The Bachelor's Bride (The Thompsons of Locust Street #1) - Holly Bush Page 0,54

sank down into a worn chintz-covered chair, comfortably soft and large enough to pull up her feet beside her as she gazed out the window. She could see carts and horses in the alley through the leaves on the branches of the neighbor’s oak tree that waved near her window. She’d had little time to think about what had been said that afternoon, when everything in her world had changed. Finally knowing the mysteries that surrounded her family and slowly realizing her ignorance may have been better in some ways. Payden kidnapped! James, just a boy, with an infant in one arm and a dagger in his hand, prepared to defend himself and his charge at all costs. An escape across the ocean for them all. And finally, most horribly, Mother and Father’s murder.

Aunt Murdoch must have been terrified knowing that their killer was on the vessel with little recourse other than to guard them all in one berth, abandoning the larger one where Mother and Father had died, and her own accommodations. She remembered sleeping in a narrow bunk with Kirsty, and James sleeping under a blanket on the floor against the door, even though the lock had been turned above him. Muireall in a bunk below her, holding Payden, and Aunt dozing in a chair. How many days had they stayed in the same room together, only Aunt and Elspeth with her to carry, venturing out for food, until they came to the New York wharf? She never really understood the panic she’d felt, only that it was there, turning her stomach and making her jump at every noise.

Elspeth remembered the ride in the carriage, with all the trunks loaded in another conveyance, making their way away from the busy harbor to a fancy hotel. She remembered feeling so free, having a suite with a large living area, two bedrooms, and hotel staff that came to their rooms with clean towels and bedding and meals. She remembered Aunt telling them that they were staying for a few weeks to rest and recover from the long voyage.

And she remembered being awoken in the middle of the night just a few days after their arrival, Muireall telling her to dress quickly and help Kirsty. They left all the things they’d carried into the rooms, even Kirsty’s doll, who she’d clung to and slept with. Elspeth remembered walking a quiet hallway and down a set of steps, coming out in the kitchens of the hotel. She remembered walking past massive stoves and cloth carts stacked high with towels. She remembered climbing into a closed carriage and rattling off into the night.

She had suppressed those memories. Had she ever left off the feeling of an impending disaster? She didn’t think she had, and she didn’t think Muireall had either. The view outside was suddenly blurred. She let herself cry for her nine-year-old self and the loss of the two people in her life that had been everything to her. She cried for the moment that she had realized her world was no longer secure and sure and perfect.

“Did you see anyone?” Alexander asked MacAvoy as he loped down the alley. Alexander and James Thompson were standing in the shadow of a small roof over a delivery door.

“There’s three,” MacAvoy said. “One watching from the tavern across the street and one loafing in the alley behind the building. Almost missed the one in the storefront on the ground floor till he lit a match.”

“Could be more?” James asked.

MacAvoy nodded. “Oh yeah. I don’t get the feeling these ones are amateurs.”

Alexander had dug around in Schmitt’s desk after the office had closed until he found the address of the men who wanted information about Elspeth. The place that Schmitt had sent his lackeys. They told Schmitt that they’d closed up shop, but it did not ring true; in fact, it made him think that they were baiting a hook. After discovering what he could, he went to James Thompson. There was really no one else to trust with Elspeth’s safety.

“How will we get inside?” Alexander asked.

“What? You think we’re acquainted with criminal ways?” James hissed.

“No! I just thought you might have an idea,” Alexander said. “Don’t be an ass.”

“Shut up, the both of you,” MacAvoy said. “This is how we’re going to do it.”

A few minutes later, Alexander found himself crawling up a rickety ladder that MacAvoy had found in a pile of garbage. It barely touched the ledge of concrete just below the