“All I’m interested in is Miss Davis’s answer.”He leaned against the table.“May I come to your house and determine if I can fix your steps?”
“I’m sure I will regret this, but you may.”Miss Davis’s regal nod punctuated her answer.“It would be nice to not have to lay towels in front of the door or sweep puddles every time it rains hard.Besides, I can always shoot you if you come inside uninvited.”
“Duly noted.No entrance into the Davis house.”
“I saiduninvited.”
“Then I will look forward to my eventual invitation.”
“As it happens”—Miss Davis rose from the table, forcing Ezekiel and Detective Hall to stand as well—“you’ll have to come through the house to reach the back.Our house shares walls with our neighbors on either side.”
They caught a horsecar a few streets over, and Miss Pelton deftly maneuvered her fiancé to the front, lending Ezekiel and Miss Davis privacy at the middle.Miss Davis knitted the entire ride, though her eyes constantly patrolled the interior.They often lingered on someone in the back corner, but he couldn’t determine who from his angle.He only knew she endlessly shifted and seemed ill at ease.
“You don’t have to keep looking around.I’m right here,” he joked.
She shot him an annoyed side-glance, then returned to her knitting and darting looks.
“What are you looking for?Or who?”
She dropped a stitch and focused on slipping it back on the needle as she spoke.“Nothing.No one.”
Though she wasn’t pale or trembling, a sneaking suspicion arose.“Do you see the ghost of your nightmare?”
Her head jerked up.“No!I—I just always make a point of being aware of my surroundings.You never know when someone might—” She cut off her words with a shake and focused on her next stitch.“You’ll have to forgive the state of my home.I’m not prepared for visitors, and with Father expecting to be gone several more days, I took extra precautions against intruders.”
“A wise move.Am I to assume Lily is not staying with you while he is gone?”
Her voice lowered.“No, she is not.”She drew a deep breath and straightened.The smile she gave was forced, and he decided he preferred the expressionless mask to the lie she placed before him.“But I am safe enough without her.”
She said it, but he doubted even she believed it.Before he left, he’d see what he could do to make her feel more secure.
The horsecar stopped a few streets south of the Miami Canal, alongside a modest strip of row houses.He could see the appeal of choosing a home here.A five-minute walk east would allow her to pass over “the Rhine,” as the locals called the canal, and enter an area so heavily German that it might as well be called Little Germany.Ezekiel often ventured there for good food, entertainment, and to test his German.Her proximity to the Bellevue Incline meant she was an easy distance from Miss Plane and the lively entertainment of the Bellevue House at the top of the hill.He had three days off in a couple weeks, after Sarah Bernhardt left.Perhaps he could convince Miss Davis to join him on one of those evenings for supper, music, and dancing.
“Will you allow me to escort you properly, now that we are out of church?”He offered his arm and waited.
Miss Davis glanced over her shoulder at the other departing passengers, swallowed hard, and then took his arm with such a tight hold, he looked back.The same heavily veiled woman from the church stepped down from the horsecar.That was odd.It was far too long after services to reasonably cross paths, especially on this particular streetcar that wasn’t on a direct route from the church.She could have visited friends, but deep mourning such as her clothes indicated usually precluded such visits.Ezekiel angled to get a better view.The woman walked the opposite direction and eventually turned the corner.The timing was odd, but beyond that, he couldn’t surmise what else might cause Miss Davis’s reaction.
Ezekiel pulled Miss Davis’s attention from the now-empty corner with a squeeze to her arm.“Are you having second thoughts about showing me to your home?I confess there is no going back now.Detective Hall and Miss Pelton are already waiting for us on your stoop.”
“No, but I need to go first.”She didn’t release his arm until they reached the front.“Allow me to disarm the traps.”
“Traps?”He glanced at Detective Hall and Miss Pelton, but neither seemed surprised or concerned.
Miss Davis unlocked and opened the door slowly, keeping her left arm raised as she crouched.What on earth?There was a clatter of something hitting the floor, then a white-and-blue pitcher swung into her hand with a loud smack.It rolled off to continue its path, albeit more slowly.Miss Davis stopped its swinging with both hands, thenstepped to the side and held it out of the way as Detective Hall, Miss Pelton, and Ezekiel entered.
Ezekiel studied the remains of her trap to discern what she’d done.A long string was tied to the door’s handle at one end, and at the other end, a wooden dowel lay on the floor.The pitcher in Miss Davis’s hands dangled from a thicker rope looped around a hook in the ceiling.Farther back and high on the wall, a block attached to a hinge hung down.If he had to guess, the dowel held the block up to keep the pitcher in a swing-ready position until the door opening jerked the dowel free.That was some ingenuity.No intruder sneaking through the front door would ever expect a pitcher to come flying at their head.
After closing the door, Miss Davis slid a nearby ladder beneath the ceiling hook and climbed it with the pitcher held at her hip.
Ezekiel stepped forward to steady her should she lose her balance.“I can do whatever you need.Climbing a ladder in skirts is dangerous.”Especially one-handed.
“Nonsense, I do this all the time.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”
“If you’re so concerned, hold this.”She passed him the pitcher, then unhooked the rope loop from the fixture.
Ezekiel stayed tense with anticipation of her fall until she had both feet on the floor.
