Page 60 of The Business of Blood
So, Katherine Riley had been taking infants from desperate or unwed mothers and placing them with well-to-do childless couples. Acting as a sort of unofficial adoption agency. That certainly explained the sparse child accoutrements we’d found. And the lack of a child for them to belong to.
If both the mothers and the couples paid her, then her luxuries made a great deal more sense. The expensive carpet. The ivory teeth. The comfortable rooms.
What she’d been doing for a living wasn’t at all legal, but neither was whoring.
Besides, who was I to judge? I was sometimes little better than a grave robber.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, Mary.” I rubbed her back as she wrestled with hiccupping breaths. “But we are not a married couple, and therefore, cannot take in your child.”
“Oh.” She eyed me with a little more alert interest now. “I-I thought you kissed ‘im.”
“Only because he’s a dear friend and associate of mine.” I looked up at him. “This is Dr. George Bagster Phillips, surgeon and coroner. We are here because Katherine Riley died under suspicious circumstances this morning.”
Suspicious circumstances. Possibly the grossest understatement I’d ever uttered.
“Oh.” Mary absorbed the information, then put her face back in her hands. “Oh, no. What’ll I do now?”
I can’t say why I did what I did next. Maybe it was because her name was Mary Jean. Perhaps because she was pretty, young, and had dark, soulful eyes, and a stubborn jaw.
Just like Mary Jeanette Kelly.
“Can you work, Mary?” I prompted.
She blinked up at me, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. “I can’t lift much for a while…” She blushed as she shyly avoided Dr. Phillip’s gaze. “I only ‘ad ‘er a fortnight ago, see. I in’nt healed up yet.”
Cupping her palm in mine, I emptied the contents of my purse into her hand. “I want you to take this, along with your husband’s earnings, and find Teagan a nurse. Get a room nearby for a week where you can rest and eat. After that, if you’ve not found a better situation, call ‘round at 38 Tite Street in Chelsea. I live with my eccentric aunt, who is in need of care and companionship, maybe four days a week. Do you think you could do that?”
She stared at the coins as though she didn’t believe they sat in her hand. “I—I ain’t never been no lady’s maid, missus.”
“We’re only in need of a maid-of-all-work. Someone to make sure she’s taking care of herself. That she’s properly fed and bathed, and the house is tidy. Possibly to run a few errands here and there.”
Her gaze darted back to her new daughter. “I don’t ‘ave no one to look after Teagan.”
“You can bring her, if you wish. So long as she stays on the first floor.” I’d need somewhere to sleep away from baby noises at strange hours. “I think it would bring Aunt Nola some cheer to have a child to entertain her.”
“She in’nt one of them dangerous looneys, if you pardon me asking, missus?”
“It’s miss,” I corrected her. “Miss Fiona Mahoney. And the worst you can expect from Aunt Nola is that she’ll assign you and poor Teagan a few spirit guides. She helped raise me a long time ago after my mother died.”
Clasping my hands in her strong, callused grip, she pressed a tearful kiss to my gloves. “Bless you,” she sobbed. “Bless you.”
I helped her up, motioning to Hao Long to return the baby to her. She snatched Teagan away, though she stood passively as my enigmatic assistant placed the little amber pacifier into her hands and bowed before striding to the cart.
I’d never been more grateful to him than I was at that moment.
The constable returned with Aberline, who led Mrs. McBride and her baby away for questioning. I was happy to release them into his care. He’d likely offer her Leman Street’s warm, bitter tea and sandwiches from his own lunch pail as he’d once done for me. Then, gently, he’d convince her to give him information on Katherine Riley.
“Are you certain about her?” Dr. Phillips asked. “She’ll likely steal from you soon as work for you.”
“You’d have said that about me once upon a day,” I chided gently. “I was in this very position when first we met if you remember, sobbing and penniless on the ground in Whitechapel, nothing but a shilling and a broken heart to my name.”
“I knew you were different. I always have.”
“That’s very kind of you.” I could sense more than hear that Hao Long had patiently taken up residence behind me.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Dr. Phillips touched his hat once more. “Good afternoon, Miss Mahoney. Don’t forget about the livers.”
“I won’t.” I smiled, though the thought of approaching the Hammer for work was more repugnant now than it had been these past months.
