Page 17

A Path Forward

Any obligation Rowie felt to the loathsome Monsieur Augustine ended with her rescuer’s timely arrival. She sprinted down the stairs and would have continued to the first floor and into the night, but Heloise’s shrieking wafted up from below.

“Where is the damn fire brigade when my livelihood is going up in flames?”

This might be her only chance to escape.

Rowie knew her unbound hair and bare white skin would be easy to spot, even in the dense smoke.

She ducked into her room, which was right off the stairs.

The air was less smoky, and she gulped in several deep breaths before racing to the closet for her cloak.

She breathed a sigh of relief seeing it hanging there.

Dirty and bloodstained as it was, the greedy madam probably didn’t give it a second glance.

Slipping it on, she pulled the hood up and tucked her hair inside.

Shoes would have been helpful, but they’d taken hers.

Another of Heloise’s punishments for being difficult.

Creeping cautiously down the last remaining flight, she met the young man from the attic on his way up. She dipped her head and covered her mouth, pretending to cough. It led to a spasm which wasn’t fake.

“Are you all right?”he asked when the coughing fit slowed.

She nodded, though she wasn’t. The smoke and the fear of being discovered by Heloise or her henchmen made it difficult to catch her breath.

“You need to get outside into fresh air quickly,”he urged.

She nodded again and hurried by him.

“Did you pass a young woman? She’s as tall as you with long dark hair?”he called after her. “I didn’t see her outside and want to make sure she got out.”

That he didn’t recognize her came as a great relief. He’d helped her, but she didn’tknow him from Adam, and, after what she’d been through, she trusted no one.But she couldn’t let him go back up looking for her. So she lied.

“She passed me only a moment ago on her way down. I don’t know how you missed her.”

“You’re certain?”

“Yes,”she said. “We should go too.”

The combination of the smoke, heat, and a week with little food and no sleep, not to mention her ordeal with Augustine, had left her physically and mentally exhausted.

Rubber-kneed and unsteady on her feet, she missed the next step.

To keep from tumbling down the stairs and breaking her neck, she reached out blindly for the handrail.

Her hero came to her rescue once more, sweeping her up and holding her close to his broad chest as he descended.

Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and clung to him tightly, feeling safer in this stranger’s arms than she had in days.

Outside, the air seemed cooler, even though it was July, but compared to the oven she’d just left, it was. He crossed the street before setting her down on the boardwalk in front of Berta’s Bathhouse.

“You should be safe from sparks and smoke here. Catch your breath, but don’t linger. The entire block could go up if the fire brigade doesn’t get here soon.”

“I won’t,”she assured him, although she had nowhere to go. “Thank you for saving me.”

His answer was a nod, and then he turned to face Heloise’s burning palace, the glow illuminating his striking profile. “I need to go back for Judd,”he murmured.

Suddenly, there was an explosion and a shower of glass as windows on the third floor exploded. Flames licked up the outside walls and were visible on the roof.

“You can’t mean to go back in there,”Rowie exclaimed. “The fire is spreading too fast.”

“He’s my brother. I can’t leave him there.”His voice was strained but not from the smoke, like hers.

On wobbly legs, wheezing every breath and coughing with every other, she asked, “How do you know he didn’t get out safely?”

“Impossible,”he said quietly, still staring at the blaze. “He’s on the second floor. So there’s a chance.”

“I’ll go with you and help you carry him,”she offered, which was insane.

“No, you won’t!”he replied sharply.

“It will go faster if there are two of us. Besides, I know my way around.”

“You’re unsteady on your feet and can barely breathe from coughing.”

More glass rained down on the street as the fire roared. She grabbed his arm. “Please don’t go back in there. Stay here with me.”

“Standing here arguing wastes precious time I don’t have,”he grumbled.

Her gaze shifted to the roof, which was now fully engulfed. He’d never make it out. But to have any chance at all, he had to go now.

She let go of his arm, urging, “Be careful.”

He ran across the street and disappeared into the smoke billowing from the front door. Rowie said a quick prayer, which she hadn’t done since the day Carson was killed. She hoped He was paying attention better than the day on the train.

Patrons of the surrounding businesses came outside to watch the spectacle of the Pleasure Palace going up in flames.

The boardwalk soon became too crowded for her comfort.

