Bloody Lessons: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery

by Locke, M. Louisa

  “And you think that Mr. Hoffmann may have designs on her?”

  “Well, I do know that he has spoken out quite sharply about the dominance of Republicans on the Board. I can’t help but wonder if he isn’t favoring Kitty because he wants to garner influence with her father and the Democrats.”

  “Have you tried to warn her?” Annie asked.

  “I have hinted that she might want to be careful, not let her enthusiasm for her studies lead her to overstep the boundaries of propriety. But she is a proud and stubborn young woman, and I must say I fear for her.”

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Wednesday evening, February 4, 1880

  "$10 REWARD - LOST ON MONDAY night...a small black-and-tan Terrier Dog, with clipped ears, answering to the name of Dandy." ––San Francisco Chronicle, 1879

  Annie was drawn down to the kitchen by a burst of laughter. She needed a good laugh. She was tired and disgruntled. Because she’d wanted to get to Girls’ High by noon today, she’d scheduled her first Madam Sibyl appointment an hour early, thereby losing an hour of sleep. Several of her clients were unusually resistant to her advice, and it didn’t take any clairvoyance to foresee a rather disastrous financial failure for Mr. Harper, the notions merchant, if he persisted in speculating in South Dakota “gold finds.” It was Annie’s belief the Homestake mine was the only profitable enterprise in that region and that Harper would do better, if he insisted on speculating in metals, by investing in one of the newly opened Leadville, Colorado, silver mines. She wondered if he would have been more willing to take her advice if he knew her as Mrs. Fuller, Edward Stewart’s daughter, rather than Madam Sibyl, pretend clairvoyant. Probably not.

  She worried that if she couldn’t figure out a way to “retire” Madam Sibyl and begin to make the income she needed as plain Mrs. Annie Fuller, financial consultant, that this would be a insurmountable barrier to ever marrying Nate. She couldn’t ask him to jeopardize his own career, which was just taking off, by linking his future with a fortuneteller, pretend or not. And what about the possibility she might never be able to have children? How would he react if she told him?

  Last fall when she asked Nate to slow everything down and give them both time to get to know each other better, she’d been delighted that he agreed. Now she worried that the limited time he spent with her and his scrupulous attention to the proprieties meant he was falling out of love with her. When he’d asked her to help out in the investigation of the anonymous letters, she’d hoped this would bring back the old closeness. However, except for the short ride home from his office nearly a week ago and their argument on Sunday, he’d made no effort to spend any time alone with her since their trip to Ocean Beach.

  Tonight had proved no exception. A letter from him was waiting for her when she got home, canceling his plans to come over, citing the demands of the trial. Nate did apologize in the letter for his behavior Sunday and asked, by way of amends, if she and Laura would like to attend the theater with him this coming Saturday. But even that didn’t make her feel any better, since it meant that once again they’d have no time alone and nothing of importance would be discussed.

  She paused at the top of the last flight of stairs leading down to the kitchen and leaned against the wall, listening to the voices coming up from below. She could hear that Barbara Hewitt was there, with Jamie and Dandy, whose yips added to the conversation at intervals. The voices of Kathleen and Beatrice intertwined in counterpoint, and the rich chuckle was undoubtedly from Esther Stein. Why couldn’t she be content with this group of people as her chosen family? Did she really need a husband and children to be happy?

  A skittering sound caught her attention, and Dandy appeared at her feet, with his wide doggy smile, his curled pink tongue, and brown bulging eyes, alight with triumph in nosing out her presence. She leaned over and scooped him up, letting him lick her face as she went the rest of the way down the stairs and into the kitchen.

  “Oh Mrs. Fuller, it’s you! I wondered why Dandy started going up the stairs. He must’ve heard you coming.” Jamie took Dandy from her and went to the back door. “Come on, Dandy, time for you to go out. Be a good dog and be quick about it.”

  Barbara Hewitt moved up behind her son, putting her hand on his shoulder. Dandy sprinted out into the darkness, growling. In a moment, they could hear the growls give way to barking and the thumping sound of Dandy leaping up against the back fence.

  “You stay here, Jamie, until we can see what is going on,” Barbara commanded.

