But all that changed after Wednesday evening when Officer Stanley stopped by and Mrs. Ashburton tried to get his attention as he left the house. That’s when the man told her she had two choices. Keep quiet, and he’d let her continue to nurse her son. Try anything, and he’d shoot her son to put him out of his misery.
Patrick told Kathleen that Mrs. Ashburton said she knew the man was going to kill both her and her son eventually but that she just put her faith in the Lord and Mary Margaret. She said she believed that when she didn’t show up for church on Sunday that her servant would move heaven and earth to see what was wrong.
That’s when Patrick had suddenly hugged Kathleen tight, right there in the station, and poured out such a load of regret about how he’d failed her. How he’d been so wrapped up in himself, he’d not paid attention to what she was saying. How he knew how smart she was about people, so if she thought something was wrong, he should have taken her seriously. How if Kathleen hadn’t been so quick thinking and brave, Mrs. Ashburton and her son, and maybe she and Mary Margaret, would be dead now. And how he’d never be able to live if that had happened.
Kathleen hadn’t known what to say, so she just hugged him back. But she realized she was relieved when she heard Sergeant Thompson tell Patrick that he had some more work he needed to get done before he could go off duty and that Kathleen needed to get on home.
So it had been Mr. Nate who got a cab and brought her back to the boarding house.
“Kathleen, dear, are you sure you don’t want to retire to your room?” Mrs. Dawson said, taking up Kathleen hands into her own. “Oh, your hands, they’re so cold.”
“Maybe let Tilly draw you a nice bath, dearie?” Mrs. O’Rourke added.
The small tremor in Mrs. O’Rourke’s voice caught Kathleen’s attention, and she looked up to see the housekeeper was wringing her hands. She gave the older woman as warm a smile as she could manage and agreed that a bath would be just the thing. That’s when she noticed that little Tilly was in the room as well, looking like she’d been crying.
Everyone must have been so upset…waiting to hear what had happened. Mr. Nate said poor Jamie had run practically half of the way down Market Street before getting a patrolman to take him seriously, but by the time they arrived back at the Ashburton house, the place was already swarming with police.
He said that at least Jamie was able to determine that she and Mary Margaret were safe before reporting back to the boarding house. By that time, Mr. Chapman and Jamie’s mother had arrived home, and Mr. Chapman took a cab across town to fetch the Dawsons away from their party.
Kathleen looked again at the kitchen clock. Somehow a half hour had passed since she last looked. Time was behaving so oddly.
She said, “My goodness, we need to get breakfast going, so there will be time to set up the dining room for your guests, Mrs. Dawson. And Mary Margaret won’t be here to help. I’m so sorry. Maybe the bath should wait.”
Mrs. Dawson took Kathleen’s chin in her hand and said sternly, “Listen to me. Forget about the party. If the people we’ve invited weren’t our special friends, who won’t care two beans if there are five different kinds of desserts, I would have just canceled.”
“Oh no, that would be a terrible shame, but Tilly can’t be expected to handle all the set up and serving by herself.”
“Kathleen, I mean it. Stop worrying. We’ll send Tilly to get her cousin Bridget to come; you know she will jump at the chance to help out. And you can just sit in the corner of the kitchen when you are done with your bath and keep Queenie from underfoot. The old girl keeps trying to steal some of the oysters.”
“No, I’ll be fine. Really. Working will help me…”
And just like that, Kathleen felt sobs rise up into her throat, dislodging the taste of kerosene and putrefaction that had been suffocating her all night, and she dove into Mrs. Dawson’s arms and cried and cried.
Until she couldn’t cry any more.
As she sat up, Mrs. Dawson handed her a handkerchief and said, “Feel better?”
Kathleen sat and looked around at the kitchen, at Mrs. Dawson, Mrs. O’Rourke, and Tilly looking at her with deep concern, and the kitchen cat, Queenie, looking at her with disdain. She took a deep breath, noticing for the first time the smell of fresh rolls, roasting meat, vanilla and chocolate.
Surprised, she said, “Yes, I believe I do. But it was ever so strange for a while. I didn’t feel myself. But you know, Mrs. Dawson, I think in the future I would prefer just to assist you when there’s a crime that needs to be investigated.”
