City of Darkness and Light(8)

“Just a minute, missus. Let’s take a look, shall we?” I could hear from the tone of his voice that he wanted to spare me the sight of my child, burned and dead. I opened the blanket. A pair of terrified eyes looked up at me and he held out his little arms, letting out a huge wail. I grabbed him and held him tightly to me while he cried against my cheek. Daniel joined us, wrapping the two of us in a fierce embrace.

“Aggie,” I said, suddenly remembering. “Our servant girl is still up there.”

Daniel touched my shoulder gently. “She’s dead, Molly,” he said quietly.

“Are you sure? She might just be unconscious.” I could hear my voice, bordering on hysterical. “Somebody should rescue her.”

Daniel’s arm came around me. “She died protecting Liam. I found her huddled over him. She was clearly trying to get him to safety when a rafter fell on her. He was lying wrapped in his blanket and quite unharmed under her body.”

Only then did I allow myself to cry.





Three



One of the firemen put a hand on my shoulder. “Someone get this woman some brandy. She’s clearly in shock,” he said. “Is there somewhere she can sit down?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m all right. We have to get poor Aggie’s body out of there.”

As I said the words there was a horrible creaking, grinding sound and part of the house collapsed, sending sparks up into the night sky. I noticed the firemen were now working feverishly to save the houses next to ours. An image of Aggie’s poor, skinny little body, now charred in that inferno, kept hovering in front of my eyes. I felt sick and powerless and very angry. Liam had stopped crying, held safe against me, and was sucking his thumb.

A constable had now arrived on the scene. Daniel spotted him and called out, “Constable Byrne.”

“Captain Sullivan, sir. Is that you? Don’t tell me it’s your house.”

“I’m afraid it is, Byrne.”

“Was the fire an accident?”

“Quite deliberate, I’d say. Round up the other men in the area and find out if anyone was seen running away from here a few minutes ago. Get a description if you can. Is Lieutenant McCay on duty tonight?”

“Yes, sir. I believe he is.”

“Then have someone send for him immediately. The commissioner will want to hear about this right away. Tell them I’ll report in as soon as I’ve got my wife and child settled.”

The constable hurried off. The fire captain came over to Daniel. “Excuse me, sir, but are we right in thinking this wasn’t a simple gas explosion then?”

“I think you’ll find that it was a bomb, meant for me and my family,” Daniel said grimly. “Someone threw a brick to smash the window then hurled the bomb inside.”

“Someone with a grudge against you?” The young man’s face looked shocked.

“Someone trying to teach us all a lesson, I suspect.”

The rain had picked up now, helping to put out the fire but drenching us as we stood there. Liam was crying again. Daniel turned his attention back to us. “We must get you out of this rain.”

“Where can we go?” I said. “We’ve nothing, Daniel. No clothes, nothing.”

“It will be all right, I promise,” he said, his voice cracking with emotion. “I’ll take you to the Hotel Lafayette for the night. That’s not far, is it?”

I almost laughed at the absurdity of this. The Hotel Lafayette was where my good friend Ryan O’Hare, the flamboyant and roguish Irish playwright lived. I associated it with good conversation, wicked jokes, wild laughter. I allowed myself to be led away, looking wistfully across the street at Sid and Gus’s house. If only they’d been home I’d have been taken in to warmth and security. They’d be wrapping us in blankets, giving us hot drinks, telling us that everything was going to be fine—when of course it wasn’t. How could it be fine when Aggie was dead and we had lost everything, including our home?

We were soon installed in a room at the Lafayette, and Daniel ordered a tray with sandwiches and hot rum toddy to be sent up to our room. Liam was still sobbing softly, his little body trembling against me. I did what any other mother would have done, undid my shirt and put him to the breast. He suckled greedily as if desperately trying to calm himself.

“It’s a good thing I’m still breastfeeding Liam,” I said, “or I don’t know what I’d do.”

Daniel stood looking down at us, an expression of unbelievable tenderness on his face. “When I think how close I came to losing you,” he said. “But you’ll be safe enough here for the night. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”