Must the Maiden Die Read Free Page B

she wrote that first she
wanted to spend a few days in Rochester with her family. Then she
would come on here by train today."
    "If the trains were filled with troops, she
might have taken a packet boat." Cullen twisted in the saddle to
look toward the canal. "I'll check down at the boat landing."
    He guided the Morgan toward Fall Street and
the Seneca River's canal, which ran below and parallel to the road,
while Glynis decided she should check the telegraph office in the
event Bronwen had wired. She tried not to imagine how Emma would
react when told her cousin had failed to arrive.
    She was walking past the station house when
a tall, fair-haired woman emerged from it. Her face was plainly
distressed as she glanced around her, and she stood there at the
door before taking a few steps to a nearby wooden bench. After
sinking onto it, she brought up her hands to cover her face. Glynis
had slowed, at first thinking she had seen the woman somewhere
before, although the burgundy wool, hoop-skirted dress and cloak
looked more elegant than were usually seen in Seneca Falls; the
black, soft-leather shoes and kid gloves more appropriate for city
streets. In comparison to her garments, the woman's fine gold hair
beneath a black velvet bonnet struck a discordant note. Its
disheveled appearance suggested a long train ride. It could mean
that she, despite Glynis's initial impression, was a stranger to
Seneca Falls.
    Glynis could not have said what made her
approach the woman. It might have been the prod of memory, the
recollection of another well-dressed woman who, years before, had
come to town a stranger, and whose life shortly thereafter had been
ended by murder. A murder that could possibly have been prevented,
Glynis had always felt with guilty remorse, if someone like herself
had thought to inquire the woman's intent.
    She crossed the cobbled paving to stand
before the woman, and said cautiously, "Please excuse me if I'm
intruding, but I wonder if I might be of help?"
    The woman's hands dropped to her lap and
startled, blue eyes met those of Glynis. "I don't know," she
answered in a hesitant voice which sounded not so much weak as
troubled.
    "Were you to be met?" Glynis asked, although
the woman did not strike her as someone who would collapse over the
absence of a reception.
    "No," the woman answered. "But I believe
there is someone I know...that is, I hadn't expected anyone to
meet me." Her voice now sounded more steady, and she attempted a
smile. "I'm just feeling somewhat overwhelmed by what I've
done."
    Glynis seated herself on the bench, nodding
in encouragement, and trusting that the woman would go on to
explain what exactly it was she had done. When she did not, Glynis
gave the woman her name, then said again, "I'd like to be of help,
if I can."
    The woman straightened, saying, "I apologize
if I've seemed ungrateful. My name is Elise Jager and I've come
here from . . . from east of Syracuse, and . . ." Her voice trailed
off, while she studied Glynis. She evidently came to a decision,
because she continued, "I have reason to believe that my daughter
is here in this town, but I don't know where to begin looking for
her."
    When she did not offer more to Glynis, her
silence raised immediate questions: Why was this woman's daughter
in Seneca Falls, and not in Syracuse? How on earth could a woman
lose track of her own child? Glynis didn't ask. Elise Jager's
expression held every indication of intelligence, so she must have
known that her words would be heard as odd ones. And if she didn't
choose to explain herself, Glynis wouldn't intrude further, not
with Bronwen's whereabouts continuing to concern her. She should be
off to the telegraph office.
    "Perhaps you could start with the constable,
Mrs. Jager," she said. Because of the gloves, she could see no
ring, but assumed that if the woman had a daughter she was, or had
been, married. If not, that might answer the questions.
    "Constable Stuart left here a few minutes
ago," Glynis