One
New York, Sunday, October 6, 1907
“So, what is this big surprise?” I asked as I pinned my hat onto my head, checking that it was straight in the entryway mirror.
“Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies.” Daniel wrapped his arms around me from behind and gave the back of my neck a little kiss.
“Well, it can’t be a romantic surprise or we wouldn’t be bringing Liam,” I mused. “And we are walking so it can’t be too far away. Unless we were walking to a train station?” I shook my head. “But we haven’t any baggage.”
“Molly Sullivan, this is not a case and you are not detecting.” Daniel gave me a mock reproving look. “You will find out soon enough.” He pushed the pram out of the front door while I lifted Liam, carried him out, and set him in the pram.
“You are getting too heavy to be carried, little man,” I said, rubbing the small of my back as I straightened up.
It was a gorgeous day, one of those clear October afternoons with bright sunshine and a cool, clean breeze. We had made it to church that morning, an occurrence that had become rare since Daniel’s mother had left, and I felt clean and bright inside as well. Our ward, Bridie, was with our neighbors, getting help with her algebra homework. I had told her we wouldn’t be gone long.
Daniel pushed the pram and I followed in silence as we turned south onto Sixth Avenue. All he had told me was to put on my coat and hat and bring Liam. He had a surprise for me. I tried to judge from the set of his shoulders as he strode ahead whether it was a nice surprise or a nasty one. To tell the truth he did look a bit tense. We crossed the street and walked into the shade of the big trees in Washington Square. The fall colors glowed brightly on the trees, contrasting with a deep blue sky above. The perfect day for a family stroll, I thought. I found myself enjoying the quiet rhythm of our footsteps crunching on the gravel until Daniel slowed to walk beside me. He put a hand on my arm and cleared his throat.
Saints preserve us, he is nervous, I thought. My stomach felt a jolt of fear. Daniel was normally quite direct and forthright. It wasn’t like him to make a song and dance about something.
“Where are we going, then?” I asked, keeping my voice light and cheerful.
“We’re not going anywhere just yet. I thought it might be best to walk and have a little talk first.” His hand squeezed mine reassuringly. “Molly, I want you to trust me.” He was not looking at me but straight ahead as we walked. “There are some things I need to do to take care of this family and I hope you will trust I know what I am doing.”
“If this is about a helper to look after Liam I’m sure I can sort that out. Your mother has sent me some recommendations of agencies I can try.” Daniel’s mother had lived with us during the last winter while she recovered from a bout of influenza but was now safely back at her house in Westchester County. I was sure she had been writing to Daniel telling him how unsuitable it was for a police captain’s wife to be doing all of her own cooking, cleaning, and child minding. I didn’t mind the work, though. I preferred to keep busy and active and spend time with my son.
But Mother Sullivan had plans for Daniel to advance. He had been the youngest-ever police captain in the New York Police Department and his mother was hoping for a career in politics for him. I was fine with him and with our life just as it was. We lived in a sweet little house on Patchin Place that I had purchased myself when I ran my own detective agency. Although I had given up being a detective when I married Daniel I had found myself doing the odd spot of sleuthing since, and between ourselves I did sometimes help him with his cases. That was why I was not opposed to Mrs. Sullivan’s plan to have a girl live in and help with Liam. It had been useful, I reflected, to have Mother Sullivan around to watch Liam if I wanted to go out and investigate.
“No, that’s not it exactly, although it will change our domestic situation.” He cleared his throat while I looked at him expectantly. “It’s actually very good news. I’ve been asked to run for sheriff and I’m going to do it.”
“Sheriff? Of what? Of where?” My mind immediately went to the Wild West. Men galloping on horses and firing guns.
“The County of New York. It includes the five boroughs,” he said. “It’s an important position.”
“Asked, by whom?” Questions swirled in my head. A ball came whizzing over our heads followed by a group of laughing college students from the university on the other side of the square.
“Ball. I want da ball.” Liam stood up quickly in the pram. I rushed to grab him before he managed to climb out and lifted him down beside me.
“Take Mama’s hand, darling.” I walked with him in silence for a moment and then turned to Daniel. “It’s an elected position? And someone has asked you to run?”
“Actually, I’m on the Tammany ticket. They will be announcing it tomorrow at Tammany Hall.”
“Tomorrow?” I stopped and looked at him in astonishment. Liam tugged at my hand.
“Mama. Ball! Liam wants to play.” I held on firmly while I tried to compose my racing thoughts.
“But you hate Tammany and all those bribes and kickbacks. Why on earth would you run on their ticket? And who is the sheriff of New York when he’s at home anyway?”
