New World, New Love (19 page)

If it had been necessary for Alexandre to accompany her, she knew he would have done, but it was one of the busiest times of the year on a farm and she had made it clear that she would be travelling alone. So, he had given her the adoption papers, which had been drawn up by his lawyer, and as soon as they were signed she would return them to him. He also gave her a pistol.

‘Remember there are rogues here who prey on travellers, just as there are in France and anywhere else in the world, and you’ll be travelling with some valuable jewels on you. Keep it available at all times.’

Before leaving the farmhouse Louise took Philippe up from his cradle and kissed him fondly. He gave a smile, still kicking happily when she laid him down again. As she tucked the covers around him she wondered when she would see him again.

Blanche and the two girls were waiting for her by the front door. She bade Henrietta and Betsy farewell before they went scampering off to play, leaving her alone with Blanche. They embraced each other.

‘Au revoir, dear Blanche,’ Louise said emotionally. ‘Thank you again a million times for everything you and Alexandre have done for Delphine, Philippe and for me.’

‘I wish you Godspeed.’ Blanche’s voice was choked. ‘Come back soon.’

Alexandre was waiting with the two-wheeled carriage to drive Louise to Albany. Taking a last look before the farmhouse disappeared from sight, she waved again to the solitary figure on the veranda steps. There was a last flutter of Blanche’s white handkerchief in reply and then she was lost from sight.

The coach from Albany departed on time and as the wheels began to roll, Alexandre kept level with the window for a few paces. ‘Good luck! Write as soon as you’ve found Delphine.’

‘I will!’ Louise promised. Then as the coachman whipped up his team of six horses Alexandre was left behind and she settled back in her seat. She would need that luck, everything depended on Delphine having found a haven with their cousins.

It was a physically uncomfortable journey, even though the coach was well sprung and the upholstery well padded, for the road in most places had been given a surface of felled tree trunks. One child in the carriage, travelling with her mother, was as sick as if she had been on a rough sea. Louise took from her valise the sugar stick that Henrietta had given her as a farewell gift and offered it. The mother thanked her and gave it to her daughter. After the child had sucked it until it disappeared, the colour returned to her cheeks and the sickness went, to the relief of the other passengers.

At every stop Louise made enquiries about Delphine.

‘A lot of young women come in here on their travels,’ one tavern keeper’s wife said to her. ‘But – as you can see for yourself now – as soon as a coach-load arrives, we’re mighty busy serving ale and hot pies and beans and all the rest, so there’s scarcely time to take real note of anyone.’ It was depressing information.

Louise found much to see on the journey, from open stretches of land where ferns and plants and early flowers were growing in abundance to densely forested mountain slopes. There were dark and mysterious groves that were richly green, fast-flowing rivers and creeks and, here and there, homesteads, crop fields and pasturage, small towns and rough settlements.

When the coach made an overnight stop, always at a tavern, which was sometimes the only building in a wide area of woodland, the older passengers alighted stiffly and even Louise found she seemed to ache in every limb. But a brisk walk after supper restored her suppleness and she welcomed the fresh air after the close confinement with others in the coach. She thought it was no wonder that Daniel preferred the stimulation of a coastal voyage instead of the torment of land travel on such roads.

Blanche had warned that Louise must have her own bedlinen for these overnight stopovers at wayside taverns, since it was not supplied, and had provided her with some that was old and much mended, which could be disposed of at the end of her journey. Louise was thankful for her friend’s thoughtfulness when she saw the rough grey blankets that were provided in the primitively furnished bedrooms, usually under the eaves. After making up her bed and tired from the day’s rough journey, she went to sleep swiftly and solidly until roused by a knock on the door in the morning.

At meals, which were usually wholesome and plentiful, Louise always scanned the faces of the serving maids just in case Delphine had needed to earn money by working along the way. It was the same when she took her walks whenever the stop had been made in a town or any other place of habitation, for she was always looking and searching in every direction.

