“Yes, of course she does,” Miss Yingling quickly confirmed. “Mrs. Brandt helped us with our last rescue.”
“The one with—”
“The one I told you about,” she said sharply, cutting him off. The glance she gave him could only be described as a warning.
Sarah had never seen a servant give such a look to her master, but Mr. Van Orner didn’t seem outraged or even surprised. He just nodded once and fell silent.
Miss Yingling turned her attention back to Sarah, suddenly and belatedly gracious. “Thank you for coming, Mrs. Brandt. How did you hear about Mrs. Van Orner’s death?”
“From the police,” Sarah said.
“The police? Why were you talking with the police?”
“They wanted to know what I knew about Mrs. Van Orner’s activities.” That much was true, at least.
Miss Yingling frowned. “I wonder how they got your name.”
“I understand they’re questioning all the people who helped Mrs. Van Orner at Rahab’s Daughters.”
“That’s not necessary, I’m sure,” Van Orner said, finally finding a reason for outrage.
“They’re trying to find out who might have wished Mrs. Van Orner harm,” Sarah said. “Her friends would know the people she had offended.”
“That seems reasonable,” Miss Yingling said to Van Orner.
He seemed to accept her judgment.
Sarah soldiered on, wondering how to get some information out of one of them. Maybe if she could get Miss Yingling alone . . . “I stopped by the rescue house yesterday, as soon as I heard, to see if I could be of any assistance. I was particularly worried about Amy . . .” Miss Yingling stiffened slightly. Sarah pretended not to notice. “But she wasn’t there. It seems she’d packed up and left the house that morning.”
Miss Yingling didn’t seem surprised. She glanced at Mr. Van Orner before replying. “Did she? I wonder where she went.”
“No one seemed to know. She didn’t even tell anyone she was leaving.”
“That’s a shame, but some of the women simply refuse to be helped. We can’t make them change, as much as we may want to.”
Somewhere, a door slammed, not a sound one expected to hear in a home where the occupants were in mourning. A servant would probably find herself turned out of the house for the lapse.
“Miss Yingling, I know it’s not my place to say anything, but Miss Biafore is very concerned about what’s going to happen to the rescue house now that . . . Well, with Mrs. Van Orner gone . . .”
Miss Yingling glanced at Mr. Van Orner again, and this time he looked away, clearly not pleased by the subject.
“I’m afraid we haven’t really had time to give the matter any thought,” Miss Yingling said.
Sarah wanted to press the issue, but before she could say anything, they heard a disturbance out in the hall and then the parlor door burst open. Sarah could hardly believe her eyes.
Amy strode into the room, her cheeks red with fury, but she stopped dead at the sight of Sarah and Mrs. Decker. She wore a muslin housedress that barely contained her full breasts, and her golden hair was loose around her shoulders. “I . . . I thought . . .” she stammered in mortification.
“I’m sure no one cares what you thought,” Miss Yingling said, obviously furious and also embarrassed at being proved a liar. “Mr. Van Orner has visitors. You have no business here.”
Sarah jumped to her feet. “Amy, I’m so glad to see you. How is the baby?”
Amy looked around wildly, searching for some clue as to how she should react. Mr. Van Orner and Miss Yingling simply glared at her, but Mrs. Decker apparently sensed an opportunity to be of service to her daughter.
“Is this the young lady whose baby you delivered at the—” She caught herself and covered her near-disastrous error with a charming smile. “Mrs. Brandt has been very worried about you.”
“Yes, I have,” Sarah said. “I would love to see the baby. May I?”
Amy was still looking somewhat desperate and finding no friendly face except Sarah’s. “If you’d like, I . . . Of course you can see him.” She whirled around and made her escape. Sarah had to hurry to catch up with her.
As she followed Amy up the stairs, she saw the girl was barefoot. She was making herself quite at home here. Amy didn’t look back until they’d reached the top of the stairs and gone down the hallway to one of the doors. Amy pushed it open and entered, leaving Sarah to follow.
Sarah saw at once it was a bedroom, furnished in the impersonal style used for occasional guests. A large market basket sat at the foot of the unmade bed. Sarah recognized it as the one she’d carried the baby in from the Mission the day they’d rescued Amy. Amy stopped beside it, turning back to Sarah.
“Here he is.”
Sarah closed the bedroom door behind her. She didn’t want anyone to hear the questions she needed to ask Amy. She went over to the basket and looked down. The tiny boy was sleeping peacefully, snuggled into his makeshift bed. “He looks well.”
“He’s fine. Did you think I wasn’t taking care of him?” She was still angry and taking it out on Sarah.
“I knew you’d take good care of him, but babies can get sick for no reason at all, and he’s been through a lot in his young life. When I heard you’d left the rescue house, I couldn’t imagine where you’d gone. I was very worried about you.”
She stuck out her lower lip like a spoiled child. “I couldn’t tell them I was coming here, could I?”
“I suppose not. Did Miss Yingling invite you here?” she tried.
“Miss Yingling!” she scoffed, amused by the thought. “Not likely.”
“But you did know Mrs. Van Orner was dead.”
“Sure. Miss Yingling was kind enough to send us a note, so we’d know the old witch was gone.”
Sarah managed not to wince. “It must’ve been a shock.”
“We were all surprised, if that’s what you mean. That Lisa, she bawled like she’d lost her own mother. You never saw such carrying on. The other girls, too, but I don’t think it was for the witch. They were just worried about who was going to feed them now.”
“And you decided Mr. Van Orner was going to feed you,” Sarah guessed.
Amy smiled the sly little grin Sarah was coming to know. “I told you little Gregory’s father was going to take care of us.”
Sarah glanced down at the child in the basket, her heart aching for the innocent babe who hadn’t asked for any of this.
“Oh, that’s just temporary,” Amy said, apparently thinking Sarah was judging her success by the quality of the baby’s sleeping arrangements. “He’s going to get a cradle and a nurse and everything brand-new.”
“That’s very nice.”
“I’m going to get everything brand-new, too, now that she’s gone.”
How very convenient for Amy. “Do you know what happened to Mrs. Van Orner?”
“She died. That’s all I need to know.”
“Miss Yingling said you had a conversation with her right before she left the rescue house the other day.”
“So what if I did?”
“I was just wondering what you talked about. Miss Biafore said Mrs. Van Orner was upset afterwards.”
“Upset? Is that what she claims? I don’t know how she could tell. The witch never let on that she was feeling anything at all. I never even saw her smile. She was a cold fish. I know everything about her. Gregory told me.”
Sarah’s stomach twisted at the thought of a man discussing his wife’s shortcomings with his mistress, but she managed not to betray her true feelings. “What did you and Mrs. Van Orner talk about that day?”
Amy smiled, apparently enjoying the memory. “She told me I was going to have to leave the rescue house. She said the other girls were complaining about me, but I knew the real reason. She couldn’t stand looking at me and my baby. She hated me because I had his baby and she never could.”