Death at Woods Hole by Frances McNamara

Author:Frances McNamara [Frances McNamara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rudiyat Press
Published: 2022-01-10T00:00:00+00:00

nineteen

Well, I don’t care what he says. I don’t believe she did it.” Jane Topham was busy slicing a cake and laying the pieces out on a plate. It was the day of the funeral and I’d stayed behind with her to prepare for the mourners to return. Many of the local women brought food and we were laying it out buffet style in the dining room, preparing for an influx after the service. It brought back fresh memories of my mother’s passing. It had been only the previous spring that we’d lost her forever, and I was sad to be reminded of it. But Jane was her normal cheery self, even making excuses for Clara. “About the dye in the experiments, of course I don’t know about that. I have nothing to do with the laboratory and all of that, but for the fire here, why should they believe Clara set that? Why, perhaps it was that little Miss Reynolds herself. Could be she wanted the attention. You see how all the men want to protect her, poor little thing.” She wagged a finger at me over the crumb cake she was slicing. “I’ve seen that type before. They seem so helpless, but somehow they get things to happen. Why did she come? Because her fiancé wasn’t making time for her, isn’t that so? She comes, she sees that he has an assistant who’s a striking beauty, what can she do? How can she draw all the attention away to herself? Well, what about a little fire? Hmm? I’m telling you, I’ve seen that kind of woman before. I wouldn’t be surprised if she set the fire herself just to get all that attention.” She stopped her work and looked me in the eye. “You’d be amazed what you see as a nurse. Some of the families I’ve attended. You see all sorts of things about human nature and a lot of it is not pretty.”

She returned to her work and I continued sorting through some laundered napkins, rolling them and placing them into round holders. I wanted to believe Clara was innocent. I still felt awful about telling Professor Whitman it was Clara—not Sinclair—who had ruined Frank Lillie’s experiment. But I couldn’t stand there and let him lie about it, when he had just told me he was with Louisa while Clara was at the laboratory. I shook myself. “But what about the other fires? Louisa wasn’t here for those.”

She snorted. “Children. Just like everyone thought. In fact, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it wasn’t that Billy Gordon who set them. You know bad blood shows in the end. And there’s a history there, in the Davis family—the grandfather, you know.” She shook her head. “There’s something very queer there. They keep the child away from his grandfather, have you noticed that? Don’t you forget he’s the one who thought it was all right for Freeman to stab his little daughter to death. Oh, yes, they keep the young ones away from the old man.

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