Free Murder on Lexington Avenue by Victoria Thompson Page A

work.
    “I didn’t tell you this morning, but I saw four crows on the fence when I came out my back door,” Mrs. Ellsworth said apologetically. “That always means a birth.”
    Sarah managed not to wince. She didn’t believe in Mrs. Ellsworth’s superstitions, but she didn’t like to hurt the older woman’s feelings. “We should be happy,” Sarah reminded them all. “Delivering babies is what keeps a roof over our heads and peaches in our stomachs!”
    Catherine giggled.
    “I’ll get the door,” Maeve said, hurrying off with Catherine at her heels.
    Sarah got up and started removing her apron. “Thank you for this morning,” she said to Mrs. Ellsworth.
    “I get more pleasure out of being with the girls than they do from being with me, I’m sure,” she replied, waving away Sarah’s gratitude. “You better get your things together.”
    Sarah followed the girls out to the front room, which served as her office. A young man in a footman’s uniform stood just inside the door. He seemed enchanted with Maeve, but the girl was more interested in a note he had handed her.
     
     
    E VERYONE KEPT STARING, TRANSFIXED BY THE PUDDLE. Frank felt a rushing in his ears and everything grew fuzzy, as if a fog had formed around him. Suddenly, he was no longer in the Wooten house but in his own, in the flat he’d shared with Kathleen when they were first married, on the night when Brian was born, on the night when Kathleen had died. The pain of her loss was like a knife, as it always was, but his mind was racing past it, on to something else, something vitally important that he had to remember. That evening Kathleen had stood up and water had started running down her legs and forming a puddle on the floor around her. That’s how she’d known her baby was coming.
    “Valora, what on earth is wrong?” Mrs. Parmer was saying, genuinely confused and not a little horrified.
    “Valora?” Terry Young said, equally confused and horrified.
    What was wrong with them? Didn’t they know what was happening? He hadn’t suspected, but surely, they both knew about Mrs. Wooten’s condition.
    “It’s the baby,” Frank said when no one made a move to do anything to help her.
    They looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. Except for Mrs. Wooten, of course. She simply looked terrified.
    “She’s going to have her baby,” he told them, mortified to be mentioning such a subject in mixed company but knowing it had to be done.
    “Baby?” Mrs. Parmer echoed, her horror increasing tenfold. “What are you talking about?” And then she must have realized the answer to her own question and turned to Mrs. Wooten. “Are you with child, Valora?”
    Terry Young made a strangled sound in his throat, but no one seemed to notice.
    Valora Wooten’s eyes narrowed with pure hatred as she glared at Frank. “You’re insane,” she informed him. “Get out of my house!”
    But Mrs. Parmer had realized the truth of it.
    “You are with child!” she cried in outrage, looking the woman up and down. “That explains . . . Did Nehemiah know?” She looked at Young, who had paled visibly. “Of course he didn’t know,” she realized. “Nobody knew because it wasn’t Nehemiah’s child!”
    “Don’t be ridiculous!” Mrs. Wooten hissed. “You don’t know what you’re saying!”
    “Shouldn’t someone get a doctor?” Young said, glancing reluctantly at the puddle again. He looked as if he might faint.
    “No!” cried Mrs. Wooten, terrified again. “No doctors! I don’t need a doctor. I just need for all of you to get out of here and leave me alone!”
    “Of course,” Young said and made a break for the door.
    Frank caught his arm before he could escape. “Don’t leave the house,” he warned the young man. “I need to talk to you, and I’ll be very annoyed if I have to go looking for you.”
    Young blanched, but he nodded frantically before wrenching free and fleeing the room.
    “Don’t be a fool, Valora,” Mrs. Parmer was