Fallen Women (32 page)

Varina had half a dozen jewelry caskets lined up on a shelf beside her dressing table, small glass boxes on gilt legs, lined with quilted satin in jewellike tones. Each displayed a piece of jewelry, and Beret thought her aunt must like to admire these adornments as she sat at the dressing table, brushing her hair.

Beret opened a large leather casket fitted with drawers and slots for rings and necklaces, brooches and earrings, and found a space for the pearls. She spotted a ring with a diamond the size of her fingernail, its color like butter, and removed it to admire it. Her aunt’s taste in jewelry was as exquisite as her taste in decorating.

She was snooping, Beret realized, and because that was not her nature, she started to close the box, but her eyes settled on the tip of an earring that had caught in one of the casket’s drawers, preventing it from closing. She opened the little drawer so that she could place it properly, then gasped, leaning forward to see inside the box. She recognized the earring at once and wanted to slam shut the drawer, close up the jewelry box, flee from the room. But she could not.

Slowly Beret pulled the little drawer out of the box. Resting on its red velvet interior were Lillie’s earrings, the earrings that had belonged to their mother, the ones Miss Hettie had described to Mick. She took them out and held them in the palm of one hand, then closed her hand around them, feeling the sharp points of the stones, squeezing until her hand hurt, trying to understand.

They were a copy. That was it. Her aunt had had the pair made exactly like Marta’s. Or maybe there had been two pairs. Of course. Just to be sure, Beret took the earrings to Varina’s bedside table and picked up the magnifying glass. One of Lillie’s earrings had lost a diamond, and Beret had had it replaced with a stone that didn’t quite match the others. Varina’s earrings would be perfect. Beret held the first earring to the light and was relieved that she did not see an imperfection. She picked up the second and peered at it under the glass. The diamond in one of the leaves was brighter than the rest and there was a nick in the gold beside it. Beret remembered the nick. Lillie had made it when she dropped the earring on a marble floor.

Stunned, Beret sat down on the bed in her aunt and uncle’s great bedroom, which was gloomy even with the lights turned on, and shivered. A fear such as she had never known came over her as she thought of being alone in that dark house where something was terribly wrong. Beret looked at the earbob under the magnifying glass again, hoping she had been mistaken, but both the off-color diamond and the nick were there. The earrings were Lillie’s.

Surely, Varina would have known that. She would have put them there herself. How had her aunt acquired them? Beret wondered as she went to the French doors and looked out. She couldn’t see the stable. The rain made it difficult to see anything. She heard a noise downstairs and was startled, thinking her aunt and uncle had returned, although she hadn’t heard a carriage. Had Teddy come back? Or maybe it was an intruder. More likely, one of the servants had returned.

Beret heard a door close and then footsteps on the staircase. She drew back inside the dressing room, fearful. The house was suddenly a sinister place. She did not care to be in that bedroom, and she especially did not want whoever was out there to be her aunt or uncle.

Then the footsteps entered the room. Varina! Beret thought and felt herself panic.

“Oh, ma’am, you startled me. I didn’t know nobody was here,” Nellie said.

Beret gave a sigh of relief. “You scared me, Nellie. I’d thought the house was empty. I guess I’m jumpy after everything that’s happened. My aunt loaned me her pearl earrings. I was returning them.”

“I’ll see to them if you’ll give them here.”

“I already put them away, although I’m not sure they’re in the right place. Would you be good enough to check for me?” She held the hand with the diamond earrings behind her back and watched as Nellie went to the dressing table. “I put them in the large box.”

“Oh, that’s just for diamonds. The pearls go here. Mrs. Stanton’s real particular about where her pretties go.” Nellie removed the earrings and placed them inside a casket with a pearl necklace.

“She has beautiful jewelry. I was admiring her diamonds.”

“Ain’t they fine? She looks like the queen of England all decked out in them. There’s nothing nicer, and between me and you, she looks a sight better than Mrs. Summers with her big old pearls the size of onions. Judge Stanton, he give his wife a yellow diamond ring as bright as a canary. That wasn’t very long ago. I wouldn’t know what it cost, but it must have been a lot, because the judge says she ought to keep it in a bank vault. But Mrs. Stanton, she says how could she wear it if she did that?”

