returned with narrowed eyes.
“Jake, go out and wait in the carriage.”
“But—”
“Do as I say.”
With obvious reluctance, he turned and made his way outside, leaving the front door wide open behind him.
Sarah had no idea what Mrs. Walker intended to say to her, but she knew she didn’t want Catherine to hear it. “Maeve, would you take Catherine over to Mrs. Ellsworth’s for a little visit?”
“I can’t leave you here alone with her!”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?” Maeve asked doubtfully.
Sarah turned to look at them. Catherine’s lower lip quivered. In another moment she was going to start crying. Sarah smiled reassuringly. “Wouldn’t you like to visit Mrs. Ellsworth? You haven’t seen her all day. Just for a few minutes. I’ll come and get you when our visitors leave. Go on, now.”
Maeve was even more reluctant than Jake had been, but she picked Catherine up and headed for the kitchen. They could go out the back way and Jake wouldn’t see them. Sarah was glad she’d thought of that.
Sarah turned back to her visitor expectantly. “What did you want to tell me?”
Mrs. Walker glanced around, apparently noticing her surroundings for the first time. She saw the two easy chairs Sarah had placed by the front window. “Could we sit down? It’s been a horrible day.”
Sarah didn’t want to encourage the woman to stay a moment longer than necessary, but a lifetime of training prevailed. “Of course,” she said, glad to hear that she sounded less than gracious, at least.
When they were seated, Mrs. Walker took a moment to study Sarah, as if trying to judge her mood or read her thoughts in some way. Finally, she said, “I know what you think of me, but you’re wrong.”
“Am I?” Sarah asked. “Are you telling me you don’t really own a brothel where you force young women to sell themselves?”
To Sarah’s surprise, Mrs. Walker smiled. “You see, that’s where you’re wrong. I don’t force them at all. I don’t have to. They come to me of their own free will, begging me to take them in.”
“How can you expect me to believe that?” Sarah asked, outraged.
“Because it’s true. I have girls knocking on my door every day. Maybe you don’t know what it’s like to be hungry and desperate, you being from a rich family and all, but there’s plenty of girls in the city who do. Poor girls, whose families have thrown them out because they can’t afford to feed them anymore. Or girls whose families died or whose husbands deserted them. If they’re lucky, they get a job in a factory or they try rolling cigars or making collars in their rooms for some sweatshop, but it ain’t long before they figure out they can’t afford to eat and keep a roof over their heads both on what they make. Maybe they say no the first time some man offers them a dollar to lift their skirts, but that’s more than they make in a week, and when the landlord tells them to pay up or get thrown into the street, that dollar starts to look pretty good.”
“I deliver babies all over the city. I know very well how difficult it is for a woman alone to survive,” Sarah said.
“Then you shouldn’t be surprised that the girls want to work for me instead of being out on the street with no one to protect them, in all weathers where anything can happen to them. I told you before, I take good care of my girls. Nobody beats them or robs them. They eat good and have a clean place to sleep. If I took all the girls who come begging, I’d have a hundred working for me. I have to turn girls away every day.”
“Then you shouldn’t miss Amy.”
Mrs. Walker stiffened. “You don’t know anything about her, or you wouldn’t say that.”
“I know she was desperate to get away from your house.”
“She was, but not for the reason you think.”
“What other reason did she need?”
“Girls leave my house for lots of reasons. Sometimes they go off with a customer who promised to set them up in style. Sometimes they get lured away to another house. Sometimes I throw them out because they steal from customers or the other girls or me. And sometimes they think they’re in love.”
“Amy said she hated what you made her do with the customers.”
“Of course she did. It’s what you wanted to hear, but that’s not the reason she wanted to leave.”
“What do you think the reason was?”
Mrs. Walker stared at Sarah for a long moment, studying her again. Then she said, “Let me tell you how Amy came to me in the first place. A man brought her.”
“What man?”
“A rich man. He’d been keeping her, and he was tired of her. She can be . . . disagreeable when she doesn’t get her way.”
Sarah had noticed this, but she didn’t respond.
“I don’t usually do favors for my clients, but this man . . . I didn’t want to refuse him, and he paid me well.”
“Did he know she was with child?”
“I don’t think she knew herself. If she did, she was stupid not to tell him, and Amy isn’t stupid. Foolish, yes, but not stupid.”
“When did you find out?”
“Not for a long time. She’s a plump girl and nobody noticed when she got a little plumper.”
“Why didn’t she let her protector know about the baby?”
“He didn’t want to hear from her, and we don’t encourage the girls to write letters. You can understand how much trouble that might cause. Besides, she was a whore. Why would he believe the baby was his?”
“How long has she been at your house?”
“Almost six months.”
“Then she would have been more than three months gone when she arrived at your place. The timing should convince him now.”
Mrs. Walker shrugged. “If he wanted to believe it, I suppose.”
“You didn’t tell him?”
“Of course not. I make it a habit not to cause problems for my clients.”
“I guess that’s why Amy didn’t ask you to tell him when she did realize she was pregnant.”
Mrs. Walker sniffed in disgust. “If she’d told me, I could’ve taken care of it, but by the time I found out, it was too late. I had a doctor come see her, but he said she was too far gone and would probably die if he tried. I should’ve put her out then, the ungrateful little bitch, but I let her stay, out of the goodness of my heart.”
“And because some of your customers enjoyed being with a pregnant woman,” Sarah guessed.
Mrs. Walker’s brown eyes flashed, but she knew how to control her temper. “My girls have to earn their keep. I don’t run a charity.”
Sarah sighed. “Mrs. Walker, you promised to tell me something to change my mind about helping Amy, but you haven’t.”
“Yes, I have. I told you she had a baby to a rich man, or at least she’s going to try to make him believe that. She’s got some romantic notion he’s going to take her back or maybe even marry her. I don’t know what she’s got in her mind, but none of that will happen, I promise you. If she goes to this man with her story, he’ll . . . Well, I don’t know what he’ll do, but it won’t be good for Amy, I can tell you that.”
Sarah had a difficult time believing Mrs. Walker was so concerned about Amy that she’d come all the way over here to beg for Sarah’s help. “I’m guessing he won’t be too pleased with you, either, for letting her get out to cause him trouble. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s the real reason you want to get her back, so you can make sure he never finds out.”
“If I have reason to be afraid of him, Amy has even more. At least tell me where she is so I can talk to her. She’s confused now, but I can set her straight.”
“And if you can’t, Jake can carry her out bodily.”
“The way your people did?” Mrs. Walker countered.
“They weren’t my people.”
“Then who were they?”