Keeping to the shadows, she hurried farther down the block and dashed into the alley beside Hurdy Gurdy’s Dime-a-Dance Club that sat catty-corner from the Palace or what was left of it.

The club was silent and dark at this time of night, as was the alley. From there, Rowie could still watch for her tall, handsome hero to emerge.

The seconds ticked by, and the fire continued to spread. About five minutes after the smoke had enveloped him, the roof collapsed with a deafening crash. Sparks and flames shot thirty feet into the air.

“Such a waste,”she whispered, her heart heavy for the life of someone so young, with so much promise and so unselfish—a rare commodity in her world.

When, a moment later, the dark shadow of a man carrying someone in his arms staggered through the front door, she exhaled in relief, only to begin coughing again.

“A friend of yours?”

Rowie twisted to find a woman in her late forties, perhaps early fifties, standing beside her, watching the blaze. Her perfectly coiffed hair and elegant dress looked out of place in this part of town.

“No, I…uh…he was helping people get out. I didn’t see anyone else doing that. I’m glad he’s all right, is all.”

“Heloise’s customers high-tailed it out of there, leaving the girls behind, did they? That sounds like her clientele.”

“You know her?”

“We used to work together.”

Rowie’s jaw dropped.

“You’re surprised,”she said with a smile. “I’m Elise Purcell. I own a parlor house a few blocks over. Heloise used to stay with me before she struck out on her own.”

“Then you’re a…”

“Painted lady?”the older woman supplied. “Not anymore. Years ago, I used to entertain for a living. Now I just run the place.”

“You’re a madam, then. Like Heloise.”

She stiffened, clearly offended. “Bite your tongue. We’ve just met, and you’re insulting me?”

“I’m… Um, I didn’t mean…”

“I tease, my dear,”she said with a smile. “But honestly, no one is like Heloise. Greedy, spiteful, and cruel. But I’m sure you know that.”

“Unfortunately, I know it very well.”

Shouting from across the street drew both their gazes. As if saying her name had summoned the devil, Heloise stood in front of a group of her ladies, clearly agitated. Her voice was raised—when wasn’t it—and carried in the night.

Rowie backed into the alley next to the bathhouse, prepared to flee. “I must go,”she murmured. But to where?

“Has she made housing arrangements for you already?”

“No, and I don’t care what she does or where she goes. I won’t be joining her.”

“It sounds like there is a story here.”

“I really must go,”she repeated, although her bare feet didn’t move. Alone in a strange city, where did she go without money?

“You’re clearly in shock, my dear. Why don’t you come home with me? You can get a bath and something to eat, and I’ll make you something soothing for your irritated throat. After a good night’s sleep, we can discuss your plan to leave Heloise’s employ. Unless you have somewhere else in mind.”

Her hesitation was answer enough.

“I didn’t think so,”she said with a sympathetic smile. “Please accept my hospitality for the night.”

Gritty, tired, aching all over, and least of all, standing practically naked in the street, Rowie was sorely tempted. But for all she knew, Elise could be worse than Heloise.

“I understand your hesitation, but I promise, I am only trying to help. There will be no obligation. Although, if you’re up to it, you could satisfy my curiosity about what my old friend Heloise—and I use that term very loosely—is up to these days.”

It seemed a small price to pay for a roof over her head and a bath.

Just then, the upper floors of the brothel caved in, sending sparks into the dark sky. As she watched the fire rapidly consume the bottom floor, the hose company and bucket brigade arrived, but it was too late. By morning, the building would be nothing but ash and cinders.

Rowie worried that not everyone made it out or that her actions had injured more than Monsieur Augustine. And what about the vile Frenchman? His burns were extensive. Had he survived? Did it make her a murderer and an arsonist if he did not?

She glanced down the street, trying to locate the strapping young man who had fearlessly ventured into a dangerous situation to save a woman most of society wouldn’t have bothered with.

The heavy smoke made it impossible to identify anyone, even a man who would have stood taller than the others—except for Noah.

The shrill voice piercing the night from a half block away couldn’t be mistaken. “Find her, you fool,”Heloise demanded. “The slut cost me a small fortune. I’ve lost enough today and don’t plan on letting her get away until she’s paid back every red cent.”

When a hulking figure, who could not be anyone other than Noah, separated from the huddle of people in the street and headed her way, Rowie quickly stepped farther into the shadows, pulling her cloak more closely around her and the hood lower over her eyes.