The Virgin Cure (39 page)

On our way out of the house, Mae gave Miss Everett a winning smile and said, “I won’t let you down.”

Giving her a short nod in return, Miss Everett replied, “See that you don’t.”

Cadet travelled with us, pushed to the corner of the cab once again by the ruffles and flounces of our gowns, only this time he sat next to Alice. Watching the way he looked after her now was almost more than I could bear.

Alice was stunning, the cut and fabric of her gown far better than either Mae’s or mine. It had belonged to Rose and was made from row after row of ivory-coloured French lace. The difference between her dress and Mae’s was so great that Mae had pouted over it, begging Alice to trade. Miss Everett had put an end to Mae’s nagging, saying, “The colour suits Alice better.” Mae had let it go without further argument, but stayed silent the entire way to the theatre.

Mr. Wentworth was the first of the gentlemen to arrive in our box.

“What a lovely gown,” he commented after we’d gotten settled next to each other.

“Thank you,” I said, putting my hand to the locket to see that it was still securely fastened around my neck.

“Is the view to your liking?” he asked, with an intent stare.

“Yes,” I replied, hoping he was pleased that I’d worn his gift.

My bare arm brushed against his sleeve and he took it as an invitation to put his hand on mine. In an instant I pulled my hand away and folded my hands in my lap. My nerves had gotten the best of me. For one brief moment I’d worried that his wife might spy us from another box and come raging after me in her madness. Looking to Mr. Wentworth and seeing the calm expression on his face, I determined to put my fears to rest.

The play that evening starred Miss Suzie Lowe and another actress from Mr. Dink’s
cartes de visite
collection, Miss Kitty Swift. One fair, one dark, they played sisters who were in love with the same man. It was a blood and thunder tale, where everyone booed and hissed at the villains and yelled “Balderdash!” at the top of their lungs.

Eventually Kitty found Suzie dallying with the man in question, a gentleman farmer named Tom. Poor Kitty watched from behind a haystack as Suzie sang a song to her lover.

In the dark of the box, I could feel Mr. Wentworth’s shoulder against mine, hear his breathing rise and fall as he listened to Miss Lowe sing of forbidden kisses and Tom’s sweet embrace. And as the curtain closed on the scene, I noticed a wistful look on his face.

Right or wrong, I knew that most of his desire for me arose from his wanting to have something he shouldn’t.

At the intermission, Mae managed to free herself of Mr. Harris almost as soon as they arrived in the reception hall. The next time I spotted her, she was standing near the bar, talking to two young men, one of whom I was sure was the gentleman she’d flirted with on the horsecar all those days ago. Alice was at her side, no sign of Mr. Greely.

Each time Alice laughed at something one of the men said, Mae would take hold of her arm like they were the dearest of friends. It seemed a strange turn to me, considering the way she’d acted towards Alice over the dress. Mae had never been one to easily let go of a grudge.

When I saw them slip into the ladies’ lounge, I excused myself from Mr. Wentworth and followed them.

Alice ran to me as soon as I came in. I’d been too busy with my own gentleman to notice, but she told me that she’d spent most of the first half of the evening politely avoiding Mr. Greely’s advances.

“He started out just calling me ‘sweetheart’ and ‘darling,’ ” she moaned. “But then he put my hand between his legs.”

The horrified look on her face set Mae to laughing. “If you want the man to lose interest, you should’ve followed my lead,” she teased. “Acting coy drives Mr. Greely mad. It only serves to pulls him closer.”

“I wasn’t acting coy,” Alice insisted. “I just don’t feel the same towards him is all.”

Cheeks ruddy with the heat of the room and the glass of champagne Mae had given her, Alice told me that she’d met Mae’s handsome young clerk, the one she’d been sneaking out to meet at the concert hall.

Mae interjected, “And his friend, Mr. Samuels, was very glad to meet you, Alice.”

