by Diana Palmer
Tess took the small wing chair indicated and looked at the older woman with open curiosity. "You're older thanNan."
"Fifteen years," came the reply. "There were six of us, but four died in childhood.Nanand I are the only ones of our family left alive." Her eyes were sad as she added, "I lost one of my own children to a chest cold that went into pneumonia. Now I go to extremes to protect the two I have left." She sighed. "At least, I did…"
The way her voice trailed away was faintly disturbing.
She looked up again, shifting in the chair. "What can I do for you, Miss Davis?"
"Meredith," Tess corrected. "Matt and I are related through our mothers," she lied.
"Oh, I see. Well, Miss Meredith, then. Is there something you need from me?"
"Yes," Tess replied. "I need a motive for someone to have killed Dennis Collier."
The other woman's face hardened. "He was a wife beater," she said. "A bully who had no feeling for any needs other than his own. He hit my sister, again and again and again." Her eyes closed and she shivered. "She was a kind, sweet girl who never hurt a fly. And he could treat her…like that!"
"Yes, I know," Tess replied gently. "Nanisn't the sort to hurt people."
Blue eyes met her own green ones. "I'm glad he died," Mrs. Greene said fervently. "I hope he suffered before he died! Maybe one of his fancy women killed him, and good luck to her!"
Tess jumped on that. "He did have other women, then?"
Mrs. Greene lifted her face. She seemed to be struggling for composure. She glanced at Tess and averted her eyes. "Certainly he did.Nandidn't know, but I knew. I have a friend who lived nearNan's apartment house. She told me that women came and went all the time whenNanwas away at church and visiting me."
"Do you know the names of any of the women?" Tess pressed, her eyes glittering with excitement that she might have found a suspect after all. "Did your friend know who they were?"
Mrs. Greene shrugged. "No, she didn't know them. They were common women." She leaned forward. "Women from brothels!" she whispered.
Tess knew about that sort of woman because many of them ended up dying in the hospital from a host of social diseases. Her mind whirled with tragic stories. Strange, though, that a woman from a brothel would visit a man in his apartment during his wife's absence. That wasn't the usual thing at all. Most of the men who frequented brothels were respectable family men who would have done anything to keep knowledge of their indiscretions from their families. It was part of the hated double standard that the women in her group so detested.
"Why didn't he go to the brothel?" Tess asked, speaking her thoughts aloud.
"Well, uh…"Mrs. Greene collected herself and seemed to be thinking very hard. "I suppose he wanted to shameNaneven more than he already had, what with his criminal friends being there all the time."
It didn't make sense. She almost said so. But there was something in Mrs. Greene's face that made her hold her tongue. She hesitated and then forced a smile.
"I don't suppose we'll ever know the whole truth of it," she agreed. "But the thing is, unless we can find the real killer, they may hangNan."
Mrs. Greene's face went even paler. "I know that." Her eyes closed and she shivered. "They say that those ropes are rough against the skin," she said in a ghostly tone, touching her lace-covered neck as if she could feel the rope there. An odd gesture, an odd comment, Tess thought.
"I imagine it's very quick," she said.
"If the hangman is compassionate," Mrs. Greene said with a long, eloquent stare. "I can't let them hang my sister."
"They won't if we can find the real culprit," Tess said firmly. "You have to help me locate those women who went to see Dennis."
Mrs. Greene grimaced. "How?"
"Ask your friend to ask everyone she knows," came the reply. "And she must hurry. We have so little time."
"Isn't there anything we can do besides that?"
Tess was thinking. "I'm going to a meeting of my women's group tonight. I believe that it would show our support forNanif we held a torchlight parade to protest her innocence and show everyone how her husband was treating her. Perhaps it would make even the court take notice!"
"It would be dangerous. Very dangerous. The last of your marches ended in a riot, Miss Meredith, and my husband told me that you were seriously injured."
"I'llbe much more careful this time," Tess said, without revealing the fact that Dennis Collier himself had injured her. "Besides, it'sNanI'm concerned about, not myself."
Mrs. Greene bit her lower lip and clasped her hands together in her aproned lap. "That is a generous way to be. I wish I had your courage."
"Don't worry," Tess said gently. "It will be all right. I'm sure we can saveNan."
"Ihope so. Oh, I hope so!"
* * *
After dealing with a mountain of neglected paperwork, Matt made his way back to the boardinghouse. He arrived just in time to meet a messenger at the door.
"And what's this?" he asked when the messenger, after ascertaining his identity, handed him a sealed envelope.
"A lady at the jail asked me to bring it. Gave me a quarter!"
"Here's another," he said, tossing a coin to the young man, who grinned, tipped his hat, and went away.
Matt went into the hallway, where the light was better, to read the note. He supposed it was from Nan Collier, perhaps a new lead to follow.
