City of Ash (36 page)

“Hell yes.” A grin split Brody’s dirty face. “Lucius was on his knees praying for it.”

He took me with him down the street, turning up what had once been Madison. A crowd of people gathered at the top of the hill, all ragged and dirty and haggard-looking, hovering around their belongings while the militia walked the border. It was only moments before I saw the company. Aloys and Mrs. Chace, Jack and Mr. Geary, and as Brody and I emerged from the crowd, Mrs. Chace caught sight of me and screeched out “Bea!” in a voice so loud it seemed to cut right through the people, and suddenly someone came running at me, and I was pulled into long, strong arms—Jack’s—my nose pressed deep into his smoke-scented chest. I heard the rumble of my name in his throat, and then he released me so that the others had their turn, and I realized how glad I was to have found them. When I was finally released to stand on my own, I was crying from sheer relief and joy.

Brody handed me a filthy gray handkerchief, and when I wiped my eyes, I left big stripes of black soot on it, and Jack laughed and said I looked like a zebra.

“She hasn’t seen Mrs. Langley either,” said Brody to the others. “Or DeWitt.”

Lucius rubbed his mustache thoughtfully. “Well, that is unfortunate. Let us hope they both turn up soon for our sake. And for Mrs. Langley’s husband’s, of course.”

My stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten in twenty-four hours. “Is there any food?”

He shook his head. “Not a dry goods store or grocery left in the city, and only three restaurants, and they’re already out of food.”

“Did you manage to save anything?”

“Ah, only my skin, my dear Bea. But fortunately we’ve the whole of the company to continue on with. The Regal will rise again!”

“How? There’s no theater.”

“A situation I am trying to remedy. The show must go on, you know! These poor wretches will need our entertainment in the days to come. Your Mr. Langley is appealing to the city council now for a permit for us to continue in a tent. I’ve decided we shall call it the Phoenix!”

“I’m surprised he’s not looking for his wife.”

Lucius said, “I believe he has been. It doesn’t bear thinking about, of course, a terrible tragedy, but … if the most unfortunate of events occurs, we will dedicate our first show to her. That should have the gossips buying tickets.”

“What an opportunist you are.”

He gave me a grim smile. “And it’s lucky for you I am, eh, Bea? Else you would not have a job on top of having no place to live.”

“Then perhaps you could find your way clear to advance me next week’s salary?”

“Ah, would that I could, my sweet flower. Would that I could! Last night’s receipts went up in flames, and much to my dismay, the banks have not yet opened for business. But rest assured that others share our dilemma. Of course, when I have the tent, I will insist the entire company stay there. Free of charge, of course.”

Not out of any charitable feeling, I knew. If we were all staying in the tent, we would be at his beck and call.

When Lucius turned away to speak to a passing militiaman, I walked over to Jack, who was adjusting the bandage on his hand. “Let me,” I said, securing the knot more tightly. “Do they hurt very much?”

“Only when I attempt to use them,” he said with a smile. “My stomach complains far more, I fear.”

“I heard they were setting up relief tents tomorrow.”

“If they can find a way to get the supplies in. There are steamers waiting in the harbor now, but there’s no place to dock.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“The wharves are burned to the ground, or haven’t you noticed? One or two are only damaged, but I hear it will take days to repair them enough to unload a ship.”

Jackson gave me a quick kiss before he walked off, and I stood there and thought about Nathan Langley being alive and Mrs. Langley saying she didn’t want him to know she’d survived, and that made me think of his anger and the things he’d said about her. I didn’t want to contemplate any of it. If I thought about it, I would care, and I didn’t want to care. I just wanted her out of my life, the sooner the better.

So when Aloys came up to me and said, “Brody said you were in the theater when the fire broke out. You didn’t see Mrs. Langley, did you?” I snapped, “No, I did not see her. I don’t know where the hell she is.” When he looked taken aback, I forced a calmer tone. “She’ll land on her feet, Aloys. Rich people always do. I’m more concerned for Mr. DeWitt, to tell the truth.”

He nodded and stroked his beard, and the thoughtful way he looked at me made me nervous. “We all are, my dear. We all are.”

Geneva

D
uring the hours she was gone, it was easy to lose myself in the crowd, though I kept to myself and spoke to no one. The displaced people were not of my class, and I was a stranger to them. When the woman of the house—who I didn’t know—came out with bread and butter and cool water to offer to those of us camped in her yard, I pulled out the few remaining pins in my hair and let it fall to cover half my face, and went like a beggar with the others, too hungry to care about dignity.

I could not wait for Mrs. Wilkes to return to tell me what she’d learned, whether Nathan was still alive. Everything depended on it. If he were dead, there would be no need to leave and go into hiding. There would still be my father to consider, but he was far from here, and that distance could give me the time I needed to convince him that Nathan had lied and slanted the truth, that I was not mad.

But if Nathan were alive, he would continue to lie about me, and I would need to run to save myself. My father would only see that as one more manifestation of insanity. Even if I could manage to convince him otherwise, it would take so much longer. Years perhaps. And what would I do for money, now that control of my accounts had been given to Nathan? There was the cash in the safe in Nathan’s study, assuming I could get to it, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep me for long, especially once I paid Mrs. Wilkes her two hundred dollars. Where was I to go?

There was a part of me that marveled at the suddenness
with which every bit of affection I’d felt for my husband had died, how quickly he had become my enemy. But then again, I was not surprised. After all, I had known already that my marriage was over. It was my attempt to end it that had brought us here. These last months, telling myself I could love him again, had been the lie. There was no point in berating myself for that; Nathan had made my father and society his accomplices, and I’d had no choice but to try to find contentment in the only life left to me. But that I had walked so trustingly the path he’d laid for me, that I had been so willingly blind—that was hard to forgive.

