City of Secrets

by Victoria Thompson

  “I’m not sure that’s enough to justify the kind of partnership you describe. I’d want to see some financial commitment as well.” Franklin wasn’t a pushover, but they’d expected that.

  “What would you consider a reasonable commitment?” Peter asked.

  “Let’s see, how much to start? Hmmm, first I need to purchase a house—”

  “We have a house,” Daisy said.

  Franklin expressed surprise, then glanced around the sad little parlor.

  “Not this one,” she assured him. “It was once the home of a society family. It’s located in a very respectable neighborhood.” She gave him the address.

  “I’m not familiar with the city, but I’ll take your word for that, at least until I’ve seen it for myself.”

  “That should cover our half of the partnership,” Peter said.

  “Half?” Franklin scoffed. “Hardly. Oh, your contacts will be helpful, but no one provides assistance without being well compensated, as I’m sure you know. A lot of palms will have to be greased. The house will need to be furnished, too, unless it’s already operating as a brothel. Is it?”

  “No, it’s not,” Peter admitted reluctantly, which was technically true.

  “And then we’ll need the women. They must be top quality, which means we’ll have to entice them away from wherever they are now.”

  “Won’t you bring some girls with you?” Daisy asked. “Mr. Ross said you have establishments in Chicago.”

  Franklin smiled tolerantly. “I prefer to use local talent. They’re much less likely to get restless and want to return home. So that means more expense.”

  Because he’d have to bribe the girls to leave their current positions and probably pay off their current pimps and madams as well. Local girls would often bring along their own clientele, though, which made them even more valuable.

  “How much do you think it will cost in total?” she asked.

  “I think around a hundred thousand, in addition to the house. If you provide the house, I can give you twenty percent.”

  Peter caught her eye with a questioning look. They’d wanted a much larger cut. Ideally, Peter should make the counteroffer, but he had no idea what she was thinking. She turned to Franklin.

  “We’ll provide the house and fifty thousand and I’ll run it,” she said. Because if she was running it, she would be the only one who knew how much money was actually coming in. “Then we’ll get sixty percent.”

  “You’ll run it yourself?”

  “I’m very good at it. Matthew can vouch for me.” He would, too, for a price, and because he had no idea this deal had originally been meant for him.

  “I suppose you’ll want a salary if you’re running it.”

  “I’ll settle for our sixty percent. That will give me an incentive to earn as much as possible.”

  He considered her offer for a long moment and apparently found no reason to refuse it. “I’ll let you run it for the first three months and then we’ll reevaluate. But before we settle anything, I’ll need to see the house.”

  Peter cast her an alarmed glance, but she refused to meet his eye. “We have some engagements tomorrow, so I’m not sure when we’ll be available. Can we send you a message to arrange a time?”

  “Yes,” Franklin said. He gave her the name of his hotel. He had a few more questions, but nothing they couldn’t answer. After some pleasantries, he and Ross took their leave.

  When they’d gone, Peter turned to her, his eyes shining. “We did it!”

  “Not quite yet, but we’re on our way.”

  “How will you get Matthew to give us the house?”

  She smiled at such a notion. “He won’t give it to us, but I’m sure I can convince him to sell us the mortgage.”

  “You’ll pay him, then?”

  “I’ll have to, but it will be worth it.”

  “Are you sure you want to run the house yourself? When we get it, that is.”

  She’d have to, in the beginning, just to make sure Franklin didn’t cheat them and to get everything organized. “Just to start, but I’ll always keep the books. That way we’ll get more like eighty percent.” Then she’d truly be rich and would never have to lift her hand again. Or put up with Peter again, because as soon as everything was in order, she was finished with him.

  “You’re amazing, Daisy.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “And we’ll be rich, richer than Matthew.”

  What a beautiful thought. “And much classier, too. We’ll buy a house on Fifth Avenue and get a box at the opera.” At least Daisy would.

  “My father will be furious.”

  “Which makes it all the sweeter.”

  He took her hand in both of his. “Daisy? Can we . . . ? I mean, you said after we made the deal, but it’s practically made now and . . .”

  He was so pathetic. He made her want to vomit. But she had to keep him in line for a while longer. “Of course, darling. Come along. I’ll even show you something new.”

  * * *

  • • •

  “SO SHE’S GOING TO SEND ME A MESSAGE AND TELL ME WHEN TO meet them so I can see the house,” the Old Man said. He’d stopped by Cybil’s the next morning to tell Elizabeth about his meeting with the Honesdales.

  “Where is she sending you a message?” she asked with interest.

  “The Waldorf.”

  “How will you get it?”

  “I’ll go to the desk this evening. They can’t keep track of everyone who’s staying there. And if I can’t get it from them, I’ll just telephone Daisy and blame the hotel for not giving me her message.”

  “She’s kind of in a mess because she gave Matthew the key to the house, so she can’t even get into it. She doesn’t know it, but he gave the key to . . . to Gideon.” Just saying his name hurt her heart, but she swallowed down the pain. “So it’s going to be harder than she thinks to get it.”

