The Dangerous Ladies Affair

20 Sabina

Kamiko opened the door to Sabina’s ring, Elizabeth hovering close behind her. “Good morning, Mrs. Carpenter,” the girl said, bowing but unsmiling.

“Good morning.”

“You wish to speak with Amity-san?”

“Yes.”

Sabina closed her umbrella, shook the drops of rain from it before entering. Elizabeth said as she stepped inside, “Mrs. Wellman is upstairs changing. We’ve just come back from church.” She added, “Everything here is status quo.”

No, it isn’t, Sabina thought. “I’ll wait for her in the main parlor,” she said.

Kamiko took the umbrella from her, placed it inside a copper stand, then hurried across the entryway and up the winding staircase to the second floor.

“Will you want me to join you?” Elizabeth asked.

“No. I need to speak to Amity alone.”

“I’ll go up and pack my things, then. This is my last day here, with Mr. Wellman due home this evening?”

“Yes.”

Elizabeth paused. “You seem a bit... tense this morning, Sabina. Is something wrong?”

“I’ll explain later.”

She went across through the archway into the main parlor. The room was cold, logs having been laid on the hearth but not yet set ablaze. The heavy damask curtains were drawn over the windows to mask the dreary gray drizzle outside. One lamp glowed palely; Sabina lifted the glass and put fire to the wick of a second lamp near the display of antique weaponry.

Its glow gave her a clear look into the glass-topped case containing Burton’s collection of antique daggers and knives. The ivory-handled kaiken in its matching scabbard was in its customary place in the second case. She was just about to lift the lid when Amity entered from the hallway.

“Good morning, Sabina. Not a day for bicycling, is it?”

“No, it isn’t.” Nor would it be if the sun were shining.

“Brrr, it’s cold in here. I’ll light the fire.”

While Amity was doing that, Sabina reached into the case and removed the kaiken. When she slid it out of its scabbard she saw what she expected to see and had hoped she wouldn’t.

The tip of the ancient razor-sharp, double-edged blade was missing.

There was a whooshing sound as the hearth logs burst into flame. Amity turned, saw Sabina holding the kaiken, and said, “That handle is beautifully carved, isn’t it.” But then she came closer and her brows knitted. “What could have happened to the blade? Burton will be furious when he sees that it’s been broken off. It’s one of his favorite pieces.”

“I know what happened to it.”

“You do?”

Sabina took the lace handkerchief from her coat pocket, unfolded it, and removed the broken metal tip. It had the same dull patina, the same sharp double edge, as the blade of the kaiken. There was no need to fit the tip to the blade; the two were identical.

Bewildered, Amity asked, “Where did you find the broken tip? Here somewhere?”

“No. Before I tell you, I have some questions to ask.”

“Questions?”

“About the love letter you received from Fenton Egan. Did it come through the mail or was it hand delivered the same as the threatening notes?”

“...Through the mail.”

“Plain stationery, with no return address on the envelope.”

“No, of course not.” Frown ridges marred the surface of Amity’s forehead. “Sabina, what...?”

“Where did you read the letter? In the entryway?”

“No, in here.”

“And you were alone at the time.”

“Naturally. I wouldn’t have opened the envelope in front of Kamiko.”

“Did Egan sign his name to the letter?”

“Yes.” Her mouth twist was bitter. “‘With abiding love, Fenton.’”

“And once you read it, you threw it into the fireplace.”

“Along with the envelope, just as I told you.”

“Was the fire blazing as it is now?”

“Blazing? I don’t... Why are you asking all these questions, for heaven’s sake?”

“Please, Amity. Was the fire hot, blazing that day?”

“...No. It had begun to bank.”

“Did you wait to watch the letter and envelope burn?”

“Did I? No. No, I was too upset, with myself as much as with Fenton for writing such a letter. I went upstairs to lie down.”

“Where was Kamiko at the time?”

“On her way in here, I suppose to attend to the fire. I passed her in the hallway— Oh, my God! You don’t think Kamiko rescued the letter before it burned?”

“That’s just what I think. Rescued it and read it.”

Her face pale, Amity sank onto one of the damask-covered estrado chairs.

“If you’re right, then she did know about the affair. That was what she was holding back, hiding...”

“More than just knowledge of the affair.”

“What do you mean?”

Sabina hated what she had to do and say next, but there was no way to prolong the necessity or to sugarcoat it. She went to sit next to her friend. “Let’s suppose,” she said, “that Kamiko did read the letter and was upset by it. She could have confronted you, demanded or begged you to end the affair, but she didn’t.”

“She’s not the sort to demand or beg.”

“But neither is she the sort to have tacitly allowed it to continue. She couldn’t bring herself to confront you, it would have been too painful for her, but she felt she had to do something. Not appeal to your lover to end the affair — her Japanese heritage, with its emphasis on female deference to the male, wouldn’t have permitted it. But she could appeal to his wife, woman to woman.”

“Oh, dear Lord! You mean that’s how Prudence Egan found out about the affair? Kamiko betrayed me?”

“She wouldn’t have viewed it that way, but as a moral duty in order to preserve your marriage. Only she had no way of knowing then how disturbed and dangerous the Egan woman was, the extent of her rage and hatred. She found out last Sunday evening.”

“Then... it was Prudence Egan who tried to kill me?”