It seemed a long two weeks before finally in the late evening’s heavy rain the coach rattled over wet cobbles into Boston. Alighting, she found it impossible to hail a hackney carriage, each one that passed her being occupied. After making enquiries about the Bradshaws’ address, she was relieved to hear it was not far away and set off on foot in the driving rain. As she had expected, her cousins’ home was a grand house. It had a splendid two-pillared porch and a large door with a gleaming brass knocker shaped like an American eagle’s head, but all the windows were dark. It was late, but not yet so late that everyone would have gone to bed, and she went quickly up the steps to jerk the bell-pull. At first nothing happened, so she tried again. Then after another wait the door opened. A footman, his wig awry as if he had just clapped it on his head, stood there with a candle.

‘Yes, ma’am?’

With sudden dread Louise had the strangest feeling of déjà vu as she gave her name and stated that she had arrived to visit Mr and Mrs Theodore Bradshaw. The man’s surprised attitude was all too similar to that of the footman at her cousins’ former home when she and Delphine had called to see them there. As a result, his words brought no surprise, but intense disappointment.

‘They went south for the winter after the master was not well in September. They’re not expected back for a while yet.’

Louise’s heart sank at this confirmation of her fears. ‘Could you tell me if my sister has called here? She would have been on her own and made the same request.’

He shook his head. ‘No, ma’am. I don’t remember any young lady coming here.’

Louise became desperate. ‘Please ask the other servants. Perhaps one of them answered the door to her. I need to know where she has gone. It’s very important.’

He hesitated. This stranger looked respectable, even though she was somewhat bedraggled, and he could tell from her accent that she was a Frenchwoman like Mrs Bradshaw.

‘You’d best come in, ma’am. I’ll make enquiries.’

She was thankful to step inside. He lighted a candle on a side table and left her on her own. All the furniture in the large hall was covered with dust sheets. A large gilt-framed mirror gave back her reflection, a lonely figure with an anxious face, standing in the middle of the marble floor with her baggage on the floor beside her, rain water dripping from her cloak to make little pools in a circle around her.

He returned with a young maidservant, whom he addressed as Molly. ‘Tell the lady what you remember.’

The girl bobbed a curtsey before speaking. ‘A young woman did come to the door some time ago and asked for Mr and Mrs Bradshaw too, ma’am. She said they were her cousins as you have done, but in her case I found that difficult to believe, because her clothes were dirty and in a poor state, with torn lace hanging from her petticoat.’

‘Did she give her name?’ Louise demanded at once.

‘Yes, but I don’t remember it.’

‘Was it Delphine de Montier?’

The maidservant looked uncertain. ‘I couldn’t say for sure. Yes, maybe it was that. I could tell she was a foreigner.’

‘What happened when you told her Mr and Mrs Bradshaw were away?’

‘She began to cry and begged for some food.’ Molly cast a nervous eye at the manservant. ‘I couldn’t help pitying her, and although I shouldn’t have done it I sent her round to the kitchen door and gave her some leftovers. That was the last I saw of her.’

Louise drew in a shuddering breath. ‘Thank you for showing her kindness. I’m extremely grateful. Did she have hand baggage with her?’

‘I didn’t see any.’

Louise’s fear for her sister increased still further, for it was obvious Delphine had been robbed both of her money and her possessions. ‘If she should return, please tell her that her sister is in Boston and looking for her. I’ve only just arrived here this evening and have yet to find a place to stay. Tell her I’ll leave a letter at the post office giving my address.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Can you direct me to a good lodging house?’

The footman sent Molly back to the kitchen and came out on to the porch with Louise to give her complicated directions to a lodging house known to be clean and respectable. She followed his directions, but the wall-bracketed street lanterns had become few and far between and she soon realized that she had missed her way in the dark. Instead she had reached a dubious area where women were lingering in doorways and some sailors were emerging drunkenly from one of the taverns. Afraid of being accosted, she turned sharply away and, catching the reflection of a ship’s light on water, realized she was near the harbour and most of the buildings around her were warehouses.

By now her valise felt heavier than ever before and rain had found its way in a trickle down between her breasts. A man suddenly loomed up in front of her out of the darkness and spread his arms wide to entrap her.