Daniel gave the pram a big push and replied without looking at me, “There are a few things I can’t explain, Molly. That’s why I need you to trust me. The sheriff is a bit like the police commissioner, only his mandate is broader. He runs the prison system and the courts, not the police department. You know how much that needs reforming. The Tammany man who was supposed to run has gotten himself involved in a scandal and has left the city for a while until it blows over. I’m sure you will read about it in that Hearst rag in the next few days. They asked me to step in as a last-minute replacement.”
“But why would you want to? Surely you love being a police captain, especially since you’ve been in charge of homicide. It’s a prestigious job, Daniel.”
Daniel continued pushing the pram, still staring straight ahead. “It’s my chance to do some good, Molly. If I get in as sheriff I can do away with some of the corruption. You remember what it was like when I was in prison myself. I nearly died in that hellhole. I can really do some good.”
“But with Tammany Hall? Daniel, they will never let you go your own way. You know that. You’ll owe them for your position and they will make you pay them back.”
“I’m sorry, Molly. It’s settled.” Daniel’s voice was now firm. “I have said yes and I expect you to support me. There are some things you don’t understand.”
“Because I’m a woman?” My temper flared. I should mention that red hair and a quick temper are my two leading characteristics.
“Because there are things you don’t know and I can’t tell you.” He turned back toward the arch. “There’s more to this surprise. Follow me.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! My heart can’t take any more.” Daniel put a protesting Liam back in his pram and lengthened his stride so much I had to hurry to keep up. We swept through the Marble Arch at the entrance to the park and then up Fifth Avenue. I wondered where we were heading. To Tammany Hall? “Daniel, slow down, where are we going?”
“You’ll see.” He looked back at me, gave me an encouraging smile, then strode ahead. A good surprise this time, then. On the other side of Ninth Street Daniel stopped at an impressive flight of marble steps with a wrought-iron railing leading up to a white door framed with a decorated arch.
“Let’s pay a call, shall we?” Daniel lifted Liam out of the pram and into my arms then climbed the steps and rang the bell.
“Wait, Daniel,” I called after him. “Who are we visiting? You should have warned me. I’m not suitably dressed. A stroll, you said.”
Daniel looked back and smiled. “You look fine,” he said. “Don’t worry.”
I came up the steps beside him and stood rather nervously on the stoop. Really, I like a surprise, but this was going too far. Was sheriff that high a position that Daniel would now know people who lived in Fifth Avenue houses like this? Had we been invited to tea and here was I in my usual two-piece costume and not a tea dress? It had probably never occurred to Daniel that women like to know in advance what to wear for every occasion. Honestly, men can be infuriating. But it was too late to turn back now.
The door was answered by a maid who didn’t show any surprise at seeing us. “You must be Captain and Mrs. Sullivan,” she said, giving us a shy smile as she dropped a curtsey. “You are expected, please come in. I’m Mary.” We walked into the front hall and Daniel took off his hat and hung it on the hat stand, then helped me off with my cloak and hung it up as well. The marble floor echoed as I set Liam down and he stomped his foot experimentally then headed toward the staircase in front of us.
“Shh. Liam, come here.” I grabbed him hurriedly and lifted him up again. The maid waited and then indicated we should follow her through a curtained doorway. “The parlor is through here, sir.”
I walked in with a bright smile on my face expecting to be introduced to the man or lady of the house, but the parlor was empty. A fire burned in the marble fireplace. A table in the center of the room under the electric chandelier held a priceless-looking vase, and ornate shelves across from me were full of decorative plates, cups, and figurines. I instinctively clutched Liam a little tighter, making sure his hands were safely out of the way, and decided that putting him down here was not a good idea.
“The family drawing room is back here, sir.” She led us through another doorway and into a comfortable-looking drawing room. The room was crowded with delicate embroidered sofas and chairs and carved mahogany tables in many sizes. There was a beautiful Persian rug on the floor and a large tapestry on the far wall. But still no people. My mind spun. Had Daniel brought me to a murder scene? Hardly an outing to which you bring your son. Were the owners of the house very shy?
“The dining room is at the back of the house and bedrooms are upstairs, sir, if you will follow me.” Mary continued after a pause as we looked around the empty drawing room. The bedrooms?
“Daniel.” I turned to him in exasperation. “Why are we seeing the bedrooms? Is the owner an invalid?”
“No,” he replied, already heading toward the stairs.
“Daniel!” I called after him. “What is going on? Whose house is this?”
He turned to me with a big smile. “Yours.” He put his arms around both Liam and me. “Ours. Welcome to your new home, Mrs. Sullivan!”
