But I found a way to make my peace with misrepresentation. We were all misrepresenting ourselves to each other after all. To live in this world daily was to traffic in the business of leading other people astray. Thanks to my upbringing, I’d had more experience with that than most. Now, it was my profession.
After a week, I had heard Cath Maroney complain countless times of how lonesome she was in this Northern town, how resentful she was to be exiled. I had tried a number of times to shift her subject, wondering aloud why her husband was not with her, asking the reason for her stay in Philadelphia. But she lied smoothly, claiming her husband had sailed to England for a time to resolve an issue with a family inheritance, and she never even mentioned his Christian name.
When the breakthrough came, it took all I had not to reveal my shock.
“Oh, Mrs. Wofford,” she said.
“Kate.”
“Of course, Kate. You know I’ve been so lonely for female companionship.”
“I do know it! I’m so glad we found each other.”
She reached out to squeeze my hand, and I smiled.
“There’s nothing like the comfort of a bosom friend. However—”
“Oh!” I said, uncertain where the conversation might lead. “Am I failing in that regard? Please do tell me if there’s another way I can be a better friend to you.”
She made an odd face and sighed. “It’s certainly nothing of yours I need, my dear. Female companionship is a great joy to me. But there’s another type of companionship I’m also quite eager for, and as of yet, I’ve not found it in this city.”
Still unsure of her message, I said, “I’m sure this city has a great many things.”
“But does it have the satisfaction only a man can provide?”
I couldn’t suppress my reaction. “Cath!”
She laughed, peals of laughter rippling through the air like bells upon bells. “I do believe I’ve shocked you.”
“You have!” I knew she trusted me, but to speak so openly about such things, especially as a married woman whose husband was known to be absent, was utter madness. No matter who I seemed to be, shock was apt.
She said, “We must claim what we want, Kate. Do you hide your desires and thoughts?”
I had to answer carefully. “We all hide something.”
“Not me,” she said with a laugh. “And I’m all the happier for it.”
Running my fingertip along the table and recognizing my luck at last, I said, “I do believe I know a man who can provide…what you’re looking for. He’ll just be passing through the city, but I imagine—I suppose—well, a man staying only a short while in Philadelphia would suit your purposes, wouldn’t he?”
She beamed and clutched my hand. “I knew I could trust you.”
“Completely.”
I sent my missive from the telegraph office on a Monday. On Wednesday, my answer came in the person of Graham DeForest, looking more handsome than ever, bearing tidings from home and the name Graham Kelley.
Both professionally and personally, I was overjoyed. I had asked for him to be assigned, of course, but there was no guarantee Pinkerton wouldn’t send someone else. There was no one more suited to the task than DeForest. It would only be a matter of time.
I met him in his boardinghouse and not mine, just to be safe. His was far from Society Hill. After pleasantries, he stretched like a cat and said, “So help me get my bearings. You didn’t say much.”
“I hate to bankrupt the client with long telegrams.”
“I’m needed, you said. For what?”
“To be a very good friend to Mrs. Maroney.”
“Aren’t you already that?”
“Not in the way she seeks,” I said and explained.
He nodded, following perfectly. He didn’t seem nearly as shocked as I’d been, but he knew more of the world, I supposed. “Her husband isn’t dead yet, but she’s already acting the merry widow.”
“She’ll be merrier with you as her very good friend.”
“I understand. You’ll introduce us, yes? Have you primed the pump?”
“I told her she’d adore you. And she will.”
He put up his feet. “So I get into her good graces, take her around the town.”
“Yes.”
“All the while, you’ll be the angel on her shoulder.”
“Devil, more like.”
“Both, as the situation warrants. You can urge her to trust me, to run away with me. If she’s going to do that, she’ll need money. If she has any idea at all where her husband’s stolen money is, she’ll retrieve it in an instant. We’ll have our evidence and be done.”
It sounded more mercenary in his words than it had inside my mind. I couldn’t deny the other outcome of a successful plan. “And her heart will be broken.”
“Kate,” he said, setting his feet on the floor and taking a more serious tone. “Do you think I revel in that? I don’t. But the money is stolen. It’s not her husband’s, and it’s not hers. Our client demands its return. That’s what I’m here to do, whatever it takes.”
“Whatever it takes? You’ll do absolutely anything?”
“Of course.”
I wanted to be perfectly clear, and for once—inspired, perhaps, by Cath herself—I spoke the truth flat out. “You’ll seduce her?”
“If it’s required.”
“But how could you even…” I began.
He eyed me suspiciously, pulling himself back a little bit into his chair as I trailed off. We sat in silence for a tense moment.
I didn’t need to tell him, but I wanted to. I couldn’t be myself with anyone else, certainly not with Cath, but I could with him. His secret was between us, and I knew it, but he didn’t. The time had come to strike it.
All in a rush, I said, “Look, DeForest, I know about you.”
His demeanor remained cool. “Ha ha. If you’re trying to get me to confess something, it won’t work. We’re both better operatives than that, aren’t we?”
“I wasn’t trying to find it out, I swear. I was just practicing my surveillance skills. But…”
“Kate,” he said, more serious, his dark brows as low as I’d ever seen them. “Enough. It’s not funny. I’ve come a long way to help out.”