In Like Flynn (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #4)

“So Senator Flynn has abandoned you to suffer through a hen party, has he, Mr. O'Mara?” I asked him.

He didn't smile. I hadn't expected him to, but he nodded seriously. “The Senator and Mr. Rimes had to meet with important backers. My services were not required.”

I noticed Miss Emily and Miss Ella were scraping their bowls and looking around eagerly for the next course. On my other side Belinda was waxing lyrical about Paris fashions and the shocking amount of ankle that was being revealed on the Champs-Elysées. I took the opportunity to chat with Mr. O'Mara.

“How long have you been with Senator Flynn?” I asked.

“Almost six years.”

“That’s a long time for a young man like yourself. A secretarial position is all very fine, but I'd imagine you must be anxious to move on to something with better prospects.”

“Beggars can't be choosers, Miss Gaffney,” he said quietly.

“Have you ambitions to go into politics yourself one day?”

“Good Lord, no. Such a life wouldn't suit me at all.”

“Then what kind of life would suit you?”

“I had thought to be a lawyer, when I graduated from Columbia University, but I now see that I am not suited to that profession. What about you, Miss Gaffney? How do you envision your future?”

“Aren't all ladies supposed to marry and have babies?” He noted my wicked grin.

“According to the young ladies at Vassar across the river, women can aspire to the law, to medicine, to vote, or to write witty novels if they put their minds to it.”

“And why not?” I asked. “Is there anything in the male physique that would make a man more able to vote, practice law or write novels?”

“Stamina, Miss Gaffney. We are not prone to attacks of the vapors.”

“That’s only because we women are subjected to wearing ridiculous corsets. Apart from that, I would have thought we women were champions at stamina. Look at all those mothers who take care of twelve children. And take Mrs. Flynn—she’s had to have stamina to bear the burden of reliving her tragedy every day forfiveyears.”

“I'd say she was buckling under that burden, Miss Gaffney.”

“Maybe you're right. But what human being could endure it without buckling?”

“The Senator has had to get on with his life.”

“That’s because he has a life outside the home. Did you ever think that it was being cooped up, day in and day out, in a protective little cocoon that made women buckle?”

He looked at me as if I was a fellow human being for the first time. “You may be right,” he said. “Under such conditions, even the strongest constitution can crack.”

Later I wondered whether he had been talking about himself. The next day Belinda informed me that Theresa was still feeling under the weather and would stay in bed yet again.

“She must have caught a chill when we returned home in the rain,” I suggested.

Belinda shook her head. “It’s all in her mind, Molly. There is nothing wrong with her body. She lives on the edge of sanity ever since that awful day. At one moment she appears bright and jolly, but the next she is plunged into the darkest depression. They have doctors these days who specialize in diseases of the mind. They're called alienists. We're trying to persuade her to see one, but she won't admit there is anything wrong.”

“It must be very hard for you and Cousin Bamey.”

“Especially for Barney. You would not believe what he’s had to endure since the kidnapping.”

I nodded, wondering whether Barney had ever paid a visit to her room at night and whether she too had sent him away.

“So we are left to our own devices again today,” Belinda went on. “I thought I might have one of the horses saddled up and ride over to the Van Gelders. I hear that Captain Cathers is a fine horseman. So was Mr. Hartley until his accident.” She lowered her voice. “You know he was thrown from his horse during a hunt and landed on his head and almost died, don't you?”

“So I've been told,” I answered.

“Poor man. Such a tragedy. No wonder he always looks brooding. He is lamenting what might have been. Do you want to ride over with me?”

I didn't like to admit that my riding was on a par with my bicycling skills.

“If you can find those bloomers, I think I'd like to practice riding a bicycle,” I said. “But you go out riding by all means. I can have one of the groundsmen help me with my bicycle.”