Murder on Mulberry Bend (7 page)

“What have you been doing to the poor boy?” she scolded the men, gladly taking Brian’s small body into her arms. He clung to her fiercely.

“We’ve been trying to get him to put his weight on his foot,” David explained. “He’s never walked, and his foot has been sore for a while, so naturally, he’s reluctant.”

Sarah turned to Malloy. “He’s probably just stubborn, like his father,” she said with a smile. He didn’t smile back. Maybe he really was angry at her. Or maybe he was just upset about Brian and didn’t want to show it. She didn’t bother to wonder how she knew that about him.

Brian was still clinging to her tightly. “Let’s see if we can give him a reason to walk,” Sarah suggested. “Malloy, take him back.”

“He’ll throw a fit,” Malloy protested.

“And he’ll want to get back to me,” Sarah said. “When he does, set him on his feet and let him go.”

“Wonderful idea, Sarah,” David said, moving out of the way to give them room.

Malloy’s dark gaze was unfathomable as he reached out and wrenched Brian away from her. The boy did pitch a fit, arms and legs flailing as garbled sounds erupted from his throat. Malloy held him at arm’s length until Sarah could step back a bit and stoop down, her long skirts pooling around her.

“All right,” she said to Malloy, who slowly lowered the boy to the floor.

“Brian, come here,” Sarah said, forgetting he couldn’t hear her. He didn’t need to hear to know what her outstretched arms meant, though. He tried to drop to his knees so he could crawl across the distance that separated them, but Malloy held him up, allowing his feet to touch the floor but letting him go no farther down.

His normal foot planted on the floor, but he kept drawing up the damaged one each time it touched.

“Come on, Brian!” Sarah urged him, beckoning him with her hands, her smile bright and encouraging. “You can do it!”

Malloy let him move forward a step when his damaged foot came down in front of the other one. The boy looked down in surprise and instantly drew the foot up again. This time, however, he stared at it, as if trying to figure out what it had done.

All the adults in the room held their breath as he tried to decide what to do next. After what seemed an hour, the boy gingerly lowered the damaged foot to the floor again, and this time Malloy quickly reached down and scooted his good foot forward, forcing him to take a step with his weight on the damaged foot. His knee buckled, but Malloy didn’t let him fall.

Brian turned his angel blue eyes to Sarah beseechingly, but she just kept smiling and beckoning. “Come on, sweetheart! You can do it!” she insisted.

He looked down at his foot again and this time lifted it tentatively and placed it down a step ahead. Sarah clapped her hands, and Brian smiled when he looked up and saw it. He wanted desperately to please her. She pointed at his normal foot and motioned for him to move it forward.

His beautiful face screwed up with mingled apprehension and determination. He tried one more beseeching glance, but Sarah nodded and beckoned again. “That’s right, you can do it!”

As quickly as he could, he threw his good foot forward a step, putting his weight on the damaged foot for only the briefest of seconds. But when he looked up, he saw Sarah was laughing and clapping again, cheering him on. Two more halting steps, and he had almost reached her. Frantically, he pried Malloy’s fingers from his hips, then lunged forward on his own, walking unaided for the first time in his life, and collapsed into Sarah’s arms.

She hugged him to her, fairly squealing with delight. David’s strong hands helped her to stand upright, and she swung Brian around in joyous celebration.

“Never underestimate the power of a beautiful woman, Mr. Malloy,” David was saying.

Sarah turned to Malloy to share this wonderful moment, but he wasn’t smiling. Could he possibly be unhappy that Brian could finally walk? Instinctively, she knew she had to make him part of this. “Now I’ll send him back to you, Malloy,” she said.

She carefully untangled the boy’s arms and legs from around her and turned him to face his father, then bent down and set him back on his feet. Malloy hesitated only an instant before going down on one knee again and reaching out for his son.

This time Brian knew what he was supposed to do. The damaged foot tentatively found the floor again, and when Malloy reached out, Brian began lurching clumsily toward him. Sarah held on to keep him from falling, but after a few steps, he impatiently pushed her hands away. He wanted to do it himself!

