City of Schemes

by Victoria Thompson

  Unfortunately, she couldn’t remember seeing a chapter on this subject in Mrs. Ordway’s book.

  * * *

  —

  Gideon looked up in gratitude when his law clerk tapped on his office door. He’d been lost in thought, the legal papers before him forgotten after an odd phrase had triggered a memory of his dear friend David Vanderslice chiding him for working too hard. David had never worked too hard in his life, and Gideon had always thought it a fault. If only he could see David one more time to admit how wrong he had been. “Yes, Smith?”

  “A gentleman is here to see you, a Mr. Logan Carstens. He says you are acquainted. He did not have an appointment, but . . .” Smith was a great believer in appointments.

  “Yes, Mr. Carstens is an old friend. I’d be happy to see him.”

  Gideon shoved the documents back into their folder and stood up to greet Logan. He knew a moment of unease, remembering Elizabeth’s theory that Rosemary was the one responsible for sending their engagement announcement to the newspapers. In the past four days, just to make certain, Elizabeth had dutifully questioned and eliminated everyone else who might have done it, as she had informed him last night when he’d dined with her at Cybil’s house. But if Rosemary was responsible, Logan certainly would have known nothing about it.

  Gideon came around his desk to shake Logan’s hand, but his welcoming smile faded when he saw Logan’s expression. If he had been less than happy the past few times Gideon had seen him, he was positively miserable today.

  “What’s happened?” Gideon asked.

  Logan just shook his head and sat down abruptly in one of the overstuffed chairs designated for visitors. “I . . . I got a letter from Noelle.”

  Gideon didn’t need much imagination to guess what the letter must say. Noelle had allowed her American soldier to get away, and now she was most likely making one last effort to get herself to America by telling him she was carrying his child. “I gather it wasn’t good news.”

  Logan reached into his suitcoat and pulled out a tattered envelope. He handed it to Gideon, who took it reluctantly, having no real choice. He held it gingerly and went to sit back down behind his desk. He stared at the envelope for a long moment before making any move to remove the letter inside.

  That was when he noticed something strange. “This letter isn’t addressed to you.”

  “No, it’s not. I . . . Oh, Gideon, it’s going to sound so craven when you hear it, but I . . . I didn’t really trust myself. I love Noelle with all my heart. I never felt that way about any other woman. So when I knew I had to leave her behind and never see her again, I didn’t leave her with any way to contact me. I was afraid if she did, I . . . I wouldn’t be able to resist her. I was only strong enough to leave her once, you see, and I would probably throw away everything just to be with her if I were tempted again. She knew I lived in New York, of course, but that was all.”

  “Then who is this Sergeant Kellogg?” Gideon asked, reading the name on the envelope.

  “He was one of the sergeants in my company. I . . . He must have given her his address, or maybe she asked for it when I . . . I don’t know. At any rate, she wrote to him and asked him to see that I got her letter. He brought it to me yesterday.”

  “Do you want me to read the letter?” Gideon asked, although he had no desire to read another man’s love letter.

  “Oh no. It’s in French anyway, so . . .”

  That was a relief. “Then maybe you can just tell me what she said that upset you so much.” Even though Gideon was pretty sure he already knew.

  Logan sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. “She said . . . Did I tell you how honorable she is, Gideon? She didn’t even ask me to reconsider and marry her after all. She understands that I’m committed to another woman, and she would never ask me to break that commitment.”

  “Yes, that’s very honorable,” Gideon said carefully. “But what does she want?”

  “She . . . Things are very bad in France now.”

  “I know. I read the newspapers.”

  “People are going hungry, and parts of the country—the part where she lives—were practically destroyed. Most of the young men are dead or maimed, and there’s no work and no real future for her. She . . . she’d like to come to America.”

  So no mention of a child. That was interesting. “I thought you said she didn’t ask you to marry her.”

  “That’s just it, she doesn’t expect me to marry her. She doesn’t expect anything at all. She’s only asking me to send her money for . . . for her passage,” he said, but for some reason he looked away when he said it, as if he could no longer meet Gideon’s eye.

  Elizabeth, who had much more experience at this than Gideon, had explained to him that breaking eye contact was an indication that someone was lying. What was Logan lying about? “She just wants money for her passage?” Gideon repeated with the barest hint of skepticism.

  “Things are very bad in France,” Logan repeated, still not meeting Gideon’s eye.

  “So she needs money for more than just her passage,” Gideon guessed.

  Logan swallowed. “She needs papers to travel. The government is being very careful about who can immigrate now. They don’t want any Bolsheviks sneaking in.”

  “So she needs to bribe someone to get these papers,” Gideon guessed.

  “If she was an army bride, there would be no problem. When a woman marries an American, she automatically becomes a citizen and can come here with no questions asked, but I didn’t marry her, Gideon.” The anguish in his voice told Gideon just how much he now regretted that.

  Still, Gideon couldn’t help suspecting that something was not quite right with Noelle’s request. “How much did she ask you for?”

  Logan shifted in his chair in obvious discomfort. “She has to bribe a lot of people.”