Nellie chattered on, although Beret paid little attention to what she said. She felt more comfortable knowing the girl was in the house, although that did not relieve her of the uncertainty she felt. Nellie paused, and Beret realized she had asked her a question. “What’s that?”

“I said do you like diamonds yourself, ma’am?”

Beret shook her head. “I’m not much for adornment.”

“Miss Lillie did. She was all the time asking if she could borrow from Mrs. Stanton, asked me to get her a diamond pin that she fancied, but I wouldn’t do it.” She cocked her head and looked at Beret for a moment, as if deciding whether to go on. “Two of Mrs. Stanton’s diamond pieces are gone, that pin and a ring. Mrs. Stanton asked me if I put them in the wrong place. I looked all over, but I couldn’t find them.”

“Surely she didn’t believe you took them.”

“Oh no, ma’am. Not me, no. But Miss Lillie? She wasn’t so sure about Miss Lillie. I searched her room, but I couldn’t find them, so maybe she didn’t take them after all. They must have got lost. I told Mrs. Stanton the fastener on the pin didn’t work right.”

Beret remembered the two pieces she had found hidden, one in Lillie’s dress and the other in her glove. She had removed them before the dressmaker came, and wrapped them in a handkerchief that she hid among her stockings. Beret would have to return them to her aunt, now that she knew their rightful owner.

Nellie went back downstairs, and Beret returned to her room, placing the earrings in a tiny pocket in her purse. As she closed the purse, she discovered the book of poems with Evan Summers’s note inside and thought her purse was not a very good repository for evidence of a murder. She would have to find a better place. But if she put the items in the bureau, Nellie was likely to come across them. In fact, Beret was surprised that the girl hadn’t found the jewelry Lillie had hidden.

Beret would seal them in an envelope with her name on it. That was it. No one would open a sealed envelope. She’d keep them safe until she decided what to do with them—tell her aunt and uncle, or give them to Mick. The note and earrings in hand, she crept down the stairs and went into the library and opened the drawer of the desk where her aunt kept her writing paper. She took out an envelope and slipped the note and earrings inside, then looked about for the sealing wax. The envelope was a perfect fit, she thought, and then stopped and slowly withdrew the note. The note and the envelope matched. Both were made from a heavy, expensive paper. Well, that could be explained. The Stantons and the Summerses frequented the same stationer.

As she pushed the note back into the envelope, Beret read the words again. And then she blanched. She went into the hall and picked up her uncle’s note. The crabbed handwriting on it was identical to that in the message written to Lillie. Both notes were penned by the same hand. Judge Stanton, not Evan Summers, had written the love letter to Lillie. Beret’s uncle had been Lillie’s lover, the man who had promised to leave his wife for her.

Beret put her arms around herself, for she had begun to shake. “Oh, Uncle, not you,” she whispered. Her uncle had been their rock, almost a father to the two sisters. It was Judge Stanton who had supported Beret in continuing the New York mission for women instead of closing it after her mother’s death. And while Varina had hoped the two girls would move to Denver where she could supervise them, the judge had agreed with Beret that their home was in New York and that was where they should stay.

But how had such a monstrous thing happened? Had the judge seduced Lillie, or was it the other way around? Had her aunt known? And then Beret thought about the child and was revolted by the idea that the baby could be her uncle’s. While Beret was well aware that politicians had dalliances on the side, she knew that the judge’s career would be over if it became public knowledge that he was keeping his own
niece.

“No, no,” Beret said aloud, gripping the newel post and sliding down onto the stairs.

“Yes, ma’am, did you call me?” Nellie said, rushing into the hall from the back stairs. She saw Beret on the steps and rushed to her. “Oh, miss, did you fall? Are you hurt?”

Beret shook her head. “I’m all right, Nellie. I twisted my foot is all.”

“You want me to get you a basin of water to soak it?”

“I’m fine, just clumsy.”

The maid helped Beret to her feet, and so as not to give away her lie, Beret, limping a little, let the girl lead her up the steps to her room.

“You lie down there on the bed, and I’ll get a pillow for your foot. That’s what the judge does when he has the gout.” She rushed out of the room and returned with a satin boudoir pillow, placing it under Beret’s heel, then covering her with a throw. Beret was too upset to resist.

