Bloody Lessons Read Online Free Page B

need to know what to do to keep her safe.”
    Annie squeezed his arm. “There isn’t anything you can do tonight. I have already spoken to Mr. Stanley, our local patrolman. He promised to start making the alley part of his beat, and Kathleen is going to get Patrick to find out if any other women have been assaulted recently in the area. And of course, none of us are going to use the alley at night anymore.”
    “But even if she stays away from the alley…”
    “I know. But we can’t keep her in the house like a prisoner. We don’t even know if she was the particular target of the man. Barbara Hewitt has already volunteered to make sure that she and Jamie always accompany Laura to and from Clement Grammar. Barbara usually walks with Jamie since it is on the way to Girls' High, so it won’t be a bother. I am sure I can convince Laura that it is best for none of them to walk home unescorted once it is dark, and David Chapman has offered to walk with them on Wednesday nights when Barbara has to stay late.”
    “David who? Oh, that’s right,” Nate said, as he remembered. “Chapman. I’ve met him in the hall a few times. One of your boarders. Tall, thin scarecrow of a fellow. What’s he got to do with this?”
    Annie told him about how Chapman had come down to the kitchen after work and then gone out and found Laura’s satchel. “He works for Mitcherson’s as a purchasing agent, makes a decent salary,” Annie continued. “From what Kathleen says, he is quite smitten by Jamie’s mother, Barbara, although there is no indication that she returns the sentiment.”
    “Ah, hence the offer to escort everyone home on Wednesday nights! Well, as long as he’s not after Laura. Mother is determined she meet and marry a doctor or lawyer. I think this is the main reason she agreed to Laura moving up to San Francisco,” Nate said.
    He looked down at Annie and watched the play of emotions across her face. He knew she would be upset by the idea that Laura’s primary motivation for coming to teach in the city should be to catch a husband. However, since Annie was being courted by Nate, a lawyer, she couldn’t really say anything about this without sounding insulting. He kept quiet and watched her struggle with how to respond. He had learned his lesson last fall, when his too-ready tongue had gotten him in real trouble. He had almost lost any chance he had with Annie. The past few months, they had slowly been moving towards a better understanding, and he didn’t want to do anything to disturb this new equilibrium. There it is, that smile. One of Annie’s most endearing qualities was her sense of humor.
    “Nate, you are teasing me! I can’t imagine your mother plotting any such thing. You’ve always told me how important it was to her for Laura to get an education and a profession of her own,” Annie said, laughing. “Besides, Laura just turned nineteen, much too early to be thinking about husbands.”
    Nate saw Annie’s smile disappear, and he wondered if she was remembering that she had been Laura’s age when she’d married. He didn’t know many details about her marriage, besides the fact that her husband had lost all of Annie’s fortune in the panic and stock market crash of 1873 and then committed suicide. Mrs. Stein, one of Annie’s boarders, had intimated to him that the marriage itself had not been a happy one. He wished Annie would be more forthcoming about her past, even though it made him jealous even to think of another man putting his arms around her or kissing her.
    Nate dismissed that thought and drew the now somber Annie back into his arms, saying, “You know, my dearest, I would be very glad to encourage her to think about anything, including being courted by some young doctor, if it would take her mind off of what happened this evening.”
    *****
    Laura heard the quiet knock on the bedroom door, and she hastily blew out the candle and scrunched under the covers. She could sense the door open as