City of Secrets

by Victoria Thompson

  “You can’t eat justice, Gideon. You can’t put a roof over your head with justice.”

  “And then we could sue them. It would take some time, but—”

  “And how would Priscilla support herself until then, assuming they’re convicted of murder, assuming they even committed murder and we were able to find the proof, and assuming she could sue them and win?”

  “I . . . She could sell Knight’s house and—”

  “And pay off Matthew Honesdale’s mortgage.”

  She was right, of course, but they had few options. “Are you saying we shouldn’t at least try to bring them to justice?”

  “How often do people really get justice in this world, Gideon?”

  “The courts are filled with cases in which—”

  “In which murderers are hanged and thieves are locked away, but do the victims get their money returned or their loved ones brought back to life?”

  “Well, no, but—”

  “Of course not, because that’s not how justice works. An eye for an eye just leaves both parties half-blind. Priscilla doesn’t need justice. She needs retribution.”

  “Retribution? How is she supposed to get that?”

  “I think you know. We’ve already discussed it. She needs her money back so she can live her life and raise her children.”

  “Are you proposing we blackmail the blackmailers?” Which, as he recalled, was what they had once discussed.

  “No, because we don’t have any proof to blackmail them with. I’m proposing we run a con on them.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ELIZABETH COULDN’T BELIEVE GIDEON WAS STILL NAÏVE ENOUGH to think the law could bring Peter and Daisy Honesdale to account. Hadn’t they already decided that was impossible?

  But she also couldn’t believe the way he was looking at her. “Run a con? You can’t be serious.”

  “Why not? They stole Knight’s money and then they stole Priscilla’s money. They deserve to have it stolen back from them.”

  “Elizabeth, two wrongs don’t make a right.”

  “What?”

  “A wrongful action is not a morally appropriate way to correct a previous wrongful action.”

  “Even if it’s the only way to correct the previous wrongful action?”

  At least he had to think about that. “But it’s not the only way. Honorable men created the rule of law to give us another option. If men were left to their own devices, they’d just keep killing and stealing from each other in an attempt to get revenge. We’d live in a constant state of chaos and danger. The law provides an orderly way to settle grievances and punish crime.”

  “I’m entirely in favor of avoiding chaos and danger,” she said, “and what I’m proposing would cause neither. You’ve already admitted your precious rule of law has no hope of settling this grievance or punishing this crime, so why shouldn’t we take matters into our own hands?”

  “Because it’s wrong.”

  “And two wrongs don’t make a right.”

  “Exactly.” He looked triumphant, like he thought he’d won the argument.

  “What’s more important, Gideon, following the rules or saving innocent people?”

  “I think you’ll find that following the rules is always best for the majority.”

  “But not for everyone.”

  “What?”

  “Not everyone. Just the majority.”

  “There are always exceptions, but if we want to live in a civilized world, we have to have rules.”

  “And you think it’s more important to follow these rules than to bend them to help someone in trouble.”

  He frowned. “You’re talking about doing more than just bending some rules, Elizabeth.”

  “Yes, I am. I’m talking about cheating some blackmailers out of their ill-gotten gains.”

  “Don’t you see how wrong that is?”

  She supposed she could. She’d always known how the world viewed her family’s way of life. But everyone they cheated thought they were going to profit by cheating someone else. They were betting on a fixed horse race or buying counterfeit money or beating the stock market by getting an inside tip. None of them were innocent victims, not like Priscilla and her children. “Cheating a cheater doesn’t seem so very wrong to me.”

  “But don’t you see, that makes you a cheater, too. A thief. No better than they are.”

  Elizabeth’s heart had begun to ache. “Is that so very important? Being better than they are?”

  “Someone must be, if civilization is to survive.”

  But she didn’t want civilization to survive if people like the Honesdales profited and people like Priscilla and her children were ruined in the process. “So you don’t think we should try to get Priscilla’s money back?”

  “By legal means, yes.”

  “Legal means won’t work.”

  “But we can’t break the law.”

  “We?” she asked.

  “I can’t, and I can’t allow you to do that, either.”

  “What do you mean you can’t allow me to?”

  “I know what you’re used to, but . . . you’re living in my world now, Elizabeth.”

  “I don’t think I can live in your world, Gideon.”

  He was obviously confused. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean I can’t meet your standards.” Now her heart was breaking, but she would just have to bear the pain somehow, because she had no other choice.

  “I don’t understand. Of course you meet my standards.”

  “No, I don’t. I think your rule of law is ridiculous and horrible. I know you think you’re right and maybe you are, but we’re human beings, Gideon. We’re not perfect, and sometimes the rules don’t fit us.”

  “I know your background is different from mine, but that doesn’t mean . . .”

  “It doesn’t mean what? That I can’t be changed to become morally appropriate?”

  “I didn’t mean that!”