“You want some tea. I can fix it in no time. All’s I have to do is build up the fire in the cookstove. Cook isn’t here, but she won’t mind.” The girl stood, hands clasped in front of her, anxious to help.

And then Beret remembered something. “You’re a dear girl, Nellie. Sit beside me on the bed and keep me company, won’t you? This is a big, dark house, and I would feel better if I were not here alone.” Beret patted the coverlet.

The maid glanced around, as if what Beret had asked was not proper, then sat down on the edge of the bed, her feet on the floor, ready to spring up.

“How long have you worked for my aunt and uncle?”

“Six years, that is, six years come May. My sister was here before me, but she got married, and she recommended me.”

“Do you enjoy it here?” Beret wanted to put the maid at ease.

“Oh yes, ma’am. Mrs. Stanton is real nice, but she’s strict. She wouldn’t like me sitting on the bed.”

“We won’t tell her, then. My sister and I used to sit like this and talk. You don’t mind, do you? You have a sister, so you know what I mean. It’s your day off, and perhaps you have things to do.”

“Oh no. I was only going to do my mending. Does your foot still hurt?”

“No, it’s fine, thanks to you.” Beret leaned back against the pillows. “I was rude when you were talking about my sister the other day, not wanting to hear the things she had done, and I apologize.”

Nellie was startled, as if no one had ever apologized to her before. “Oh, don’t think nothing of it.”

“I believe now that I would like to hear what you were about to tell me.”

“What was that?”

“About some of Miss Lillie’s doings in the parlor.”

Nellie looked away. “I shouldn’t have said nothing about that. It’s not my place, you being her sister and all. Mrs. Stanton is real strict about gossip.”

“We’re just having a conversation. That’s not gossip, is it?”

Nellie appeared uncertain. “I guess not.”

“Thank you, Nellie. You would help me a great deal in accepting Miss Lillie’s death if you would tell me about her, that is, about her doings. I need to understand why she went to that awful place.”

“That was bad, all right. The servants was surprised.” Nellie fidgeted. “Maybe not me and Mr. William. We knew Miss Lillie entertained plenty of men. That’s for sure.”

“Mr. Joey Summers was one of them?”

Nellie nodded.

“And his father?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Mr. Staarman?”

Nellie looked away and started to get up, but Beret put out her hand. “It’s all right. I know about them.” She leaned forward and confided, “It started in New York.”

Her eyes wide, Nellie stared at Beret. “I’m sorry, Miss Beret. You’re ever so much nicer than your sister.”

Beret squeezed the maid’s hand. “And Judge Stanton. He was another of Miss Lillie’s lovers.”

Nellie was startled, and her eyes darted back and forth, not looking at Beret. “How did you know? I never told nobody about that. I started to tell you, but you stopped me, and I’m glad. William would put me out if he knew I told.”

“I just know, that’s all. You didn’t tell me.”

“You won’t tattle on me, will you?” Nellie begged, looking at Beret now. She took Beret’s hands in both of hers. “Mrs. Stanton would let me go without a reference, and where’s a girl like me to find another job as good as this one?”

“Of course I won’t tell. But I want you to give me the details. William knew, of course.”

“Nothing gets past Mr. William. Me and him was the only ones that knew. Cook don’t come out of the kitchen, and I kept Louise—that’s the other maid—away when Miss Lillie was with the judge.”

“That was wise of you.”

“It went on for a long time. When Mrs. Stanton left the house, the judge would go in Miss Lillie’s room and close the door, and I’d have to make the bed later on. Miss Lillie would tell me she’d taken a nap, but I’m not such a fool.”

“When did my aunt find out?”

The maid shook her head. “My mother was sick, and I was out four, five days, and when I come back, Miss Lillie was gone. I asked Mrs. Stanton should I pack up her dresses, but she told me no. Then Jonas said Miss Lillie had gone to that place on Holladay Street. I asked Mr. William about it, but he told me to mind my business and keep my mouth shut.”

“And how did my uncle react?”

“He never said a word about Miss Lillie, but he was working hard to be nice to Mrs. Stanton, gave her that diamond ring and all. I think at first she might have throwed it at him, because I found it on the floor. Mrs. Stanton said she dropped it, but if you drop a diamond ring, you don’t leave it there, do you? After a while, she started to wear it.”