by Holly Bush
“Yes, Mr. Donahue?” Vickers said.
“Please sit down.” He was not anticipating this interview with joy. Albert liked Vickers, even knowing he was an odd sort of man, particular about his appearance and his place in Boston society, the latter something Albert didn’t care about at all. “I was wondering if you could explain to me how you make your entries in the properties ledger.” Vickers looked at him oddly, certainly wondering why he was asking about a system that Albert had arranged and handled personally prior to his own hiring.
“Well,” he said. “On the last day of the month, Mr. Nyturn and his associates collect the rent and the loans. By the second or the third of the following month, Mr. Nyturn comes to see me and brings me the written receipts and the money. I count the money against the receipts, and barring any discrepancy, I go to the bank that day to make a deposit.”
“Are there ever discrepancies?”
“Rarely, but they do occur. For instance, last month, on the receipt for the property on Elm where the Weintraub family lives on the second floor was recorded that their rent was sixteen dollars a month. That is just a small apartment and only brings in twelve dollars a month. I asked Mr. Nyturn about the error, and he explained to me that he must have been looking at the rental fee for the property on Walnut Street, as they are close by, and he had recorded that amount on the next receipt for the Weintraubs. Just a clerical error from what I could tell.”
Albert nodded. “How did you discover the error? Do you check the receipts for the correct rental amount every month?”
Vickers colored. “No, sir, I don’t. I counted the money Mr. Nyturn gave me, three times, as is my normal habit, and then added up the amounts written on the receipts. I was short four dollars and began to look at the receipts individually.”
“How many properties are behind in their payments, Mr. Vickers?”
“More than there should be, that is for certain. I do not know why people do not live within their means.”
“More than there has been in past years?” Albert asked.
Vickers nodded. “Yes. Mr. Nyturn said that good tenants are increasingly hard to find, and that many are drunkards or gamblers, and often don’t have their rent money put aside. He says he gives tenants the leeway you have instructed but it galls him to be so generous to the vulgar spendthrifts.”
“Have we had so many new tenants in the last year? It was my impression that most of the tenants stayed on for many years.”
Mr. Vickers drummed his fingers on Albert’s desk. “Hmmm. That would be helpful to know, would it not? I will begin a study of how often your tenants come and go.”
“Very good,” Albert said. “There is an issue I’d like to discuss with you concerning Miss Porterman.”
Vickers tightened his lips into a thin line. “I am not proud of my behavior that day, Mr. Donahue, but I was surely goaded into it. Some people just do not know their place.”
“Perhaps you will think more charitably toward Miss Porterman once I tell you my experiences from today,” Albert said, and repeated all that had happened and what his suspicions of Mr. Nyturn were. “I believe Mrs. Porterman paid all of her rent in full other than this past month, when she was short two dollars, and which she promised to pay before the next rent was due.”
“But . . . but, the receipts say zero dollars paid for three months. I went back through them after Miss Porterman left to make sure I’d not made an error.”
There was no doubt in Albert’s mind that Vickers had no idea what Nyturn had been doing. One of the skills he’d acquired and honed early on was reading men’s words for not only what they said but for what they meant. He was quite good at it, and it had served him well him in many a business dealing.
“Mr. Nyturn increased the rent amount to tenants who were unable to read or calculate, and there were many to choose from. I visited two of them last evening and confirmed my suspicions. He continued writing the correct rent amount on the records you received but collected the increased amount, leaving him a sizable income each month, or he did what he did with the Portermans, and recorded that they had not paid at all. Miss Porterman challenged him, leading him to destroy her family’s possessions as a threat.”
“The thief!” Vickers said, and then looked at his employer in panic. “Did you wonder about . . . well, of course you did. Let me assure you, sir, I had nary an idea that Mr. Nyturn had this nefarious plan. I would have told you straightaway!”
