A Bride So Fair, page 4
part #3 of A Fair to Remember Series
A family burst through the nearest turnstile and stopped squarely in front of her.
“I want to see the displays first,” the mother announced.
A young boy with an eager expression on his face protested, “Come on, Ma. The Ferris wheel is right down there.” He pointed toward the Midway, where the giant wheel loomed high above the grounds. “Can’t we do that first?”
The pretty matron hesitated and looked up at her husband, who smiled.
“Shall we?” he asked.
“I guess it would give us a chance to get a good view of the way the fair is laid out,” she said with a grin. Without waiting to hear more, the children set off ahead of their parents, shrieking gleefully.
Lucy leaned over and shouted to be heard above the din. “That would be fun, wouldn’t it? We’ll have to try that on one of our days off.”
Emily eyed her friend. In contrast to her own feeling of imminent doom, Lucy seemed perfectly cheerful, as though they were taking part in some adventurous game.
But it wasn’t a game. Emily found it hard to push down her increasing sense of panic.
What were they doing? Adam didn’t belong to them, and they had no right to take him along with them. What if his mother showed up at the Children's Building before Miss Strickland left and was told her son had been turned over to the Chicago police? Emily glanced over her shoulder, wondering what would happen if the woman suddenly appeared and accused them of abducting her child.
Near the gate, they joined the line getting ready to push through the exit. Emily pulled to a stop and tapped Lucy on the shoulder.
Lucy turned around, a frown creasing her forehead. “What’s wrong?”
Emily hitched Adam up higher on her shoulder. “I’m not sure we’ve thought this through. What do you think will happen when his mother returns and is directed to the police and finds out they’ve never heard of Adam? We could lose our jobs for doing this.”
Lucy tugged at Emily’s sleeve, drawing her out of the swirl of activity until they reached an island of relative quiet. “But that isn’t the way it’s going to happen. You’ll be up at the reception desk tomorrow morning, as usual. When his mother comes looking for him, you’ll just tell her he’s perfectly safe, right there in the building. She’ll be so grateful she’ll never think to wonder where he spent his time when the building was closed.”
Lucy grinned at Adam, who gave her a sleepy smile in return. “Besides, think what he’s already been through. Which is more important, following Miss Strickland’s orders or protecting him from even more upheaval?”
It sounded logical enough. Emily had vivid memories of her first day at the children’s home and wouldn’t wish that experience on any child, certainly not one as sweet as Adam. And she couldn’t deny that she and Lucy had done their share of bending the rules at the Collier Home. But then, the prospect of getting caught meant a demerit or reprimand, nothing more. In their current situation, the consequences would be far more severe.
What had they let themselves in for? Miss Pierce, the head matron, had always warned Emily about her tendency toward impulsive behavior. Had she or Lucy considered the consequences of their actions before committing to this foolhardy plan? Hardly.
Lucy tugged at her arm again, this time urging Emily toward the exit. “Come on. We don’t want to be late for supper.”
Emily wavered, then followed her out the gate, feeling as though she had just crossed an invisible line. There would be no turning back now.
They walked on, parallel to the fence that separated the Midway from Fifty-ninth Street. “Keep your chin up,” Lucy admonished. “You’ll feel better once we get back to the boarding house and have a hot meal. After we put Adam to bed, we can talk about it more, if you still want to.”
Emily nodded wearily. “That sounds like a good—” She stumbled to a stop and stared at Lucy. “What are we going to tell our landlady?”
Lucy blinked twice, then looked off into the distance. From the years they’d known each other, Emily recognized the maneuver as Lucy’s way of gaining time to think up a plausible answer. “I’m sure she won’t mind.”