‘Hi, there! I’m in need of company. Give me a good price, woman.’

She dodged past him, but with an angry yell he snatched at her cloak and it fell from her as she ran from him. His heavy footsteps broke into a run, but after a short distance he came to a halt, his swearing following her. When she paused to lean against a wall to get her breath and rest her arm from her burden her heart was beating wildly. It took her a few moments to see that she was opposite an office set in a large warehouse. A street lantern illumined the sign above the door in a yellowish glow.
Lombard
,
Silk Importer
.

Daniel’s office! And a window on the floor above was brightly lit. Within seconds she was across the street and hammering on the door with her fist. If a conscientious employee was working this late, he could surely be trusted to give her assistance as an acquaintance of his employer.

Above her the window opened. She stepped back at once in order to be seen by the man silhouetted against the light. To her astonishment he gave a long, low laugh of surprise, cutting off the appeal she had been about to make.

‘Louise! Why didn’t you let me know you’d be calling?’

‘Daniel! Stop joking and let me in!’ she demanded wearily.

‘I’ll be down immediately.’

The window slammed shut and within seconds he opened the door to her, a candle-lamp in his hand, his grin fading as she almost fell in, letting her valise drop to the floor.

‘Whatever has been happening to you?’ He looked her up and down in disbelief. ‘You’re only in thin clothes and soaked through.’

‘The ties on my cloak must have become loose and somebody in the street snatched it from me. The coach from Albany came in late this evening and my cousins are away. I’ve had a terrible time looking for a place to stay!’

‘But how did you find your way here?’ He led her into his office on the same floor. ‘This isn’t an area you should be in on your own at this time of night.’

‘I lost my way. When I saw the lighted window I thought one of your clerks was working late and would give me some help. So, if you could just show me the way to the nearest hotel or a good lodging house, I’ll be extremely grateful.’

‘I know where there’s comfortable accommodation that should suit you and we’ll go there without further delay. Just give me time to put the candle-lamps out upstairs.’

He came down again quickly, with his own cloak over his arm. ‘Put this on and come with me.’ Snatching up her valise, he led the way to the rear of the building, where a horse and a crimson high-wheeled gig stood under a roof jutting out above the door in a stable yard. He helped her into it and then left the extinguished candle-lamp indoors before locking up. After leading the horse out into the street he padlocked the gates after him before getting up beside her and taking the reins.

‘It’s sheer chance that you found me here tonight, Louise. I’d decided to take a look at some ledgers, because I was certain one of my clerks was fiddling the books and, unfortunately, I’ve discovered that I was right.’ He glanced sideways at her. ‘Why are you visiting Boston now, when the Bradshaws are spending the winter in Louisiana?’

‘I didn’t know that they were there. It’s a long story, but Delphine ran away from where we were staying with friends and I’ve traced her here.’

‘Where is she living?’

‘I’ve no idea.’ She looked at him with unhappy eyes and told him what she had heard from the maidservant. ‘So, somewhere on her journey Delphine was robbed of her money and possessions; but what frightens me most is what else might have happened to cause her to arrive at Madeleine’s home in such a pathetic state. I intend to start looking for her as soon as it’s daylight.’

‘Leave it to me. I’ll make sure that she’s found.’

Louise shook her head. ‘Somebody else said that to me some weeks ago and she’s still missing.’ Her voice became unsteady. ‘Now that I know that she’s homeless and in dire straits, I fear the worst.’

She had taken no notice of where he was driving, except there were more street lanterns about and lights from windows were streaming down on to the wet cobbles. Now he was drawing up and she turned her head to see where he had brought her. It was a mansion even larger than her cousins’ house, and a footman had opened the door as a groom came running from another direction to take charge of the horse and the vehicle.

‘You’ve brought me to your home, Daniel,’ she said wearily, no longer capable of protest as he helped her down from the carriage.

‘Yes, because here you can have a hot bath to stop you shivering like a landed fish, a hot drink and anything else you want.’