“Do you know other cases like this one?”
He glanced at her. “It’s not something the police are proud of, but there are at least a couple others, and not just here. There’s an unsolved case in Texas with five dead over two years, and a couple in England; one of those has been going on for five years at least. Men who get a taste for a certain very specific kind of crime. The ones who can control themselves and stick to a plan are almost impossible to catch. Unless they get sloppy, most of them will live to a ripe old age and die in their beds. The scientists working on fingerprints seem to think they can come up with a way to identify and keep track of suspects, but nobody knows when that will be.”
She rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. “So you’ll be working tomorrow.”
He read her thoughts, as he did so often, and leaned over to kiss the corner of her mouth. “Just in the morning. Couldn’t miss the June picnic. Even if you didn’t mind, Oscar would. So where do we sleep tonight, Mrs. Mezzanotte?”
“I don’t mind,” Anna said. “But we do have a lot to move, clothes and all the rest.”
“Then not tonight.” He kissed the other corner of her mouth, nibbling softly until she laughed and pushed him away.
“Also, there’s the small matter of food. We need to talk about a housekeeper, Jack. I don’t have the time for cooking or any of the rest of it.”
He sat back. “I promised your aunt that we’d have supper with them, every evening.”
There was nothing to do about that but laugh. “And she made me promise her that we’d eat breakfast with them.”
“She’s determined,” Jack said.
Anna hummed. “I could think of a few other words that might serve better. And still, we will need someone for the laundry and cleaning and all the rest of it. Really, this is something we should have thought of to start with.”
“Anna,” Jack said, slipping his hand to the nape of her neck, threading his fingers into the twist of her hair and tugging, so that gooseflesh ran down her spine. “It won’t take much effort to find a solution, and think what we’re getting in return. A place of our own. Family close by, but real privacy, the kind we haven’t had yet, not even on Staten Island, with maids coming and going and walls too thin for your—enthusiasm.”
“Why, you—”
He caught her hands to protect himself, pulled her closer to put his arms around her shoulders and hold her still. Laughing like a boy very satisfied with a prank.
An older couple walked by, the lady making her disapproval known by clucking her tongue. A spasm of irritation passed over Jack’s face and she felt him tense, and so Anna did the logical thing, damn the disapproval on a beautiful summer evening. She kissed him, and, getting up, she pulled him onto his feet.
“Let’s go try out the privacy. See if it lives up to your expectations and my enthusiasms.”
Jack said, “Did you notice the size of the bathtub?”
35
ELISE HAD A free day, though she had protested she needed no such indulgence. The matron had insisted, and so that morning she woke to the sound of church bells, thinking of mass. She should get up now, and dress, and go with Mr. and Mrs. Lee and the Russo girls. She had left the convent, but not the Church.
She rolled onto her stomach and buried her face in one of the fat pillows that she had so quickly come to appreciate.
They wouldn’t badger her if she stayed behind. They wouldn’t need to badger her, because she would be doing enough of that for all of them. With a groan she rolled out of bed and set about getting ready.
One thing at a time, she told herself. One change at a time. They would walk to church, the little girls skipping ahead with spring hats pinned firmly in place. She liked walking, and being out in the city when the weather was so fine. She liked Mr. and Mrs. Lee. What she dreaded was the sight of the confessionals in a row along one wall. She hadn’t left the Church, but neither had she been to confession since she got on the train for the city, and that in itself was something to atone for.
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned . . . I miss nothing at all about the convent; I miss none of the sisters who taught me and cared for me; I love this world, and the place I have in it, the work I do and the things I’m learning, and I go all day without praying or even thinking of it.
She heard Rosa and Lia burst out of their room. Margaret called after them, a litany of manners to be remembered. They called back, agreeing cheerfully to anything and everything in the need to be moving. Elise followed them, smiling to herself.