His surprise was visible and verbal when he read the hastily scribbled note. It read, "Have been arrested. Please come. Tess."
Mrs. Mulhaney had been walking into the hall, drying her hands on a tea towel, when she saw Matt.
"Why, Mr. Davis!" she exclaimed, as she heard him mutter a curse. "Whatever is wrong?"
"My cousin has been arrested," he said without thinking.
Mrs. Mulhaney had to sit down. By the time she got over the shock of having one of her tenants in jail, sullying the good name and reputation of her establishment, Matt was out of the house.
* * *
He waved the note under Tess's nose where she stood behind bars with a dozen other women, looking downcast and guilty.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he raged.
"Sir!" one of the matrons exclaimed angrily.
He tipped his hat. "I beg your pardon," he said politely, as his furious gaze held Tess's, "but my cousin's arrest has come as a shock."
"Idon't know why," Tess said innocently. "Surely you must expect a woman of my character to end badly."
The insinuation turned his cheekbones ruddy, and he crushed the note in his big, lean hand. "Mrs. Mulhaney was almost in a faint when I left. She will surely throw us both out the door for this. She has an overworked sense of social responsibility."
"Idon't care if she throws me out; I was already planning to leave. Daisy," she indicated a slightly older woman with no looks whatsoever, "has invited me to share her small house. She is a student at present. Her studies sound so interesting that I may very well enroll myself."
"Nothing of that sort matters at the moment," Matt said angrily. Too many shocks in one day were rendering his mind numb. "I'll bail you out, and then we'll go somewhere and talk."
"At this hour of the night?" Daisy asked haughtily. "Really, sir, you'll ruin your cousin's reputation."
Matt glared at her. "My cousin's reputation is none of your business, madam."
"Matt!" Tess cried.
He turned and marched out of the jail.
"Your cousin is quite dangerous-looking," Daisy said sternly. "I think the less you have to do with him, the better."
Tess stared at her. "Matt is my business." She was already regretting her impulsive agreement to share Daisy's house. It wouldn't work in a million years. Daisy obviously hated men. "And I think I won't take you up on your offer of lodgings, Daisy," she added, "although I thank you for the offer. Perhaps Matt misjudged my landlady's mood."
"I hardly think so," Ellen O'Hara said with a twinkle in her eyes. "You can stay with my sisters an
d me, though, Tess," she offered. "And Mr. Davis will be welcome to visit," she added with a glance at the cold-faced Daisy.
"You're very kind," Tess said.
Ellen chuckled. "Oh, you've added such excitement to my dreary life that I think I'd enjoy having you around. I know my sisters would. They're younger than me, but they're hard workers. We all work as maids for a fine family down on the lake."
"Servants," Daisy scoffed, because she was a woman of property.
"Honest work is honorable, whatever it entails," Tess told her matter-of-factly. "And I hardly think that the heart and soul of the women's movement should be the denigration of any of us by others of us. It smacks of disloyalty."
Most of the other women nearby assented loudly, and Daisy withdrew into her own thoughts.
Matt was back in minutes with the jailer.
"You have to bail Ellen out, too," she told him, indicating the plump blond girl beside her. "She and her sisters are giving me a home after Mrs. Mulhaney throws me out."
He gaped at her. "What?"
"Ellen. You have to make her bail, too."
Matt didn't say a word. He and the jailer left, and when he returned, both women were released.
"Can we seeNanbefore we leave?" she asked, after the other woman had thanked Matt profusely for his help.
"We might as well," Matt said angrily. "Theevening's almost over anyway."
Tess made a face at him, and she and Ellen preceded him into the area where prisoners awaiting trial were kept.
Nanwas tearful and tried to hug her through the bars. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" she told Tess. "I'm getting more scared by the day. Have you found out anything at all? And why are you back again, Mr. Davis?"
"I've been bailing Tess out of jail," he said tersely.
"What for?"Nanasked.
"Inciting a riot," Matt said for her.
"Thank you very much!" Tess snapped at him over her shoulder.
He made her a mock bow. "You're welcome."
Nangasped. "Inciting a riot?"
"I led a torchlight parade in support of you and gave the audience a lecture on the evils of brutality in men."
Nanlaughed and then cried. "Oh, Tess, you are my friend!"
"Yes, I am, and I'm going to get you out of this somehow!" she promised. "Keep your chin up, dear. You mustn't give in to despair."
Nantouched her stomach and sighed. "I don't know if I have a prayer any more," she said. "Mybrother-in-law said there were no other suspects. They can't find another person in Chicago who wanted my husband dead more than I did."
"But you didn't kill him," Tess said firmly. "And we're going to prove it."
Nanmanaged a smile, but it wasn't a confident one. It was sad and lonely and lost.
* * *
They dropped Ellen off at the rambling Victorian house she shared with her three sisters near the railroad depot, finally accepting her invitation to have a cup of tea before venturing back to their boardinghouse.