  “Yes, you did. Your life is the law, and you want everything to follow your rules. But not everything can. I can’t. I don’t even want to.” Had someone warned her about this? Someone should have. Someone older and wiser who should have known a man like Gideon Bates could never accept her for who she really was. She blinked back the tears that threatened. “I think you should leave.”

  “Leave? Why? We need to talk about this.”

  “We just did talk about it, and now I know I made a terrible mistake.” She rose and walked to the parlor door.

  “What mistake? What do you mean?” Desperate now, he followed her.

  “You thought you could save me.”

  “Save you from what?” he asked, exasperated.

  “From my life of crime, I suppose.”

  “I don’t want to save you from anything. I love you just the way you are.”

  “Then why are you trying to change me?”

  He had no answer for that.

  She pulled the door open. “You need to go, Gideon, and don’t come back.”

  “What do you mean, ‘don’t come back’?” he cried.

  “I don’t think we should see each other again. It would be too hard.”

  “You can’t just send me away. We’re going to be married.”

  But she shook her head, fighting the tears that burned to be shed. “No, we aren’t.”

  In the end, Cybil and Zelda had come running at the sound of Elizabeth and Gideon shouting at each other because Gideon refused to believe her and Elizabeth insisted she was serious.

  Zelda had finally convinced Gideon to give Elizabeth time to calm down and sent him home while Cybil had taken Elizabeth back to the parlor, where she could weep in privacy.

  “It’s only natural,” Cybil assured Elizabeth when she’d stopped sobbing. “All c
ouples argue.”

  “You two don’t,” Elizabeth said, still dabbing her eyes.

  Cybil and Zelda exchanged a glance. “Of course we do, dear,” Zelda said. “Not as much as we did in the beginning, of course. But in the beginning, it takes time and a bit of shouting before two people can work out their differences.”

  “This is far more serious than just a difference of opinion,” Elizabeth assured them.

  “It always is, Lizzie,” Cybil said wryly.

  “But this really is,” Elizabeth wailed. “He’s perfect. He’s honest! He never even tells a lie. And he wants me to be just like him!”

  “Oh my, that is serious,” Zelda said.

  “Perhaps you misunderstood him,” Cybil said.

  “I don’t think so. He was perfectly clear. He even thinks it’s wrong to cheat a pair of blackmailers.”

  “Blackmailers?” Zelda echoed in dismay.

  “Where on earth did you encounter blackmailers, Lizzie?” Cybil asked.

  “In church.”

  After that, Elizabeth had to explain everything. She gave them as brief a summary of Priscilla’s misfortunes as she could manage. “I don’t know exactly how we’d do it, but I’m sure the Old Man can figure out some way to get her money back.”

  “And to keep some himself for his trouble, I’m sure,” Cybil said.

  “Everyone has to make a living,” Zelda pointed out.

  “But the important thing is that Priscilla wouldn’t be penniless, and she and her children would be safe,” Elizabeth said. “Do you think it would be wrong to help her?”

  “Of course it isn’t wrong, dear. Women have a difficult enough time in this world without having someone actually steal from them,” Cybil said.

  “And females must look after each other because, heaven knows, no one else will,” Zelda added. “I think you’re very noble to care so much for your friend.”

  “You know how I feel about Buster’s vocation,” Cybil said, “but this would almost be a vindication.”

  “Like Robin Hood,” Zelda said. She taught romance literature.

  “Yes, like Robin Hood,” Elizabeth agreed. “Although I’m sure Gideon disapproves of poor Robin, too. He was a thief, after all.”

  “Really? Poor Gideon,” Zelda said.

  “Poor Gideon?” Elizabeth cried.

  “Yes, he has a heavy burden if his standards are so very high,” Zelda said. “If you could help him bring them down a notch or two, you’d be doing him a favor.”

  “I’m not going to be doing anything for him from now on. I told him I couldn’t marry him and sent him away.”

  “Oh, that won’t discourage him,” Zelda said.

  “Indeed,” Cybil said. “Any man put off by such a paltry refusal isn’t worth the powder it would take to blow his brains out.” Cybil taught history.

  “But I meant it! I can’t marry a man who thinks I’m evil for wanting to help someone!”

  “Of course you can’t, but you don’t need to worry about that now,” Cybil said. “Your first concern is helping your friend, and I’m sure Buster will be happy to help you.”

  * * *

  • • •

  GIDEON WALKED THE ENTIRE WAY HOME, HOPING TO WEAR OFF some of his anger. It didn’t work. He was half-frozen but still furious when he arrived at home. He’d been hoping his mother was at a meeting, but she wasn’t, and as soon as she saw his face, she knew something was wrong.

  “It’s nothing, Mother,” he insisted, trying to warm himself by the fire.

  “It’s Elizabeth, isn’t it?”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “I can’t think of anything else that would make you so angry.”

  “I’m not angry!” He was far beyond that.

  She merely smiled. “It’s natural for couples to argue.”

  “We didn’t argue.”

  “Then why are you so angry?”

  “She told me we aren’t getting married.” Saying the words sent a stabbing pain through his chest, but he ignored it.