  “How much?”

  Logan sighed again. “A thousand dollars.”

  Gideon frowned. Passage from France to America would only cost about a hundred dollars. “That is a lot of money.” A good half-year’s salary for an ordinary workingman.

  “She promises she will repay me,” Logan said hastily. “She’ll get a job and work very hard.”

  But they both knew a woman could never hope to repay such an amount no matter how many years she worked. She was really asking for a gift. “Do you have that kind of money readily available?”

  Logan smiled mirthlessly. “Not in cash, no, and I can’t ask my father for it for obvious reasons, which is why I’m here. I have that trust that my grandmother left me, though. There’s more than enough in that, but I don’t remember the conditions of the trust. It never mattered before, did it? But now . . . Can I use some of that money to—?”

  Gideon raised a hand to stop him. “I don’t know the terms of the trust offhand. I think Mr. Van Aken handled it. He was your grandmother’s attorney. I’ll have to look up the documents to see what’s involved, and that will take some time. Why don’t you make an appointment with Smith to come back tomorrow. I should be able to answer your questions by then.”

  “And we’ll have to figure out the best way to get the funds to Noelle in France. I’m sure that won’t be easy.”

  “What does she say about that in the letter?”

  “Something about entrusting them to Sergeant Kellogg, but I’m sure that’s just because she doesn’t understand how funds are transferred between different countries.”

  Gideon felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. Nothing about this had felt right from the very beginning, and this was the biggest warning of all. “Yes, well, we’ll figure it all out. Just leave it in my hands for now.”

  “I can’t just abandon her in France if things are as bad as she says,” Logan said.

  Gideon nodded his understanding, if not his agreement. “Could you possibly translate the letter into Englis
h for me? Not the personal parts, of course, but the pertinent parts? So I can understand exactly what she’s asking for?”

  “Of course. It will give me something to do while I’m waiting. I can’t thank you enough, Gideon. I’ve been frantic trying to figure out how to help her.”

  Gideon was careful to promise nothing as he escorted Logan out of the office and turned him over to Smith. When Smith returned after scheduling Logan’s appointment and showing him out, Gideon said, “Would you get Miss Miles on the telephone for me?”

  * * *

  —

  Elizabeth couldn’t imagine what Gideon wanted to “consult” with her about. He had actually used that word, too. It sounded very legal, and since she wasn’t an attorney, she was doubly mystified. He hadn’t even waited until the end of his work day to come to see her, either, which meant the matter was of some urgency and really did have to do with business.

  She jumped up from where she’d been waiting in the parlor the moment she saw the cab stop outside of the house, and she’d thrown open the front door before he even reached the porch steps. He came in on a burst of frigid air and greeted her with such a perfunctory kiss, she knew something was seriously wrong.

  “I’m sorry to bother you like this,” he said, shrugging out of his trench coat, which didn’t look nearly as warm as a wool coat would have been, but he seemed determined to be fashionable.

  “Don’t be silly. How often do you ask me to help you with a client?” she teased.

  “More often than I would ever have guessed,” he replied, rubbing some warmth back into his hands.

  “Come along to the kitchen. It’s nice and warm there, and I made some coffee.”

  He followed her obediently and sat down at the kitchen table while she poured coffee for both of them.

  “Now tell me why you’ve come. I’m dying of curiosity,” she said when he’d had a chance to take a few warming sips.

  “It’s Logan Carstens.”

  “Oh my, don’t tell me he strangled Rosemary,” she teased.

  Gideon couldn’t help smiling at that. “Even if he did, he wouldn’t come to me. I’m not a criminal defense attorney. He got a letter from Noelle.”

  “The French girl? How delightful! Is he going to marry her after all?”

  “That’s the strange part. Or at least one of the strange parts. She didn’t ask him to marry her.”

  “She didn’t tell him there’s a baby and he must make an honest woman out of her?” she asked in genuine surprise.

  “Oddly . . . or perhaps not so oddly . . . that was my first thought, too, but no, she doesn’t ask him to marry her, or so Logan claims. And he didn’t mention a child at all.”

  “What on earth does she want then?”

  “Money.”

  Now he had her interest as well as her attention. “Money? For what?”

  “To pay her passage to America.”

  She frowned, trying to make sense of this. “So he can marry her?”

  “No, so she can escape France, where things are very hard.”

  “I don’t suppose I can blame her for that.”

  “No one could, except that the amount of money she is asking for seems . . . exorbitant.”

  “How exorbitant?”

  “She wants a thousand dollars.”

  Elizabeth blinked in surprised. “How many people is she bringing along with her?”

  “Apparently, she will need travel documents. The American government is going to be very particular about who they allow in the country now that the war is over, and she isn’t an army bride, so she will have to bribe some officials to get these documents.”

  “Even still, that’s an awful lot of money.”

  “Indeed it is, which is why I wanted to tell you this amazing story and see what you thought about it.”

  “Obviously, this Noelle doesn’t have enough money to pay these supposed bribes and buy a ticket herself.”

  “Obviously, or she wouldn’t be asking Logan.”

