New World, New Love (20 page)

In the wide hall a word from him brought the housekeeper, whose name was Mrs Carter, hurrying to take charge of the visitor. Louise, following her up the sweeping staircase, paused halfway to look down at Daniel, even more handsome than she remembered, where he stood watching her.

‘Thank you for rescuing me from the rain,’ she said seriously, thinking how, in spite of all her efforts to the contrary, Fate seemed determined to make their paths cross.

He gave her a warm grin, something close to triumph glinting in his eyes. ‘Tomorrow the sun will be out and we’ll find Delphine. Sleep well.’

He did not go to bed himself for another couple of hours. First of all he made a comprehensive list of all the possible places where Delphine might be found. Then he sat back in a comfortable chair by the fire, a glass of Madeira in his hand, and stretched out his long legs to rest his crossed ankles on a footstool. His luck had been in that evening. It was only on a sudden impulse after studying some business papers at home that he had gone to check the books and found the evidence that would nail the fraudster. But, far above anything else he could have wished for at the present time, he had the woman he loved under his own roof.

D
aniel had been out already in his search for Delphine when Louise came downstairs soon after eight o’clock, having been given an early breakfast in bed. The housekeeper had lent her a clock and she was ready to start on her mission. Daniel was in the dining room, marking a map of Boston spread out on the dining-room table, when he heard her footsteps come tapping down the stairs. As he went into the hall to greet her, she had just reached the lowest tread, her hand on the newel post.

‘Good morning, Louise! I hope you’re well rested.’ Then he saw that the servant following her was carrying her valise. ‘What’s this? You’re not leaving?’

Louise gave a nod. ‘You’ve been very kind and I can’t thank you enough, but Mrs Carter has told me of a small hotel where I can stay and my baggage is to be taken there now. I shall go later, but I want to start looking for Delphine without delay.’

‘But you can stay on here until she’s found!’ he protested.

‘You’ve been very hospitable, but I have made my arrangements.’

He knew by the slight setting of her chin that nothing would make her change her mind. Exasperated, he spoke more sharply than he had intended. ‘Then, before you go, come and look at a map I have of the city. It will help you to get your bearings.’

Louise followed him into the dining room and leaned over the map. ‘Where are we now?’ she asked.

‘This is Beacon Hill and here is my house.’ He indicated the spot. ‘The crosses I’ve made show where the homeless and destitute gather.’ His finger traced its way along a route. ‘Now, this street leads to the State House. Then State Street takes you past my office building, which is not far from the Long Wharf, where my cargoes of silk are shipped in. Now, over here is the Faneuil Hall, another landmark if you should miss your way. In all these areas there are always plenty of people, which makes it a profitable area in which to beg. As you see, I’ve marked out three other streets too. And on this corner,’ he added, indicating an inked cross near the wharfs, ‘there’s a charity soup kitchen. A handout of bread and hot soup takes place all the year round at nine o’clock every evening.’

‘I can scarcely believe yet that my sister, with her pride and fastidiousness, has been reduced to such hardship.’

Out of the corner of his eye, Daniel saw her hand clench on the table. Glancing up, he met with compassion the bleakness of her expression. ‘I’m sorry you have to face up to this situation, but from the description of the state Delphine was in, it’s most likely that she had already been reduced to these circumstances before she even reached Boston.’

‘I realize that. What frightens me so much is the thought of what might have happened to her on that journey, as well as what she may be enduring now.’ She looked down again at the map with unhappy eyes, her words faltering. ‘Perhaps I’m already too late in getting here. She may be—’

He guessed what she was about to say and seized her by the arms, giving her a slight shake. ‘No! Don’t even think it! She’s somewhere in this city and she is alive. I checked at the morgue half an hour ago. There’s been nobody of her description there during the past two months.’

She closed her eyes thankfully for a moment, but drew back from him, for his very nearness seemed to vibrate in her nostrils. ‘That was thoughtful of you. I had dreaded going there myself.’