Alice blushed at Mae’s words, and I could imagine how it might please her to be the object of the attentions of someone who seemed to like her without knowing what she was. “They want Mae and me to go with them to the concert hall … just for a little bit.”

I frowned at her and shook my head.

Seeing my look she said, “The theatre is so crowded and close tonight, and Mae says we could be back well before the last act. The concert saloon is only half a block away.”

“You told them no, of course?” I asked.

Alice put her hand to her mouth and giggled. “Mae says I should see it once before everything changes. Before Mr. Greely decides he needs me to be his, and before she has to give herself to Mr. Harris.”

“Hush,” Mae whispered behind her gloved hand. “You’ve given our plan away.”

Alice pouted at Mae. “Ada won’t tell.” Looking at me with all the innocence of a child, she asked, “Will you, Ada?”

“We won’t be long,” Mae said, not waiting for my answer. “Our gents will barely notice we’re late, I promise.”

Although Alice had scolded Mae time and again for sneaking out, I’d seen her twirling around our room, imagining how it might feel to float across the dance floor in a gentleman’s arms. Holding a feathered fan to her face, she’d gracefully glided past me, saying, “What a night this is. Isn’t it grand?”

As the bells chimed to announce the call to the second half, Mae turned to me and said, “Just tell them Alice was feeling faint and that I decided to stay with her a while longer. I’ll do the same for you next time, I swear.”

“Please,” Alice begged.

“I’ll see you soon,” I told Alice, and then left her in Mae’s hands.

Mr. Wentworth offered me his arm as we made our way back to the box.

If Mr. Wentworth chooses you, you’ll be a very lucky girl
.

Cadet, who’d taken up his post outside the box, pulled me aside when we arrived. “Where’s Alice?” he asked.

“She’s with Mae,” I answered, not wanting to lie.

“I see,” he said. “I’ll go back to the reception room and wait for them.”

“All right,” I replied, feeling awful for not telling him everything.

I smiled at Mr. Harris and Mr. Greely as the band played the actors on. “Miss Creaghan was feeling light-headed,” I whispered to Mr. Greely. “Miss O’Rourke stayed behind to assist her,” I told Mr. Harris. I hoped my performance was as convincing as the one taking place on the stage.

The second half of the play was taken up with Kitty going after Suzie to exact her revenge. She purchased a knife from an old witch, played by Miss LeMar. She poisoned the blade by rubbing it with the leaves from an enchanted tree, played by Mr. Dink’s long-legged illusionist. Telling Suzie an evil lie, Kitty got the young woman alone. I watched as she plunged the blade into Miss Susie Lowe’s heart and I gasped when Suzie cried out, “Dear God! This is the end of me!”

As she died her terrible death, Mr. Wentworth took my hand and held it tight. This time, I didn’t take it back. Alice and Mae might have chosen to escape Miss Everett’s expectations one last time, but I had chosen to meet them.

Slumber, my darling, thy mother is near
,
Guarding thy dreams from all terror and fear
.
Sunlight has pass’d and the twilight has gone
.
Slumber, my darling, the night’s coming on
.
Sweet visions attend thy sleep
,
Fondest, dearest to me
,
While others their revels keep
,
I will watch over thee
.

T
here was no sign of Alice, Mae or Cadet for the rest of the performance. The other gentlemen, clearly displeased, left right after the curtain, but Mr. Wentworth stayed with me while I waited for Cadet to reappear. Seeing the worry on my face, he said, “You mentioned that one of the young ladies was under the weather. Do you suppose she is in need of a physician?”

“I’m sure Cadet has seen to her care. That’s probably what’s keeping him.”

Nodding in agreement, he was more than glad to take my words as a reassurance, and quickly went back to wooing me. “I’d thought you were the sweetest girl I’d ever met,” he said while gazing into my eyes. “And after tonight, I’m sure of it. Please say you’ll see me again, Miss Fenwick?”

