The Nearly Notorious Nun

by Rie Sheridan Rose

  “I hope it is nothing serious,” I said sincerely. I had become quite fond of Aunt Emily.

  “Oh, no. It’s been so hot lately that she’s found it hard to rest.”

  “I quite understand,” I answered, hiding a yawn. “Ma and I were up half the night with Priss. Speaking of Priss, did anything…unusual happen when she was in your care?”

  Her face turned the oddest shade.

  “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, Miss.”

  “We are now the proud—parents?—of a litter of kittens.”

  Vanessa’s hand flew to her mouth.

  “Oh my stars! She did sneak away from me one afternoon for an hour or so, but she came walking back cool as a cucumber when I called her in for dinner.”

  “Well, that’s another possible solution to the mystery. Still, it is far more likely to have been the night she got away from me. Don’t worry, Vanessa. Even if it was that afternoon, I blame the little minx entirely. It wasn’t your fault. You’ll have to bring Aunt Emily over to choose one for your own, however. Ma says we can’t keep them all.”

  “She will like that. A kitten would brighten the house considerable.”

  “For now, though, I could really use the carriage.”

  “I’ll get it for you at once.”

  “It’s a lovely day. I’ll just wait out front.”

  As I waited for the carriage, I saw a familiar figure farther up the street. It was the same threadbare gentleman I had seen the day I went to the post office. The men who’d accosted me had done so directly after I’d seen him, and I wondered if he was involved with Blessant…

  Then I shook my head. Not everything in the world had to do with that villain. It was far more likely the man was a new tenant somewhere in the neighborhood. Ma wasn’t the only proprietor of a boarding house on the block, although hers was definitely the most prestigious.

  He spotted me and started toward me…just as Roderick pulled the carriage into the drive. I climbed aboard, glancing back over my shoulder as the conveyance started up again. The stranger stood in the middle of the street, arm upraised as if he had been about to call out to me. Now what could that be about?

  I watched until we turned the corner, but he merely stood there until we were out of sight. Most curious. As if I needed another mystery in my life!

  In no time at all, I was making the now-familiar jaunt uptown to the orphanage. I could almost make my way in my sleep by this point; and, indeed, when the carriage came to a halt before the convent, it jolted me out of a doze.

  Thanking Roderick profusely, I released him to return home.

  “Oh, no, you don’t, Miss Jo. I’ll wait right here until you’re ready to return. Master Alistair would have my head if I didn’t.”

  “I don’t want to presume on Aunt Emily’s good will, Roderick. What if she needs the carriage while you’re idling here?”

  “She took to her bed, Vanessa says, and she’s not likely to be needing me today. Besides, if anything happened to you because I wasn’t here, she’d never forgive herself.”

  I started to protest further, and then realized that he was absolutely right. Besides, I had planned to hire a cab on the way back, and his presence would save me the fare.

  “All right,” I sighed. “I shouldn’t be terribly long.”

  I lifted my hem and hurried up the steps. As I stepped inside the heavy wooden doors, I could hear Bridget and Ella arguing again. It was as if they had never left off.

  My own temper began to rise. This was no way to behave! Especially for a mother superior.

  How does it affect the other children? I wondered.

  Any tensions among the nuns had been fodder for speculation when I was a child, and these vociferous arguments between the mother superior and a resident? That had to be unprecedented. Most of the children would find themselves at the end of a birch switch merely for raising their voices. Ella’s preferential treatment, even if it were unpleasant in its outcome, would be bad for the morale of the others.

  Marching to Bridget’s office, I threw open the door.

  “What on earth is going on in here?”

  Ella spun toward me, her eyes flashing.

  “Go away!”

  “Ella!” Bridget scolded. “That is no way to speak to your elders!”

  The child stamped her foot.

  “You ain’t my Ma!”

  My heart skipped. It was like looking through a doorway to the past.

  I moved across the room and gathered the girl into a hug. She brought her heel down on my toes.

  That didn’t go so well. I winced.

  My actions had been instinctive, based on what I had needed as a child in a similar situation. I guess not every child is the same. However, I refused to let her go.

  “Behave yourself,” I commanded her through gritted teeth.

  Ella glowered, but at least she proffered no more violence.

  “What’s going on here?” I asked Bridget. “You could hear the shouting throughout the building. This is no example for the other children.”

  Bridget sighed, sinking down in her desk chair.

  “Ella was nearly abducted on the street—right outside our doors! They attempted to force her into a hansom.”

  The child shifted uncomfortably.

  “They didn’t get me, though. I ain’t no baby.”

  “You could have been…God alone knows, Ella. Tell Miss Josephine what you told me.”

  “There was a dandy in the cab. Black hair, a big mustache and a stupid pointy beard. He said he were a friend of my mama, and he’d come to take me to her. He had another big fellow with him, and he’s the one who tried to push me in the door. I kicked him in the shin, and run inside.

  “Sister Gertrude was on the door, and I told her what had happened. She promised to send him away if he knocked, and sent me to tell Aunt Brid—Mother Mary Frances what happened. She got all het up over nothing. I can handle myself.”