Albert stared at Vickers for five long seconds and let the man squirm under his regard. “I don’t believe you had any idea of Nyturn’s plan. I believe you were played the same as me, and the same as all the tenants who were cheated.”
“It appears I owe Miss Porterman an apology, sir.”
“An apology is in order, Mr. Vickers. We will need to see to refunding the other tenants the amount they were cheated out of, as well. You’ll have to interview them and best determine what is owed. I am taking Miss Porterman to the warehouses tomorrow to choose replacement furniture for everything that Nyturn and his men destroyed. Will you be so good as to see to arranging for our regular tradesmen to the do the repairs required?”
“Certainly,” Vickers said, as he stood. “I’ll take care of it immediately.”
* * *
Albert dressed with care early the following morning for his appointment at the bank. If the plan he presented came to fruition, he would make a small fortune in a very short amount of time. The first step, bank financing, was now complete. He’d not had the slightest bit of nerves as he entered the bank building and was ushered into a room with the president and the vice presidents of the bank, nor when he proceeded to lay out his plan for reclaiming a large lot that had fallen into disrepair near the Post Office. The men, all older than he, had listened attentively, and told him he would have his answer within the next few weeks, but before he’d left the lobby, he’d been asked to come back to the president’s office and told the financing was approved. It was a sweet victory, one that he’d been able to predict, even if he’d never thought the approval would have come so quickly. After all, bankers are in business to make money, and this plan insured that all parties would see a sizable profit.
But his next meeting was causing his stomach to roll uncomfortably and had his thoughts in a disjointed jumble. His carriage was soon pulling up at the Porterman home on Cherry Street, as he’d already stopped to pick up the housekeeper’s assistant to act as chaperone. He knocked on the door at precisely ten and took off his hat.
“Good morning, Miss Porterman,” he said when she opened the door.
“Good morning, Mr. Donahue.”
“You look very lovely today.”
“Thank you,” she said, and looked up at him from under her lashes.
“I regretted not having you and your mother and brother put up in a hotel last night. I hope you were able to be comfortable.”
“We were fine,” she said. “The men didn’t touch anything in my sleeping room, so my ma and I slept together. Jimmy stayed at Mrs. McKinnell’s. Your workmen showed up very early with Mr. Vickers, and they have been making good progress.”
“Oh, yes, they are here,” he said, looking past her and just now realizing there were men in her house, pounding and painting and plastering. She smiled, and he grinned and stared at her. “I was so happy to see you that I didn’t notice them. Shall we go?”
Albert helped her into his carriage, introduced her to his housekeeper’s assistant, Miss Denby, who promptly opened a book, and settled into the seat across from the two women.
“So tell me, Miss Porterman. Have you lived all of your life at 604 Cherry Street?”
“Yes, other than the last year that I lived in Texas.”
“Texas? That must have been quite a change for you. What prompted that move?”
“I had been employed at the Crenshaw estate, Landonmore, for eleven years, first as a cleaning maid and for the last six years as Mrs. Shelby’s personal maid, she was Mr
s. Crenshaw then. When Mr. Crenshaw died, she married Mr. Maximillian Shelby from Texas, now Senator Shelby. I was the only staff member to go with her. So you see there was never any need to bring a chaperone. I’ve been in service all my life.”
Albert shrugged. “Customs like this are for all young, unmarried women. It does not matter what you do or how much money one has when considering a woman’s safety.”
“That is a very nice thing for you to say but not often true. Women without means or family are often treated poorly in my experience. However, Mr. Vickers was kind to me this morning when he showed up at our door, and kinder still when he apologized to me.”
They arrived shortly at a warehouse near the docks where furniture was bought and sold. Miss Denby remained in the carriage reading.
“I was reasonably sure that Mr. Vickers did not know of Nyturn’s plan but wasn’t positive until I spoke to him. He knew nothing about it.”
“And of course, his information was that we were months behind on our rent when I decided to insist on speaking to him and waited most of the day in your foyer,” Miss Porterman said. “I’m sorry I was so forward, but I did not know what else to do and there was no one else to ask. It is just my ma and brother and me.”
