“Mrs. Bates’s cousin,” Elizabeth remembered.
Mrs. Vanderslice sighed. “She was such a sweet girl.”
“But almost thirty and unmarried,” Anna added.
“And no dowry to speak of,” David said.
Elizabeth frowned. “But how on earth did she meet Mr. Thornton?”
The women wouldn’t meet her gaze, but David said, “He put it out that he was looking for a wife. He’d done pretty well for himself up North, but he wanted to do even better here. He figured he’d need society friends for that, so he wanted a wife who already had those connections.”
“Is that true? Did he really need connections?”
“It never hurts.” David laid down his spoon. “So Thornton courted Miss Behrend and married her because she came from an old family. But things didn’t work out the way he expected.”
Elizabeth already knew she wasn’t going to like the way this story ended. “Why not?”
“Because instead of including him in their invitations, people dropped her,” Anna said.
“He was too aggressive,” Mrs. Vanderslice said. “People found him . . .”
“Coarse,” Anna supplied.
“Abrasive,” David added.
Elizabeth had no trouble at all imagining Thornton wearing out his welcome with the upper classes. “How sad for his wife.”
“Sadder still when she died,” Anna said.
“She fell down the stairs,” Mrs. Vanderslice said sharply. “It was an accident.”
But Mrs. Bates didn’t believe that. “Was there any reason to believe otherwise?”
“Only if you knew Thornton,” David said. “And the families who wouldn’t receive him before shun him now. But it hasn’t stopped him from making money.”
“And now he wants to sell something to the army, I believe,” Elizabeth said.
David grinned at her. “How did you know that?”
Mostly because Thornton had bragged about it so much, but she said, “I heard you and Mr. Bates discussing it on the train today.”
“I hope we didn’t disturb you.”
“Not at all, but I couldn’t help overhearing. What is it he wants to sell?”
“Rifles. He called them Ross rifles, whatever that means. I’m not that interested in firearms myself. But Thornton says the Canadian troops use them, and he’s ready to sell some to our army.”
If only she knew more about how these things worked. She’d really like to throttle Thornton for what he’d done to Jake, but that wasn’t likely. She only knew how to swindle people, and she could do that pretty well. Taking him for another score could provide a little satisfaction. Too bad she didn’t dare get close enough to Thornton again to get her revenge. “I suppose the army will buy a lot of rifles now that we’re going to fight the Germans.”
“Yes, but I’ve promised Gideon I won’t help Thornton make the right contacts to sell his. Marjorie was a cousin to Mrs. Bates.”
“First cousin once removed,” Mrs. Vanderslice said.
The maid came out to remove their soup bowls. No one spoke until she returned to the kitchen.
Elizabeth turned back to David. “Didn’t you say Mr. Thornton will still be able to sell his rifles, though?”
“Oh yes. Someone will help him, but it won’t be me.”
“Even after what he did for us?” Anna asked.
David winced a little at that. “Yes. Mrs. Bates holds him responsible for Marjorie’s death, and she feels very strongly about it.”
“I don’t know much about business,” Elizabeth said, “but wouldn’t you stand to benefit if you helped Mr. Thornton?”
“Sometimes loyalty overrides profit, Miss Miles. I’m sure you can understand that.”
Elizabeth didn’t understand it at all, but she smiled sweetly as her mind raced. Maybe the Old Man would have some ideas. The maid returned to serve them the next course, and Elizabeth let Anna change the subject. She wanted to tell them how wonderful Elizabeth had been to her when they were in the workhouse, and Elizabeth could only protest modestly while David Vanderslice’s gazes grew more and more admiring.
After supper, they sat in the parlor for a while. Anna soon started nodding off, so they sent her on to bed. David moved over to take Anna’s place next to Elizabeth on the sofa. His gaze was still admiring.
“What do you think of our city, Miss Miles?”
“I haven’t seen enough of it yet to form an opinion,” she lied.
“I hope you’ll allow me to show you some of the sights.”
Oh dear. Now David Vanderslice was flirting with her. “I’d like that very much.” Too bad she wouldn’t be around long enough to actually do it.
“It’s a shame you’re here in the winter. I’d love to take you to Central Park or out on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, but at least there are the museums.”
“You must take Miss Miles to see some plays, too,” his mother said, looking up from her sewing.
“You’ll never see better theater than in New York,” he said.
Elizabeth could have agreed, since she’d lived in New York her entire life, but she said, “That sounds lovely.”
“I hope you’re planning to stay for a while,” he said.
“I promised Anna I would stay until you grew tired of me.”
David gave her a devastatingly beautiful smile. “Then you’ll be here forever.”
Elizabeth had to force herself to smile back.
• • •
She’d been afraid she would have trouble finding a time she could slip away without anyone noticing and insisting that she needed a companion. Fortunately, the opportunity came the very next day. Mrs. Vanderslice had some sort of committee meeting after lunch, and Anna’s doctor, who had come to examine them both that morning, had recommended an afternoon nap for both of them for at least two weeks.
