Charlotte nodded. “May I keep these so I can refresh my memory on the details and learn some names of the significant people at the shipyard.”
“Of course,” Rose said, noticing how Charlotte seemed to radiate with barely concealed excitement over having an assignment fall into her hands.
“Give me a week,” Charlotte said, “and we’ll see what I can find out. For now, no more talk of secrets and disasters. Tell me about the upcoming wedding. Any new developments?”
Rose took a deep breath.Secrets and disasters. Hm, that about summed up any thought of her engagement to William. What could she say? She launched into a discussion of her dress and of William’s mother’s idea for the celebration feast, all the while feeling as if she were acting a role — the part of the blushing bride, when in truth, she was already a beleaguered wife.
***
Charlotte didn’t go to the shipyard to begin her investigation as one might expect. Rather, on instinct and from a keen sense of how the world worked, she drove her carriage up Atlantic Avenue from her home on India Wharf, straight to Commercial Street and to the offices of the Insurance Company of North America.
Though its headquarters were located in Philadelphia, Charlotte was well aware of the prestigious and busy branch nestled in the heart of Boston’s wharves and shipping industry. If anyone had information on the sinking and any subsequent financial settlement regarding theGarrard, it would be the ICNA.
She settled a dazzling smile upon the first clerk she encountered and a few minutes later, upon his superior. Within a short while, she was seated at a desk with records of all claims made after theGarrard’s sinking. It was a goldmine of information.
Naturally, Kelly’s yard was represented and had been reimbursed by the underwriter, as well as the ship’s owner, Mr. Dilbey. When she saw a private individual’s name, she took note of it with a slight frown and a feeling that, unfortunately, her intuition would be correct. Someone had made money off those men’s lives, someone who’d gambled that the ship would sink and had won. Even stranger, she was sure she’d read the name before in one of Rose’s saved papers.
Adjusting the green shaded desk lamp, she compared the names to the ship’s manifesto from the newspaper, and then the real mystery began.