  It had to be Smythe! The man had to have something more in mind than shady real estate dealings that had no chance of coming to fruition. What could it be? I glanced uneasily at Bridget.

  Leaning down to the child’s eye level, I spoke earnestly.

  “Maybe you can, Ella, but this man is no one to trifle with. He is rich, and powerful, and he could hurt you or your family very badly. Do you understand?”

  Her eyes widened, and she nodded her head.

  “Good. Now, normally, I would send you off to play, but you deserve to know what is going on. Go and sit on Bridget’s lap, and I will explain what I found out yesterday.”

  She was a little large for such an activity, but there was only one other chair, and I was tired. Plus, my toes ached.

  I also didn’t feel she should be out of our sight, at the moment. Particularly with an attempted kidnapping to start her day.

  I wasn’t sure how much Ella knew about her circumstances, so I took a moment to gather my thoughts.

  “I found out why Mr. Smythe is after the orphanage,” I began. “And from the description of the man in the cab, he’s the one behind the kidnapping attempt, by the way. He is a land speculator, and the property on which this building is located is extremely valuable. It is the cornerstone to a huge land deal that would make him a considerable sum of money.”

  “Even so, I have no control over its disposition,” Bridget broke in. “What does he hope to get from me?”

  “I told him as much yesterday when we met. It doesn’t appear to have dissuaded him. Perhaps it is time to bring Nettie into our plans.”

  Ella’s face lit from within.

  “You are going to talk to Mama?” The hope in her voice was heartbreaking. Surely, there was a way to reunite mother and child, no matter what her legitimacy…

  Bridget rubbed her forehead as if it pained her.

  “You know it isn’t a good time to see her right now, Ella.”

  The child’s lip quivered. “It’s never a good time. I hate you!” She jumped
off Bridget’s lap and ran from the office.

  I half-rose to go after her then realized she was probably safe within the convent walls. Even Smythe wouldn’t be so foolish as to try and abduct a child from inside the orphanage. I was also fairly sure she was going to go have a good cry, and she wouldn’t want a witness to that.

  “I don’t know what I’m going to do about her,” Mother Superior confided. “She can’t ruin Nettie’s chance for happiness…”

  “What about her own happiness, Bridget? She’s a little girl, and she needs her mother.”

  “You don’t understand, Jo. There are reasons Ella is here and not with her mother. She is too young to understand all the complications. But I am truly worried about her. This man tried to abduct her in broad daylight in front of a House of God! He will balk at nothing.”

  “Is there anywhere else she can go?”

  “Nettie really can’t take her, Jo. She is completely wrapped up in wedding preparations at the moment. Her betrothed is one of the Vanderbilt cousins—do you see why Ella can’t be sent to her at this time?”

  “Frankly, no, I don’t. If this man truly loves Nettie, he will accept her child, Vanderbilt or not. But I’m not a part of your family, so it isn’t my place to tell you what to do. What will you do about her?”

  Bridget took a deep breath and peeked up at me through her lashes. It was an expression I remembered all too well from childhood. It had usually preceded her talking me into something that invariably got me into serious trouble.

  It hit me what she wanted just before she opened her mouth.

  “Oh no! Bridget—I only have a tiny room…it isn’t even my house. And it’s halfway across town.”

  “All the better, Jo. No one will think to look for her there. She’s just a little girl. And she could learn so much from you.”

  “Now you are being ridiculous.”

  “Seriously. You’re a cultured young lady now. She could use a role model such as you. We can’t teach her about Society here in the convent. And you were saying just the other day how lonely you were with your friends out of town. Please. She needs you.”

  I never could say no to one of Bridget’s harebrained schemes. Besides, she had a point. Ella would be safer under watchful eyes that didn’t have several dozen other children to manage.

  “Oh, all right. I’ll take her home with me. But just until we settle this business with Smythe—or until Nettie can take her herself. Whichever comes first.”

  I just hoped I wouldn’t end up regretting it.

  It had taken some exploration, but Amy had finally found Phineas’s private chamber. With a moue of distaste, she quickly searched the room for the safe.

  There was a large oil portrait of Phineas in a nook beside the bed. Her eyebrow lifted. Surely not.

  On the other hand, he was an egotist. Amy pulled her magnifying glass from her bag and searched the frame of the painting. It was dusty, but there were definitely signs that it had been moved recently.

  Gingerly, she slipped a finger behind the frame and pulled. It came away from the wall on a hinged pivot.

  “What are you doing in here?”

  -- Garrett Goldthwaite

  Analytical Amy and the Case of the Covetous Cad

  Chapter 13

  The ride back to the boarding house was made in strained silence. My mind raced through scenarios. How could I explain Ella to Ma?

  She sat across from me, her feet swinging; her legs were too short to touch the floor. There was a scab on one knee above the regulation stockings. Her red hair was caught back from her face with a length of Kelly green ribbon. It matched the eyes blazing back at me as she fiddled with the rucksack of personal belongings on the seat beside her.

  Finally, she broke the silence.

  “Did you really know my mama?” she asked.

  “When she was a child.”

  “Can you tell me about her?”

  I smiled. She was only a little girl, after all.