With Anna tucked away, Mrs. Vanderslice out of the house and David at his office, Elizabeth made her escape. She was pretty sure even the servants hadn’t noticed her departure. What day was it? She’d lost track, but the bite of the wind told her winter was closing in, and she hastened her step.
The street was busy, and she saw no sign of Thornton’s goons. He was probably satisfied with knowing where she was now and didn’t need to continually have her watched. She hoped that was true, at least. Just to be safe, however, she hopped on a trolley car at the very last minute and switched cars several times unnecessarily until she finally arrived at Dan the Dude’s Saloon in Chelsea. The streets in this neighborhood were even busier, and she melted into the crowd of working-class people moving down the sidewalk until she reached the alley. She ducked into it and hurried to the side door. When she raised her hand to knock, she realized it was shaking. But she had nothing to fear now. She was safe.
Her coded knock brought someone to open the sliding panel to see who might be outside. The eyes peering out widened in surprise and the mouth beneath muttered what was probably a curse before the door flew open. Spuds was the best lookout in the business, but he hadn’t even bothered to close the spy panel.
“Lizzie!” He glanced around to make sure she was alone, then grabbed her arm and hauled her inside. “Are you all right? Nobody knew what became of you, girl!”
“I’m fine, Spuds, and what became of me is a long story. Is the Old Man here?”
“Of course he is.” He hesitated. “Best you wait here, though, so I can prepare him. The shock . . .” He looked her over one last time, as if making sure she was really there, then hurried down the short hallway to the large room in the back of the saloon that served as the hangout for the Old Man’s crew.
Spuds was a fireplug of a man of indeterminate age who had earned his moniker because his face resembled a dried-up potato. Elizabeth couldn’t remember a time she hadn’t known him. He threw open the door
at the end of the hall and called, “Boss!”
Then, “It’s the Contessa . . .”
Contessa? They’d never used that term of honor for her before.
“No, it’s her,” Spuds said. “She’s here.”
Her breath caught when she saw him, snagging on something sharp in her chest that was half joy and half dismay. He came toward her, tall and dignified as ever, his silver hair neatly brushed, his suit exquisitely tailored, his handsome face displaying an emotion she’d never seen him wear.
“Lizzie,” he said when he reached her. He threw his arms around her and crushed her to his chest. Tears sprang to her eyes. She couldn’t remember that he’d ever hugged her before, not in all the long years she’d known him. “Thank God,” he whispered. “We thought you were dead.”
He released her then but kept his hands on her shoulders as he studied her face. His eyes were suspiciously moist, and she marveled. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him express a single genuine emotion. “Are you all right? Did the mark get you?”
“No, I got away, and I’m fine.”
“Texas John came right away to tell me what happened. He brought your suitcase, and he thought you’d be here waiting for it.” Texas John, the man they’d called Coleman for the con. “We thought for sure they got you.”
“Let the Contessa come inside, where it’s warm,” Spuds said, using that term again. “She said it’s a long story, and she can tell all of us at once.”
“Of course.” He released her shoulders and took her by the hand, as if she were a child, to draw her down the hallway.
“Wait, first . . .” She had to swallow before she could ask. “Jake?”
“Jake will be glad to see you, too.”
Relief flooded her, but he was coaxing her along, willing her to move, and before she could even make sense of it, she was in the big room with the rest of them. About a dozen men had been sitting at tables, playing cards and swapping lies. She knew every single one of them.
At the sight of her, they stood, all but one.
“Jake,” she said, hurrying over to where he was struggling to rise. His arm was in a sling and his face was a patchwork of fading bruises. She laid a hand on his shoulder to hold him in his chair. “I thought they’d killed you.”
He gave her a lopsided smile that seemed to hurt him. “I thought they’d killed you, too, Lizzie.”
“What happened? How did you get away?”
“Those two goons of Thornton’s, they left me when he called for them. He told them to go after you. I would’ve gone after them, but . . .”
“You wouldn’t’ve caught me, either,” she said, making him smile again. “Did Texas John find you? He said he would.”
“Yes, he had to carry me out of the alley. He took me to a doctor he knows. They patched me up and let me hide out until I could travel.”
“He’s only been back three days himself,” the Old Man said. “But at least we knew where he was all that time. Now we want to know where you were and why you didn’t send us word.”
Elizabeth grinned. She knew they liked nothing better than a good tale, and she had one to tell. “I couldn’t send you word because I was in jail.”
“Jail?” Spuds cried. “How on earth did you end up in jail?”
“Don’t you boys read the newspapers? For obstructing traffic at the White House. I’m now a suffragist.”
That made them laugh, all except the Old Man. He was looking at her in a completely new way, as if he’d never really seen her before.
“Somebody get the Contessa a chair and something hot to drink,” Spuds said, “and we’ll get the whole story from her.”
They sat her next to Jake, who kept looking at her as if he was afraid she’d disappear, and they brought her coffee with a dollop of whiskey in it, and she told them everything up to and including Thornton’s deal with the Ross rifles.
“Are you thinking he’s good for another touch?” the Old Man asked when she was finished.
