“I didn’t decide to get married on the same day as Elsy—she decided that. She’s annoyingly difficult when she gets her heart set on an idea, even though I pointed out to her that she was going to have to delay her wedding to Phillip by months since Cooper got that promotion and was sent out on a case we knew was going to take him months to solve.”
“But because of that delay, you’re now going to be able to get married in a castle.” Eunice smiled. “Add in the fact that Elsy was able to retain her position as a paid companion for a few extra months, months during which I was then able to find and train replacements for both her and you, and I believe everything has worked out to perfection.”
“Rose Santana probably believes everything worked out well too since she was worried she might have to take on a companion role after learning Elsy and I were getting married.”
“Rose is much too good at manning the reception room for me to have considered having her replace you or Elsy. She’s formidable yet compassionate and knows a thing or two about how to console the distraught clients who seek us out, a skill I imagine she picked up at Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum.”
“She’s also very good with my darling Branson,” Daphne said, strolling into the room while cradling her son in her arms. She stopped in her tracks the moment she caught sight of Ann and grinned. “You’re looking rather frightful today.”
“Tandler funeral.”
“Ah, well, that explains it, and since they’re a frightening family, you’ll fit right in. Is Hazel going as your hired gun?”
“Of course. I’m just waiting for her to get here. She and Lloyd were having tea at Rutherford & Company and are expected to join me in the next hour.”
“While you’re waiting for her to arrive, would you mind watching Branson?” Daphne asked, handing her sleeping child over when Ann immediately held out her arms. “I have a client who showed up early and Herman seems to be running late. He’s turning in a new book, so his tardiness was expected, but I can’t very well have Branson in the room when I know Mrs. Jordan is not going to react well after I tell her she wasn’t imagining things and that her husband has taken to gallivanting around town in the company of questionable women.”
“Branson will be just fine with me,” Ann said as she placed a kiss on Branson’s forehead, a kiss that didn’t have him stirring in the least. “You know I can never refuse an opportunity to hold this little darling.”
“Does that mean you wouldn’t refuse a request to spend time with him tomorrow afternoon, which would allow me time to polish off my latest novel?”
“I can be there by noon, after I help Cooper put our new recruits through his improved physical exertion lessons.”
“I’m sorry I’ll have to miss those because of my deadline,” Daphne said with a grin, her grin fading when the sound of Mrs. Jordan’s voice drifted through the doorway, the clear note of impatience causing Daphne to blow out a breath before she hurried out of the room.
“I see Mrs. Jordan is back again,” Gabriella said, striding into the office a second after Daphne disappeared, looking striking in an afternoon dress that had, of course, been designed by Phillip, who’d had to hire on ten new dressmakers just to keep up with the business that kept pouring through his door. She dropped into the nearest chair and shoved an errant strand of hair out of her face. “Poor Daphne always seems to get the overly dramatic clients.”
“Where’s Prudence?” Eunice asked, setting aside a file on a potential client.
“Nicholas has her today. His father, Rookwood, has been dying to take Prudence for a carriage ride through Central Park, so Nicholas is meeting him there. I believe Professor Cameron is going as well.” Gabriella smiled. “It’s amazing how Prudence has those gentlemen wrapped around her tiny finger already.”
“Nicholas is going to have his work cut out for him once she reaches her majority, because she is a beauty,” Eunice said.
“She’ll marry Branson, of course,” Ann said, stroking little Branson’s cheek.
As Gabriella and Ann began planning Branson and Prudence’s futures for them, although it was completely likely the children would have minds of their own, given who their parents were, Eunice leaned back in the chair as thoughts of how everyone’s lives at the Holbrooke Boardinghouse had changed so significantly ever since they’d had the audacity to take on the case of Miss Jeanette Moore almost two years before, a decision that had altered every lady’s life in the most unexpected yet delightful of ways.
Before the formation of the Bleecker Street Inquiry Agency, she’d been a woman alone, except for Ivan and Alma, disguisingthe truth of who she really was beneath her widow’s weeds and veils because she’d been afraid to live her life in the open, afraid of a nameless monster who’d murdered her grandfather.
But with the formation of the Bleecker Street Inquiry Agency, she’d formed real friendships for the first time in her life and had found a purpose in that life as well, that being helping others seek justice when no one else would. She’d also found the best thing in her life—a love that was forever in the form of Arthur Livingston.
He understood her, didn’t expect to manage her, and filled her days with laughter and spirited debates, which always ended in the most delightful of ways, normally involving a great deal of kissing.
She’d been right that Arthur knew his way around a kiss.
“Did you see where there’s been more reform at Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum because of that article Nellie Bly wrote?” Gabriella asked, drawing Eunice from her thoughts.
She nodded. “I found it interesting that a reporter was able to go undercover and not be detected after we’d done the exact same thing mere weeks before Miss Bly set out to get her story. But thank goodness she released that story. Now additional steps can continue to be taken to improve conditions there.”
“Arthur told me you’ve been thinking about having the Howland Foundation break ground on asylums throughout the country.”
Eunice nodded. “Now that development has begun on the old Green farm, Mason Mines is yielding more copper than ever, which means my fortune is increasing at an alarming rate. I can’t bear to allow that money to go to waste like Grandfather did, hence the decision to build more asylums. Reverend Danford is thrilled with that decision and is excited to begin working with local churches to ascertain there’ll be services offered at least two times a week at each asylum. He and I are in full agreement that providing the most vulnerable amongst us with a message of hope may very well see some of the patients suffering from acute melancholy improve through sermons devoted to good news and the power of healing through a loving God.”
Gabriella smiled. “And while I agree that the country needsinstitutions that actually care for the state of their patients’ well-being, you might have to pull back just a little, especially when you reach the stage where you’re tossing up your accounts all the time.”
Ann’s mouth dropped open. “Eunice, are you...?”
“Shh...” Eunice said as she heard Arthur’s voice in the hallway. “I haven’t told him yet.”