  “Should we warn Matthew?”

  “It may already be too late for that. Gideon did tell him we’d be taking steps, though, so he may assume that’s why she came to him.”

  “And if not?”

  “Matthew doesn’t know what we’re doing yet, so he can’t possibly give us away. In any case, he’ll have to go to . . . to Gideon for the key.”

  “So we do need to inform Gideon. May I assume from your expression that you haven’t made up with him yet?”

  “What do you mean, made up with him? You act like we just had a lover’s spat.”

  “Didn’t you?”

  “I told you, I’m never going to see him again.”

  “I don’t think you told me that, Lizzie.”

  “Then I’m telling you now.”

  “This sounds serious.”

  “It is very serious. I never should have . . . I was a fool to think . . . In any case, it’s over.”

  He nodded sagely, which made her want to scream.

  “Don’t be understanding. It doesn’t suit you,” she said.

  “I don’t know why not. I understand everything.”

  “You should. You’ve made understanding other people your life’s work.”

  He gave a long-suffering sigh. “Lizzie, my darling, I know I haven’t been the usual kind of father, but I do care about you and want to see you happy.”

  “Then you should know I’d never be happy with Gideon.”

  “I do know that, far better than you, I’m sure.”

  For some reason that stung. Had she wanted him to deny it? To reassure her? To convince her she really belonged with Gideon? “Then why aren’t you glad I broke it off with him?”

  “Because I think you’ll be even more unhappy without him.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Yes, it does. Lizzie, if you don’t marry Gideon, who
will you marry?”

  “I don’t have to get married at all.” She thought of the unmarried women she’d met in the women’s suffrage movement. They were doing important work.

  “No, you don’t. You can spend your life alone and amuse yourself by grifting, I suppose.”

  “I don’t have to grift!”

  He shrugged that off. “The world is not a comfortable place for unmarried women. You know that, which is why you’ve been so interested in the suffragists.”

  “We’re going to change all that.”

  “I know you want to try, but how long do you think it will take until women get all the rights they’re fighting for?”

  “I . . . I don’t know.”

  “I don’t, either, but I expect it will be a very long time. In the meantime, a woman can’t support herself the way a man can or do most of the things a man can. You can’t even be as successful as a man at the grift.”

  Which she well knew, although even that knowledge was grating. “Which is why you need to think about what your future will be. Do you want children?”

  “I . . . I suppose I do.” She’d only let herself think about having a family of her own after she’d fallen in love with Gideon, but now . . .

  “Then they’ll need a father. You can marry a grifter, but you already know from experience that grifters don’t make very good fathers, and we make even worse husbands. How many grifters do you know who turn their wives out to sell themselves when times get tough?”

  “Stop it! I’m not going to marry a grifter.”

  “Then who else can you marry? You want someone straight who’ll stick by you, but how many men like that would forgive your past?”

  “I don’t need to be forgiven!” she cried, outraged at the thought.

  “Overlook it, then. Accept you without judging or condemning you. And how many of those saintly men would really love you? Even more importantly, how many of them could you love?”

  Rage bubbled up inside her. “You’re a fine one to be giving advice!”

  “I’m the best one to give advice, because I know how things can go wrong. I loved your mother. I gave her a home and supported her, but I still couldn’t be faithful to her. She deserved better than me, and so do you.”

  “You’re forgetting one thing. Gideon did not accept me without judging or condemning me. He’s willing to forgive me so long as I never do anything the least bit shady again, but he’s not willing to compromise his . . . his standards for any reason at all.”

  “Are you willing to compromise yours?”

  “I don’t have any standards! I’m a grifter!”

  He frowned. “You have standards. They’re different from Gideon’s, but you’re just as determined to stick by yours as he is to his.”

  “And since neither of us can change, we can never be happy together.”

  “Who said you can’t change?”

  She opened her mouth to reply, but she had nothing to say, so she closed it with a snap.

  “People can change, Lizzie,” he said so gently she could hardly believe it was her father saying the words. “It’s not easy, but if they must, they can. You’ve already changed.”

  “No, I haven’t.”

  He scowled as if he thought her crazy. “Of course you have. Those women changed you when you were in jail. You aren’t even interested in grifting anymore.”

  “Of course I am! That’s what we’re doing right now.”

  “Yes, we are, but for all the wrong reasons.”

  “Wrong?”

  “Well, most people would probably say it’s for the right reasons. You want to get money from blackmailers to give it back to the innocent victim instead of wanting to keep it for yourself. That’s unnatural.”

  She couldn’t help smiling at his disgruntled frown. “I suppose it is, by your standards at least.”

  “You see, even I have standards,” he told her with a ghost of a grin. “Would you have been so concerned about the widows and orphans of this world if you hadn’t been locked up with those women?”

  She sighed in defeat. “I wouldn’t have even noticed them before.”

  “So you see, it is possible to change.”

  “But only if you want to. I don’t think Gideon wants to change. He’s convinced he’s right.” Which was so infuriating she wanted to scream again.