‘I have to tell you that I questioned the servants last night and Delphine did come to this house too, but it was when I was away in New York. Here, as at the Bradshaws’ home, I’m thankful to say she was given food, but when she returned another day, she was sent away empty-handed and told not to return.’

‘My poor foolish sister,’ Louise said. Her voice sounded strangely dry and tired.

Daniel folded the map and handed it to her. ‘Look for her among the beggars today. They come back regularly to the spots they consider to be the best for them. I have other places to investigate. This evening – if we don’t find her today – I’ll call for you at the hotel and, over dinner, we’ll compare notes on our progress. Then, if you wish, you can come with me to the handing-out of the charity soup and we’ll see if Delphine turns up there. That shall be our programme until she is found.’

Outside, it was not such a bright day as Daniel had predicted, and low clouds promised showers. Louise drew the hood of her borrowed cloak over her head as she and Daniel parted company at the porch steps, she going one way and he the other. He went first to a house of correction to see if any young women had been arrested recently, for he feared Delphine might have been reduced to stealing in order to keep alive. He was relieved to find she was not there.

At the poorhouse, Daniel was equally unsuccessful, as he was afterwards at both the fever and the city hospitals. With all these places eliminated, he took a couple of hours at his office, for having returned from New York only two days before, there were still matters that needed his immediate attention. After dismissing the clerk who had been defrauding him, he waited for a trader, who came promptly at the time arranged to bring him the first lengths of Lyons silk that he had received since the start of France’s revolution. There were twenty precious rolls and, when the protective covering was removed from each, they proved to be in pristine condition and of such quality and magnificence that Daniel almost caught his breath at the sight of them, but his face gave nothing away.

‘How did you come by these silks?’ Daniel asked when the deal had been done to his private satisfaction.

‘At the height of the Reign of Terror, a French aristocrat smuggled them out of Lyons to use as currency when he escaped into Spain. There, brigands murdered the unfortunate fellow and these silks eventually turned up in Barcelona, where I was given a tip-off as to their whereabouts. I snapped them up at once.’

When the trader had gone, Daniel regarded the displayed silks radiating their splendour as if his office were bathed in the rich jewel colours of a stained-glass window. Some were patterned exquisitely with roses or lilies or sprigs of apple blossom, others were plain, but in vibrant hues of coral pink, ruby, pumpkin yellow, forest green and iris blue. As for the rest, one delicate parchment-coloured silk had vertical stripes in silver thread, an amber one was intricately patterned with gold, and a deep violet one had a pin-width stripe in a rich bronze that added magnificently to its lustre. Although the Chinese silks, in which he dealt in great quantities, were equally exquisite, there was an indefinable something about Lyons silk that he considered unique.

He cut a narrow strip from the end of each roll to use as a pattern. Then he summoned two of his experienced workers to stitch each one into a new protective cover of white cloth. The best rolls were to be put aside for Louise, but he knew that he would have to wait a great deal longer before she would accept anything from him. He had to find Delphine first.

Louise spent the day in the areas that Daniel had marked out for her. She had exchanged some dollars for small change with a banker and given one to each beggar she questioned. Some declared they had seen her sister, hoping to get more money, but further questioning proved they were lying. Only one old woman had something plausible to tell.

‘Copper-red ’air, you say?’ she croaked. ‘Yes, I seed a young creature with curls that colour waiting at soup time more than once, but she was always losing her place and getting pushed to the back. It were this day last week I gave ’er a nudge and told ’er to use ’er elbows and shove to the front like me.’

‘Did she?’

‘She didn’t seem to ’ave the strength, and so I grabbed ’er at the waist and pushed ’er meself.’ She cackled. ‘We went through the rest of ’em there like a wagon team. When she ate ’er bread and soup like a starving bitch, I shoved ’er up again for another ladleful. Those charity folk never give more than once to anybody in an evening, but sometimes they’re so busy they don’t notice who’s been afore. She were unlucky, poor little wretch, and they turned her away, but then that colour ’air ain’t easily forgot. I should ’ave thought of that.’ She frowned, compressing her lips in self-reproach. ‘No, ma’am, I ain’t seen her there since.’

