The Pursuit of Lucy Banning (31 page)

“And bring a lantern.”

“Yes, miss.” Archie unhooked one of the lanterns from the front of the carriage and turned toward the path.

Will grabbed the other lantern. “Better safe than sorry.”

Will led the way and Lucy crept behind in the shifting yellow sliver of light. Archie followed.

Lucy stopped abruptly and slapped herself on the forehead. “I didn’t think about the keys. He might have locked himself in. We have a man up here who looks after the place in the off-season and has everything ready when we come. I have no idea where to find him.”

“One thing at a time.” Will led her forward. When they reached the Juleses’ house, Will gripped the handle on the main door. It gave. “We’re in. Do you have electric lights up here?”

“No,” Lucy answered. “Gas lamps, but they’d have to be lit. There’s no central line.”

The trio huddled in the main sitting room, peering into darkness by the lanterns’ twin shafts of light. Lucy noticed nothing out of place.

“Would he be sitting somewhere in the dark, do you think?” Will asked.

“Daniel!” Lucy called at the top of her lungs. “Daniel, are you here?”

No answer. “We’ll have to check every room,” Lucy said. “Archie, you check the downstairs rooms. Mr. Edwards and I will go upstairs. Be sure to check the closets and large cupboards.”

“Yes, miss.” Archie turned toward the kitchen, his lantern hanging from an arm extended straight in front of him.

Lucy led Will to the stairs, and they climbed together holding hands, listening for a stray creak from the rooms above them. “Daniel!” Lucy called every few steps.

They pushed open one door after another and found nothing. Everything was as it had been when the house was closed up in September. The bedding was stripped off and packed away, and long cloths kept the dust off the furniture, which seemed to have contorted itself into ominous shadows.

“I don’t see any sign anyone has been here,” Will said finally. “No tracks in the dust, nothing uncovered.”

“No, he’s not up here,” Lucy agreed. “Nothing has been disturbed.”

They made their way back downstairs, where Archie shook his head.

“We’ll check outside,” Lucy said. Then suddenly, “The pier! Why didn’t I think of that sooner?” She quickened her steps toward the door facing the lake and stepped out onto the railed porch that wrapped around the back of the house.

Will was right behind her. “Look,” he said, pointing. “Blankets.”

Lucy gasped. “The nights are freezing up here at this time of year. If he’s been sleeping outside—”

“Miss Lucy!” Archie exclaimed, lifting his lantern.

On the pier she saw a silhouette in the nearly full moonlight, squatting with his arms wrapped around his knees and wearing no coat.

“Daniel,” she whispered. “Oh, Daniel, what happened to you?”

They moved closer as quietly as possible, stepping off the porch and onto the still icy path that led to the pier. Away from the house and trees, the moon’s light bounced off ice and water. The wind gusted, and the lake’s laps morphed into waves crashing against the rocks on the shoreline. Lucy put a hand on Will’s arm to stop him when they reached the pier entrance.

“I’d better go alone,” she said. “I’m not sure how he’ll react if he sees you.”

“It’s unsafe, Lucy,” Will insisted.

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m not afraid.”

Will studied her face in the lantern’s light and leaned in to kiss her forehead. Finally he said, “At least take the light. I’ll be watching every minute.”

Lucy nodded and took the lantern from Will’s hands. The wooden slats of the pier creaked beneath her feet, as she knew they would. She walked slowly enough that the sounds should not alarm Daniel. He sat motionless, staring at the churning waters, and showed no reaction when Lucy stood behind him.

“Daniel.” She laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve come for you.”

“I wonder what it would be like to just slide off the pier into the lake,” he said matter-of-factly. “The brushes would be lathered in black and shades of blue, and frosty bits of white in shapes that have no names.”

What is he talking about?
“That sounds like a lovely painting, Daniel. Maybe you should take up your art again. It’s not too late.”

“But I would be in the lake,” he said, “and I could not keep the canvas dry.”

“So you want to be in the painting?” Lucy guessed.

“I want to be in the lake.”

“The lake is icy at this time of year. You know that.”

“It won’t matter.”

He still had not looked at her.

“What won’t matter, Daniel?” As she spoke, Lucy glanced at Will.

