Murder on Washington Square

Murder on Washington Square Read Free

Book: Murder on Washington Square Read Free
Author: Victoria Thompson
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give her this time?”
    “Not much. Just enough to pay her rent and keep her for a month. She was going to find a job, so she could support herself.”
    This would be highly unlikely. Jobs for young women paid so poorly that the girls could hardly afford to give their own families a pittance for their board, much less provide their own independent accommodations. And a girl who’d lived a sheltered life in a respectable home wouldn’t last a day in one of the sweatshops. “I don’t suppose she was able to find a suitable position,” Sarah said.
    “I had no idea it was so difficult for young women to earn a living!” Nelson said, outraged. “Poor Anna looked everywhere. I called on her several times to make sure she was all right, but she was becoming more and more disheartened. I offered to pay her expenses for another month, but that only distressed her more. I . . . I . . .” His pale face flushed, and he could no longer meet her eye.
    “Am I to assume you gave her more than comfort?” Sarah asked as discreetly as she could.
    “I have no excuse,” Nelson said, covering his face with both hands. “What I did was despicable. To take advantage of someone so helpless and unprotected . . .”
    Sarah would reserve judgment until she’d heard the entire story. “There’s no use flogging yourself over it now. I’m going to assume that your indiscretion has resulted in this Anna being with child. Am I correct?”
    “That’s what she believes,” Nelson confirmed bleakly. “I have offered to marry her. It is the least I can do, but . . .”
    Sarah thought she saw the problem. “I’m sure you want to do the right thing, but marriage is a huge commitment, particularly with someone you hardly know. If there was no child after all, then it wouldn’t be necessary.”
    “I’m not trying to escape my responsibilities, Mrs. Brandt,” Nelson quickly assured her. “I would feel obligated to marry Anna even if there is no child. I dishonored her, after all. But she . . . she refuses to consider it!”
    This was not what Sarah had expected to hear. “Why won’t she marry you?” she asked in amazement.
    “She said she doesn’t want to disgrace me. You see, she assumed from the beginning that I was married, because of my responsible position at the bank and everything. She was shocked to learn I wasn’t, but even then, she said everyone would know why I’d married her, and I would be pitied and tied to a woman who would be of no assistance to me in my ambitions. I won’t deny those things are important to me, Mrs. Brandt, but I can’t—”
    “What does she want from you, then?” Sarah asked, tired of his justifications and trying to make sense of the whole thing.
    He looked ashamed to have to say the words aloud. “She wants a sum of money so she can go away somewhere and raise the child by herself.”
    At last Sarah was beginning to understand. “How much did she want?”
    “A . . . a thousand dollars should be sufficient.” He would not look her in the eye. “Invested properly, it could bring—”
    “Do you even have a thousand dollars?” Sarah asked in amazement.
    “No, but—”
    “And where does she propose you get it?”
    This time the color staining his face was more than embarrassment. “She doesn’t know a lot about business, Mrs. Brandt, and she believes I am very successful. I work in a bank, you see, and many people believe bankers own the money in their institutions. I’m sure she has no idea that I couldn’t simply write a check for that amount.”
    Sarah no longer believed this Anna was the innocent Nelson thought her. Anna’s refusal to marry him made no sense at all for a respectable girl, and Sarah was growing more concerned for Nelson every moment. “You still haven’t told me why you invited me to meet you,” she reminded him.
    “Oh, I’m sorry! I thought it would be clear. I was hoping . . . that is, if you would be so kind, could you speak with Anna? She may not even

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