Alice Hoffman - The Museum of Extraordinary Things

“Go on now, big boy,” Eddie said to the dog, giving it a pat and doing his best to send it on its way. He grinned to think of what Beck’s wolf would make of such well-fed urban pets.

“He seems to know you,” a woman’s measured voice said.

Eddie turned to the young woman who had come to collect her dogs. She was dressed in an indigo silk and wool dress and wore a large fashionable felt hat, decorated with an assortment of blue feathers in a range from aqua to navy. She had dark blue eyes and a clear, pale face with fine features. “I know you as well,” she said. “You were at the library gala.”

Eddie realized he was in the presence of Harry Block’s sister. He wished he hadn’t the complication of being recognized.

“Perhaps you’re thinking of someone else,” he said politely, keeping his attention on the town house steps, so as not to lose sight of Block’s thug if he appeared.

“No,” Block’s sister said with assurance. “I’m not. You were there.”

“Only as a hired hand,” Eddie granted.

“Except that no one hired you, I checked into it. And now it seems”—she paused to observe his splint—“you no longer have a free hand to hire. We’ve never been introduced. I’m Juliet Block, and you’re the man who has my brother’s watch.”

Eddie searched her face and saw the intelligence there. She gazed back at him critically, but not without interest.

“Were you never taught not to speak to strange men on the street?” he asked.

Miss Block laughed. “I was taught all manner of things concerning what a woman should and should not do, and how the world should be run. Unlike the members of my family, I believe that all people have the right to speak, including women and workers.” The poodles were standing beside Eddie, nosing around. Miss Block clipped on their leashes. “They seem to fancy you. I, however, don’t know how I feel about you.” She had quite a serious expression as she recalled their initial meeting as children. “I was terrified you’d steal my coat on the day you found us playing in the office. My father had just given it to me.”

Eddie smiled. Pretense wouldn’t work with this outspoken young woman. “I thought of it. But I didn’t want to make you cry.”

“Well, I cried all the same as soon as you left. I cried because my coat cost more than most children my age had to live on for a month. I was embarrassed even before you shamed us. I took a pair of scissors to the horrid coat myself. Made quite a mess. Still, I managed to cut it to shreds.”

Eddie found he was at a loss for words. They stared at each other, each surprised at who the other had become. When Miss Block began to speak of her activities, it became clear she was an ardent feminist, involved in securing rights for workers and demonstrating for the women’s vote. Her family, she revealed, was not pleased with what they referred to as her “antics,” and had taken away her yearly stipend of twenty thousand dollars as punishment when she had protested at the Opera House and outside City Hall and had briefly been interned in the workhouse on Blackwell’s Island. That was when her funds were cut off. Her brother was set to inherit everything from their father, since Miss Block was not deemed responsible by her father and his attorneys. Harry was the one who insisted that she take the dogs for protection when she went out walking. He’d chosen them for her, and had them trained by an expert. Perhaps the dogs knew Juliet would have preferred to have left them at home. Indeed, she thought of them as an extension of her brother, more or less employees meant to keep her in check.

“That’s why they prefer you, sir,” she told Eddie. “Not that I share their sentiments. If you don’t mind, I’d like to know why you’re here.”

“I’m not sure you’d really like that, miss.” Eddie had felt a certain compassion for her on the day he stole the watch. As it turned out, he felt an unexpected concern for her even now.

“Women shouldn’t know too much? I take it that’s your point. It might affect their brains or, worse, their reproductive organs? You spoke to me once as if I were an equal when you told me to shut up, please do me the same courtesy now. And call me Juliet.”

Eddie was won over by her candor. Still, he hesitated. He had come for justice, and justice didn’t always resolve as people wished. He’d brought along the photograph he’d taken at the gala, which he now withdrew from within his coat. “The man behind your brother. What do you know of him?”

“Frank Herbert?” Miss Block said. “He’s my brother’s employee.”

“Does your family have anything to do with the Triangle Shirtwaist Company?”

“My brother is an attorney. He may have done some work for them. I believe he did.” She gazed deeply at Eddie. “And the work was questionable, I presume.”

“What if it was murder?”

Juliet suggested they walk around the corner, to the park, so they might find privacy and speak more freely. They did so, and the dogs were overjoyed to find they were not being dragged in the direction of home. They took a path that led to the reservoir. There were many starlings and sparrows on the branches of the trees. “Welcome to the petting zoo of the wealthy,” Miss Block said bitterly. Once they had found a bench hidden by bushes, she took out a French cigarette and lit it, which surprised Eddie.

“Oh, stop looking at me that way.” She laughed. “You can’t be that easily shocked. I’ll do my part to help you get Herbert, and in exchange you’ll forget about my brother. In all honesty, Harry probably has no idea of his henchman’s methods. He says make it so, and it’s done.”

“It was a young woman that was killed, if that makes a difference to your opinions regarding your brother’s responsibility in the matter. She worked on the ninth floor at the factory, but it wasn’t the fire that did her in. She never made it to work that day because somebody murdered her. They sewed up her mouth with blue thread, then tossed her into the river.”

Juliet stared at him long and hard. “It matters to me very much, whether you believe me or not. But he’s my brother. My offer stands. I’ll give you Herbert, and in return, you’ll leave Harry alone.”

JULIET BLOCK was to inform Frank Herbert that her brother had given instructions for him to bring a file of information to a meeting in the alleyway behind Greene Street. Eddie would see to the rest. The hour was late, after workers in the nearby factories had gone home. Dusk was settling. It was murky enough so that Herbert could not see clearly when he turned off the street, yet he spied the slim figure of a young woman who found her way into the alley. He likely gritted his teeth, annoyed to see an interloper in the very place where he was to make a delivery of important papers to his employer. He didn’t like taking orders from a woman, and had felt humiliated being told what to do by Miss Block, who, in his opinion, thought much too highly of herself, as if she was a man’s equal. He had his bully stick with him, and he didn’t mind issuing a threat or two to a stranger, then acting on those threats if need be. But before he could chase off the figure before him, Herbert took note of something odd. The girl in the alleyway looked familiar. Her pale hair plaited into braids, her girlish blue coat. It was the dimness surely, only a trick of the shadows, yet Frank Herbert hesitated, unsure. Quite possibly, the thing before him was not human in nature. Then, thinking himself ridiculous, he moved toward her. “Go on,” he said with menace in his tone. “This is no place for ladies.”