  Kathleen ran over with matches and quickly lit the lantern that sat by the back door, handing it to Annie.

  Annie hushed Beatrice and Esther, whose exclamations of concern were making it hard for her to hear, and then she went up the few steps into the back yard, holding up the lantern. She shouted, “Who’s there?”

  There was no moon visible, and a thin mist obscured the stars, but she could see the flash of white from Dandy’s front paws and forehead near the back gate. When no one responded to her shout, she moved slowly forward. Dandy ran over to her and then quickly back to the gate, where he stood and started growling again. The light from the lantern revealed that his head and ears were stretched forward, his fur was standing up in a ridge along his back, and his small crooked tail stuck straight out. As she got closer, she could see that the growls, deep in his chest, shook his whole small body. Abruptly, his body relaxed, as if a string had been cut. Then he began to sniff loudly at the gate as he had Saturday night, but this time he continued to sniff along the whole back fence.

  “What is it boy? Who was there? Are they gone?” Annie whispered, following along behind him.

  “Annie, is everything all right? Should I get Mr. Chapman or Mr. Harvey?” Barbara called.

  “Dandy seems to think they’re gone. Don’t you, boy?” She said this more loudly, hoping it was true.

  After Dandy completed his inspection of the fence, he did his business, and Annie and he returned to the kitchen.

  Barbara told Jamie to take his dog upstairs and start to get ready for bed. Once he was out of hearing, she said, “I don’t know what has gotten into Dandy, Annie. I am sorry. He has started spooking at everything, even on walks. Last weekend, Jamie said he almost got away from him, barking and lunging at some man who was walking past him on Ellis. Earlier this evening, when I took him out for a walk by myself, I practically had to drag him down the street; he kept turning around and trying to go home. I finally gave up at Leavenworth.”

  Kathleen, who had returned to drying the dishes, turned around with a plate in her hand and said, “I think he is being a good guard dog, and we need to listen to him. There’s something fishy going on. Last few weeks, every time we let him out during the day, he goes right to that back gate to sniff. Didn’t use to do that. Most times, he seems satisfied there’s nothing wrong, and he trots back to us, happy as you please. But some mornings, he sniffs and sniffs like something, or somebody, has been standing there.”

  “It’s that man, the one who attacked our Miss Laura. I just know it.” Beatrice added, her usually cheerful face looking strained. “I want to know what you’re doing to find out who he is and put a stop to it.” Beatrice’s gray bun at the top of her head bobbed emphatically as she nodded at Annie.

  “Now, Mrs. O’Rourke, you know our Annie’s done all she can, making sure that Laura doesn’t go anywhere by herself, asking the patrolman to walk the alley a couple of times a night on his beat,” Esther Stein said, putting down her knitting.

  “Do you think it’s the man who met Miss Laura at Woodward’s Gardens the afternoon she went with us?” Kathleen asked. “A tall fella who seemed to upset her so.”

  “Do you mean Mr. Timmons, the older student who was with her at San Jose Normal school?” Barbara frowned. “I thought she’d decided he couldn’t be the one.”

  “Mr. Timmons? Was that his name, Ma’am?” Kathleen put down the plate and began to wring her hands.

  Annie, puzzled at this sign of distres
s, said sharply, “Yes, Seth Timmons. Kathleen, what’s the matter?”

  “Oh dear, I thought there was something odd,” said Kathleen. “But it didn’t seem my place. Monday morning when I brought Miss Laura her tea and toast, she gave me a letter. Asked if I could mail it later in the day when I went to do the shopping. Not just put it in the front basket with the rest of the mail like she usually does.”

  “And the letter was addressed to Mr. Timmons?”

  “Yes. The address was the school on Pine and Larkin. That’s what eased my mind. I thought it must be important school business. But then this afternoon, she got a letter in return from him. When I mentioned this to her, she seemed all excited like, as if she wanted to get the letter before anyone else saw it. He knows where she lives. What if he’s the man what’s been hanging out in the alley upsetting Dandy?”

