send the address around before close of business today.”
“That would be most appreciated. Mr. Santiago, as an excellent businessman, you would never pay in full until you verified the value of a purchase, would you?”
“Of course not.” The man gave a slight twist to his shoulders and pursed his lips. “Fifty percent down is standard practice as a deposit in San Francisco.”
“Then you’ll understand that when I receive the address, I will send you fifty dollars as a deposit. You’ll receive the other fifty if your information leads me to Whitson.”
“But that’s … ”
“You did say fifty percent is standard practice. Since I’m not from San Francisco, I’ll check with Mr. Trahern when he returns. I’m certain he’ll confirm your figure.”
The framer fingered his collar once more. “Ah, perhaps you should only send thirty dollars. I wouldn’t want to take advantage of your eagerness.”
“Why thank you, Mr. Santiago, you are most kind.” Edith smiled once more and extended her hand to him. “It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”
Frowning, he took her hand and bowed. “The, uh, pleasure has been mine.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Santiago.”
Eileen rose. “I’ll see you to the door.”
“No need, Mrs. Smiley.”
“I insist.”
He bowed his head then left.
Eileen trailed behind him.
Edith paced before the window when her friend returned.
Eileen collapsed in her chair and succumbed to giggles. “That was priceless. Where in the world did you learn to manipulate a man like that? You could give Duval lessons.”
“He was rather easy to impress, wasn’t he?”
“And so impressed with himself that he willingly let you set your own price.”
“If only Dutch were that easy to manage.” Hollow with the knowledge that she and Dutch were destined to live apart, Edith let her shoulders drop.
“Managing a man is never easy when you’re in love with him.”
“Am I so obvious?”
Eileen shrugged. “Dutch loves you, too. Why won’t you forget this annulment nonsense? He’s a good man.”
“I know he loves me, and he’s the best of men.”
“Then why not stay married?”
Edith didn’t know how to explain. “Let’s just say it would be for the wrong reasons.”
“I don’t know how marriage between two people who love each other could be for the wrong reasons. Changing your mind is Dutch’s job, but if you want to talk, I’ll be happy to listen.”
“Thanks. You’re a good friend.” She hugged the woman then sat to resume the mending.
Several hours later, Tsung entered the room carrying a folded paper. “Missee, this note come for you.”
As Tsung left, Edith took the paper, broke the seal, and read. She sat abruptly. “Oh my.”
“What is it?”
“Missee okay? ”
“I’m fine. The framer, Mr. Santiago, sent the address I requested.”
“The one for the photographer?”
“Yes.” Edith stared at the note, memorizing the information. Kiera’s last known location was an Army outpost in the Wyoming Territory. Edith folded the paper and tucked it securely in her bodice, wondering how soon she could arrange to travel to Wyoming.
“Edith,” Eileen said in a shocked whisper. “Since when is an address so intimate a message?”
Thinking of Kiera and the danger that still lurked from Cerise Duval, Edith shook her head. “I can’t discuss it, so please don’t ask.”
“I thought you trusted me,” said Eileen, affronted.
“I do. But I need to think things through first. I promise I’ll talk with you about this as soon as I know my own mind.”
“Very well, but if you can’t tell me, you should at least consider telling Dutch. Now, I must discuss dinner with the cook, so I’ll leave you to your thoughts.”
Edith resumed her mending. Much as she loved Dutch, she couldn’t remain married to him, especially when she had to leave for Wyoming.
She thought for a long time about why she was insisting on the annulment. But she’d seen Dutch in action at the Trahern-Smiley shop. He loved buying, and selling, and making sure he got the best deal. Assuming the will was changed, marriage to her was a very good deal. Would she always wonder why he married her? What if she was wrong? Dutch claimed he didn’t care about her money or status in Boston, or the requirement to have a child in order to inherit. All he wanted was to be her husband, and all she wanted was her independence. She believed — had always believed — that marriage and a woman’s independence were mutually exclusive. She couldn’t have both. Since her abduction, she’d sampled the happiness and contentment that came with loving Dutch — would she give all that up because she feared the commitments and obligations required by marriage. Happiness like that she shared with Dutch was rare and should be well worth the risk. But what if marriage destroyed the joy? That risk she would not take. Tonight she would announce her decision to follow Kiera to Wyoming. She would talk to Dutch about the annulment then.
