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WHEN SHE ARRIVED AT MARY JOHNSON’S, the brunette woman in blue answered the door. The woman’s smile dropped as soon as she saw Izzie.
“
Yes?”
“
My sister is here. I have to see her.” Izzie held her breath.
“
What’s her name?”
“
Clara Benton.”
“
Lizette. We call her Lizette. She’s working right now.”
Izzie stepped inside. “I’ve been looking for her for months. I must see her. Please.”
“
Come with me.”
Valise in hand, Izzie followed the woman across a large foyer and past a parlor where a pianist was playing
Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair
. Izzie peered in. A blond woman with a wreath of white and pink flowers on her head stood by the piano singing, “Never more to find her where the bright waters flow.” At least eight men stood around holding cigars and glasses of whiskey and wine, listening to her. Others stood aside with several women.
“
This way.”
Her guide sounded impatient. Izzie caught up with her and followed her downstairs into a large kitchen. A tall Negro man with narrow shoulders and a Negro woman stood at a sink washing dishes.
“
It’s the only room the girls don’t use in the evenings. I’m Carlotta, by the way.” She pointed toward the couple. “That’s James and Lettie.”
“
I’m Izzie MacAdams. Please, tell Clara it’s Izzie.” Izzie settled her bag on the floor.
“
This is Lizette’s sister,” Carlotta called over to James and Lettie.
They both grinned and said hello.
Izzie looked at Carlotta. “You’re sure this Lizette is my sister Clara?”
“
You’re the one from Rochester?” the man James asked.
“
Yes.”
“
She told us about you. That’s her.”
“
Wait here.” Carlotta darted away through the swinging door.
James walked to Izzie and handed her a glass of water. “I see the likeness. Can we get you some tea or somethin’ to eat?”
“
No thank you.”
Several pots on top of the stove steamed and rattled, making it unbearably hot in the room.
“
Your sister’ll be glad to see you.” He grinned at her a long moment, with big teeth, some broken, some missing, then left to take up his work with Lettie again.
“
Jus’ make yourself comfortable. It might take a minute or two for her to take leave of the gentlemen,” Lettie said.
Izzie felt a stab in her chest. She clunked the glass down on the table. The gentlemen. Her little sister was out there, a prostitute at a party. She lived in a parlor house.
Rubbish and rot
. Izzie wrapped her arms tight around her waist and began to pace back and forth along the length of the table. Her skin grew sticky with perspiration. The crooks of her elbows itched. She took up the water glass from the table and gulped it down. Clara was going to walk through that door any second. If she could get her to gather up her things right away, they could go get Euphora and all leave in the morning. Izzie couldn’t wait to show her the Upper Falls Water-Cure and the gardens. It would be heaven for Clara after this. Heaven.
Several moments passed. What was taking so long? Wasn’t she just upstairs? Izzie stared at the kitchen door. The piano and singer were still at it.
Drink to me only with thine eyes
and I will pledge with mine.
She paced back and forth.
Ridiculous
. Clara was just a room or two away. Why couldn’t she just run to her and grab her hand and drag her away? In another minute, that’s just what she would do.
The white door swung open.
“
Clara!”
“
Izzie!” Clara’s face opened into a huge smile.
Izzie immediately sensed her sister was older, so much older. She rushed to Clara, threw her arms around her and kissed her. “I’ve looked all over the city for you. I tried and tried to find you.” Izzie pulled away from the embrace to see her sister.
Clara’s dress was dazzling, red-and-white satin, her hair beautifully decorated with flowers and small jewel-like baubles. Izzie took a deep breath. This wasn’t the Clara she remembered, but it was Clara—dear Clara.
“
How long were you here?” Clara bit down on her lower lip.
“
Nearly five months. I stayed at the Fieldings on Twenty-Fifth Street. I walked the streets all day from the day after you left Geneva until a few weeks ago.”
Clara stared at her at long moment, looking almost as if she didn’t believe what she had just heard, then as she seemed to understand, her eyes filled with tears. “You were here that long? Oh, Holy rolling Moses, Izzie. How on earth did you do that? Was Mac with you?”
Izzie shook her head. “He couldn’t be here. I tried séances and trance writing to get clues of your whereabouts. I roamed all the neighborhoods asking strangers. I went to orphanages and boardinghouses and even some of the brothels.”
Clara looked like a thousand years had passed and a thousand more were passing just as she stood there.
“
I wish you had found me,” Clara said.
“
Oh, Clara, I wish I had too. Where’s Euphora? Is she all right?
“
She’s with Mrs. Purcell’s cousin and husband now, uptown a little. She’s lonely, but safe. What about Billy? Have you heard from him?” Clara asked, voice shaky and tears now fully streaming down her face.
“
Yes. I had one letter.” Izzie took it from her dress pocket and offered it to Clara. “San Francisco. He’s on a merchant ship to China.”
Clara grabbed the letter and pressed it to her. “Will he ever come back?”
“
I don’t know. Why didn’t you write me? Why? I never would have told Papa anything about you.”
Sniffling, Clara wiped a palm against her cheek to dry her tears. “I was afraid he’d find me and Euphora if he had even the slightest idea of where we were.”
“
What did he do to you?”
Clara’s jaw stiffened and she diverted her eyes from Izzie, then looked over Izzie’s shoulder toward James and Lettie. “I’ll explain it to you later.”