Daniel unfolded his legs from underneath him, scooting away from her touch to dangle his feet over the side of the pier. “None of it matters.”

“Let’s go back to the house, Daniel. We’ll talk and get you warm.”

“But I’m not cold. I should have my shoes on. It would be faster that way.”

Lucy realized for the first time that Daniel’s feet were bare and scratched. She glanced at Will and Archie again, relieved that Will understood her silent plea and moved forward cautiously. Lucy sucked in her breath and lowered herself to sit beside Daniel at the end of the pier. She set the lantern within easy reach and put an arm around his shoulders.

“We used to sit like this when I was little.” Calmly, she moved her free hand to take one of his. “I was amazed at how much you knew about the lake. What kind of fish swim around here, what weather makes the biggest waves, how to tack and turn a boat in the wind.”

“Some green.”

“Green?” Lucy echoed.

“Black and blue and green.”

“Yes, of course, the algae on the rocks,” Lucy supplied. She did not dare turn her head to check Will’s progress. “And you always knew the constellations. I’ve forgotten most of them. You’ll have to teach me again, and I promise to be a better student this time.”

Finally Daniel’s head cranked toward Lucy. “No. I’m not going to do that.” He turned his gaze back to the swirling lake.

“All right. Of course you don’t have to.”

At last the sound of creaking boards grew closer. Behind her, Lucy felt the presence of men’s shoes, and a moment later Will and Archie gripped Daniel by the elbows and helped him to his feet. He did not resist them. Huddled and tangled, the four of them moved away from the end of the pier and toward the house.

“There’s no telephone here. I think we should go straight home,” Lucy whispered, and Will and Archie nodded. Together they steered Daniel directly to the carriage.

 34 

F
or the first hour, Daniel sat erect and stared at Will across the carriage, while Lucy sat next to Daniel and held his hand. By one in the morning, though, the trotting sway of the carriage had lulled him to sleep, his head bobbing gently against Lucy’s shoulder.

“You did a wonderful thing.” Will spoke in the hushed deep tones of night.

“I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“All that mumbo jumbo about being in the lake. If you hadn’t been there and he slid off the pier . . .”

“Let’s not focus on that. He’s ill. I don’t understand the mind as well as I’d like to, but I know this is not the real Daniel, and I want to believe he can get better again.”

“You were the first to understand something was wrong.”

“I should have seen it sooner. I was too busy avoiding the reality that I had to break our engagement.” She glanced down at Daniel’s chest rising and falling.

“He began taking your father’s things long before you decided not to marry him. None of this is your fault.”

“I know. It’s no one’s fault.” She paused, then added, “Will, there’s something else I need to tell you about.”

“I’ve had a feeling there might be. Something about your ladies’ maid?”

Lucy’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”

“Because I’ve come to know you well, Lucy Banning, and I can tell when your heart is torn up about something.”

“She has a baby and I’ve been helping to hide him.” Lucy spoke in clip-clop rhythm set by the horses. “Daniel was on the verge of finding out. On the one hand I’ve been relieved not to see him these last few days. On the other hand, I’ve been on pins and needles wondering what he might do if he discovered the baby.”

Will inspected Daniel’s sleeping face. “I have a feeling you’re not going to have to worry about that now. And you don’t have to carry the secret alone any longer.”

“Thank you, Will.” She sighed heavily. “It was Charlotte, you know, who said I could tell you. She said, ‘If you trust Mr. Edwards, then I trust him.’”

“I’m honored at her confidence.”

“I do have a question,” Lucy said. “You knew I wasn’t at the orphanage on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but you never asked where I was. Then you knew something was going on with Charlotte, but you didn’t ask me what. Why didn’t you ask?”

“That’s not the way trust works,” he said simply. “Or love.”

They soaked up each other’s features in the silence.

“You must be exhausted,” Will finally said.

“I am, but we have a long night ahead of us. I’ll call Howard and Irene as soon as we get home. We can’t leave Daniel alone even for a moment.”

“We still have a couple of hours before we get back to Chicago,” Will said. “Why don’t you put your head back and doze. I’ll watch him. It’s not as if he can go anywhere.”

“He might try to jump out of the carriage.”