  “What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything!” And he hadn’t. Nothing to deserve that, at least. He was sure of it.

  “You must have done something. Why else would she say that?”

  He supposed he had said something to upset Elizabeth. In fact, he knew he had, although he still couldn’t figure out why she’d taken exception to it. He was right, and he knew it. Why couldn’t she see that?

  “Well?” his mother said.

  “We disagreed about . . . the rule of law.”

  “Gideon, that’s ridiculous. Courting couples do not argue about the rule of law.”

  “We did.”

  “Maybe if you told me exactly what the issue was . . .”

  “She wants to ask her father to run a con on Reverend and Mrs. Honesdale to steal back Priscilla Knight’s money.”

  “Good heavens!”

  “Yes, it’s outrageous.”

  “I . . . Can I assume you have discovered more information since we last spoke that at least makes you certain Reverend and Mrs. Honesdale are the blackmailers?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, we have. Elizabeth and Priscilla met with Reverend Honesdale yesterday and showed him the photograph.”

  “Why on earth did they do that?”

  “Because Elizabeth thought we’d be able to tell if he already knew about it.”

  “And were you?”

  “Yes. He did not express the least surprise. He wasn’t even shocked. He merely told them he would take the photograph and destroy it for them.”

  “And did he?”

  “He, uh . . . He took it, but Elizabeth got it back.”

  “How did she do that?”

  Gideon had to concentrate so he didn’t grind his teeth. “Apparently, she knows how to pick someone’s pocket.”

  “Really? What a useful skill that must be.”

  “It was in this case,” he admitted sourly. “But that isn’t all. Honesdale went straight home and a short time later, Daisy Honesdale left the house and visited Matthew Honesdale.”

  “Matthew? He’s the cousin who owns the brothels, isn’t he?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why would Daisy go to visit a man like that?”

  “She gave him the key to Endicott Knight’s house, the one he has mortgaged.”

  “Why would she do that? And why did she have a key to that house at all? And most importantly, how do you know all this?”

  “Because Elizabeth had her brother follow Daisy.”

  “Did he follow her inside Matthew Honesdale’s house?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Then how do you know—?”

  “Because Matthew came to my office this morning. We’d told him about the blackmail, and he realized when Daisy gave him the key that she had originally asked him to take the mortgage on Knight’s house in order to implicate him in the blackmail, in case it ever came to light. His having the key would be another implication that he was involved. He was rather angry, and he ended up telling me that he was orphaned and Reverend Nathan Honesdale took him in. Nathan was a rather cruel disciplinarian who never felt Matthew was suitably grateful for all Nathan had done for him. Matthew left home when he was fifteen to escape.”

  “And ended up owning brothels.”

  “He apparently wanted to embarrass his foster father.”

  “That doesn’t really explain why you think Reverend Honesdale and his wife are blackmailers.”

  Gideon sighed. How on earth to explain this to his mother? “Matthew claims that Peter became one of his customers.”

  “At his brothels? How very shocking.” She didn’t look terribly shocked, though.

  “And Daisy, it seems, was a procuress and a madam for Ma
tthew.”

  “What does a procuress do?”

  Gideon rubbed his temples in a vain attempt to ward off a looming headache. “She procures young women for the brothels, sometimes against their will.”

  Now she did look shocked. “Did you believe him?”

  “Yes, I did. Didn’t she tell you she ran a boardinghouse for young ladies?”

  “She did, but—”

  “She used it to lure young ladies into prostitution.”

  He instantly regretted his bluntness when she went pale.

  “I’m sorry, Mother. I shouldn’t have told you.”

  “Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault, and you had to tell me. So I assume Elizabeth knows all of this.”

  “Yes, I went to her right after I left the office to tell her about Matthew’s visit.”

  “And she suggested running a con—is that the correct phrase?”

  “Yes,” he said tightly.

  “Running a con on the Honesdales in order to get Priscilla’s money back. Can’t you simply turn them over to the police?”

  “I wish it were that simple, but we’d have to prove they were responsible for the blackmail, and while we’re sure they were, we don’t have any proof that would impress the police.”

  “So the law can’t touch them.”

  “No,” he said through clenched teeth.

  “And that’s why Elizabeth came up with an alternate plan.”

  “It’s not an alternate plan. It’s an illegal plan.”

  “So was what they did to Priscilla.”

  He couldn’t believe she’d take Elizabeth’s side. “Do you think we should ask Mr. Miles to steal money from them?”

  His mother simply stared at him for a long moment. Then she said, “I see it now. The rule of law.”

  “It’s all that separates us from the beasts.”

  “Well, perhaps not all that separates us.”

  “Without it, civilization would crumble.”

  “Is this what you said to Elizabeth?”

  He didn’t like that gleam in her eye. “More or less.”

  “No wonder she said she wouldn’t marry you.”

  “Mother, how can you say that?”

  “Easily. I warned you, Gideon. I told you Elizabeth will never become a simpering, bloodless matron.”