Feeling overwhelmed at the reunion and the sense she had that Clara had changed profoundly, Izzie covered her face with her hands. She had failed her sisters, failed them. She looked up again. Clara was waiting for her. She had to get Clara out of here right away.
Izzie collected herself and drew her shoulders back. “Can we go get Euphora now?”
Clara’s eyes darted away. “I’ve already been chosen for the night. By a gentleman, one of our best gentlemen.”
“
But you don’t have to do that now. I’m here to take you home.”
“
Home?” Clara’s brown eyes came back to Izzie.
“
To Rochester. You and Euphora will come home with me and live with me and Mac.”
Clara smiled softly. “Oh, Izzie.”
“
We can go right now. Mac wired the Fieldings. We can get Euphora and stay with the Fieldings tonight, then take a train in the morning.” Izzie reached for Clara’s hands.
Clara paused, a curtain coming over her face. “I’m not sure, Izzie. My home is here now.”
“
Your home?”
“
Mary Johnson, our madam, has taken care of me. She protected me when Papa came. I have friends. It’s home.”
“
You want to stay?”
Eyes down, but standing straighter, Clara slowly nodded.
The white door swung partially open and Carlotta poked her head into the room. “Clara, Mary Johnson wants to know if you are coming back. Mr. Ferguson is anxious. He’s getting impatient.”
“
I’m coming.”
Carlotta slid out of sight and the door closed. Izzie felt like she was about to explode.
“
No. You can’t go back in there. Tell her you are leaving with me now, as soon as you gather your things,” Izzie said.
“
I have to go with this gentleman. I don’t want to do anything to anger Mary Johnson’s gents. Can you stay at the Fieldings and come back in the morning first thing?”
“
What are you saying? No, Clara. Come with me now.”
“
We’ll go in the morning and see Euphora.” Clara’s voice was steady and her tears had stopped.
“
Clara, do you understand? I’ve come to take you home to Rochester.”
“
I can’t decide that right now.”
“
Decide? Whether to be a courtesan or come to Rochester with me?”
Clara’s face crumpled as though Izzie had hit her, then her expression grew blank. She turned her gaze across the kitchen. “James, will you find a hack on Broadway and take my sister to where she is staying?” She looked back at Izzie. “You have money?”
“
I’m sorry, Clara. I’m sorry I didn’t visit last year when you asked me. I tried to come. Mac wouldn’t allow me. His new Water-Cure Institute was consuming him and I...I was haunted by voices. He thought I needed these special daily water-cure methods to treat my sensitive condition and that I was too fragile to go.”
Clara took her in her arms and held her a long moment. “It’s all right, Izzie. We’ll have a long talk tomorrow. I’ll tell you about Papa and you’ll tell me about your demons. We have each other again. That’s all that matters.”
“
It’s not all that matters. You must come to Rochester with me.”
Clara withdrew her embrace and stepped toward the door. “Come early.”
In her red and white satin gown and fancy hair, Clara pressed a hand against the swinging door and disappeared.
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WHEN IZZIE ARRIVED AT THE FIELDINGS at the late hour, the house was lit up. They had received Mac’s telegram and they were waiting for her. It was good to see Anna and Mrs. Fielding and Roland. Even though Izzie had let Mrs. Fielding down at the Grand Circle, she felt welcomed by her. All three of her friends fussed over her, leading her right away to the kitchen, and offering her cold potato soup and a cool glass of water. They immediately asked her about Clara and Euphora.
There didn’t seem to be any point in hiding what she had found, not after everything she had been through with them over the winter and spring. She told them she had just seen Clara and that Clara was a prostitute in a fancy parlor house and that Euphora was a domestic in a home not far from the Fielding’s. They weren’t surprised by Clara’s situation, but they were surprised that she wasn’t eager to leave straight away with Izzie—that she wasn’t with her right this moment.
Izzie was to sleep on the sofa in Mrs. Fielding’s study as she had in the winter and spring. She and Anna stayed up well into the night talking. Izzie asked Anna over and over again why Clara or anyone would choose to stay a prostitute.
“
If a woman can live well and come and go as she pleases, and have everything she wants, she is free in a way, isn’t she?” Anna asked.
“
But how can you call that freedom?” Izzie clenched both her fists in her lap.
“
It’s work. It’s independence.” Anna sat on the sofa with her feet tucked under her next to Izzie.
“
Submitting to the desires of different men every night is independence?”
“
For most women, it is survival I think, but for others, if it is lucrative, it may be more. A sort of freedom.”
Izzie pondered this. She pictured Clara in the satin dress with the low neckline, her brown hair luminous, and the other young women she saw, all dressed elegantly, all laughing and chatting and singing as though at a ball. Maybe Clara did enjoy that life, but did she enjoy it so much that she wouldn’t choose to live with her and Mac?
When Anna had kissed Izzie goodnight and gone off, Izzie lay awake recalling every detail of her search for Clara. She remembered the children on the street scavenging, selling things out of their carts, sleeping in doorways and boxes. She remembered the women she’d seen in the Five Points and Corlears Hook who sold themselves cheaply. Those women were barely surviving. That wasn’t independence.
Air flowed through the open window and finally cooled her and then, when the moon rose, it glowed against the buildings across the street. A crashing noise somewhere set off a chain of dogs barking and howling. The dogs carried on a long time, then faded off. As the first light of morning broke, carriages began to rattle by and Izzie drifted into sleep.
“
There’s Hannah.”