Louise put several coins in the old woman’s eager hand. ‘If you do see her again, please tell her that her sister is staying at the hotel opposite the State Hall.’

‘I will. The sooner you get ’er away from that man who ’angs about ’er, the better. He’s real bad.’

With this additional information arousing new fears, Louise wondered exactly how deep the morass was that her sister had fallen into through running away. If only Delphine had waited until morning, she would have been told of Alexandre and Blanche’s wonderful offer to adopt her child.

That evening at dinner with Daniel, Louise was able to report what appeared to have been a genuine sighting of Delphine, but she was relieved to hear from him that her sister was not in any of the grim places that he had visited. Then she gave him a full account of all that had happened between her sister and the Dutchman, as well as Delphine’s total rejection of the baby and Alexandre and Blanche’s wish to adopt him.

‘Delphine isn’t the first girl to be betrayed and she certainly won’t be the last. Your friends have played their part in helping to solve the situation, and now it’s up to us to continue ours.’ He moved his chair back. ‘It’s time for us to go to the soup kitchen.’

He drove her there in the same two-wheeled carriage in which she had ridden the night before. When they reached the charity soup kitchen, a crowd of destitute people, some with children, had already gathered. But Delphine did not appear, even though they waited until the last stragglers to arrive had departed again. Louise and Daniel had both questioned those willing to talk to them, but without success.

When Daniel had left Louise at her hotel, he drove to the house of correction, where four volunteer keepers of the peace, their status shown by the cockade that each wore on their tricorne hats, were waiting for him as he had requested that morning. They were to accompany him in his search for Delphine throughout the brothels and other dubious establishments. All too often a vulnerable young girl arrived in Boston to be hoodwinked by a procuress and end up in prostitution, just as in cities everywhere in the world. Delphine, in her desperate straits, would have been easy prey.

As he set off in his carriage, the peacekeepers followed in a closed cart, ready for any arrests. As Daniel had expected, their arrival caused consternation at each brothel, with screams from the prostitutes, and men disappearing out of windows or hiding, but on the whole the madams cooperated. They made their girls line up and brought waif-like creatures, some only children, from chores in the kitchen to be thrust forward and scanned with the rest. After that, the whole establishment was searched in case Delphine was being concealed somewhere.

‘She is not here either,’ Daniel said to the peacekeepers after they came out of the last bawdy house designated for that night, dawn beginning to tint the sky. ‘We’ll be continuing the search at the same time tonight and every night until we have covered the rest of these hellholes.’

The pattern of Louise’s hunt for Delphine continued daily without success, though she had extended the search after noticing that some beggars, often with the side trade of pickpocketing, only went to special places where people gathered closely in numbers, which took her into churches and meeting houses, open-air political speeches, the markets, and once even to the slave auction, where a ship from Africa had unloaded its human cargo. This latter sight distressed her so much that nothing other than her search for Delphine could have kept her there.

The evening came when Louise admitted to Daniel that she feared time was fast running out, which had been in both their minds from the start. They were on their way back to the lodging house after their fourth visit to the soup kitchen. ‘The only places left for me to look for her are the bawdy houses,’ she stated frankly. ‘But you’ll have to mark them on the map for me. If I apply to work at them in turn, I can look for Delphine as soon as I’ve gained entry.’

‘Do you know what you’re saying?’ he asked, astonished.

She shrugged impatiently. ‘Indeed I do. There isn’t a vice you could name that I didn’t hear about at Versailles, so I wouldn’t be going into these places with my eyes shut. I know that what I plan would not be without danger, but before I left the farm, Alexandre gave me a pistol and I’d not hesitate to use it, especially if it meant getting Delphine safely away.’

‘You’re prepared to take such risks for her?’

‘Delphine’s whole life is at stake.’

As he was about to leave, Daniel told her that he had already forestalled her plan. ‘After I leave you now, I’m setting out for the fourth night in succession on a round of the brothels, with no less than four peacekeepers to help in the search. They ensure access to every part of an establishment, even to the cellars.’