Emily knew false bravado when she heard it. She shifted Adam to her other arm. “Mrs. Purvis may be a little eccentric, but don’t you think she’ll notice a new arrival? I’m not so sure this is a good idea, Lucy. Maybe we should go back to the Children's Building now and—”
“And what? Tell Miss Strickland we didn’t do exactly as she said? Can you imagine what she would do? We wouldn’t have jobs to go back to tomorrow morning.” Lucy paused a moment to let the implications of that sink in. “Besides, she’s probably already left for the night. We really don’t have any choice now.” She nudged Emily’s elbow, and they started walking again.
“She’ll know he isn’t ours. How, exactly, are we going to explain him? And what if she tells us to leave?” Emily could hear the note of panic in her own voice. “Do you want to risk winding up in a place where the landlord expects more than just rent from us in order to let us stay there?” She had heard all too many stories about the risks of young girls making their own way in the world.
Emily could tell by the look on Lucy’s face that her friend didn’t want to face that possibility any more than she did. They trudged along a few moments in silence. Adam’s head drooped onto Emily’s shoulder. Fine wisps of his hair tickled her neck, and she reached up with her free hand to smooth them down.
Lucy’s face cleared. “We’ll tell her just what happened—most of it anyway.” His mother didn’t return to pick him up, and he’s staying with us until tomorrow. Surely she won’t turn us out of her house for that. It isn’t like it would be an inconvenience for anyone. After all, we’re the only boarders she has right now.”
Emily shot a glance over her shoulder but didn’t see an irate mother in hot pursuit. Her mind raced madly for a better way to explain Adam’s sudden appearance to Mrs. Purvis, but she came up with nothing. “I guess that’s all we can do. We’ll tell her the truth and hope for the best.”
Emily’s jitters hadn’t subsided by the time they reached the boarding house on South Blackstone Avenue. After carrying Adam most of the way, her arms felt as if they were about to fall off.
“Open the door,” she ordered Lucy in a tense whisper. “He’s almost asleep. If I can get him upstairs to my room, I can lay him on the bed. If Mrs. Purvis doesn’t see him right away, it will give us more time to decide how to break this to her.”
Yet another question popped into her mind: Where was Adam going to sleep? Emily sighed. It was one more thing she hadn’t thought about before she proposed this harebrained scheme. She waited for Lucy to swing the door open wide then stepped inside the entry hall. Lucy followed and started to pull the door closed, but a gust of wind caught it and slammed it shut.
“Is that you, girls?” The cheery voice came from the direction of the kitchen.
Emily gasped and carried Adam toward the foot of the stairs, but not quickly enough.
A bright-eyed woman of middle age bustled to the entry hall, her cheeks flushed and rosy. “The biscuits are done to a turn, and I’m just ready to take the chicken out of the— Why, who’s this little mite?”
Taken completely off guard, Emily stared at Lucy, who stared back. She started to speak, but the explanation stuck in her throat.
Their lack of a response didn’t seem to bother Mrs. Purvis in the least. She walked toward Emily and beamed at the sleepy youngster in her arms. “Well, well, aren’t you a handsome young gentleman?”
Adam’s eyes blinked open. He stuck one of his fingers in his mouth and smiled around it.
“What a little charmer!” Mrs. Purvis exclaimed. “Is he staying for supper?”
Still unable to form any words, Emily could only nod. Lucy moved next to her. “Actually, he’ll be staying for the night.”
“If that’s all right with you,” Emily added quickly.
“No one came to pick him up at the Children's Building, and—”
“And you could hardly leave him there, could you?” Mrs. Purvis patted Adam on the head, then headed back toward the kitchen. “I’ll just set one more place at the table.”
A broad smile spread over Lucy’s face. “That went well, didn’t it?”
Emily gritted her teeth at her friend’s incurable optimism and started toward the stairs again. When she reached the bottom step, Adam squirmed to get down.
Emily set him on the first step and rubbed her weary arms. She led Adam upstairs to wash up for supper, grateful for the momentary reprieve but knowing she couldn’t expect the rest of the evening to go as smoothly.
