A Changing Light by Edith Maxwell (pdf ebook reader .txt) 📗

they won’t. Has he any connection with the carriage industry?”

“No, not directly.” She grimaced and let out a soft groan.

“A tightening? A cramp?” I asked.

“Yes. I’ve been having them more frequently.”

“But they don’t last long, am I correct, nor occur regularly?”

“Right, on both counts.”

“It’s thy body’s way of preparing the womb for the real event,” I said. “A kind of rehearsal of the contractions to come. Thee can also practice calming thyself and taking slow deep breaths when these pains occur. Such breathing is good preparation for the birth.”

“Very well. See, it’s now over.” She sipped her tea. “Can I tell you something strange that’s been happening?”

“Of course.” I hoped it wasn’t any kind of scurrilous vandalism because of the color of the couple’s skin.

“I’ve been having the oddest dreams. They are very nearly nightmares.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. Last night I dreamed I gave birth to a frog. And it seemed perfectly normal to do so. The night before our baby was a full-grown three-year-old, even though I knew I’d given birth the day before.” She wrinkled her nose. “Akwasi was holding him like a newborn and rocking him, despite the child wearing short pants and shoes. Is there something wrong with me?”

I laughed and patted her hand. “Esther, this is perfectly normal. I would think it odd if thee weren’t having such dreams. Most pregnant ladies do as they near their time, especially first-time mothers. Your actual fears might be different ones, but this is the way your mind works it out while you sleep. Please don’t let these dreams disturb you.”

“All right. But I do have fears, you see. I’m worried I won’t be able to give birth easily. It’s my first, and how will I know what to do? What if something goes wrong?”

“I will be with thee, I and my assistant. Thee has met Annie Beaumont. She’s very good. We shall guide thee through.” I took a sip of tea.

“I feel silly worrying. My mother was a slave. She birthed seven babies with barely any help at all. I was born only three years after Emancipation.”

“Such a life must have been horrific and painful for her.”

Akwasi Ayensu had been an escaped slave when our town’s—and our Meeting’s—abolitionist poet, John Whittier, sheltered him and helped him get an education and be trained in a trade. Akwasi frequently attended Friends Meeting for Worship and had brought Esther several times. It was inconceivable to me that humans had thought they could own another human, but our country had a long, dark, and sordid history of exactly that.

“Mama—her name was Glory—was a strong woman with deeply held values,” Esther went on. “She did what she had to to stay alive and keep us safe.”

“Of course she did. Thee is strong, too. I have every confidence in thy abilities and the ability of thy body to do what women have been doing for millennia.” I stood. “Now, why doesn’t thee show me the bedroom and thy supplies? We’ll do an examination, and I’ll let thee know how much longer I think thee has before the baby comes.”

Chapter Five

“Thee is the chief of police now, Kevin,” I said after he showed me into his office. “I congratulate thee.”

“Acting chief.” He plopped into a creaky chair behind the desk in his own office, not the chief’s, and the desk was its usual mess of papers and books. He ran a hand over his round head, mussing the short-cropped red hair. “Frankly, it’s a thankless job, but I suppose I should thank you, Miss Rose.”

I suppressed a smile. I’d never been successful at convincing him to leave off the title and simply call me Rose. And he hadn’t changed my moniker after I’d become a Mrs. I was fond of the detective and didn’t mind a bit.

He went on. “And now we have a murder during the Spring Opening. Things couldn’t get much worse.”

“I’m sorry. It must be a thankless job. David thought perhaps Norman Talbot had contracted tuberculosis.”

“Yes, more’s the pity. He took himself off to some wretched place in the Adirondack Mountains of New York State to attempt a cure. You know, sitting out on balconies in the sunshine, drinking clean water, breathing fresh air, those kinds of boring things.”

Saranac Lake. The sanitarium opened by Edward Trudeau, the scientist who had first isolated and cultured the tuberculosis bacterium only half a decade ago.

“How did the chief contract the disease?” I asked. “It’s often those who live in desperate and crowded circumstances who fall ill. Norman must reside in decent housing and so forth.”

“He does. Talbot’s a gruff, rather officious man, but in fact he has a big heart. He was taking food and games to the young boys down at the Flats. Doing his Christian charity. He must have caught it from one of them.” Kevin cleared his throat. “But about the murder of poor Mr. Harrington.”

“I read he was shot in the back.”

“Yes, several times. Some coward killed him. We haven’t found the weapon, in case you were about to ask.”

I had been, but I moved on. I relayed how Ned had introduced me to the couple. “He said they were off to meet Mr. Bailey, senior, Ned’s uncle.”

“And apparently they did, then moved on to the banquet in the opera house.”

“Does thee have thoughts about who might have done the deed, and why?”

“In truth, I don’t, Miss Rose. Mrs. Harrington is understandably distraught. At the same time, she’s clearheaded enough to be demanding an arrest.”

“I suppose it could have been some malingerer who thought he could rob a rich Canadian.”

“That’s possible.” He made a little grunt. “The Titans of Industry, as they call themselves, came here in force to tighten the screws on me.”

The self-named titans were the owners of the better-known carriage factories, as well as Cyrus Hamilton of the Hamilton Mills Company. “Was William Parry among them?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“I just came from a pregnant lady who said she witnessed William arguing with Justice Harrington yesterday morning.”

“Oh? Her name, if you would