His attention felt out of place in light of the uncertainty I was feeling over Alice and Mae, but I did my best to respond to it with as much flirtatious enthusiasm as possible. “It would be my pleasure, Mr. Wentworth. I was praying all night for you to ask.”

As soon as I’d given my reply, Cadet appeared. He gave a short nod to Mr. Wentworth, but I could tell he was only pretending to be calm.

“Good night, Miss Fenwick,” Mr. Wentworth said. “Keep safe until we meet again.”

“Until then, Mr. Wentworth,” I replied.

“Until then.”

Cadet waited for the man to move out of earshot and then turned to me, his voice frantic. “I’ve looked everywhere, even backstage and outside in the alleys around the theatre,” he said. “I couldn’t find them.”

“Did you think to check the concert hall,” I asked, pretending not to know exactly where they’d gone.

The way he stared at me then made me feel horrible and small. The look on his face said he was sure I’d conspired again to fool him, maybe even cost him his job.

And so I confessed. “Mae intended to go there with a young beau she’s been seeing, a Mr. Vaughn. She enticed Alice to come along as a partner for his friend.”

Cadet took my arm and held it fast as we came out of the theatre into the cold night. “Watch your step,” he said as we came to a curb, alerting me to a wide gap in the stones that surely would have tripped me.

Sticking two fingers between his teeth, he gave three sharp whistles. The signal brought a gang of boys from the shadows. There were seven of them, wiry and dirty, their eyes shining out from their grimy faces as they looked to Cadet.

“Have you seen two girls in gowns with two dandies on their arms?” he asked them.

I quickly added, “One was fair and pretty, and the other had red curls.”

“Girls go by here all the time,” one of the boys said, shrugging, staring at the locket around my neck.

He was bigger than the others, and from the way they were watching him, I guessed that he was their leader. It was clear he wasn’t going to lend his assistance without getting something in return.

Unfastening the locket, I held it out to him. “Help us find them.”

The boy snatched it from my hand and shoved it in the pocket of his sack coat. He nodded to the rest of the guttersnipes and they fell in behind Cadet.

“Is there gonna be a fight?” one of them asked.

When Cadet didn’t answer, another boy said, “I’d say that’s a yes.”

A pair of dandies were in the next alley over, playing cruel tricks on a tencent whore. Shirt tails untucked from their pants, it looked as if they’d had their way with her and were now offering to pay a penny for this, a nickel for that in an attempt to see if they could strip away what little remained of her dignity.

“Will you eat horse shit for a penny?”

“No, you asses.”

“Will you eat it for a nickel?”

“Sure, a bite.”

“Will you put a bottle in your hole?”

“Which one, front or back?”

“A nickel if you do both.”

“Fuck you.”

“A nickel each?”

“All right.”

A couple of the boys in the gang scurried down the length of the alley and back again. I sighed with relief when they returned, shaking their heads at Cadet. “No girls here,” one of them reported, so we moved on.

The gang’s leader and another lad ran ahead, searching. I looked all around as we followed, constantly turning to glance behind me, hoping to catch sight of Alice and Mae. I thought if we could find them now, there might be time to concoct a lie that would save us all from Miss Everett’s anger. Hearing a young woman’s laugh, I stopped short, only to find that it was a lady being helped into a nearby carriage. Her night was ending in the sort of happiness I’d pictured for Alice, Mae and me.

As we neared the door of the concert saloon, a whistle like the one Cadet had used to signal the guttersnipes rang out from the entrance to the alley just past the hall. “Stay here,” Cadet ordered, breaking away from me to investigate what was going on. Ignoring his words, I chose to follow him. “I’m coming with you.”

The voices of men grew louder as we approached. They were shouting orders and howling with approval.

“Get it in her!”

“Fuck her again!”

“I’ll pay you fifty cents if you let me have a go.”

Another man’s voice sneered, “She’s
my
cherry. I paid for her fair and square.”