Don Gutteridge - Bloody Relations

Norah Burgess, it seemed, had decided to play out this game to the end, as if the sport of it was all that was left to her.

“That’s what kept me from pursuing you or your girls. I observed you here and at the funeral service. The affection that obviously bound you all, extending even to your competitor in the profession, were not faked for public consumption. They were real and deep. I was sincerely touched by them, as I was by Sarah’s undeserved death.”

“You had no business coming to the service.”

“What you didn’t know until Monday morning, and what Cobb didn’t learn until an hour ago, was that Sarah and Michael Badger were lovers. The child that you and your girls eagerly anticipated throughout Sarah’s pregnancy was fathered not by some randy employer or anonymous sailor up at Madame Charlotte’s, but by Badger himself.”

Norah’s gaze hardened.

“I’ve been reminded that betrayal can be the motive for murder among friends and lovers, or parents and children-turning love into searing hate in an instant. And here was a classic example. Sarah had become, by your own admission, a surrogate daughter. The girls pampered her like a younger and still innocent sister. As you intimated to Cobb, you harboured hopes that it was not too late to rehabilitate Sarah, to save her from the awful business that was your only choice after a failed marriage. I suspect you had too much schooling or were too independent a spirit to become a housekeeper or governess under the thumb of some doltish squire.”

“I never found one who wasn’t.”

“But all the while, Sarah was leading a clandestine life of her own. I’m not sure how much of their relationship Badger revealed to you on Monday morning, to spite you after you refused to advance him any more money, but it was enough. In this house, they had given no sign of their liaison, and that must have taken much skill and subterfuge. They met when they could in a stable at the back of a property on Hospital Street. Badger may not have told you that they had met and become lovers just days after Sarah’s arrival at the Reverend Finney’s home last September. I imagine Badger was doing some work for Finney at the time. However, their shenanigans were seen or suspected by Mrs. Finney, who had Sarah abruptly dismissed. Days later, Sarah was found destitute on Lot Street and conscripted by the opportunistic Madame Charlotte.”

“Some lover.”

“Oh, I think Michael was hopelessly in love with the sweet and alluring Sarah. But according to his sister, he often had to leave town in a hurry when his gambling pals came looking for their money. Usually he fled to Port Sarnia, where he’d hole up until he’d scavenged sufficient funds to buy his way back to safety. That’s undoubtedly where he was when Sarah got thrown out. She didn’t know where he was and he had no inkling that she was pregnant-and alone.”

“Like we all are, in the end.”

“He must have been frantic when he got back. But she had disappeared off the face of the earth. Then, in the market for a bruiser, you somehow got a lead on this giant of a fellow and invited him to take the job. Imagine his surprise when he arrives for work and discovers Sarah, big with a child she assures him is his, and safe and sound in a gentlemen’s brothel.”

Cobb indicated the brandy bottle to Norah, but she shook her head.

“I can guess what a pleasant winter you all must have passed in this very parlour or in the cozy kitchen in your own quarters. Yours is a hard business, and though I suspect you are a kind person at heart, you had steeled yourself first to survive and ultimately to thrive. Suddenly you have in your midst a young woman who seems to have had little trouble attracting and holding the attention of all those around her: sweet yet earthy, compliant, genuinely affectionate, and yet coldly deceiving when necessary. Then arrives a gentle bear of a man, a bruiser who plays topsy-turvy with obstreperous clients, who makes everybody laugh, and who, incredibly, does not lust after your girls or rouse barbs of jealousy among them. The only blot on this happy landscape is Sarah’s loss of the child in early April.”

“We would’ve kept it.”

“I don’t doubt it. But at least the calamity happened away from here. You only learned of it a few days later when Sarah returned with her tale about the stillbirth.”

Norah’s eyes widened, bleary but suddenly alert.

“Yes, it was stillborn, whatever taunts Badger may have tossed at you Monday morning. After her return, I’ll wager you tried to talk her out of joining the business. But little Sarah was very persuasive. What is more, you didn’t know that she had a powerful incentive to earn money, which she soon did by becoming a favourite with your customers. She and Badger were planning to leave the country and start a new life in the United States. They were also likely scheming to leave behind her lover’s gambling debts and the advanced wages he owed to you.”

“It’s only money.”

“Maybe so, but the heat was being turned up on Badger. After a binge of gambling on the weekend, he and Sarah had to leave soon if they were ever going to leave at all. He came looking for her that morning, most likely to suggest that she secretly withdraw all her savings and meet him at some prearranged spot. Instead, he found the girls in the city at the ceremonies and you here alone. Ever the charming improviser, he decided to see if he could wheedle a final chunk of cash from his best and most gullible source.”

Norah flinched.

“But you turned on him, fed up with his errant ways, his lies, and his truancy. You gave him his walking papers. Badger had been amusing, but he was expendable. However, the gentle giant surprised you and probably himself. Again, unbeknownst to you, I’m certain that he had been offered a bribe a day or two before Lord Durham’s arrival to help with a prank some Tory gentlemen thought to play on His Lordship and Mr. Ellice. His role, I have reason to believe, was to steal a key to your hatch and slip in here at two or three in the morning and cause a disturbance-perhaps give whoever was sleeping beside Ellice a punch or two or else a nightmarish scare-enough to expose the earl’s nephew as a found-in in a brothel.”

“Michael wouldn’t have touched any of the girls.”

“You’re right, but he was perfectly capable of tricking his sponsor out of the bribe money, or perhaps he planned to sneak Sarah out with him. Whatever his thinking, he did take the key. It was found when we discovered his body in a ditch this afternoon.”

Marc watched her for a reaction but saw none.

“He had been lying there since the middle of the night when you shot him dead.”

Cobb tipped sideways on his chair. Norah took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Her lower lip was trembling, and he realized that she was nearing exhaustion and a possible breakdown. He would have to hurry.

“But back to Sarah. When Michael turned on you Monday morning, scared and excited and a bit desperate to carry out his bold plan to elope with Sarah and a suitable grubstake, he used the best weapon he had: the truth that Sarah and he were lovers, that they had been deceiving you for months and had made fools of you and your girls. Without giving away their exact plan, he told you-foolishly, imprudently-that Sarah was preparing to leave you for him. You were angry with him, of course, and hurt, and you justifiably gave him the boot and threatened him with bodily harm should he be caught again anywhere in Irishtown. That put Badger in a real bind. He could head up to Front Street to look for Sarah among the thousands of well-wishers, while avoiding Burly Bettman and his thugs, hoping she could get to the bank quickly and they could immediately flee. As it turned out, he also needed to see Mr. Hepburn to retrieve his own savings. Both moves were fraught with danger. What to do? I’m guessing but am pretty sure that he decided to risk everything on a last throw of the dice. I believe he decided to accept the bribe he had up to that point been resisting-he did like you and your girls-sneak in here early Tuesday morning, take Sarah out with him, get his earnings from Hepburn and Sarah’s from the bank, and take off for the border. That meant lying low for the rest of the day, trusting that Sarah would be able to sweet-talk her way out of any jeopardy he might have placed her in by his unwise outburst. Who knows but it might have worked. Desperation will drive any man to recklessness and love will double the quotient.”