  “She was very sweet. Whenever one of us cut ourselves or fell and hurt our knees…” I nodded toward her scabbed extremity. “…we would go to her to be patched up. When our hearts were broken, when we needed help learning our catechism, Nettie was the one we went to. She was a very special part of our lives.”

  Ella looked down at her hands.

  “I wish I could know her like that.”

  I reached across the gap and took her hand.

  “How old are you, Ella?”

  “Nine and a half.”

  “That’s old enough to know the truth. Your mother loves you. I know she does. She wishes she could have you home with her. And, someday, she will,” I promised rashly. This child would be with her mother if it was the last thing I ever did.

  We pulled up at the boarding house, and I stepped out of the carriage, reaching back to help her down.

  “Come along, Ella. We’ll get you some lunch.”

  Ma reacted much as I had hoped.

  “Sit down, child! You need to put some meat on your bones.” She cocked her head toward me. “Should I make up a cot in your room, dear?”

  “If you please, Ma.”

  “Sit down yourself, Josephine Mann. You need to be eatin’ as well.”

  She ladled out thick stew for each of us, setting a plate with thick slices of bread and a bowl of butter between us, and then patted Ella on the shoulder.

  “And I have some lovely lemon cake for after. Eat right up, and I’ll fix ya a bed in Jo’s room. Yer welcome t’ stay as long as ya like.”

  She bustled out of the kitchen, and we fell to the stew with a will. Remembering the plain fare of the orphanage, I wondered if Ella had ever had a decent meal before.

  When we could eat no more, I pushed my chair back.

  “Come upstairs, Ella. I have something to show you.”

  “What is it?”

  “A surprise.”

  I led the little girl up to my room. If there was one way to distract a child, it was with a baby, and I just happened to have a boxful.

  “My cat had kittens last night,” I told her. “I don’t want her to be left alone for too long. She might need something. Do you think you could stay here and watch them while I tend to some business?”

  A wide grin split her face.

  “Kittens? Really?”

  I nodded. “Four of them. You can choose which one of them will go to the convent when they’re old enough. Not the big red one, though. That one is mine.”

  Ma was just leaving the room as we reached it.

  “I’ve got your bed all set up, Ella.”

  “I’m going to watch the kittens for Miss Jo while she’s away,” the child informed her proudly.

  “Are you, now?” Ma glanced up at me. “And where is Miss Jo off to?”

  “She has business somewhere,” Ella answered, obviously not caring much one way or the other the instant as she spotted the box of kittens and ran over to look at them.

  “Don’t pick them up!” I called. “You can pet their heads if Priss will let you, but pet her first so she will know you.”

  Ella nodded, holding her hand out for Priss to sniff. There must have been cats somewhere in her past; she knew the exact protocol to deal with one. I was reassured that she would be able to deal with the kittens appropriately.

  “I’ll bring Miss Priss some milk and a bite to eat,” Ma said with a smile, bustling off downstairs. Ma always seemed to bustle wherever she went.

  “I think she likes me.” Ella’s voice was happier than I had ever heard it. She sat tailor-style on the floor beside the crate, Priss curled up on her lap, purring loud enough that I could hear her halfway across the room.

  “It looks like it.” I glanced in the box. The kittens were sleeping peacefully in a multicolored heap. Everything would be fine here.

  “I should be back soon,” I told her.

  The girl needed some new things; all she had by way of clothes were her uniform and a rough homespun nightgown. It wou
ld be fun to shop for her. I would take her with me for more tailored clothing tomorrow, but today I just planned to pick up a few items. I left Ella happily playing with Priss.

  ~*~

  Shopping for a child was more difficult than I had anticipated, particularly when the child was not present. It took me far longer to run my errands than I’d expected, since I had to sneak past Roderick puttering in the front yard of Aunt Emily’s to get away without his company.

  Still, I was quite pleased with myself by the time I returned to the boarding house, and eager to show Ella her new things. New frocks certainly raised my own spirits considerably; I hoped they would do the same for my new charge.

  I opened the door to my room with some difficulty, considering all my parcels, and gasped.

  “Ella! What are you doing?” I dropped my packages to the floor and dashed across the room.

  “I’m writing a letter to my mother.”

  “Where did you get the paper?”

  “I got it from that book.” She pointed at my journal, tossed aside on the table. “It wasn’t written on.”

  I sighed. She had been snooping in my things.

  “My diary? You tore a page out of my diary?”

  “I don’t know. There was some writing on a few of the pages, but not the end.” She turned back to her pen.

  “It isn’t nice to take other people’s things. I would have given you some paper of your own if you had asked.”

  “You weren’t here to ask for any. Besides, you weren’t using it,” she said with a pout. “Here—take your stupid paper back.” She threw it across the room. Followed by the inkwell and pen.

  “Ella!”

  The kittens began to cry, startled by the loud noises. She was instantly contrite, going on her knees beside the box and crooning to the little animals.

  “It’s all right,” she murmured, stroking each little head in turn. “Don’t cry, babies. Don’t cry.” She was so gentle with them, so sweet when she wanted to be.

  The child needed to work off her energy; it burst out of her at times, and she couldn’t control it. I remembered having days like that. We were so very alike in many ways.