“I won’t let him,” Will said. And Lucy believed him.

Lucy did not think she would sleep.

She did.

It was well after three in the morning when Archie pulled the carriage up to the front of the Banning house on Prairie Avenue. Daniel had hardly stirred in more than two hours. Lucy woke when the carriage slowed and roused him enough to cooperate while she and Will walked him into the house, his arms slung around their shoulders.

Charlotte was waiting in the parlor, still fully dressed, and jumped to alertness when the odd trio came through the front door.

“You found him!” Charlotte said in full voice.

Lucy put a finger to her lips.

“Everyone was in such a tizzy at dinner,” Charlotte whispered. “I didn’t know what to tell them because I didn’t know where you’d gone—only that you went to find Mr. Daniel.”

“Everything’s fine now,” Lucy whispered, “or it will be.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Banning retired about midnight,” Charlotte said. “I knew I couldn’t sleep. I’ve been sitting here waiting for you and haven’t heard a sound from down the hall.”

“Perhaps that’s best. Archie is putting the horses away. Will, maybe you should go upstairs and wake Leo.”

Charlotte and Lucy settled Daniel on the settee in the parlor. He was dozing again before Lucy could spread a coverlet over him.

Leo entered the room, pulling his chocolate-colored silk robe closed, his eyes full of questions. Will was right behind him. Speaking in low tones, Lucy gave a quick summary of the night’s events.

“I have to call his parents,” she finally said.

“I’ll find the number.” Charlotte moved quickly to the desk where Flora kept a small carved board with jewels embedded at the top. It held about twenty addresses and telephone numbers.

“Good,” Lucy said, “then I want you to find Archie. He’s probably still in the coach house cooling the horses. Take a fresh horse and the small carriage and go for Dr. Carson. He has rooms above his surgery on Wabash Avenue. Tell him I sent you and he won’t ask any questions.”

“Yes, miss. Here’s the number for the Juleses.” Charlotte was out of the room in a smooth motion.

Leo and Will were both gawking at Lucy with their jaws gaping.

“What’s the matter with you two?” she asked.

Will found his tongue. “How is it that you know a doctor who won’t ask any questions when you send for him in the middle of the night?”

“Just to clarify,” Leo added, “this Dr. Carson is not our usual family physician.”

“It’s a complicated and not very interesting story,” Lucy replied, “about something that happened at St. Andrew’s last year. Suffice it to say, I am counting on the Banning name to mean something in these circumstances.”

Will expelled his breath. “I’m sure it will.”

“I’ll make that telephone call now.”

Lucy was back a few minutes later. “They’re on their way. They should be here in about an hour.”

“How much did you tell them?” Leo asked.

“I didn’t want to frighten them,” Lucy answered. “It’s difficult to explain on the telephone. It’s better if they see for themselves when they get here. By then we should have a doctor on hand as well, and he may be able to explain things.”

Slowly the house came to life, whether Lucy meant for it to happen or not. A groomsman from the coach house had seen Archie’s movements and felt Penard should be alerted. Once he understood the situation, Penard woke Mrs. Fletcher to prepare coffee and rolls. Despite Lucy’s efforts to keep things peaceful, Flora and Samuel heard the commotion in the parlor from their bedroom just down the hall and appeared in their robes, insisting that they had not slept a wink. Even Oliver and Richard found their way downstairs, and before Lucy could contain the tumult, Bessie and Elsie were up as well.

Lucy shooed everyone out of the parlor, except Will and Leo, and insisted that the lights be kept dim. Daniel was sleeping, and she wanted him to continue sleeping at least until the doctor arrived. She had no way to know what he would do if he woke in the midst of the hubbub. The rest of the Bannings moved to the dining room to speculate on what Daniel’s behavior meant, while Lucy stood guard at the parlor window that looked out on Prairie Avenue. The street was motionless, empty, dimly lit. Lucy’s ears still tolled with the rhythmic waves of Lake Michigan outside Lake Forest, where the water slapped the rocks countless times a day.
Water will never be a soothing sound to me again
, she thought.

When she saw Archie arrive, she had the front door open before Dr. Carson could get out of the small carriage. Charlotte followed the doctor up the short walk to the front door.

