Free Ada's Secret by Nonnie Frasier

looks much better when the fog is gone.”
    The railroad station was dirty and the cold settled into her bones. Horses and wagons came and left, taking happy passengers away from the station. The hours passed, and her hope turned to despair. As evening approached, still no one had come for her. She was alone.
    “Sorry, ma’am.” A weak-jawed little man with a conductor’s hat approached her. “We’ll be closing the station now. Maybe you should go see the police captain. The officers at the station down the street might be able to help you. They have a book with names of the people in town and at the gold fields. Maybe they know your man, but you can’t stay here any longer.”
    Smiling sadly, Annie gathered the small satchel that held her worldly goods. Wrapping the thin woolen shawl tightly around her, she headed out into the misty night.
    “Where is the police sta ... ” she started to ask, but the little man had already closed the door, locked it, and extinguished the lamps. Feeling forlorn, she stepped out into the street. Annie knew she couldn’t stay at the station.
    Taking her chances, she followed the cobblestone street and soon came upon the San Francisco Police Department. Grateful that she had not gotten lost, she quietly let herself in through the heavy doors of the big building. It was still cold inside, but she was out of the dampness and grateful for the possibility that someone would be able to help her. As she stepped up to the big oak desk, she cleared her throat, but the officer behind it did not pay her any attention.
    “Excuse me, sir,” Annie spoke tentatively, “I just came from the train station and the conductor said I should see the police chief. I am looking for a man named Mike Brennan. He was supposed to meet me at the train station today, but he hasn’t arrived yet. I am Annie Moore, and I am to be his wife.” She smiled broadly, but as the policeman coughed and looked annoyed with her presence. Her smile disappeared.
    The bored officer paged through the big book of names until he found the one he was looking for. “Sorry, girlie,” he sneered, “seems old Mike just left you a widow.” He laughed cruelly as the other officers snickered and resumed whatever jobs they had been doing. He pointed to a door to the left of the entrance with a sign that said “Coroner’s Office.” “The coroner is through that door, but I don’t think it will do you any good.”
    Annie didn’t know where else to go. Opening the door, she came face to face with a large man in a dirty white coat. “I am sorry to bother you, sir,” said Annie quietly, “but I am looking for Mike Brennan. The officer told me he was dead and I thought you might know a bit more about it.”
    “I am sorry, ma’am,” the coroner said. After wiping his hands, he scanned the big record book with “DECEASED” scrawled across it. “My records show that Mike Brennan died of consumption last week, and his partner collected all his belongings. There wasn’t much there anyway. No one had any money for a headstone, but there is a number on the wooden cross beside the grave. He is buried in the cemetery under number four, three, six, eight, two.” The coroner looked up with genuine sadness in his tired eyes. “Sorry for your loss, ma’am.”
    Hot tears built up in Annie’s eyes. Helplessly she stepped out of the office. Annie pulled her bonnet back over her hair and tried to stretch the inadequate woolen shawl across as much of her slight shoulders as possible. “What now?” she whispered. “What now?” She was penniless and alone in the streets of a strange city, without any way back home.
    ***
    “I was so desperate,” recounted Ma. “I spent my first night in San Francisco in an alley. The next day, I tried to find work as a laundress or cook, but people took one look at my auburn hair and told me to find a lady named Scarlet. She would know exactly what to do with me. I didn’t know who Scarlet was, but I