“Yes. Brooded and brooded and finally crossed the line.”

Amity shook her head twice, three times, as if trying to clear jumbled thoughts. “But why didn’t Kamiko tell us then what she’d done? She must have realized Prudence Egan could have been the assailant, the danger in continuing to keep silent.”

“I think she did. I think she may even have recognized the woman before she fled through the garden. Her night vision is much better than yours and mine.”

“And still she kept quiet? She must hate me almost as much as Prudence Egan did—”

“On the contrary, she loves you very much. More than enough to protect you at all costs. That’s why she did what she did later.”

“What do you mean? What did she do later?”

Sabina drew a breath, let it out slowly. “She should be the one to tell you. Ring for her, Amity.”

“But what if she still won’t admit—”

“She will. Now.”

Amity went to pull the bell rope. Kamiko appeared almost immediately, her small face unsmiling, the luminous black eyes showing an emotion that might have been sadness. Nothing changed in her expression when she saw the kaiken Sabina still held in her hand.

“You wish something, Amity-san?”

“Sabina and I want to talk to you. Sit down.”

The Japanese girl perched on the settee, knees together under her kimono, slippered feet flat on the floor, small hands clasped together in her lap. Her gaze shifted slowly between the two women. She must have known what was coming; the tension in the room was palpable, and the few moments of silence had a brittle quality. Yet her delicate features remained impassive.

“It’s time for the truth, Kamiko, the whole truth,” Sabina said. “No more secrets.”

“And please, no lies,” Amity added.

“You know I do not lie.”

“Did you save a letter to me from burning in the fireplace last week? And then read it?”

“Yes.” Without hesitation. “I should not have, I know.”

“No, you shouldn’t. Nor should you have gone to Mrs. Egan and showed it to her. You did do that, didn’t you?”

“To speak with her, yes. But I did not show her the letter. I burned it as you wished.”

“Still, you betrayed me.” Then, painfully, “As I betrayed Burton, to my everlasting shame.”

“My shame is greater than yours, Amity-san,” the girl said softly. “Much greater.”

“Because you knew it was she who tried to shoot me.”

“Yes.”

“For another reason, too,” Sabina said. “The death of Prudence Egan.”

Startled, Amity sucked in her breath. “Prudence Egan is dead? How? When, where?”

“Stabbed on Tuesday afternoon in an apartment she rented on Larkin Street.” Briefly Sabina explained about the woman’s trysting place. “I learned the address and discovered her body there yesterday.”

“Yesterday? Why on earth did you wait so long to tell me?”

“I saw no purpose in disrupting the benefit last night. And I needed more time to be sure of my suspicions.”

“Stabbed, you said. Dear God! With that kaiken knife?”

“Yes.”

“Then... Kamiko? Oh, no, no—”

Emotion showed in the girl’s face for the first time. She clasped her hands together more tightly in her lap. “Yes, it is true,” she admitted. “But I did not mean for it to happen.”

Sabina said, “The kaiken is the traditional weapon favored by Japanese women. You took it with you when you went again to see Mrs. Egan.”

“Hai. For protection and self-defense. That is the only reason. She was a dangerous woman and I did not know what she might do.”

“Then why did you risk accusing her?”

“I felt that I must. I believed wrongly, foolishly, that my promise to remain silent would prevent her from another attempt on Amity-san’s life.”

“You recognized her in the garden Sunday night?”

“I was not positive it was she, but I thought it must be.”

Amity said, “But why not tell me or Sabina? Or the police?”

“I could not. I had no proof of her guilt.”

So young, so naïve to believe she could reason with the likes of Prudence Egan. Driven by guilt for putting her beloved guardian’s life in jeopardy in the first place. Seeking a measure of atonement.

“Tell us what happened Tuesday afternoon, Kamiko.”

In a barely audible voice, she told them. She had first gone to see Prudence Egan on Monday, twice that day, but the woman hadn’t been home either time. When Kamiko returned again on Tuesday, driving the Wellmans’ buggy after finishing her marketing, she arrived just as Mrs. Egan was leaving in a hansom. Kamiko followed the cab to Larkin Street.

Prudence Egan was furious to find the girl on the doorstep of her private hideaway. When Kamiko made her accusation, the woman grew even more enraged. She took her pistol from a table drawer and advanced on Kamiko, “the flame of madness lighting her eyes.” She came so close, her finger whitening on the trigger, that the girl, fearing for her life, drew the kaiken from her coat pocket and thrust out with it, not at Mrs. Egan but at the pistol in her hand. The knife struck the weapon with enough force to drive it from her grasp, leaving the long scratch on its surface and at the same time snapping off the tip. To Kamiko’s horror, the blade then deflected upward and into the woman’s breast. Death must have been instantaneous. As soon as the girl realized Prudence Egan was dead, she fled. Until now she had not been able to speak or even allow herself to think that she had taken a life, even that of a violent madwoman. She was sorry she had done so, so very sorry.

“It was self-defense,” Amity said emphatically. She went to sit beside her ward, gently placed an arm around her shoulders. “Sabina?” she said then. “I believe it happened just as Kamiko told it. You do, too, don’t you? You believe her?”

Sabina looked at the small figure huddled abjectly in Amity’s embrace, her almond-shaped eyes now wet with tears. “Yes,” she said, “I believe her.”