Deftly done, Julia thought, wondering,Who is Walter?
“My sister apologizes for the delay,” Princess Louise said. “She nursed the little princesses through colds and then wrote reams of family news.”
“I’ve extracted the information about Lizzy Dowling and Lady Middlebury,” Susan said, handing Julia a piece of paper. “After Prince Albert’s death, the question of who should surround the queen became—”
“To be blunt, Mama, in her misery, found it hard to bear the happiness of others. Lady Middlebury was a recent widow, so she was the ideal companion for the queen.”
“The lady had been left with limited means,” Susan said. “She wrote to Princess Alice, accepting the position of lady-in-waiting. But there was a problem. A young servant, a local girl who’d fallen on hard times, had come under her wing.”
“My sister remembers Lady Middlebury writing of a promiseshe made to look after the girl,” Louise said. “So, a place was found at Osborne House for her ‘little Kildare bird.’ Lady Middlebury’s family seat was at Kilcullen in Kildare, and the girl came from a nearby village.”
“Princess Alice remembers a younger sister was settled somewhere in Ireland.” Susan sighed. “Brigid Dowling, one supposes.”
Princess Louise asked, “Will any of this be useful to Inspector Tennant?”
“Two things are interesting,” Julia said. “Lizzie Dowling attracted a surprising number of influential friends, including you, Princess. What was it about the girl?”
Louise considered. “It’s hard to put into words, and if you asked for an instance, I’m not sure.” She shrugged, at a loss. “I suppose I felt a kindness in her toward me. Oh, not because I was a royal and she a servant. She was sensitive to moods and needs. Most of all, I believed I could trust her with my … with any troubles. And when she spoke of her younger sister, I thought she would do anything for that girl.”
“Brigid Dowling said something like that in her last letter, poor girl,” Lady Styles said. “But you said two things, Julia.”
“Princess Alice names a location. The Dowling sisters came from a village near Kilcullen in Kildare. It’s a place to start.”
That night, at her dressing table, Julia realized Kate was no longer brushing her hair. Her maid looked back at her in the mirror, smiling.
“You’ve something on your mind, Doctor Julie, or you’d have stopped me five minutes ago.” Kate lifted Julia’s hair and spread it across her back. “You should wear it loose and lovely, like Princess Louise in the picture card you gave me.”
“I can see Nurse Clemmie’s face. She’d frown and hand me a set of hairpins.”
“Still,” Kate said, pointing the brush in the mirror. “You’vegot color in your cheeks and a sparkle in your eye. More than you had all those weeks when the inspector was away.”
Julia took the brush and set it aside. “I was thinking about Lizzie Dowling. Something I learned today.”
“Is that all?” Kate sighed. “And what might that be?”
“Before she served the queen, she worked in Ireland in the household of Lady Middlebury.”
“From a high place to a higher one.”
“Lizzie came from a village somewhere in Kildare.” Julia swung her legs around and faced her maid. “How does it work, Kate? I imagine people leaving Ireland might settle together in London or Liverpool neighborhoods. Yes?”
“’Tis like a daisy chain, one following the other. An older brother makes a few pounds and sends for the younger. That man knows of a job on the docks and an empty room in his boardinghouse, so he writes to a cousin.Hetravels with his friend who lives in the cottage down the lane.”
“So, with a little digging, you could discover where people from a particular part of Kildare cluster.”
“Are you wanting me to ask around about the Dowling sisters?”
“No, Kate, not you. There’s a dangerous man out there. Sergeant O’Malley, on the other hand, is just the person. Speaking of the sergeant … did I see him walking from the tradesmen’s entrance the other day, eating a scone?”
“He was after dropping off those reports from the inspector. He stopped for a civil word and a bite.”
“I see,” Julia said, her smile widening. “A civil word and drawn by Cook’s baking. Nothing else?”
“As to that, I couldn’t say.” A pink-faced Kate put her hand on the wooden handle of the copper bed warmer. “Should I take it out, or will you?”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Don’t be staying awake ’til all hours when you’re up with the birds.”