  Annie had to raise her voice to be heard above the general commotion that Kathleen’s statement caused. “If it will make any of you feel better, Nate already went to see Mr. Timmons, and he agrees with Laura that he probably isn’t the man who attacked her. But I have been meaning to tell you all that there is another young man we need to be on the lookout for. He was one of Laura’s older students this fall. His name is Buck Morrison, and he gave Laura a good deal of trouble. She got a glimpse of him this Saturday, so she knows he is now in town.”

  She shared the description Laura had given her of Buck: seventeen, tall, straw-blonde hair, blue eyes, a small mustache. “Laura said that he has the build of a farm-boy and usually is dressed in jeans but that when she saw him this Saturday, he was all decked out in a flashy, royal-blue waist-coat and tight-fitting black wool pants and coat.”

  “I’ll be sure to tell Patrolman Stanley tomorrow about him. And about Mr. Timmons. Just in case,” Kathleen announced.

  “And I will tell Jamie that we both need to be on the lookout for these men when we are walking to and from school. Especially in the evenings when we walk Dandy. But now I need to go up and make sure that Jamie is studying and not bothering the Misses Moffet.” Barbara chuckled, “They always have a treat for both him and Dandy when he goes by their room.”

  As Barbara went over to the stairs, she paused and said, “Kathleen, would you like to have Dandy sleep down here with you for a few nights? I’m sure if I explained why, Jamie wouldn’t mind. I know he couldn’t really protect you, but he would certainly wake up the house trying.”

  Kathleen’s dark curls bobbed as she shook her head no. “That’s so kind of you, Mrs. Hewitt. But I will be just fine. I will make sure the doors and windows are locked up tight at night.”

  Mrs. O’Rourke spoke up and said, “Don’t you worry none. She’s a smart girl. Sleeps with the dinner bell beside her bed, case of fire, so’s I’m sure she’ll ring out if she thinks there’s any danger.” Then she turned to Kathleen and admonished, “And you just put off taking the ashes out back until the sun’s up and Dandy’s been out to check out the yard, you hear me!”

  “Indeed I do, Mrs. O’Rourke.” With that, the young maid gave a saucy curtsy. “If you will all excuse me, I’ll just go and start getting the fireplaces cleaned out and set for morning.”

  After saying good night to Barbara Hewitt, Annie crossed over and took a chair next to Mrs. Stein, whom she hadn’t had a chance to talk to in some days. She loved sitting in the kitchen at this time of night, surrounded by the smell of sourdough as Beatrice worked the starter into the flour for tomorrow’s bread; the click, click, click of Mrs. Stein’s knitting needles, creating, as if by magic, a new sweater for one of her grandchildren; and the calming sight of Kathleen going about her tasks.

  “Well, my dear. Just what do you think of our Miss Laura, writing to this young man?” Mrs. Stein looked at Annie over the small silver wire-framed glasses she had taken to wearing in the evening. “I could see it wasn’t a complete surprise to you.”

  Annie sighed and said, “From what she’s told me, Seth Timmons was rather a knight in shining armor for her this fall. While she says she is determined to forgo any romantic entanglements and concentrate on furthering her education, I imagine it would be hard not to be flattered.”

  “But why did she write him?” Beatrice asked, demonstrating that she was closely following Annie’s conversation with Esther.

  “She probably wanted to apologize to him for her brother arriving on his doorstep to check up on him. I am sure it is no secret to any of you that Laura had a terrible fight with Nate on Sunday when she found out about his visit to Timmons’ place. I’m sure their fight could be heard throughout the house.”

  Esther smiled. “Well, we did gather that there was some disagreement. But I think that your Mr. Dawson was quite right to go see this young man, and I don’t suspect he’ll be happy to know they are corresponding.”

  “No, and I will need to speak to Laura about this, make sure she hasn’t arranged another meeting with Timmons. She must understand that she needs to be very careful until we are absolutely sure we have found out who attacked her.”

  “You will tell Mr. Dawson about the letter,” Esther stated flatly, again giving Annie one of her admonishing looks.

  “Of course, or get her to tell him herself.” Annie sighed. “I hate getting in the middle of their disagreements. He has every reason to worry about her, given the events of the last month. But he does have to remember when he talks to her that she isn’t a small child.”