“Has your father passed on?” Albert asked, as he guided her through the doorway.
“In a manner of speaking, yes, Mr. Donahue. He is a drunk and was thrown out of the house by my ma years ago. I’ve had nothing to do with him since, although now he is very sick and my ma has been helping him. I have paid the rent on our house since the first time I was paid as a maid at Landonmore, and in the last few years I’ve made enough to pay the rent and let my ma only work mornings at the dress shop.”
Albert had stopped walking, listening intently to what Miss Porterman was saying. No wonder she was prickly. Her father was gone, her brother was clearly too ill to do much more than lay abed, and her income was the main source of money for the family. And then his employee lied, stole from her, and threatened her, making good on that threat by destroying their home.
“Miss Porterman. You have my admiration. There are many young misses who would not have given a care about the rent for their parent’s home, or been too terrified or unsure to do anything about the scheme that befell your mother. You have been selfless.”
* * *
Selfless, except for one memorable occasion. One time when she abandoned every principle she’d been taught and let herself enjoy just for her own sake. How that evening lived on in her head, and she asked herself over and again, why she’d agreed to go with him, that conniving no-gooder Phillip Ramsey. But what had she been, if not no-good as well, considering Phillip and her best and only friend, Mary Rodgers, had already planned their wedding date? She shivered, as she often did when she thought too long and too hard on that horrible event, thanking the dear Lord that she’d not been made pregnant, and wondering if that would have happened, would her life have been much the same as her ma’s. She heard by way of Mrs. Spretz that Mary had three children now and was expecting her fourth, and that she took in laundry to help pay the rent and put food on the table as Phillip did not hold down any job for long. What a narrow escape!
“You are too kind,” she said, as she looked up at Mr. Donahue.
“I don’t believe so. I believe you are being modest.”
Alice shook her head, refusing to be downcast about such a long-ago time even though it plagued her, and he smiled at her with all the charm this handsome man had at his disposal, which was plentiful. She thought about how glad she was that she was wearing a new dark green wool skirt and matching coat with a bright white blouse, fastened with emerald green buttons.
It was one of several outfits that Mrs. Shelby had helped her pick out before she left Washington, and everyone knew that Mrs. Shelby had impeccable taste that set her apart even more so than the fact that she was a very beautiful woman. Alice had learned quite a lot working for Mrs. Shelby and was in her debt as well for the fact that she could read well and do numbers, too. Mrs. Shelby did not want to employ servants who could not follow directions, or understand recipes, or how to cut cloth, or any of the myriad of things required in service to her. Without thinking, Alice had also mimicked how Mrs. Shelby stood, and walked, and conversed, and adopted it as her own.
“I have a list here that I thought we should begin with,” Mr. Donahue said and pointed. “Here are beds and dressers and cupboards. Pick a set for your mother and for your brother, and one for you as well.”
“My furniture was not scratched. There is no need to replace it, Mr. Donahue.”
“Please allow me to make amends this way. I want you to have it, and I have the funds to purchase it and you may not. Please.”
He looked so sincere, she thought, and so very handsome. And this was unusual, having a man beg her to take something as a gift, other than the one occasion when Senator Shelby had done so.
“I am not destitute, I assure you,” she said. But she smiled when she said it, and Mr. Donahue fumbled and jumbled an apology. “I’m sure you didn’t mean it as such. While Senator Shelby was campaigning in Houston, the influenza hit his ranch. Mrs. Shelby and I did much of the work ourselves for the sick and dying, and some of the work of others, too, as much of the staff was struck down. Their daughter Melinda nearly didn’t make it but she did, thank the Lord, and the Shelbys rewarded me with an indefinite salary and a lump sum amount so that I’d be able to care for Jimmy and that my ma would be able to quit at the dressmaker’s. I just arrived off the train from Washington and found out that they had been put out and were living at the church.”
