Murder in Morningside Heights (A Gaslight Mystery) (31 page)

“One more push,” Sarah told Hannah, and the baby slid free.

“Good heavens,” Mrs. Keller said this time, since the baby was obviously full-size and more than ready to make his entrance into the world. Or rather, her entrance.

“It’s a girl,” Sarah said, holding her up.

“Is she all right?”

Sarah cleared the baby’s mouth and annoyed her enough to make her cry, which Sarah always thought was the most beautiful sound in the world. “She seems to be fine,” Sarah shouted over the baby’s wails. “She’s got all her fingers and toes.”

“Why is she crying, then?” Hannah demanded.

“That’s how they get their lungs opened up,” Sarah said. “She’ll settle down in a minute and you can nurse her. She won’t cry then.”

Later, when Hannah had fed her daughter and the babe had drifted off to sleep, Hannah said, “I’m awful sorry I lied to you, Mrs. Malloy.”

“You should be apologizing to Mrs. Keller,” Sarah told her.

“I’m right sorry about lying to you, too, Mrs. Keller. I hated like anything to do it, but I didn’t know what else to do. I was too scared to sleep in the streets, and it was getting cold . . .”

“There’s no need to explain,” Mrs. Keller said. “I can understand perfectly. In your place, I’m not sure I wouldn’t’ve done the same thing.”

“I don’t think I would have,” Sarah said, earning a dismayed wince from Hannah. “Because I wouldn’t have been clever enough to even think of it,” she added to soften her rebuke. “You took advantage of Mrs. Keller’s good nature, but you did it to save your baby, so I don’t think we can be too angry at you.”

“I can’t believe you kept your condition a secret all those months,” Mrs. Keller said.

“I’m lucky I’m so tall. I used to hate being so big, but not anymore because it helped me hide her.” Hannah looked down at the baby sleeping in her arms. “What happens now? To us, I mean. I know we can’t stay here.”

“You’ll stay here until you’ve recovered,” Mrs. Keller said firmly.

“And then we’ll find you a place to live,” Sarah said. “A safe place. Will your family take you back, do you think?”

“Oh no, not with a babe, and I don’t even know where they are now, anyway.”

“Then we’ll find you someplace else to go. You’ll need to
get a job, and we’ll find a settlement house with a nursery where you can leave the baby while you work.”

“They won’t take her from me?”

“Not unless you want to give her up,” Sarah said.

“You can, you know,” Mrs. Keller said. “Raising a child alone is going to be very difficult.”

“I know, but she’s all I have in the world. I couldn’t possibly give her up, not after all I’ve done to keep her.”

“You don’t need to think about all that just yet, though,” Sarah said. “Right now you should get some sleep.”

Sarah and Mrs. Keller tucked Hannah and the baby in and left them to rest.

“You and Mr. Malloy won’t be going anywhere just yet either, I’m afraid,” Mrs. Keller said as they descended the stairs. “The storm has turned into a regular blizzard.”

“Oh no.”

“I’m sure Mr. Malloy will be mortified that you’ll have to spend the night, but the girls will be delighted. They love having a man to fuss over.”

Sarah found Malloy in the parlor, standing at the front window and watching it snow. “You should’ve left when you had the chance,” she said with a grin.

He didn’t return her smile. “How’s the girl?”

She realized no one had told him. “She’s fine and so is the baby, who is a healthy little girl. She lied about how far along she was.”

His troubled expression cleared instantly. “Why did she do that?”

“She was afraid. A girl in that situation has a lot to be afraid of. She thought if she went to a maternity home, they’d take her child.”

“They might have.”

“So she hid her condition as long as she could and lied about it when she couldn’t hide it any longer.”

“And if you’d known how close she was to delivery, what would you have done?”

“I would’ve tried to find a place where she’d get good care but get to keep her baby, although it wouldn’t have been easy.”

“So the girl is all right? And the baby?”

Sarah hadn’t realized what he was worrying about. Malloy had lost his first wife when Brian was born. “They’re both perfectly fine.”

“And how are you, Mrs. Malloy?” he asked, his eyes narrowing as he studied her face.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you should see yourself right now.”

Sarah touched her hair self-consciously. “Is something wrong?”

“No, something’s right. I haven’t seen that look on your face in a long time.”

“What are you talking about, Malloy?”

“I’m talking about that look you get when you deliver a baby. It’s like . . . Well, you look real satisfied, like you’ve just done God a favor or something.”

“I’m sure that’s a blasphemous thing to say,” she scolded him.

“I’m sure it is, but it’s also the truth. Delivering babies makes you happy.”

Sarah sighed. “Yes, it does. I’ve missed it. But I can’t go back to being a midwife.”

“Why not?”

She shook her head. “Maybe you’ve forgotten how babies come at all hours of the day and night and how I’d be called all over the city and be away from home for days sometimes.”

“What about those maternity homes?”

“What about them?”

“Is it different there?”

Was it? She’d never thought about it. “I suppose it’s easier because the women are right there when they go into labor.”

“They must have midwives who live there, too, so they don’t have to travel around the city.”

“I suppose so.”

“And if there was one of these homes where they had midwives and the women could stay and have their babies and keep their babies and get the help they needed—”

“Malloy, what are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the kind of place this girl Hannah needed and you couldn’t find for her, and I’m talking about a place where you could go to deliver babies sometimes but there’d be other midwives for when you couldn’t.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” she asked in amazement.

“I might be. I haven’t had much to do since we got here except think about this and watch the snow. The snow isn’t very interesting.”

“We’ll have to spend the night,” she said.

“I know. The snow’s already too deep. We’ll have to wait here until they clear the streets tomorrow.”

T
he Normal School of Manhattan is a fictional creation and is an amalgamation of Hunter College (formerly the Normal College of the City of New York) and Barnard College. The first colleges for women opened after the American Civil War. The loss of so many men in the war left a surplus of women with no hope of finding a husband and the need to support themselves. The colleges gave women the skills to have productive careers as teachers and social workers.

In the nineteenth century, unmarried professional women often shared living quarters and developed deep friendships with their peers. Author Henry James wrote about such a relationship in his novel
The Bostonians
, and as a result, these relationships became known as Boston marriages. Because of the social mores of the era, the exact nature of each of these relationships is known only to the people involved, but we can speculate that at least some of the women were lesbian
couples. The legal case in England that President Hatch relates to Frank is a true story that illustrates the thinking of the time period very well.

The snowstorm described at the end of the book is the Blizzard of 1899, which did bring snow to Tallahassee, Florida, for the first time in recorded memory. It froze the port of New Orleans and created a record low temperature for Miami: 29°F. New York City received sixteen inches of snow, but the worst snow fell between North Carolina and Virginia.

And before you ask, French Letters really was a brand name for condoms in the nineteenth century and became another name for them, much like Kleenex is often used for tissue.

I hope you enjoyed this book. Please visit my website at victoriathompson.com and leave me a message or follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/Victoria.Thompson.Author and Twitter @gaslightvt. I’ll be sure to let you know when new Gaslight Mysteries are published so you don’t miss a single one.

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