And Annie Dawson smiled at her and said, “I believe I would prefer that as well.”
* * *
The End
Acknowledgments
I had the plot for this novella featuring Kathleen banging around in my head for years, but it was in late October when I working with my great cover designer, Michelle Huffaker, to come up with a new holiday-themed cover for Pilfered Promises that I had the brain-storm to set the Kathleen’s story in the week after the events of Pilfered Promises.
Because Annie and Nate would be out of town, I decided this would be the perfect time to let Kathleen solve a mystery on her own. However, it also made sense to try to get this story (silly me I thought I could do it as a short story) out in early December as a kind of holiday present to fans of the series. This required not only long stretches of writing (and family and friends who understood why I wasn’t as available as usual for the next month) but also beta readers who would be willing stick to a very short turn-around time for giving me feedback.
So my heartfelt thanks goes out to Jim Brown, Ann Elwood, Micheline Plummer Golden, Robin Harsh, Casey Jones, Abigail Padgett, Rene Siracusa, Linda Strauss for doing such a lovely job in such a short period of time. I also want to thank Michelle Huffaker for coming up with another sweet holiday cover for the novella and my proof-reader Jessica Meigs for eradicating all the little errors that my beta readers failed to find.
And to all the fans of the series, I want to thank you for the way you have embraced the characters and cheered on my independent writing career over the past eight years.
Finally, I can assure you that I would never have gotten this novella written and out to the world without the continued love and support of my husband (and first reader) and the motivation that my daughter Ashley and her children provide for me every day.
Other Works by Author
Victorian San Francisco Mystery Series
Maids of Misfortune (Book 1)
Uneasy Spirits (Book 2)
Bloody Lessons (Book 3)
Deadly Proof (Book 4)
Violet Vanquishes a Villain (Novella)
Pilfered Promises (Book 5)
Kathleen Catches a Killer (Novella)
Boxed Set (Books 1-4)
Dandy Delivers (Novella)
Scholarly Pursuits (Book 6) Fall 2018
* * *
Victorian San Francisco Stories
* * *
Madam Sybil’s First Client
Dandy Detects
The Misses Moffet Mend a Marriage
Mr. Wong Rights a Wrong
Victorian San Francisco Stories (Collection)
* * *
Paradisi Chronicles series
* * *
Between Mountain and Sea (Caelestis Series Book 1)
Under Two Moons (Caelestis Series Book 2)
Through Ddaera’s Touch (Caelestis Series Book 3)
Caelestis Series Books 1-3 Plus Aelwyd
“Aelwyd: Home” in Chronicle Worlds: Paradisi
The Stars are Red Tonight (Canistro Series Book 1)
Information about all Locke’s works can be found at https://mlouisalocke.com To get notifications about promotions or new publications in either of her series, please sign up for her newsletter.
About the Author
M. Louisa Locke, a retired professor of U.S. and Women’s History, has embarked on a second career as a writer of historical
mysteries and science fiction.
Her best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series features Annie Fuller, a boarding house keeper who supplements her income as a clairvoyant and business consultant, and Nate Dawson, her lawyer beau. All the novels and short stories in this series explore the experiences of women who worked in San Francisco at the end of the 19th century, based on Dr. Locke's doctoral research.
Not just content with writing about the past, Locke has recently turned to writing about the future as one of the founders of the Paradisi Chronicles, an open-source science fiction world created by multiple-authors. So, if you’ve read all her Victorian San Francisco series, you might give her science fiction a try, since they include a similar mix of mystery, suspense, humor, and light romance—only set in the future rather than the past!
Locke is an active member of the Historical Fiction Authors Cooperative, and you can find more about her journey as an indie author and gain a deeper glimpse into the worlds of Victorian San Francisco and New Eden, Paradisi, if you check out her website at http://mlouisalocke.com/
If you enjoyed this story, please let the author know at [email protected]. Since positive word of mouth is crucial for any author to succeed, please consider writing a review. To get a free electronic copy of Locke’s short story collection, Victorian San Francisco Stories, and hear about new promotions and publications, subscribe to her newsletter. Your email address will never be shared. Connect with the author @mlouisalocke online at: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram
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