Victoria Thompson: Murder On GramercyPark

“You’re the one who understands female reasoning,” he reminded her with a smirk. “You tell me.”

“I don’t understand this,” she admitted, “but I have a feeling Mr. Dudley will be retiring to the country with a broken heart.”

“He should be thankful it’s still beating, at least. He got off a lot luckier than the other men who were involved with Letitia.”

“I got a letter from Mrs. Brown,” Sarah told him. “She appreciated the nice things I said about Calvin. Poor woman. What will she do now?”

“She’ll make out somehow,” Malloy said. “What other choice does she have?”

Sarah didn’t feel like being philosophical today, so she let that pass as well. They sat in silence for a few minutes, waiting as people do when they have no other choice. Sarah thought about the sad things that had happened to so many people as a result of Edmund Blackwell’s lies and wondered what kind of a life Letitia’s baby would have without either of his fathers and a mother who was more interested in her morphine than in him.

Malloy interrupted her thoughts. “Doc Woomer knew your husband.”

“Yes,” she said, a little surprised by the change of subject. “Tom knew most of the other doctors in the city, I suppose.”

“I asked him what Dr. Brandt was like,” he said, and cleared his throat. “It sounds like he was a good man.”

For a moment Sarah remembered Tom completely- his deep voice, his laughing eyes, his big, gentle hands, but most of all his kindness to even the most unworthy or unlovable. The memory was so real it took her breath with the bittersweet shock of love and loss. Then, just as quickly, it was gone, and she was alone again with Frank Malloy.

And Malloy was even more real, solid with his strength and his determination and his unbreakable will. Different from Tom in so many ways she could hardly count them all, but still, somehow, the same.

She reached out and laid her hand on his. His skin was warm and alive beneath her palm. “You’re a good man, too, Malloy.”

I hope you enjoyed Murder on Gramercy Park. The more I learn about the turn of the last century, the more I understand how little things have changed in the past hundred years. The wonders of technology have improved our quality of life, but they haven’t changed the things people care about and are willing to live-and die-for. In spite of all the advances in medicine, people are still searching for something that works better through alternative, herbal, and holistic medicine and are still seeking to escape the problems of this world through the use of narcotic drugs.

Please let me know what you thought of this book and the others in the Gaslight Mystery Series, Murder on Astor Place and Murder on St. Mark’s Place. Please write to me at the address below or send me e-mail through my Web page:

www.victoriathompson.com

Victoria Thompson

PO Box 638

Duncansville, PA 16635