Taken Too Soon by Edith Maxwell

Author:Edith Maxwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: amateur sleuth, midwife, nineteenth century, 1800s, quaker, amesbury massachusetts
Publisher: Beyond the Page Publishing

Chapter Twenty-nine

“Miss Carroll?” Brigid hailed me as I walked past the market on my way to Sadie’s. She stood in the doorway with an envelope in her hand.

In those few minutes since I’d left Edwin, the precipitation had completely ceased to fall. I pushed back the cloak’s hood and let it flap open.

“Yes, Brigid?” I looked both ways and crossed the road ahead of a spirited team of stallions pulling a large closed carriage.

“A Special Delivery letter for you came in earlier. I spied you through the screen.” She handed me the missive.

“I thank thee.” Could I bear any more bad news this morning? Whether I could or not, I needed to read the contents. I opened the envelope and blew out a breath. It was from Daddy, and the only news was what I had learned from Tilly yesterday about Frannie’s origins. He ended the message by writing, Shall I come to West Falmouth?

The idea stopped me. My husband was gone. Did I want my father here as support? Or maybe he meant to provide solace to his sister. I flapped the paper in my hand. I needed to send a reply.

“I hope it’s not after being bad news.” Brigid clasped her hands and looked worried.

“No, no. Please don’t concern thyself. But I do need to send a note in return. Can thee sell me a single sheet of paper and an envelope?”

“Of course. Come with me.”

“Wait a moment,” I said. “I heard something troubling this morning, and I wondered if thee had witnessed it, too.”

“If I can help you, ma’am, I’d be honored.”

In the moment, I decided not to tell her Hazel was my informant. “When I was here two days ago, Abial Latting came by the market. Does thee remember?”

“That man is hard to forget, he is.”

“At the time thee mentioned one wouldn’t want to get in his way, correct?”

“By the blessed Mary, yes. It’s a fact, Mrs. Dodge.” She nodded vigorously.

“Did thee ever see him, ah, dallying with Frannie around town? Possibly in a clandestine manner?”

She squinted at me. “I’m not knowing this word, dallying.”

“I mean, he might have acted overly affectionate toward Frannie, a young unmarried girl.”

“Oh, ho. So dallying means trying to, you know, get into her knickers, does it? Hoping to get her alone so he can shag her?”

Shag must connote the sexual act. I hemmed and hawed for a moment. “Dally doesn’t signify exactly that, but yes, that’s what I meant.”

“Sure, and I saw them more than once. Out behind the Quaker carriage sheds one time, and down beyond the wharf building. But he wasn’t the only gent hoping to get too close to Frannie.”

“Oh?”

“There was that other lad. No, he’s too old to be a lad, and a slick chap, he is. Looked for all the world like he thought he was in London town instead of this sleepy fishing village.” She snapped her fingers. “Oh, that’s right. I mentioned him to you, the one looking for the girls.”

Currie.

“Once he came into the market and tried to get a little too friendly with me.

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