“I’m sure no one cares what you thought,” Miss Yingling said, obviously furious and also embarrassed at being proved a liar. “Mr. Van Orner has visitors. You have no business here.”
Sarah jumped to her feet. “Amy, I’m so glad to see you. How is the baby?”
Amy looked around wildly, searching for some clue as to how she should react. Mr. Van Orner and Miss Yingling simply glared at her, but Mrs. Decker apparently sensed an opportunity to be of service to her daughter.
“Is this the young lady whose baby you delivered at the—” She caught herself and covered her near- disastrous error with a charming smile. “Mrs. Brandt has been very worried about you.”
“Yes, I have,” Sarah said. “I would love to see the baby. May I?”
Amy was still looking somewhat desperate and finding no friendly face except Sarah’s. “If you’d like, I . . . Of course you can see him.” She whirled around and made her escape. Sarah had to hurry to catch up with her.
As she followed Amy up the stairs, she saw the girl was barefoot. She was making herself quite at home here. Amy didn’t look back until they’d reached the top of the stairs and gone down the hallway to one of the doors. Amy pushed it open and entered, leaving Sarah to follow.
Sarah saw at once it was a bedroom, furnished in the impersonal style used for occasional guests. A large market basket sat at the foot of the unmade bed. Sarah recognized it as the one she’d carried the baby in from the Mission the day they’d rescued Amy. Amy stopped beside it, turning back to Sarah.
“Here he is.”
Sarah closed the bedroom door behind her. She didn’t want anyone to hear the questions she needed to ask Amy. She went over to the basket and looked down. The tiny boy was sleeping peacefully, snuggled into his makeshift bed. “He looks well.”
“He’s fine. Did you think I wasn’t taking care of him?” She was still angry and taking it out on Sarah.
“I knew you’d take good care of him, but babies can get sick for no reason at all, and he’s been through a lot in his young life. When I heard you’d left the rescue house, I couldn’t imagine where you’d gone. I was very worried about you.”
She stuck out her lower lip like a spoiled child. “I couldn’t tell them I was coming here, could I?”
“I suppose not. Did Miss Yingling invite you here?” she tried.
“Miss Yingling!” she scoffed, amused by the thought. “Not likely.”
“But you did know Mrs. Van Orner was dead.”
“Sure. Miss Yingling was kind enough to send us a note, so we’d know the old witch was gone.”
Sarah managed not to wince. “It must’ve been a shock.”
“We were all surprised, if that’s what you mean. That Lisa, she bawled like she’d lost her own mother. You never saw such carrying on. The other girls, too, but I don’t think it was for the witch. They were just worried about who was going to feed them now.”
“And you decided Mr. Van Orner was going to feed you,” Sarah guessed.
Amy smiled the sly little grin Sarah was coming to know. “I told you little Gregory’s father was going to take care of us.”
Sarah glanced down at the child in the basket, her heart aching for the innocent babe who hadn’t asked for any of this.
“Oh, that’s just temporary,” Amy said, apparently thinking Sarah was judging her success by the quality of the baby’s sleeping arrangements. “He’s going to get a cradle and a nurse and everything brand-new.”
“That’s very nice.”
“I’m going to get everything brand-new, too, now that she’s gone.”
How very convenient for Amy. “Do you know what happened to Mrs. Van Orner?”
“She died. That’s all I need to know.”
“Miss Yingling said you had a conversation with her right before she left the rescue house the other day.”
“So what if I did?”
“I was just wondering what you talked about. Miss Biafore said Mrs. Van Orner was upset afterwards.”
“Upset? Is that what she claims? I don’t know how she could tell. The witch never let on that she was feeling anything at all. I never even saw her smile. She was a cold fish. I know everything about her. Gregory told me.”
Sarah’s stomach twisted at the thought of a man discussing his wife’s shortcomings with his mistress, but she managed not to betray her true feelings. “What did you and Mrs. Van Orner talk about that day?”
Amy smiled, apparently enjoying the memory. “She told me I was going to have to leave the rescue house. She said the other girls were complaining about me, but I knew the real reason. She couldn’t stand looking at me and my baby. She hated me because I had his baby and she never could.”
That conversation may have upset Amy, too. She wouldn’t have liked being threatened. “You must have been frightened at the thought of leaving the rescue house and having no place to go.”
“She couldn’t scare me. I told her she wouldn’t dare put me out because I’d tell Gregory what she’d done. I was going to tell him anyway—about the baby, I mean—the first chance I got. I knew he’d take care of me, too. He used to take good care of me, and I knew he would again, because of the baby. He always wanted a son, and now he has one.”
This certainly explained what Lisa Biafore had observed. Mrs. Van Orner would have been furious to hear her husband’s mistress challenge her. “Were you trying to hurt her?”
The question surprised her. “I just wanted her to know she couldn’t treat me like she treated all the other whores.”
“Do you know how she died?” Sarah asked again.
“I already told you . . . Wait, are you saying that’s why she died? Because I got her so mad? Did she have apoplexy or something?” The thought seemed to please her.
“No,” Sarah said, feeling sick. “She didn’t have apoplexy.”
Amy’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I know, she got drunk and fell down! Gregory told me how she drank all the time. She drank something funny, something with mint in the name. He told me but I can’t remember. And then she ate peppermints so people wouldn’t know. He told me all about it, and when I smelled the peppermint on her, I knew it was all true. We used to lay in bed and laugh about how she carried a silver flask in her purse and took a nip whenever things didn’t go her way. That’s what happened, wasn’t it? After I told her what for, she took too many nips and fell down and broke her neck.”
“No, that’s not what happened.”
Someone tapped on the door, and it opened before anyone could respond. Miss Yingling stood in the doorway. “Mrs. Brandt, I’ll show you out.”
Sarah thought she should probably stay and question Amy further, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear any more of her answers. Grateful to Miss Yingling for the rescue, she bade Amy good-bye. “You can send for me if you need anything,” she added as she stepped out into the hallway.
Amy smiled. “I won’t need anything.”
Miss Yingling closed the door behind them with more force than was necessary. “I’m sorry.”
“There’s no need to be,” Sarah said. “I really am glad to know she and the baby are safe. I was picturing her carrying him around the streets and begging for food.”
“Amy isn’t very bright, but she knows how to take care of herself.”
Sarah decided not to comment. “Do you think there’s any chance that Rahab’s Daughters will continue its work?”
Miss Yingling raised her eyebrows, surprised at the question. “That’s up to Mrs. Spratt-Williams and the others, and they aren’t likely to consult me when they make their decision.”
“I don’t suppose Mr. Van Orner would help in any way.”
Miss Yingling came as close to laughing as Sarah had ever seen. “No, and I believe I can be certain about that.”
They’d reached the stairs, and Sarah stopped, forcing Miss Yingling to stop as well. She gave Sarah a questioning look.
“I’ve been thinking about Mrs. Van Orner’s death,” Sarah began, feeling her way carefully. “I got the idea that the police believe someone at the rescue house put the poison in her flask the day she died, but that’s not the only