• • •
“Let’s take our coffee in the parlor,” suggested Eileen when they finished dinner.
“Excellent idea, my dear. Dutch and I have a lot to tell you about the temporary store.”
“I’d like to hear more from Trey about his work for Pinkertons.” Dutch bent a long look at his brother, who’d returned with them from the wharf and was finally beginning to go without his sling.
“I can’t say much. Everything is confidential so the clients can trust us.”
“We understand, Trey. I’ve got an announcement of my own that may cause some discussion,” said Edith.
Eileen cast her an arch look. “Then we’d best move to the parlor. With so much to talk about, we’ll be up half the night.”
Once seated in the parlor, Edith faced Dutch, his brother, and friends. She’d thought announcing her departure would be a simple thing. Now that the time had come, the words clogged her throat.
“You said at dinner that you had something to tell us,” prompted Eileen.
Edith squared her shoulders and swallowed. Her friend hoped for an announcement that the marriage with Dutch would not be annulled. Eileen was destined to be disappointed. “I must leave with all possible speed for the Wyoming Territory.”
The stunned look on all four faces told the tale that no one had expected this news.
“Why?” Dutch didn’t shout.
His calm surprised Edith, and she replied directly to him.
“Because that’s Kiera’s last known location. Finding her is the reason that I came to San Francisco, and one of the reasons that I cannot remain married to you.”
“Finding your sister has no bearing on our marriage. Of course you must find her. I’ll go with you.” His voice was level, and his tone equitable.
Now three faces wore shocked expressions.
Edith noticed the whiteness around his knuckles where his fist clenched on his thigh. She admired his control.
“This is rather sudden,” concern tightened Marcus’s voice. “The firm is just getting back on its feet. We really can’t afford to have you leave, Dutch.”
“My wife needs to find her sister. You know how I feel about family, Marcus. How can I not go with Edith?”
“I understand, but you have a commitment to our business as well. Everything Eileen and I have is invested in the company. If it fails because you hare off to Wyoming, we’ll be penniless.”
“You’re asking me to choose you over Edith. Would you choose Eileen over me, if the roles were reversed?”
“You don’t have a wife and child.” Marcus’s objection was aggressive.
Dutch stiffened. “You don’t have a child.”
“Actually,” Eileen announced with proud volume. “We will.”
Edith leaned over to hug her friend. “That’s wonderful. When is the baby due?”
“I’m sorry to spoil your news, Eileen,” Dutch’s voice rose. “But I won’t have a wife or child if I can’t support Edith’s search for her sister.”
Edith cringed at the rising tempers.
“Enough!” The shout came from Trey. “There’s a simple solution to this problem that will at least buy some time.”
All eyes turned on him.
“Edith should hire Pinkertons to look for her sister. We have men in the area already. It shouldn’t take more than a week or two before she’s found.”
“Out of the question,” she refused. “Kiera’s wanted for murder here in San Francisco. Pinkertons be obligated to turn her over to the law.”
“Then I’ll contact Father Conroy tomorrow morning,” said Dutch, “and arrange for the church ceremony before we leave.”
Edith ground her teeth and wondered how she could love such a bullheaded man. “No, please don’t. I’ve wanted an annulment from the moment we agreed to marry.”
“Because of your sister. The ceremony will only delay us a bit.”
“I have other reasons.” She, sighed and her shoulders slumped.
“What are they?” His gaze narrowed, and his shoulders seemed to expand. Clearly he felt ready to counter all arguments.
She looked around the room. “I care about and trust all of you, but I’d prefer to discuss this in private. Perhaps we should take a turn in the garden.”
“That’s fine with me.” Dutch stood and held out his hand.
She stood too, placing her hand in his. “If you’ll excuse us.”
• • •
They wandered a path to the back of the garden where Dutch seated Edith in the shelter of a rose arbor. The moon cast light on her troubled expression. He wanted to kiss the worry away. Unable to resist he gave her a soft sweet kiss filled with all the longing he had. “No matter what you tell me, I will always love you.”