Much to her surprise, it did. Mrs. Purvis was full of information and prattled away about a new family moving in down the street. Thankful to find the conversation focused on any topic but their current situation, Emily nodded encouragement while she cut Adam’s serving of chicken into bites small enough for him to manage. He ate his chicken and half a biscuit with gusto before his eyelids began to droop again. Finally he laid his head on the table next to his plate and fell asleep with the rest of the biscuit clutched in his dimpled fist.
“I suppose I ought to take him up to bed now.” A wave of exhaustion swept over Emily at the knowledge that she still had to figure out the accommodations for her little visitor.
Mrs. Purvis hopped up from her chair. “Go on upstairs, dear. I’ll fetch some blankets and fix him a pallet on the floor.”
By the time all was said and done, the landlady not only had made up a temporary bed for Adam but had helped Emily get the sleepy child out of his clothes and into the camisole Emily decided to use as an improvised nightshirt.
“It’s a little big,” Emily said doubtfully.
Mrs. Purvis shook her head. “It will do for tonight. He’s so tired he won’t be bothered by that at all.” She grabbed hold of the end of Emily’s bed to pull herself to her feet and started toward the door. “Are you coming back down?”
“In a little while. I want to make sure he’s asleep first.” Emily pulled a small rocking chair close beside the pallet and watched the little boy’s chest rise and fall in a gentle rhythm. She reached down to push the pale hair off his forehead.
Was this what it would be like in a normal family, with the mother keeping a nighttime vigil at her child’s bedside?
Adam whimpered in his sleep, and Emily patted him gently until he quieted.
He had a mother and a family of his own, she reminded herself. What was she thinking of, to take him off like this? This was hardly helping his mother find him.
But what was the alternative? Emily remembered Miss Strickland’s pinched face and her thin lips snapping out the words, “Call the authorities.”
She shuddered, feeling better about her decision. Like it or not, God had brought him into her life. Turn this precious child over to uncaring strangers to be placed in a foundling home?
Never in her life!
4
“You’ll go in first?” Emily stood to one side of the door to the Children's Building, keeping Adam close beside her.
Lucy nodded. “Just as we planned. I’ll go find Miss Strickland and keep her occupied while you check Adam in and take him upstairs to the kindergarten.”
Acid touched the back of Emily’s throat. “I can’t believe we’re doing this. I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse.”
Lucy made an impatient gesture. “You worry too much. All we have to do is get him inside and wait for his mother to come claim him.”
Emily helped Adam into one of the wooden chairs that lined the walk on either side of the entrance and pulled Lucy a short distance away. “How can you be so sure she is going to show up? It doesn’t make any sense that she would leave him overnight and then come back the next morning.”
“Maybe she was taken ill and expected someone else to come get him, but they didn’t follow through. Today someone in his family will come looking for him.” She gestured at the little boy. “Just look at him. No one would go off and abandon a sweet child like that. His clothes are clean and in good condition. You can tell just by looking at him that he’s loved very much.”
Despite Lucy’s admonition, Emily couldn’t shake free of worry’s grip. “And what happens when Miss Strickland sees him here after you led her to believe he’d been turned over to the authorities?”
Lucy shrugged. “You know what Miss Strickland is like—she’s more concerned with keeping things running smoothly to make herself look good to the fair administrators than with paying attention to the children themselves. She probably forgot what he looked like two minutes after she left. We get a lot of children who come back several days in a row while their parents make a leisurely tour of the fair. If she notices him at all, she’ll just think he’s one of them.”
Emily nodded, though inside she wasn’t so sure. “I guess we don’t have much choice, do we? All right, go ahead.”
Lucy slipped inside the building, and Emily caught the door before it could swing shut completely. She leaned forward and peered through the narrow crack, watching while Lucy circled the courtyard, checking one corridor after another. At the third hallway, she stopped and gave Emily their prearranged signal.
Emily took Adam by the hand and hurried him through the open court. She took time to pin a numbered tag to the back of the little boy’s shirt before she hustled him up the stairs to the room at the southwest corner of the second floor. “Adam is here again,” she announced.
