happen, Theodore Macintosh, you are of no use in this inquiry. You may leave, if you wish.”
I did wish. I wanted desperately to get back to Pa’s shop, to get away from all these gawking people. As I made my way out of the theatre, I once more felt their stares on my back.
Just as I pushed through the big front doors I heard the coroner say, “We will now hear the testimony of Chief Constable Lindsay.”
But I wasn’t hearing Dr. Bell’s voice. I was hearing once again the cry that had reached out to me through the cold air as, early this morning, I had made my way down the Richfield road.
Murder! Murder!’
Four
The wind was still blowing, lifting the morning’s new snow from the ground and tossing it into my face. I pulled my scarf tighter as I walked to Wake Up Jake’s. I would have something to eat, I thought, perhaps even a cup of coffee— though I didn’t usually care for that bitter beverage—before I returned to Pa’s carpentry shop. I was cold again, as cold as I had been earlier that day on the Richfield road.
As I pushed through the restaurant’s door, the rich smell of freshly baked bread made me realize I was truly hungry. I had only eaten a biscuit in the morning before leaving home, and it was now well past two o’clock.
Hanging my hat and scarf on the stand, I found an empty table close to the wood stove. I was about to sit when a cheerful voice from behind me called out, “Ted, Ted, over here. Come and sit with us. I have someone I want you to meet.”
I didn’t see who it was who called to me, but I didn’t have to. I knew that voice. It was Bridget’s. I strongly suspected that I didn’t want to meet the “someone” she had with her. Reluctantly I turned and slowly began to make my way to the back of the restaurant where two women sat at a small table.
“It’s good to see you, Bridget,” I said. “And to meet you again, Miss Jenny.”
“You two have met?” Bridget asked, puzzled. “Jenny, you didn’t tell me you’d already been introduced to Ted Maclntosh.”
Jenny’s face turned very red. “Nae, we haven’t been properly introduced, Cousin. Though if this young man had had the courtesy to identify himself when we spoke earlier today, I would have been saved much embarrassment.”
“Forgive me,” I said. “But there wasn’t time to—”
“You had more than enough time to tell me who you were. There I was, blethering on about your brave deeds and you just standing there not letting on that you were you.”
“But I-”
“I don’t understand how—” Bridget said at the same time. But even the two of us speaking together were no match for Jenny. She went on talking as if she hadn’t heard us.
“Had you but told me he had such red hair, then this wouldn’t have happened,” she said angrily to her cousin. “Of all the things you wrote to me in your letters, couldn’t you have mentioned, even once, his hair?”
Bridget frowned. “His hair?”
“Yes, his hair. Surely you could have told me that.”
“But I don’t understand why the colour—”
“Oh,” Jenny said impatiently, “you don’t understand, not at all. If I knew he had red hair, then I would have known that he was he. I mean, that he was him, that he was...” She turned to me. “It was rude of you nae to identify yourself, sir. Very rude.”
I bowed. “I apologize, Miss Jenny. I didn’t mean to be discourteous. But you talked so...quickly—” and so much, I thought“—that I didn’t have time to introduce myself.”
“Churlish. That’s what it was. Churlish and rude and behaviour not suitable for a gentleman, though it’s no wonder there are no gentlemen here in this terrible cold town with its horrid streets and all this wretched snow.”
“Jenny, do tell me what Ted has—”
“In truth, Bridget, it will be a pleasure to deal only with bairns rather than with what passes for ‘gentlemen’ here in the gold fields.”
Bairns? I knew that word. It was Scottish for small children, infants. I hadn’t realized that Jenny was married, was a mother. She was so young, and I had thought... bairns? She had more than one child?
I wanted to ask about those children, to find out if I had misunderstood, but I couldn’t form the words. How did I ask such a thing? I stared at Bridget and her cousin, wondering why I felt so unsettled by the news of Jenny’s married state. And of her babies.
Jenny continued talking, but I wasn’t listening, even though it was hard not to listen, for she talked loudly. She was still angry at me, and now everyone in the restaurant knew just how much.
Bridget sighed, then reached across the table to take her cousin’s hand. “Jenny, Jenny, dear, do be quiet for one moment and let Ted explain. You’re as cross as a hen who has lost her only egg to the farmer’s wife, and your face is almost the same colour as Ted’s hair. It’s not ladylike.”
“I have every right to be crabbit, Bridget,” she said. “I shall also be angry if I wish to be. Besides, I don’t care to behave like a proper lady in front of him!” She turned her attention to her bowl of baked beans, ignoring both me and Bridget. In the silent restaurant I could hear the clank of dishes, the scrape of spoons across bowls. No one spoke, and I wondered if everyone had been listening to our conversation.
“Ted,” Bridget asked, “what on earth have you done to upset my little cousin so badly? To make her so ‘crabbit’ as she says?”
“Nothing at all,” I said.
“Nothing? Nothing? How can you say that when you—” Her food forgotten, Jenny stood and pushed her chair back so vigorously that it nearly fell over. Her head tossed in agitation so much that her curls bounced. I took a step backward for, though she was shorter than I was and was of slight build, she seemed incensed enough to throw a punch or two in my direction. This small young lady appeared more dangerous than any other woman I had ever met. Not that I was afraid of her, not at all. It was just that I didn’t know what I would do if she attacked me. It would be most awkward to run away, but...
I took a few more steps backward, but now Bridget, too, stood. She put her arms around her younger cousin and held her close. “Hush now, little Jenny. Whatever’s happened, I’m sure Ted can put it right. You know you’re quick to fly into a rage, sometimes with no good reason. Ted is a close friend of mine. For my sake, please, sit down, be calm, and tell me what’s upset you so. I’m sure Ted will explain if you quiet yourself long enough to listen. Please, Jenny. For me? I’m afraid that today I have little patience with your temper.” Her voice trailed away, and the two cousins embraced, neither one speaking.
After what seemed to me to be a long time, Jenny slowly nodded. Then, in a small voice, most unlike the one she had been using, she said, “Perhaps I was too quick to anger, Bridget. Forgive me, for I know how much you grieve, how much you miss your friend, the doctor.”
Both women continued to hold each other,
