had hoped to be able to tuck Mama’s little single-shot pistol into her pocket for protection, but when she’d gone to fetch it, it was missing, which was comforting because it was probably with her mother.
Sara Beth would be armed only with her wits, her courage and the “full armor of God” that the Bible spoke of. That would be sufficient. It had to be.
At the last minute she’d taken one of Mama’s bone knitting needles and had stuffed it up the narrow sleeve of her coat. It wasn’t much defense, considering the riffraff they might encounter, but it gave her courage a slight boost.
“Luke and Mathias, you tend to Josiah,” she said as she led them down the front porch steps and onto the street. “Take turns carrying him if you must. Just keep up with me, stay very close and don’t say a word, you hear?”
Luke obeyed as expected. Mathias was his usual ornery self. “Why?” he asked in a shrill whine. “Where’s Mama? And why do we have to go out in the dark? Papa will be mad.”
“If you must know, we’re going to meet Mama and Papa.” Sara Beth used her most commanding tone to add, “Do as I say or I’ll tell them you misbehaved and you’ll get a whipping.”
Mathias made a sour face and scrunched up his freckled nose, but he fell into step as instructed. Sara Beth turned away so he wouldn’t see her start to smile. There was a lot of her own orneriness in her little brother, and his antics often reminded her of herself. Luke was the serious one. Josiah was the inquisitive imp. But Mathias and she were kindred souls, never satisfied to bide their time and always questioning authority.
“I hope and pray I’m doing the right thing this time,” Sara Beth whispered to herself as she led the way along the plank walkway toward the Pacific shore. “I truly do.”
In the misty light of approaching dawn, she could see a few figures moving silently in and out of the deep shadows. Their presence gave her a start until she realized that none seemed the least interested in her or her little band of children. That was just as well, she reasoned, marching ahead boldly to allay her own fears, because until she reached the safety of the Cobweb Palace she was more vulnerable than she’d ever been.
The shortest distance to Meigg’s wharf was via Francisco Street, so that was the route she chose. Feral cats, busy raiding the rotting garbage dumped at the edges of the raised walkway, hissed and spat as she and the boys passed.
Time and again, Sara Beth glanced over her shoulder to make certain her little brothers were staying close as instructed.
The moist, damp air blowing ashore from the bay seemed to press in on her, its cloying smells almost overpowering. Never before had she noticed how filthy this neighborhood was. Nor had she anticipated how desolate it would seem at this time of the morning.
Always before when she had been there, the area had been bustling with all sorts of people, men and women, rich and poor, intent on their own business or simply out seeing the more colorful sights of the city. To find the neighborhood so apparently abandoned was unsettling.
Suppressing a shiver, she boldly marched on. They were almost there. Her breathing became shallow with anticipation, her heart pounding even more rapidly.
There were lights shining from the windows of the Cobweb Palace when she rounded the final corner. Moreover, many of the local inhabitants who had been out of sight during her approach had apparently been congregating in front of Mr. Warner’s menagerie building. The crowd there was considerable, and it was growing.
Sara Beth paused a moment to assess the situation, then gathered her brothers to her, relieving the older ones of baby Josiah.
“Keep close to me,” she ordered. “Grab a handful of my skirt and don’t you dare let go until I say so, understand? This crowd is very big and I can’t hold all your hands at the same time. We mustn’t get separated.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Luke said, his brown eyes wide.
Mathias, too, nodded, although Sara Beth could tell he’d be off in a jiffy if one of Abe Warner’s tame monkeys scampered up and wanted to play tag. Reinforcing her command she glared at him. “You, too, Mathias. Promise?”
He made a silly face. “Okay.”
“Good. Now come with me. I think I see Mr. Warner in the doorway of his store and I want him to watch you while I find out what’s happened.”
She didn’t voice all that she was thinking, partly because she didn’t want to frighten the boys, and partly because she wasn’t ready to accept that her parents might be at the center of the knot of men gathered on the rough, weathered walkway.
The moment Abe spotted her, he hurried over. “You children shouldn’t be here.”
“I had to come,” Sara Beth said, handing the still-sleepy Josiah to the trusted old man. “Is it…?”
“Come inside,” he said. “There’s no need for you young’uns to see all that. No need at all. No sirree.”
Sara Beth grasped his coat sleeve and stopped him. “Tell me. Please?”
She saw him look to the boys, then shake his head. The sadness and empathy in his expression told her more than any words could have. Much more than she wanted to know.
Biting her lip and fighting dizziness, she passed all her brothers into Abe’s care, then whirled and ran back into the street, pushing her way through the gaggle of onlookers.
A young, dark-haired man in a black frock coat was crouched down next to three bodies that lay on the walkway. Two had already been covered and he was laying the muddy folds of a wool cape over the face and upper torso of the third to mask it.
Sara Beth immediately recognized the fabric of her mother’s skirt and gave a little shriek.
The hatless man quickly stood, focused his dark, somber gaze on her and grasped her arms to stop her from proceeding.
She tried to lunge past him toward the bodies as she fought to free herself. “No. Let me go!”
“I’m sorry,” he said, holding her fast. “I did all I could. By the time I got here they were gone to Glory.”
“No. That can’t be true.”
“Unfortunately, I’m quite certain it is,” he answered. “I’m a doctor.”
“But you’re wrong! You have to be wrong.”
“I am sorry, miss.”
Truth and sympathy were evident in the man’s darkly serious gaze.
Bright lights sparkled in Sara Beth’s field of vision. Her head spun and she felt wobbly the way she sometimes did during an earthquake.
Her mouth was dry, prickly. She took several shuddering breaths and blinked rapidly, trying to clear her thoughts, to accept what her heart insisted was impossible. It was no use.
Darkness akin to a starless night began to close in on her. She sensed herself descending into a bottomless pit of hopelessness and despair.
No longer wanting to see or hear anything
