The Family Way (Molly Murphy, #12)

And I tried to think those happy thoughts as we arrived back at Tarrytown Station.

Bridie was awake and feeling better enough to go in search of an ice cream, and we spent a pleasant evening sitting on the porch of the inn, watching the commerce on the river, and the sun setting on the far shore. I resolved to stop worrying about Maureen and Katy, and to accept that I could do nothing more and that my duty was now to my unborn child. I would do what I supposedly came to do, enjoy my time on the river with my friends.

But that night I had a dream. I dreamed that I was standing in some kind of dark place; a place of whispering wind, or was it voices. All I could make out were vague archways. I looked around, trying to work out where I was, when I noticed a figure standing before me in the darkness. I could see that it was a young woman. As I moved toward her she half turned toward me and said, in a very Irish voice, “Katy, it was good of you to come and find me.”

And I saw there was another girl standing in the shadows and they were suddenly aware of my presence and turned to look at me.

I woke up with a jolt and sat up in bed, my heart pounding. We Irish have great faith in dreams and the second sight. If ever there was a clear message from the beyond then that was it. Katy had been on the right track after all. That voice had to belong to Maureen. Katy had found out what really happened to her and where she had gone. And presumably she had come to me in a dream because she wanted me to know the truth too. Sleep was now impossible. I got up and went to sit in the open window, feeling the cool breeze from the river gently caressing my skin.

“I wish you’d been more specific,” I muttered. Katy obviously hadn’t left the convent, so she must have uncovered another clue to Maureen’s whereabouts within the confines of those walls. And therefore in a place inaccessible to me. Yet they had come to me in a dream, which meant they still wanted my help.

Bridie slept, her light hair spilling over the pillow. I looked down at her fondly, then went back to the task in hand. Maureen had come to me. Katy was dead so I wasn’t going to get any more clues from her. But Maureen thought I had enough knowledge to come to the truth. And having had this dream, I was now sure that it wasn’t as simple as just running off to New York. Something bad had happened to Marureen O’Byrne and she wanted me to uncover the truth.

I went over everything I had heard and seen and I realized that I kept coming back to the Mainwarings. Something didn’t add up with them. Mrs. Mainwaring was described by the sisters as generous enough to want Maureen back. And yet she hadn’t come across to me as a warm-hearted woman. To her, servants would be ten a penny, to hire or discard at whim. Maureen had stated that she had to go back; she had no choice. And yet she surely had plenty of choice. She was under no obligation to return to a place where she wasn’t happy. Now she was no longer encumbered with a baby she could easily do what Sid and Gus had suggested and start afresh in New York City. Mrs. Mainwaring wouldn’t give her a reference, of course, but she could claim to be freshly arrived from Ireland and start with a household where references weren’t so important.

And another thing: why was she so angry that Mrs. Mainwaring had come to see the sisters the day before she ran away? And what had brought about that final explosion in which she had yelled, “You can’t make me. It’s cruel.” What could have been so cruel that she chose to sneak away and be gone by the next morning? Was it possible it had something to do with murdering her own child? No, I was letting my imagination run away with me. Surely nobody would ever try to force her to do that.

Was it then to do with joining the order? Were they forcing her to enter the novitiate against her will? Obviously not, since the young novice had never come across her or even knew her name. Besides, I had been raised to respect nuns. I didn’t believe any of the rumors that the Protestants circulated. What would be the point of gaining recruits to the convent against their will?

You can’t make me. It’s cruel. I tossed those words around in my mind. I remembered what Emily had said about Sister Angelique being mean and spiteful and not liking Maureen because Maureen had stood up to her. Might the words have been as simple as Sister making her throw away her little statue to show she was renouncing earthly goods? But if that was all, would it have driven her to run away?

Gray light of dawn lit the sky and still I was no nearer to any enlightenment. But I knew I had to visit the Mainwarings again. I had to find out why Maureen thought she had to return there.





Twenty-one

I went back to bed but I don’t think I did more than doze for the rest of the night. When I came down to breakfast in the morning Sid and Gus were already tucking into ham and eggs. Gus looked at me critically.