  “Does Mr. Dawson know about this young fellow? Did you say his name is Buck?” Esther asked, taking up her knitting again.

  Annie went on to tell them briefly of Laura’s troubles with Buck during the fall term and how Seth, at Hattie Wilks’ request, looked out for her. This brought up the question of Hattie’s death, and they asked what progress she was making with her investigations at Girls’ High.

  “Actually, there are a few interesting avenues to follow-up,” Annie said. Her dissatisfaction with Nate’s decision not to come this evening returned. She said rather bitterly, “There is a lot I would like to look into further if Nate would bother to find the time to consult with me or let me act on my own. After all, he is the one who asked for my help. But now he is too busy to come and discuss what I have learned.”

  Esther frowned and said to Annie, “Not able to come tonight as planned? Well, Herman says the case he is working on with Cranston could be the making of him. Some important state constitutional issues. You don’t fault him for taking his career seriously, do you?”

  “No, I don’t. That would be hypocritical on my part,” Annie replied, unable to keep her irritation out of her voice. She stood up and went over to the sink and fiddled with the geraniums on the sill of the window. “But isn’t it his responsibility to find out who the anonymous letter writer is as well? There are things he needs to know.”

  “Can’t you just write to him?” asked Esther.

  “Yes, but it’s not the same. I need the time and privacy to really discuss the case with him. At one time, he would have been glad of the excuse to…but…now, I just don’t know what he wants.” Annie stopped, appalled at how much she had revealed of her fears, fighting back tears.

  Beatrice came up behind her, put her arm around her waist, and said softly, “Oh, dearie. It seems to me he’s already said what he wants, dear man. You’re the one who said no.”

  Esther, who had come up to stand on the other side of her, gently wiped her cheeks with a handkerchief and said, “Annie, Beatrice is right. You told me that you asked him to withdraw his suit, agree to go forward slowly. Seems to me, it’s not what Nate Dawson wants that’s the issue but what you want. Maybe it is time for you to figure that out.”

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Saturday evening, February 7, 1880

  "As in the case of nearly all the burlesques, the original story serves only as the motive for introducing as absurd relations, a number of shapely people in handsome costumes..." ––San Francisco Chronicle, 1880

  Annie looked over at Laura, who stood
on a stool in front of the mirror in the corner of Annie’s bedroom, having some last minute alterations made on a dress Annie had given her. She is so beautiful. I wish her mother was here to see her, Annie thought suddenly.

  Laura smiled at her and said, “I can’t thank you enough for giving me this lovely outfit. My brother is so stupid. Asking us to the theater without a thought of what I would have to wear.” She blew Annie a kiss while Miss Millie Moffet sewed a ruffle of light rose satin at the hem to accommodate Laura’s greater height. “Miss Minnie and Miss Millie are truly angels to make it over to fit me in two days. I am such an Amazon next to you, Annie.”

  Annie, who was drying her hair by the fire, saw Miss Millie smile but knew she wouldn’t say a word. It was her sister, Miss Minnie, who was the talkative one, and she was still upstairs in their attic room making some last minute changes to the gown Annie was going to wear.

  “I am glad to see the way Miss Millie has been able to alter it," Annie replied, "adding the satin to the bodice and the flounce of the underskirt. It looks an entirely different dress and very becoming on you. I rather think the rose works better with your darker coloring.”

  Thank heavens the Moffets weren’t working on a deadline for one of their usual clients, who were among the wealthiest San Francisco women. The two sisters were already being incredibly generous in making a day-time suit for Laura, asking only that she read aloud to them in exchange. Laura would be chagrined if she had any idea the amount these two elderly ladies from Natchez usually got for their tailoring. In fact, it had taken some effort on Annie’s part to persuade them to take any money at all from her for these last-minute alterations on both of their outfits.

  Annie wondered what Nate would think when he saw his little sister all dressed up. The sight of Laura looking so happy was certainly helping to lift her own spirits. The Misses Moffet had cut the front of the bodice, revealing a discreet amount of Laura’s chest, just enough to make the dress appropriate for evening wear. With her dark hair pinned up and threaded with a dusky pink ribbon that echoed the excited blush on her cheeks, she looked stunning.