  Elizabeth gave the matter a few moments of consideration. “Does she expect Logan to just give her this money?”

  “She is asking for a loan and promises to pay it back when she gets to America.”

  “How will she pay it back if she doesn’t have any money to start with?”

  “She will work very hard once she gets here.”

  “That’s ridiculous. She could never earn enough money to do that.”

  “I agree.”

  Elizabeth stared at her beloved across the kitchen table and realized she had just fallen in love with him all over again. “You came to tell me about this because you knew I could figure it out.”

  “I was very confident that you could, yes. Was I right?”

  “Oh yes, my darling. I have it all figured out.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Are you sure you won’t feel awkward seeing Logan, knowing what Rosemary did?” Gideon asked Elizabeth one last time. They were in his office, waiting for Logan to arrive for his appointment.

  “I’m sure Logan had nothing to do with it and probably knows nothing about it. Besides, by helping Logan, I just might figure out a way to free him from Rosemary,” Elizabeth said, managing not to rub her hands together in glee at the very thought.

  But Gideon was shaking his head. “Rosemary will never let him go now.”

  Elizabeth sat up straighter in her chair at that. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean now that she’s got him hooked . . . Did I mention that Rosemary is at least twenty-five?”

  “That isn’t so very old.”

  “For a debutante it is. And she had several false alarms that probably left her feeling a little desperate.”

  “What do you mean, false alarms?”

  “I mean young men who paid her particular attention but who vanished when the rumors started that they had proposed. Apparently, Rosemary has a history of assuming too much and frightening off her suitors.”

  “How desperate would a woman have to be to lie about being engaged?” Elizabeth marveled.

  Gideon smiled knowingly. “I would expect you to know the answer to that.”

  Elizabeth didn’t have to feign her outrage. “I didn’t lie about it. I really was engaged to David.”

  At the mention of his name, though, they both sobered, and Elizabeth instantly regretted reminding Gideon of his lost friend.

  “Poor David,” she said.

  Before Gideon could reply, Smith knocked on the office door and announced that Logan had arrived.

  He came in looking anxious and stopped dead when he saw Elizabeth seated in one of the client chairs. “Elizabeth, how nice to see you,” he said with forced cheer. He was a well-brought-up young man who remembered his manners even when he was distressed. “I’m sorry, I’ll wait until you’re finished with your visit.”

  “Elizabeth is here for our meeting, Logan,” Gideon said. “I have explained your situation to her, and I think she can be helpful.”

  Plainly, Logan could not imagine how Elizabeth might be helpful to his situation, but he did feel the need to excuse himself. “You must think very badly of me for the way I treated Rosemary, Elizabeth. I know I never should have allowed this to happen, but—”

  “Nonsense, Logan,” she said, raising her hand to stop his needless explanation. “Things like this happen all the time, and if you give us a chance, I think we can work everything out.”

  Logan did not appear convinced, but he took the seat Gideon offered and declined any refreshments, although he looked like he could use a good stiff drink.

  “Did you translate the letter for me?” Gideon asked, taking his own seat behind his desk.

  “Oh yes, I did.” Logan pulled an envelope out of his suit coat and offered it to Gideon, who then passed it to Elizabeth. She started to
take the sheets of stationery out of the envelope but stopped when she’d seen what was written on the front.

  “Who is this Sergeant Phillip Kellogg? You didn’t mention him to me, Gideon.”

  “He was one of the sergeants in my company,” Logan said.

  Elizabeth frowned. “What does that mean?”

  Logan glanced at Gideon, who gestured for him to explain. “You see, the army is divided up into units of increasing size. A company is made up of four platoons—”

  “Groups of soldiers,” Gideon added, which was all Elizabeth really needed to know.

  She nodded for Logan to continue.

  “A company has around two hundred and fifty men, with a captain in charge.”

  “And you were the captain?” she guessed.

  “That’s right. I had a first lieutenant as my executive officer and two more first lieutenants and two second lieutenants under me as platoon leaders. Then I had a first sergeant, a supply sergeant and a mess sergeant. Under them were a lot more sergeants and corporals, but Kellogg was my first sergeant and my good right hand. He was a godsend because he was career army and the only one of us who had any military experience at all.”

  “I would have thought the lieutenants would be your good right hands,” Elizabeth said. “Aren’t they higher up?”

  Logan gave her a smile that she was very much afraid was condescending. “Lieutenants do outrank sergeants, but they are merely boys with no useful experience whatever.”

  “Good heavens. So how old a man is this Sergeant Kellogg?” Elizabeth asked.

  “I don’t know exactly. Mid-thirties, perhaps.”

  Elizabeth nodded, as she formed a mental image of him. “Why is the letter from Noelle addressed to him?”

  Logan looked away, and he actually blushed, which intrigued Elizabeth all the more, but she waited patiently for him to explain.

  After a painful minute, Logan said, “I thought Gideon might have told you. I deliberately did not give Noelle an address since I knew it was important to cut off all contact with her. I think she must be desperate indeed to have tried to contact me through Kellogg.”