He believed he knew what she had to say. However, if he yielded to the urges that always rose at her mere presence, he’d never hear her, and they would never be able to remove her objections into the life they should live together. He took a small folding knife from his pocket and trimmed a partially furled bloom with several inches of stalk from the vine covering the arbor. He offered the rose to Edith. “Careful of the thorns.”
“Thank you.” He folded the knife and returned it to his pocket, then sat at her feet. “What do you need to say that can’t be said in front of our friends and my brother?”
Edith plucked at the half furled blossom and tore off a petal. “You deserve to know my reasons for insisting on the annulment.”
“Your trust makes me happy.”
“I’ve trusted my life to you since you rescued the kittens from that alleyway, but I haven’t had much opportunity to talk with you quietly like this. We’re usually too busy with, er, other activities.”
Dutch grinned. “I’m just as guilty as you then. I have a hard time keeping my hands off of you. Which is why I’m sitting over here and not over there. Believe me, it isn’t easy.”
A second petal followed the first to the ground. “What I have to say isn’t easy, either.”
“So let’s get it over with.”
He waited.
She ripped a third red disc from the rose.
“I can’t remain married because I’m afraid.”
“Afraid? But last night … ”
Her lips turned in a brief, wan smile. “Not that. I’m afraid that maintaining our marriage would be for all the wrong reasons.”
Another petal drifted to the ground.
“I love you. You love me. There are no other reasons worth marrying for.”
“I agree, but I hurt you deeply by not telling you the complete truth.”
“We’ve talked about that. I understand why you acted as you did, and I know you never intended to hurt me. Though I still can’t fathom why you or any woman would take such a risk as you did bargaining with Cerise Duval.”
“I didn’t know how duplicitous she was before. I do now though. Duval duped me. I was so eager to have things my way that I made it easy for her to use me. I was desperate to find Kiera. I had traced her to Duval’s bordello. I thought if I was staying in the house, I might have opportunity to search for more information.”
He watched her rip off three more petals. He didn’t understand the problem. They’d been over this ground before, and he still wanted to be Edith’s husband. There had to be something else. That simple fact hurt. He could well imagine the possibilities, but he wanted Edith to say the words herself.
“It was the will that made you desperate enough to seek out Madame Duval.”
“That and the fact that Kiera would have no chance to choose her own destiny. I also knew that the three of us were stronger together. If we were to face down Grandfather and his attorneys and get that will changed, all of us needed to be present.”
“You’ve told me your grandfather was a cruel, insensitive man. However, a will like his is crazy, and by letting it guide your ac
tions, you allow your grandfather to control your life.”
She told him again of her grandfather’s autocratic temperament and explained the clerk’s mistake. She told him about the years of living as the ward of a man as merciless as the Chinaman had been vicious. She reiterated that her grandfather was in a coma, making any change in the will impossible unless he recovered. She revealed her fear for her sisters and the loss of her own independence.
The rose petals wept to the ground until they formed a blood red pool around her feet. In her hands she held nothing but thorns.
“And you think any of that makes a difference to me?”
“No, what I think is that despite your willingness to forgive you will not be able to forget. You will always doubt my motives for remaining married to you, as I would always doubt your reasons for staying in this marriage with me. Those doubts would kill our love just as surely as your need to manage my life, and I cannot again live under the thumb of a man’s rule.”
“Even a man you love?”
“Especially a man I love. That love could be used against me at any time. The simple possibility makes my stomach churn.”
Dutch stood. He took the thorny stalk, broke it in two, ignoring the small agonies as the thorns pierced his skin and tossing the stalk away. Then he scooped the petals from the ground, giving them to Edith. “If you imagine that I would toy with your love to keep you under my thumb, then you don’t really understand love, Edith Trahern. You can think of those petals as the pieces of the heart that you’ve torn from my chest and crushed.” He turned and walked away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
From the window of the bedroom they’d shared, Dutch sipped at a glass of whiskey and watched Edith leave. He understood her concern for her sisters. She loved them and wanted the best for them. Didn’t she care that he loved her too and only wanted what was best for her? Yet she turned a deaf ear.
Her sisters were more important than his love for her.
She was headed for the ferry that would take her to the Central Pacific Railroad passenger terminal the Oakland Mole. The first stop on the journey that would carry her away from him.