Murder on Sisters' Row by Victoria Thompson Read Free Book Online Page B

“I’m sure they do. Will you tell Amy you’ve agreed to let me take her baby?”
    “Of course I will. It’ll keep her from crying and carrying on. Men don’t like to hear women crying either. You can go now, Mrs. Brandt. I’ve given you everything you’re going to get.”
     
     
    W HEN SARAH GOT HOME, SHE FOUND A MESSAGE FROM Mrs. Van Orner, asking Sarah to meet her at the Rahab’s Daughters’ office the next morning. Miss Yingling hadn’t wasted any time in contacting her. As much as Sarah hated using her family’s name, the ploy had worked very well this time. Now she supposed she’d have to ask her mother to make a donation. Sarah would make one herself if Mrs. Van Orner and her people could get Amy out of that place.
    Sarah spent the rest of the day with her family, enjoying Catherine’s antics and the relief of knowing there was hope for Amy’s predicament. The next morning, she put on her good suit again and made her way to the United Charities Building.
    The young man at the front desk remembered her and greeted her by name with much more warmth than she had expected. Miss Yingling must have told him about Sarah’s family connections. Even Miss Yingling welcomed her, although Sarah suspected she was never warm to anyone.
    “I’m so glad you could come, Mrs. Brandt,” she said. Her lips curved upward without really forming a smile in the odd way Sarah had noted before. “I’ll announce you.”
    She went to a door on the side of the room and knocked, then opened it and told someone Sarah had arrived. She turned back to Sarah and said, “Mrs. Van Orner will see you now.”
    She stepped aside so Sarah could enter the adjoining office, and then she closed the door behind Sarah. Mrs. Van Orner had risen from her chair and came around from behind her desk to greet her. Sarah caught a whiff of something clean and minty. Mrs. Van Orner offered her hand, and Sarah took it.
    “I’m very pleased to meet you, Mrs. Brandt. Thank you so much for coming on such short notice.” Mrs. Van Orner was nearing forty, but she was still a lovely woman and had maintained her youthful figure. She wore a blue serge walking skirt and a matching bolero jacket over a fashionable Gibson girl shirtwaist, but her light brown hair had been pulled into a simple bun. Her hand was smooth, befitting her status in life as the wife of a wealthy man. The line of her jaw had just begun to soften with age, but grief had carved deep lines into the otherwise fine skin of her face. She had known disappointment in her life. Even wealth could not prevent that, as Sarah knew.
    “Thank you for seeing me,” Sarah said when she’d taken a seat in one of the straight-backed chairs that had been placed in front of Mrs. Van Orner’s desk. This room was also simply furnished. A plain wooden cross hung on the wall behind Mrs. Van Orner, the only decoration. The desk and chairs had probably been purchased new but were cheaply made. Mrs. Van Orner wasted nothing on appearances.
    Mrs. Van Orner sat down behind her desk again. “Tamar—Miss Yingling—told me about the young woman whose baby you delivered. She’s in one of the houses on Sisters’ Row, I believe?”
    “That’s right. I had no idea where I was going that day. I thought it was a boardinghouse.”
    “So Miss Yingling said. I’m surprised you stayed once you realized the truth.”
    Did Mrs. Van Orner disapprove? Sarah thought perhaps she did, but she didn’t particularly care. “I’m a midwife, Mrs. Van Orner. I couldn’t leave until I knew the young woman and her baby were all right.”
    “That’s commendable,” she said, although she didn’t sound as if she really thought so. She’d reached into a desk drawer and she drew out a small tin. “Would you like a peppermint?” She removed the lid and offered the tin to Sarah, who took one.
    “Thank you.”
    Mrs. Van Orner popped one in her mouth and replaced the lid on the tin. Sarah thought she must suffer from digestive