Two
Sunday, October 6
For perhaps the first time in my life I was speechless. So many things came into my mind at once that I couldn’t utter a single word. Was this a joke? Would Daniel really move us across town without my opinion? What about my house in Patchin Place? How on earth could we afford a house like this, let alone a maid who seemed to have expected us? That last thought made me remember that the maid was hovering a few steps up the staircase, waiting for an answer, and I broke away from Daniel’s hug. “Let’s talk about this later, Daniel,” I said, smiling through gritted teeth.
“Thank you, Mary. We would appreciate seeing the bedrooms,” Daniel said hurriedly. He knew my temper and that I was inclined to speak my mind in any situation. The girl led the way up the stairs. Liam insisted on being put down and climbing each stair himself, holding on to Daniel’s hand. Mary waited patiently at the top of the stairs. If my head had not been spinning I might have enjoyed the fact that I was going to see the upstairs of a Fifth Avenue house. I had often wondered about their layout with the front door not in the center but at the right-hand edge of the house. Now I could see that the stairs went up two stories along the right side. At the top of the first set of stairs was a landing.
“There is a main bedroom here.” Mary indicated the room on her left. A young girl in a maid’s uniform was standing in front of the door clearly waiting to greet us. “This is Aileen,” Mary introduced her. Aileen bobbed a curtsey. She looked to be no more than sixteen. Her unruly light brown hair was spilling out of her maid’s cap. She had blue eyes and red cheeks full of freckles. Her eyes lit up when she saw Liam.
“Who’s this little man, then?” She crouched down to his eye level. “I’ll bet that you want to see the nursery. There is a horse and everything.” She had a soft country lilt that took me instantly back to my childhood in County Mayo.
I expected Liam to shrink back against me, but instead he perked up. “Horsey?”
“Is it all right if I take him, miss?” She looked uncertain. “I mean Mrs.?” She made it a question.
“Mrs. Sullivan,” I offered.
“See the horsey?” Liam piped up.
“Yes, all right, my boy, go and see the horsey.” Daniel patted him on the back and he put his little hand in Aileen’s outstretched one. They started up the stairs to the third floor.
Mary looked after Aileen, rather disapprovingly I thought. She showed us around the bedroom, decorated in the frilly Victorian style. There was a lace doily on every surface and the bed was covered with embroidered cushions. There were two dressing rooms, one very masculine-looking with dark wood surfaces and the other just as frilly as the bedroom with a rather sweet embroidered daybed and an enormous mirror. Bridie will love this, I thought, then immediately reproved myself. As soon as we left this house I would have plenty to say about whether we would be moving here or not! Until then, I decided I would play along with the pretense that we were moving here. The rest of the level had two more bedrooms, a spacious bathroom with a large claw-footed tub, and a lavatory. A thought struck me.
“Daniel, those bedrooms have no fireplaces. Aren’t they bitterly cold in winter?”
Mary answered before he could. “The whole house is on steam heat, Mrs. Sullivan. Did you see the radiators? The rooms are so warm the family has to open the windows sometimes. Even the lavatory!” She looked at Daniel and looked away with a blush as if embarrassed she had mentioned the lavatory in front of him.
The second staircase led up to the maids’ rooms and the nursery. We could hear thumping as we walked down the hall to the nursery and as we opened the door we saw Liam in full gallop on the most enormous rocking horse. It had soft velveteen hair, a braided mane, button eyes, and a bright blue leather saddle and bridle. I could imagine that any child would fall instantly in love with it.
“Giddyup!” Liam was shouting as Aileen stood beside him, arms outstretched in case he fell. The rest of the nursery was like a picture in a book. It had a sweet little child’s bed with a lace coverlet, low shelves full of books, wooden blocks and toys, and a tiny desk and chair.
“That’s enough now, Mr. Liam,” Aileen said, and helped Liam off the horse. To my surprise he put up no fuss at all but just stood by her side holding her hand.
“Mrs. Sullivan, I would be happy to watch little Liam whenever you might need it,” Aileen spoke up. “I can still do my work,” she said quickly as if we had raised an objection. “Lord knows I’ve watched my own brothers and sisters and kept house for my da at the same time. Not a house as grand as this,” she hastened to add, as if I would be offended by the comparison. “But I do miss the little ones.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. I could hardly say, “I will not be coming to live here after Captain Sullivan and I have had a talk and I have no idea why we are here or who is going to pay your salary.” So I said, “That sounds lovely, let me talk to Captain Sullivan about it and I will let you know.”
Mary led us back downstairs. “When will you be moving in, Captain Sullivan? So I can let Cook know,” she asked as we came down into the front hall.
“This Thursday. We will be sending our things over on Wednesday evening,” Daniel said without looking at me. “Luncheon will be our first meal. Is the cook here?”
Copyright © 2023 by Janet Quin-Harkin (writing as Rhys Bowen) and Clare Broyles