I stared at the smoking ashes, so deep in contemplation that when I saw the woman on the block before me, stepping gracefully through the wreckage, it seemed I was watching myself, as if it were my spirit that sat here on the hill, watching my body move through the world, and when the body stepped from the smoke, it took me a moment to realize it was Mrs. Wilkes.

She sat down beside me with a great sigh. “He’s alive.”

My dismay was so profound I had to close my eyes against the sudden press of tears.

“Dear God. What will I do now? Where will I go?” I whispered. I turned to Mrs. Wilkes. Her expression was more than faintly hostile. Desperately I said, “I need to find Mr. DeWitt.”

She gave me a look I couldn’t decipher. “Mr. DeWitt? Why?”

“It doesn’t matter. If you could bring him to me—”

“That might be difficult, seeing as no one knows where the hell he is.”

I looked at her in surprise. “Didn’t you find the company?”

“Yes. But not him. He’s missing.”

Missing
. “No. He can’t be. That’s not possible—”

“Believe me, it is.”

“But where was he when it started?”

“No one knows.”

“Do you think … no, he can’t have been caught in the fire.”

Mrs. Wilkes turned abruptly away. “I don’t know, all right? I don’t know where he is or where he was or anything else.”

Her dismay was obvious. I thought of the things he’d said about her; I had thought his admiration only one-sided, given
how she treated him at rehearsals. Apparently it wasn’t. I wasn’t certain how I felt about that, but now was not the time to wonder.

“I can’t do this alone,” I said to her. “I thought perhaps he would … but if he’s gone … well, I can’t wait until he’s found.”

She swiped a hand across her eyes. “You’re talking in riddles.”

I grabbed her arm so hard she started. “You don’t understand. I need to get out of this city before Nathan finds me. I was going to ask Mr. DeWitt for help, but now I don’t have any other choice. I need you to help me.”

She jerked her arm away. “I only promised to see if Nathan was alive.”

I could only promise her more of what I already had too little of. “Then I’ll pay you more. Just … you must help me.”

“You’re right, I don’t understand, Mrs. Langley. You’ve got a rich husband, servants, a fine house. Why would you give it all up?”

I barely heard her. “I’ll need a steamer ticket—”

“A steamer ticket won’t help you.”

“—and after that a ship from San Francisco—”

“The steamers can’t land to take you out of here,” she persisted. “The wharves are all gone or damaged. It will be days before they repair one enough that a ship can dock.”

“Days?” I asked in dismay. “How can that be possible?”

“Well, let me see. There was a fire. Wharves are made of wood. They burned.”

I went hot at her condescension. “Surely the boats can land somewhere else?”

“Certainly they can. Just not anywhere in Seattle. Half the city is burned to the ground, Mrs. Langley. Nowhere I saw looked any better than this.”

“Do you think it possible to pay someone to take me out of town?”

She shrugged. “You can pay someone to do most anything. Especially now, I’d guess. But it doesn’t matter. Unless you have a fortune in your pockets, there’s no money. The banks are closed. And even if they were open, you said you didn’t want Nathan to know you were alive. How do you mean to get this money you keep talking about without his finding out?”

Quietly, I said, “I don’t need a bank. There’s a safe in Nathan’s study where he keeps the funds to pay the servants and household accounts. There should be several hundred dollars in it.”

“Several hundred dollars. For paying the household accounts and the servants.” Mrs. Wilkes laughed.

“If I had it, I could hire someone to take me where I could catch a train. Or another steamer.”

“If you had it, I imagine you could get most anything you wanted in this town just now,” she said. “But why leave? Your husband is looking for you. Why don’t you forget all this and go home?”

“You saw him?”

She shook her head, then shoved a lank tress of hair behind her ear. Some of the hair was melted; it broke off in her hand, and she threw the bits to the ground with a sound of disgust. “No. The others in the company said they’d seen him. He was in some city council meeting.”

“A council meeting? God forbid he should search for me instead.”

She turned to look at me. “Lucius said he
had
been searching for you.”

Tightly, I asked, “And what did you tell them?”

“What we agreed. That I hadn’t seen you. Aloys half doesn’t believe me.”

“Why?”

She laughed a little. “Because he knows me, and he knows how much I dislike you, and he’s not quite sure I wouldn’t have left you there to die. Complimentary, isn’t it?”

“But he
will
believe you?”

“Yes. But it would be better if you showed up. Everyone would be relieved.”

Stonily, I said, “I told you. I can’t do that. I have to go.”

“Suppose you give me a reason why.”

I didn’t trust her. Who knew how well she could keep a secret, or if she would even try? She was Nathan’s mistress, after all. “I don’t owe you a reason.”

“No, but it would help. It’s not easy to lie to Aloys. He’s no fool, and neither are any of the others.”

“Don’t tell me you’re not a good enough actress to handle a few suspicions.”

“You’re not nobody, Mrs. Langley. People will ask questions.”

“I feel certain of your ability to manage it. And you’ll have your reward too. I’m certain that if you play it well enough, you could even continue your sordid little affair with my husband once I’m gone.”

“I could continue it even if you were here,” she retorted. “But there’s no point in it now.”

“Why not?”

“Lucius says he’s going to get a tent and—you’ll enjoy this, I think—our first show will be a tribute to you if it turns out you’re dead after all. Isn’t that moving?” She smiled thinly. “Lucius never misses an angle. And if it’s true that you mean to leave”—she glanced at me as if for confirmation, and I nodded—“Everything will go back to the way it was. I’ll have the lead line. There’s still
Penelope Justis
, and—” She bit back the words she’d been about to say. “I won’t need Nathan.”

“You had an affair with my husband simply for what he could do for you?”