Iris Hunter looked up. “I’m surprised to see you instead of Lucy.”
Emily cast about for an answer that would satisfy the other woman and still remain within the bounds of truthfulness. “She had to attend to something. I told her I would bring Adam up here.”
Iris smiled and held out her hand. “Good morning, Adam. I’m glad to see you again.” She looked back at Emily. “Will he be coming here for an extended period?”
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll just have to take it day by day.” While Iris got Adam involved with a toy train, Emily dashed back down the stairs to the reception area.
Safely seated at her desk, she entered Adam’s first name in the ledger, then paused. What if Miss Strickland made one of her impromptu examinations of the book? She would certainly notice a child with only one name.
Emily thought a minute, then added “Bentley” to his entry. She tucked his claim check inside her reticule, relieved to have averted that potential avenue of discovery. She couldn’t shake the feeling of skating on dangerously thin ice, but if she continued to be careful, maybe she and Lucy wouldn’t be caught.
The front door opened to admit a family with six little girls, and soon Emily found herself too caught up in her daily routine to worry about a catastrophe that hadn’t materialized yet.
Before she knew it, the morning had passed. Lucy stopped at her desk with the string of her reticule looped over her arm. “Are you ready to go to lunch?”
Emily shook her head. “There’s no one to relieve me right now. You go on ahead. I’ll just have to take my break late again today.”
Lucy pulled a long face. “All right. I’ll bring you one of those hamburger sandwiches, just in case you aren’t able to get away at all.”
Emily smiled her thanks, then turned to greet a young couple bringing in a baby.
“Are you sure, Albert?” The young mother asked. “I don’t know about leaving him with strangers.”
Her husband looked embarrassed. “It will be a chance for a day all to ourselves. We haven’t had one in months.” He reached for the baby, but his wife held the infant tight in her arms.
Emily rose and came out from behind her desk. “Ma’am, you may leave your baby here with perfect confidence. Our staff is carefully selected and highly trained. Would you like to see our crèche?” She led the couple to a set of glass doors where they could see a roomful of infants in the charge of sweet-faced nurses wearing snowy caps and aprons.
After watching for a few moments, the woman relaxed visibly. “It would be good to have a day without any responsibilities.” Her wistful tone of voice was unmistakable. She turned to her husband. “If you’re certain…”
A few moments later, Emily had entered the child’s information and handed the parents their ticket, assuring the nervous young mother once more that their little son would be happy and healthy when they returned to pick him up. The baby’s father gave her a grateful look as he ushered his wife out the door.
Emily knew that when they returned, they would find their baby happy and content and themselves rested after a carefree time together. She felt privileged to be part of such a fine undertaking. Conceived as the brainchild of the Board of Lady Managers, this was no mere “hat check for children,” as some dubbed the child care offered at the Paris Exposition of 1889, but a showcase of the most modern child-rearing methods available.
Her stomach growled. Emily pressed her hand against her waist, suddenly feeling ravenous. Checking to make sure no one else was around, she bent over to open the bottom desk drawer where she had stashed Raymond Simmons’s bag of caramels. The candies were no substitute for a square meal, but at least they would help stave off her hunger pangs until she was able to take her break.
Pulling one from the bag, she popped it into her mouth and sank her teeth into the chewy morsel. Mmm. The sweet, creamy flavor was just the thing to assuage her appetite. She closed the bag and was in the act of returning it to the drawer when she heard the front door open.
Oh no! Emily stayed bent over in her chair and chewed frantically, hoping to reduce the gooey mass to a size she could swallow without choking. She heard the sound of footsteps crossing the floor, growing nearer, then coming to a stop on the other side of her desk.
“Miss Ralston?” The deep voice held a note of concern.
Emily jerked upright and looked straight into the dark brown eyes of the guard who had brought Adam to the Children's Building the day before. Her heart stopped for an instant, then it started racing madly. Had they already found out about her and Lucy’s subterfuge? Had he come to arrest her?