She let him go, hands still hovering only inches away, to catch him if he fell. But he didn’t fall. He staggered triumphantly into his father’s arms. Malloy enveloped him, burying his face in the sweet curve of the boy’s neck. Sarah felt the sting of tears as she stepped back.

Brian could walk. The wonder of it washed over her, leaving her weak with gratitude. “You’ve done a miracle, David.”

“All in a day’s work,” he demurred. “Bring Brian into the office when you’re ready, Mr. Malloy,” he added. Taking Sarah’s elbow, he guided her into his adjoining office and drew the connecting door almost shut behind them, allowing Malloy a measure of privacy to deal with his emotions.

For herself, Sarah could hardly hold back her own, and she couldn’t even begin to imagine what Malloy must be feeling. Brian would be able to walk. Soon he could run and play in the street like other children. His world would no longer be limited to the small flat where he lived with his grandmother.

And he would never become another cripple begging on the streets for his livelihood.

“Anne is angry with you,” David was saying as he seated himself behind his desk. Anne was his wife and a dear friend of Sarah’s.

“I hated breaking our dinner engagement, but I can’t plan my schedule the way you can,” she reminded him. “Babies come when they want to.”

“I was instructed to tell you that we expect you for dinner tomorrow evening, no excuses.”

“I’ll be there if you promise to allow me to come early so I can play with the children.”

“I’m sure we would all be delighted,” David assured her. They chatted for a few more minutes, and Sarah was grateful for the distraction. By the time Malloy brought Brian into the office, she had regained her composure.

But she almost lost it again when she saw that Brian was walking. Malloy held his hand and was giving him more than ordinary support, but he was taking his own steps, however uncertain. His small face was a study in determination and pride as he glanced up to see her reaction.

This time she didn’t try to hold back the tears. Her eyes filled and overflowed even as she laughed in delight. “Oh, Malloy, isn’t it wonderful?”

But when she looked up at him, his expression remained grim. “He’s still deaf,” he reminded her.

She felt as if he’d slapped her. She stared up at him, but he didn’t even glance at her as he took the other chair and hoisted Brian into his lap.

David had been shocked, too, but he was too professional to let it to show. He explained to Malloy what to expect and answered his questions. All the while, Brian kept examining his new foot, tracing the scars with his finger and poking and prodding and wiggling his toes, then comparing his two feet and silently marveling at how alike they now were.

His wonder was enchanting, but Sarah still felt the sting of Malloy’s rebuke. What was wrong with him? Why wasn’t he overjoyed? And why on earth was he taking his anger out on her?

When David was finished and Malloy had no more questions, Malloy gathered Brian up and rose. He shook David’s hand and thanked him. Then he turned to Sarah, nodded, and took his leave. Brian reached back longingly. Plainly, he wanted her to come along with them, but Malloy didn’t even glance back.

“We’ll see you tomorrow then,” David said to Sarah, pretending not to notice how rude Malloy had been. “Come as early as you like. Anne will be glad for the company.”

Sarah made her own escape as quickly as propriety would allow and hurried out into the street, hoping to catch up with Malloy and confront him. Luckily, the traffic had stopped them at the corner, so she was able to simply encounter them without resorting to any unseemly behavior, such as running after them or calling out.

Brian saw her first, and he squealed with joy and flung himself toward her. Caught by surprise, Malloy would have dropped him, but Sarah saved the boy from falling to the pavement and took him into her arms.

“I’m happy to see you, too, Brian,” she said, settling him on her hip. He was touching her face and looking up at her new hat. He seemed to approve of it. “It seems the operation was a success,” she tried on Malloy.

“My mother will be glad,” he replied, not quite meeting her eye. “You didn’t have to come today,” he added gruffly.

“I told you I’d be here if I could,” she reminded him.

“You’ve got better things to do than worry about the likes of us.” His jaw was set in the stubborn line she’d seen too many times before.

She’d thought he was upset because she was late for the appointment, but could he possibly be angry that she’d come at all? “If you didn’t want me here, you should have said so,” she said.