“We took him for fifty,” she said. “He’ll be anxious to make that back.”
“Do you think he can raise enough to make it worthwhile?”
“He raised the fifty with no trouble at all,” Jake said.
“And what about this Vanderslice fellow?”
“He’s a lop-ear,” Elizabeth said, “but he won’t do business with Thornton, so Thornton will be looking for somebody else when Vanderslice cuts him loose.”
“Too bad you and Jake can’t get in on this,” Spuds said.
Elizabeth sighed. She would have liked nothing better. “Not only can’t I get in on it, I need to get out of town. Someplace Thornton won’t find me.”
“Texas John brought your share of the score,” the Old Man said. “I’ve been holding it for you.”
Jake nudged her with his good elbow. “I tried to convince him to give it to me, but he wouldn’t do it.”
“If you steal my cut, you’ll have your other arm in a sling,” she replied, nudging him back.
That made the others roar with laughter.
When everyone had had a chance to tell her how glad they were she wasn’t dead, the Old Man took her into his office and closed the door.
“How much do you need? Texas John brought you eleven thousand.”
“I don’t want to take it all. How about two? That’ll keep me for a year, if I need to stay away that long. You keep the rest of it for me.”
He opened his safe and counted out the bills. She stuffed them into her purse.
“You should leave right now. Go straight from here to the station and take a train to Florida or somewhere. Just leave your things behind. You can buy what you need when you get where you’re going.”
He was right, she knew, but when she thought of Anna and Mrs. Bates . . . “I’ll leave tomorrow. Can you send me a telegram? I’ll tell them it’s from my aunt in South Dakota and she’s sick, so I have to go back right away.”
“Lizzie, you don’t owe these people anything.”
He was wrong, but he’d never understand. “I know, but if I just disappear, they’ll look for me, and Thornton will help them. I can’t take that chance.”
He sighed and shook his head. “Just be careful, and send me word if you need anything. In fact, send me word just to let me know you’re all right.”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t let you know this time, but I didn’t realize you’d be so worried.”
For a second, he looked unutterably sad, and he laid a hand over hers where it rested on his desk. But only for a second. Then his mask was back in place, and he cleared his throat and rose to his feet. “You’d best be on your way before it gets dark. Those people you’re so concerned about will be wondering what’s become of you.”
She had to say good-bye to all of them before they’d let her go. Jake was the hardest, but at least now she knew he was safe. He took her hand. “Be careful, Contessa.”
“Why are you all calling me that?”
“Because you earned it, girl,” Spuds said.
When she stepped out into the alley, she needed a moment to compose herself before making her way back to the street. She’d just missed a trolley, but there’d be another along in a few minutes, so she waited on the corner.
“Cab, miss?” a voice called. The driver stood on the curb, ready to open the door for her.
She thought about the long, cold ride back to the Vanderslice house and the two thousand dollars in her purse, and she said, “Yes, thank you.”
He seemed oddly delighted with her answer, and he pulled the door open with a flourish. She had only a moment to register the odd bundle lying on the floor before someone shoved her from behind. She fell onto the bundle, which sprang to life, and the man who had pushed her climbed in on top. She scrambled up, or tried to, but two sets of hands grabbed her and dragged her
up onto the seat. When she could see again, the cab was moving, and the two men were Thornton’s thugs, one sitting on each side of her.
Fear coiled in her stomach, but she knew better than to show it. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“We’re taking you for a little ride,” one of them said. “Mr. Thornton wants to see you.” He looked a little too happy about it, too.
“This is kidnapping. You’d better stop this cab and let me go at once.”
“Or what? You’ll call the cops?” he asked, still grinning.
“And when Mr. Thornton gets through with you, you won’t be able to call nobody,” the other one said.
“Shut up, Fletch,” the first one said.
But she didn’t need them to tell her what Thornton would do to her. If he’d killed his own wife, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, too. She tried to assess her chances of escape. The cab was crawling through the late-afternoon traffic, so she’d have no trouble jumping out of it. The problem would be getting by Fletch and his pal. They sat on either side of her, prepared to hold her down or catch her if she tried to flee. And even if she did get away, she’d never outrun them. Could she count on help from the people on the street? Probably not.
She was helpless, with no one to save her but herself, and no strength to rely on except her wits. She allowed herself one moment of bitterness at the plight of females who were always at the mercy of unscrupulous men. Then she began to plan.
• • •
“Where are you taking me?” she asked after what seemed like a long time of threading through the crowded city streets.
The two men exchanged a glance, as if trying to decide whether to answer her.
“We told you,” the first one said. “Mr. Thornton wants to see you.”
“But where is he?”
They were in a residential neighborhood now, and the streets were quieter here. A few well-dressed people strolled along the sidewalk, but the busiest time of the day was over now. People were heading to their homes. The cab suddenly stopped in front of a brownstone. She thought they were in Murray Hill.
Fletch jumped out and handed the driver a wad of bills. The other one grabbed her arm and jerked her out of the cab and onto the sidewalk. Fletch came around and took her other arm. Together they guided her up the front steps.
City of Lies Page 16