Free Secrets on 26th Street by Elizabeth McDavid Jones Page A

Then her throat constricted. At her door stood Lester Barrow.
    Her mouth went dry. Lester here to demand his money, and both Mum and Bea gone—what on earth was she going to do?
    â€œMissy O’Neal. Good morning to ye.” Lester tipped his hat and grinned in a way that made Susan shudder. He was wearing a gray, double-breasted serge suit, high-collared shirt, and silk tie. Susan figured he must have stopped by on his way home from church. “Did not see your family at Mass this morning. Your mother’s not ill, I hope.”
    Susan’s tongue was as heavy as lead in her mouth. She didn’t know whether to invite Lester in or try to get rid of him. Finally, she heard herself stammer something about Mum visiting relatives for the weekend.
    â€œAnd did she leave the rent with you, lass?” Lester was frowning.
    Susan felt weak in the knees. She knew Mum was no closer to having all that money than when Lester had come to her office a while back and demanded it. Somehow Mum had managed to put him off then, but Susan had a feeling that Lester would not take kindly to being put off again.
    Susan thought of her barbershop money, hidden safely away for a moment like this. But the moment had come too soon. Her stash had grown so slowly, with Delaney taking half her tips, that Lester would probably laugh if she offered him the little she had.
    Still, Susan had to do something. She couldn’t just stand here forever like a statue. Susan repeated to herself what Bea had told Mum about using confidence to deal with men like Lester. Then she swallowed once, twice, invited Lester in, and offered him a cup of tea. All the while she was struggling to keep her hands from shaking and giving away her terror.
    Susan shoveled a few lumps of coal into the stove and lit it. As she slid the kettle onto the burner, she said, “You understand, Mr. Barrow, Mum has the money, everything she owes you for the last few months.” She reached into the china cabinet for two of their best china teacups. “The problem is, I don’t know where it is. She left in such a hurry, I guess she forgot to tell me.”
    Lester looked puzzled. “But it’s only for this month’s rent I’m here, lassie. Your boarder, Miss Rutherford, paid all the rest quite some time ago.”
    Susan nearly dropped Lester’s cup in his lap. Bea had paid their back rent? Where had Bea gotten that kind of money?
    Praying her eyes didn’t betray her shock, she forced a confident smile. “Oh, yes, I forgot she said she was going to do that. Care for sugar, Mr. Barrow?” A confident person, Susan was sure, would offer sugar to a guest, even if the guest was Lester Barrow. Luckily there was a tea-spoonful left at the bottom of the sugar bin.
    Lester accepted the sugar and stirred it into his tea. “You didn’t tell me, Missie O’Neal, that your boarder was a cousin of your father’s, and so highly connected at that—her grandfather in the British Parliament and all. It was kind of her, wasn’t it, to come all this way to assist your poor widowed mother? If you’d only told me who she was, that day in the bakery, why, I wouldn’t have been worrying a bit about getting my money.”
    Bea? Her father’s cousin? That was ridiculous, Susan thought.
    For a long moment Susan’s mind was blank. Finally she managed to say something that she hoped sounded reasonable. “I … I didn’t think about it, I guess. I was so excited, you know, about her coming, about meeting Dad’s cousin.” A nervous laugh escaped her lips, and instantly she scolded herself. She’d be in a fine position, wouldn’t she, if Lester figured out she was bluffing …
    But he didn’t seem to notice. He finished his tea and wiped his mouth. Then he pushed himself back from the table. “I must be going, lassie. I’ve still the fifth floor to collect from, not to mention my