This time he looked straight at her, his eyes as dark as she’d ever seen them. “You should be with your own kind, Sarah.”

At that moment, there was a break in the traffic, and he snatched Brian from her and hurried across the street. Brian’s small arms were still reaching back for her when they disappeared behind the closing wall of carriages and hacks.

Stunned, Sarah could only stand there staring until the people walking by began to make remarks about her blocking the way. Then she started blindly down the street, walking in the opposite direction, as much to get away as to get to someplace else.

The worst part was that she didn’t know whether to be angry or hurt. Other people had certainly advised her that she should confine herself to associations with people of her own social class. Her parents had done so many times, as had her old friends. Some were well meaning, and others were snobs. She had ignored them all and done what she pleased.

What she pleased was to continue the work that her husband Tom had begun, providing medical services to everyone who needed it, regardless of their ability to pay. Sarah wasn’t a physician, but she could save the lives of mothers and their babies, so that’s what she did.

In the six months she’d known Frank Malloy, she thought he’d come to respect her, and even to approve of her. The last thing she’d ever expected was to hear him say she should be with her “own kind.” An hour ago, she would have said that Frank Malloy was her own kind! Now he was warning her away from him.

She had to admit it: he’d hurt her. She hadn’t known until this moment how much she valued his opinion of her. When the people she loved most in the world begged her at every opportunity to turn her back on all that she found fulfilling in life, he had accepted her as a competent professional, someone whom he consulted on matters of importance. She’d even helped him solve a number of murders. Just last week, she’d kept an innocent person from being executed, and all on her own, she’d made sure her neighbor’s son got to keep his position at the bank Richard Dennis owned. Even Malloy couldn’t have influenced Richard the way she had!

The thought stopped her in her tracks and caused the gentleman behind her to nearly fall in his hasty effort to avoid colliding with her. She apologized profusely as he regained his balance and sidled around her, not certain what to make of a woman so lost in thought she was paying no attention to anything else.

Only then did she realize she was back on the corner where Malloy had left her. She’d made a complete circle of the block.

“Malloy, you’re jealous!” she whispered to the spot where he had disappeared with Brian into the traffic. She really shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d been quite upset when she told him she was going to the opera with Richard. She’d thought they had parted on good terms last Friday, but his behavior today proved she was wrong. Now all she had to do was figure out if he really did think she should stay with her own kind.

And if he did, what she should do about it.

Frank should have been pleased. A woman had been found dead in City Hall Park, and he’d been selected for the case because of his reputation for handling difficult situations with care. Nobody knew who the woman was, but she’d been well dressed. Nobody knew how she’d died, either, but if she’d been killed — in broad daylight on the doorstep of City Hall — nobody wanted a scandal. Unlike many of his colleagues, Frank could be counted upon not to offend the wrong people and not to let the press hear anything they shouldn’t.

The Elevated Train ran right down to City Hall, so Frank got on at Bleeker Street. The morning rush was over, and he got a seat all to himself and a few minutes to collect his thoughts. Unfortunately, he didn’t particularly want to collect his thoughts, because every time he did, Sarah Brandt turned up in them.

He hadn’t admitted to himself how badly he’d wanted her there when Brian got his cast off. She’d gone to so much trouble to make sure her friend operated on his son, but it was more than that. He’d needed her there. He’d needed to share the anxiety and the joy with her. She was the only one who could truly understand.

Of course, he’d told her she didn’t have to come. He didn’t want her to feel any sense of obligation. Or pity. He and Brian were nothing to her, after all. Yet still he’d been hoping...

And then she’d come. Breathless from hurrying, her cheeks rosy and her eyes shining, she’d looked like a goddess. Brian had thrown himself into her arms, and Frank had longed to do the same. Jealous of his own son, jealous of the doctor whose friendship entitled him to call her Sarah, and jealous of Richard Dennis, whose position in life gave him the right to court her, Frank had hardly dared look her in the eye for fear he would betray the feelings to which he had no right.