  This time his smile was sad. “Love can make a man do amazing things.”

  “I don’t want him to do amazing things. I just want him to accept me for who I am.”

  “In this case, that would be amazing.”

  He was right, of course. “Which means it probably isn’t going to happen.”

  “Don’t underestimate Mr. Bates, and in the meantime try to keep him from interfering with this job.”

  * * *

  • • •

  GIDEON HAD SPENT THE MORNING MEETING WITH A COUPLE who seemed determined to drive him insane. They wanted to disinherit all of their relatives while not appearing to be unkind. Since they also didn’t want to leave their money to charity, he had been unable to provide them with an agreeable solution.

  No sooner had they left than Smith handed him a note that Renfroe had sent over informing him that, according to his employees, Endicott Knight had usually arrived at the bank alone and never engaged in conversation with anyone, although they all agreed he always seemed a bit tense and oddly nervous. Only one clerk remembered ever seeing him with someone else, and that had been a minister. Which confirmed all of Gideon’s suspicions but proved nothing at all.

  Just when he thought the day couldn’t get any more bizarre, Smith came in to tell him Matthew Honesdale was there to see him.

  When Honesdale entered the office, he gave Gideon a knowing smile and waited until Smith had closed the door behind him before he said, “I see you didn’t waste any time. Daisy called on me this morning.”

  Gideon gestured to the visitor’s chair while he frantically tried to figure out what Honesdale was talking about. “She did? What did she want?”

  “First of all, she wanted the key to Knight’s house, but then she also happened to mention that she’d been feeling guilty about asking me to take the mortgage on it, so she and Peter had decided to buy it from me.”

  Gideon sank back down into his own chair as he absorbed this information. “Did she mention how she and Peter could afford to do that?”

  “I think we already know how they could afford it, but she did mention she had a nest egg she’d accumulated during the time she worked for me. She indicated she would use that.”

  So Peter and Daisy were suddenly interested in taking possession of Knight’s house, and they wanted access to it immediately. “What did you tell her about the key?”

  “I said I’d put it into my safe-deposit box, and I’d have to go retrieve it. She wanted to come with me. She was very eager to come, in fact, until she figured out that was making me suspicious. I’m supposed to drop the key off at the parsonage later today. So tell me what your plan is.”

  Gideon managed a smile that he hoped looked mysterious. What was their plan? He had no idea, but could he bluff his way through this in hopes of figuring it out? “I’m not sure it’s a good idea for you to know the details.”

  “You’re not afraid I’ll tip them off, are you? I’ve got more reason than anyone to see them called to account. They tried to frame me for blackmail, after all.”

  “I know they did, and you have every reason to want to know what’s going on.”

  “And every reason to help. Just tell me what you’re doing. I can already see how it will benefit me. Daisy and Peter will buy the mortgage from me, so I won’t have to bother the poor widow and her orphaned children to get my money back. But surely, you’ve also got a plan for getting Mrs. Knight’s money back as well.”

  Yes, surely they
did. Reimbursing Matthew for the mortgage would just be a side benefit. But Gideon had only witnessed one con in his life, and that one was very different from this one, whatever this one was, so he truly had no inkling.

  Consequently, he was enormously grateful and completely astonished when someone knocked on his office door. No one at Devoss and Van Aken ever interrupted a partner when they were with a client unless the building was on fire. “Yes?”

  Smith stepped in, his reluctance and mortification at breaking such a cardinal rule apparent in every line of his body. “Miss Miles is here to see you. I told her you were with a client, and when she learned you were meeting with Mr. Honesdale, she insisted that I interrupt you. She said you would understand.” Plainly, he did not expect for one moment that Gideon would understand anything at all about this.

  “Thank you, Smith. Would you show Miss Miles in?”

  Clearly, Smith was flabbergasted. If he had not been so well trained, he might have fainted, but because he was well trained, he disappeared and soon reappeared with Elizabeth in tow.

  She was a vision in a coat the color of burgundy wine that almost matched the auburn of her hair, which was mostly tucked up under a ridiculous hat. He’d never seen either the coat or the hat before, and apropos of nothing, he recalled her saying all of her clothes were new because he’d made her return the clothes she’d borrowed when they were in Washington City. The memory stung him, even though he was sure he’d been right to insist on it. “Miss Miles,” he said, appalled to hear that he sounded as disconcerted as he felt.

  “Mr. Bates,” she replied stiffly. “Thank you for seeing me.” She turned her beautiful blue eyes to Honesdale, who had also risen when she entered.

  “Mrs. Knight?” he said in some confusion.

  She gave him her glorious smile. “So much for my disguise. I should have known a mere veil would not fool a man of your perception, Mr. Honesdale. I’m Elizabeth Miles.”

  He took her offered hand, having obviously fallen completely under her spell. Gideon wanted to punch him.

  “I hope you’ll forgive us for our little subterfuge. The real Mrs. Knight does not know the true depths of her late husband’s depravity, so we thought it best that she not attend the meeting with you.”