“What a homecoming that was.”
“Wasn’t what I was hoping to find, but it appears things may work out for the best in the end,” she said and looked up at him.
“Please call me Albert,” he said, and grinned, as if he were a small child who’d just been handed a treat.
“You must call me Alice, as I am accustomed to hearing. It will be odd to call you by your Christian name as you live in a fancy home with servants who may have been me.”
“My grandfather raised my brother and me and we were comfortable, as his leather business was, and is, successful. I would never have bought a home as large as I did, if not for the type of business I am in, the buying and selling of properties, and building, too. The men I do business with expect me to live in the neighborhood that I do, in the type of house that I do. If it insures my success, I can live where I’m at as opposed to something smaller, although I will admit I’ve grown accustomed to its grandeur and spaciousness. My grandfather and brother tease me terribly about it.”
“Tell me more about your business,” Alice said, just after she’d chosen a sturdy wooden table and four chairs for the kitchen. Albert told her about the visit he’d had to the bank that very morning.
“I would have been terrified having to speak to all those important men,” she said.
Albert shrugged. “It was nothing really. My plans and numbers were solid, and it did not bother me at all to explain them. Nothing like how nervous I was meeting you.”
Alice’s lashes fluttered and her cheeks went pink. “No need to be nervous on my account.”
“Yes, there is, I believe. Will you join me for luncheon at the Windsor House, Alice?” he asked, when they’d completed all the purchases and he’d signed a statement to be sent to Mr. Vickers. “I thought we may settle on an amount of money to replace your clothes and linens that were destroyed as I’d have no idea what or where to purchase them.”
“I’ve been very fortunate to recently replace my wardrobe, and my mother will want to make her own things once she is done at the dress shop very soon. Perhaps it would be better if you could make a contribution to the Saint Peter and Paul Church who took my ma and brother in.”
“That is an excellent idea, Alice,” he said, and escorted her to his carriage. “I will do just that.”
They pulled up in front of the Windsor House and Ali
ce took a deep breath. She’d been here with Mrs. Shelby years ago on many occasions when her employer met other women for luncheon. Not that she’d eaten with her, but she’d accompanied Mrs. Shelby, who’d given her more than adequate money to have a meal at one of the city’s less decorous establishments.
“Oh, dear,” Alice said aloud, and stared at the front of the building where women fashionably dressed and men in top hats, carrying canes, were coming and going at the entrance.
“Is there something wrong?”
Alice shook her head. “No. It’s just that I came here often as servant to Mrs. Shelby and ate at a lovely restaurant down the street while she dined here.”
“You are every bit as worthy as anyone else to dine here, Alice, maybe more so,” he said and looked at her solemnly before turning to Miss Denby. “Would you like to join us, Miss Denby?”
“No thank you, sir. It is my half day so I’ll be leaving once we’re done and having a meal with my family.”
“Perhaps you would like to go now, Miss Denby?” Alice asked. “If it is alright with you, Mr. Donahue.”
“Certainly, I’ll ride atop with the driver on our way back. But how will you get home from here, Miss Denby?”
“One only streetcar is all, sir.”
Albert reached in his pocket, pulled out some coins, and handed them to Miss Denby. “Enjoy your day with your family. Please do be careful.”
Alice waited until he stepped out of the carriage and turned back to her to help her down to the walkway. She thought about how Mrs. Shelby made an entrance, regardless of her circumstances. Alice held her head high, straightened her back, and tucked a stray strand of hair back into the loose bun she wore before a doorman opened the door to the restaurant. Once seated in the dining room, Alice shook out her napkin and glanced at the menu. No one had raised up an alarm that a maid was eating with them, she thought to herself with a chuckle. The haughty maître’ d’ had been solicitous of her, and she’d met any looks from other diners in a straightforward way as they made their way through the dining room to their tables, instead of looking away as she would have normally done.