Ellen's home was ramshackle and needed painting, and it was cold because the only heat came from open fireplaces. But it was homey, and there were no really close neighbors. The sisters made much of Ellen, Tess, and Matt, and insisted on details of the arrest and jailing. In the end they invited Tess and Matt to come again and visit. Ellen repeated her offer of lodgings. Tess thanked her and added that she might be over in the morningto take her up on it. She felt at home here already. Ellen was a kind soul, and her sisters were jolly.
"Mrs. Mulhaney won't throw you out," Matt said curtly as they rode home in yet another hired carriage.
"Yes, she will," she said. "I don't care. It might be a blessing in disguise."
He glanced at her. She made him feel even more guilty than he already did.
His face seemed to close up. He averted his eyes to the darkness outside the carriage window, broken intermittently by streetlights.
She crossed her legs under her long skirts and sighed. They were farther apart than they'd ever been.
"How do you feel about me, Matt?"
He wouldn't look at her. "As I've always felt," he said.
"And how is that?"
The carriage slowed. "This isn't the time to discuss personal matters," he said as the driver pulled up in front of Mrs. Mulhaney's boardinghouse. "We have a much worse problem waiting inside the house."
"Mrs. Mulhaney," she ventured.
"In a word," he concurred.
* * *
The elderly lady was, in fact, pacing the hall, red-faced and muttering. She stopped dead when the two of them walked in.
Tess went forward at once, without the slightest hesitation. "My friend has been falsely accused of a murder which God knows she did not commit," she said firmly. "A group of us who loveNanmarched on the city jail to show our support for her, and we were arrested, by men." She lifted her chin pugnaciously. "You are well within your rights to toss me out the front door, Mrs. Mulhaney, and I will say not one word if that is your reaction. It wants courage to stand up for what is right in the eyes of God, especially if it is not right in the eyes of all men."
She stood still, waiting.
Mrs. Mulhaney went white and then scarlet. She hesitated, wiped her hands on her apron, muttered some more, and then winced. "Miss Meredith, you have placed me in an unenviable position," she said.
"How?" Tess wanted to know. "Have I done anything immoral?"
"Of course not," the older woman said at once. "It is simply the notoriety…"
"My cousin is notorious," Tess pointed out. "He often places himself in danger."
"He is a man," the landlady rejoined.
"Is a man more noble than a woman, more courageous, more valuable?"
The older woman was almost stammering by now. She grimaced. "But it is the reputation of my establishment—"
Tess held up a hand. "Say no more. I have friends with whom I can live. I will only ask that you give me until the morning to pack my things and move out."
Mrs. Mulhaney winced. "Please, Miss Meredith, you must understand my position!"
"Certainly I do," Tess replied. "And you may explain it to God when we both pass on to our eternal reward. I'm sure that He will understand your lack of compassion for a sister falsely accused of a crime—just as He understood the crowd for demanding the release of Barabbas and condemning Christ for crimes of which He was innocent!"
On that note, leaving Mrs. Mulhaney open-mouthed and Matt envious of her oratory, she stomped off up the staircase to her room and slammed the door behind her. There was hardly any reason for conformity now that she had burned her boats.
She took off her hat and cloak and sat down heavily in an armchair. She felt suddenly deflated—about to lose her home and the man she loved. All that had happened in one night—along with becoming a jailbird. A lesser woman would have bawled. Tess had no such intention. She could bear anything life threw at her.
* * *
Mrs. Mulhaney, confronting Matt, her face paper-pale and drawn, said, "I feel quite small."
"So do I. Eloquent, isn't she?"
"And I am wrong to make her leave? For she is doing what she thinks is right, and I am punishing her for it." She shook her head. "Oh, Mr. Davis, this modern world is not fit for women of my generation. I fear that I shall never cope with it. So many changes." She shook her head again and lifted her worried eyes to Matt's. "No one else here knows of her arrest, after all, and she is a good and kind young lady. Will you speak to her for me, and say that I ask her pardon humbly and hope that she will remain a tenant?"
Matt didn't want to say that. The tension between Tess and himself was reaching the breaking point. If he didn't move her out of his orbit quite soon, he was going to lose his head again. He couldn't reconcile his emotions with his reason, but, still, he wanted only what was best for Tess, regardless of whether it was best for him.
"Sir?" Mrs. Mulhaney persisted.
"I think that it might be a good idea for Tess to leave here," he said, surpris
ingly solemn. "She plans to stay with a family of sisters who seem to have good character and at least some influence over her. She might fare better in the company of young women."
The elderly woman hesitated, but only for a minute. "I would hate to have hard feelings with her."
"I'll make sure that there are none," he promised. "Everything will be well."
She smiled wistfully. "Do you think so? I confess that I have never felt quite so bad over a decision. Thank you for your help, Mr. Davis." She hesitated. "You will stay?"