“Dr. Carson, thank you for coming.” Lucy welcomed him to the foyer.

“I only hope I can help. Your maid has given me a brief summary of recent events. I’d like to examine the patient.”

“He’s right in here.” Lucy motioned toward the parlor. “His parents are on their way.”

The doctor encouraged Daniel to wake up and converse. Charlotte brought Daniel a glass of cold water to help him rouse. Lucy read the concern on the doctor’s face in response to the disjointed answers Daniel gave to his questions. The answers rarely matched the questions, and sometimes Daniel merely stared in silence until Dr. Carson tried another question. In between questions, the doctor felt for Daniel’s pulse, looked into his wide eyes, and listened to his heart. Charlotte quietly rolled a tea cart into the parlor and began pouring coffee. Lucy was once again standing guard at the window, watching for Howard and Irene.

It was after four-thirty—closer to five—in the morning when they arrived, frantic and grateful at the same time. Leo let them in the front door, and they burst into the parlor and fell upon their son, calling his name and asking questions. He did manage to say, “Hello, Mother,” at one point, but otherwise did not respond to their efforts.

The family members banished to the dining room emerged with a fresh endeavor to discover the details of what was going on.

“If I’m going to be up in the middle of the night, I at least want to know why,” Richard complained.

“Nobody forced you to get up.” Lucy turned his shoulders back toward the dining room and herded the others. “I promise I’ll come and explain everything as soon as I can. Right now the last thing Daniel needs is a mob scene.”

“We’re just concerned, dear,” Flora protested but retreated to the dining room.

Lucy stood with her hands on the pocket doors, ready to pull them closed. “Mrs. Fletcher, perhaps you might as well make a hearty breakfast despite the early hour.” It was the first thing she could think of to keep them all occupied. Eating would give them reason to stay in the dining room.

Returning to the parlor, Lucy motioned that Howard and Irene should step into the foyer with the doctor, leaving Daniel under the vigil of Will and Leo.

“He’s obviously disoriented.” Dr. Carson twisted his stethoscope in his hands. “I don’t find anything wrong physically. I believe he has a basic awareness of where he is and who is present. However, he doesn’t seem to understand the circumstances that brought him here and is not able to answer questions in a meaningful way.”

“What can you do for him?” Irene asked. “Is there a medicine you can prescribe?”

Dr. Carson shook his head. “These kinds of cases are complex. A young Austrian doctor named Sigmund Freud has done some work in the field of what happens in the mind, but the truth is, we understand very little of it. I don’t have a compound to recommend.”

“We’ll take him home,” Irene said. “He needs to be in his own home, to sleep in his own bed.”

“I’m afraid I can’t advise that, Mrs. Jules,” the doctor said. “I believe your son needs to be in a sanitarium where he can be properly observed and evaluated.”

“You mean a lunatic asylum?” Howard asked. “Has he completely gone round the bend, then?”

“I’m not saying that,” the doctor responded carefully. “I’m simply saying that I don’t think he’s going to snap out of this with a few days of bed rest, and his behavior is likely to be unpredictable. I’ve read a number of journal articles about Dr. Freud’s ‘talking cure.’ I can suggest several facilities that would serve your son well with this approach.”

Lucy saw the blanched, stricken faces of Howard and Irene and said, “Dr. Carson, I’m sure you appreciate the need for discretion.”

“Of course. I know of a place in Wisconsin that takes particular care to guard privacy. We can make the arrangements first thing in the morning. It might be a few days before we can transport him, though. I would not suggest trying to move him on your own.”

Lucy glanced out the window. “From the look of the sky, first light is not far off. He can stay here until the arrangements are complete. Please telephone as soon as you can with instructions, and ask to speak to me.”

Dr. Carson took down the telephone number for the Bannings, and Lucy dispatched Archie to take the doctor home.

“Let’s make Daniel comfortable in his room upstairs while we wait for the arrangements,” Leo suggested. “We’ll pull in some armchairs for Howard and Irene and make sure they have everything they need.”

“Thank you, Leo,” Lucy said, and Howard and Irene murmured their appreciation.

“Come on, Will,” Leo said. “You’re in too deep to back out now.” Leo turned back to Daniel.