The shortest distance to Meigg’s wharf was via Francisco Street, so that was the route she chose. Feral cats, busy raiding the rotting garbage dumped at the edges of the raised walkway, hissed and spat as she and the boys passed.
Time and again, Sara Beth glanced over her shoulder to make certain her little brothers were staying close as instructed.
The moist, damp air blowing ashore from the bay seemed to press in on her, its cloying smells almost overpowering. Never before had she noticed how filthy this neighborhood was. Nor had she anticipated how desolate it would seem at this time of the morning.
Always before when she had been there, the area had been bustling with all sorts of people, men and women, rich and poor, intent on their own business or simply out seeing the more colorful sights of the city. To find the neighborhood so apparently abandoned was unsettling.
Suppressing a shiver, she boldly marched on. They were almost there. Her breathing became shallow with anticipation, her heart pounding even more rapidly.
There were lights shining from the windows of the Cobweb Palace when she rounded the final corner. Moreover, many of the local inhabitants who had been out of sight during her approach had apparently been congregating in front of Mr. Warner’s menagerie building. The crowd there was considerable, and it was growing.
Sara Beth paused a moment to assess the situation, then gathered her brothers to her, relieving the older ones of baby Josiah.
“Keep close to me,” she ordered. “Grab a handful of my skirt and don’t you dare let go until I say so, understand? This crowd is very big and I can’t hold all your hands at the same time. We mustn’t get separated.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Luke said, his brown eyes wide.
Mathias, too, nodded, although Sara Beth could tell he’d be off in a jiffy if one of Abe Warner’s tame monkeys scampered up and wanted to play tag. Reinforcing her command she glared at him. “You, too, Mathias. Promise?”
He made a silly face. “Okay.”
“Good. Now come with me. I think I see Mr. Warner in the doorway of his store and I want him to watch you while I find out what’s happened.”
She didn’t voice all that she was thinking, partly because she didn’t want to frighten the boys, and partly because she wasn’t ready to accept that her parents might be at the center of the knot of men gathered on the rough, weathered walkway.
The moment Abe spotted her, he hurried over. “You children shouldn’t be here.”
“I had to come,” Sara Beth said, handing the still-sleepy Josiah to the trusted old man. “Is it…?”
“Come inside,” he said. “There’s no need for you young’uns to see all that. No need at all. No sirree.”
Sara Beth grasped his coat sleeve and stopped him. “Tell me. Please?”
She saw him look to the boys, then shake his head. The sadness and empathy in his expression told her more than any words could have. Much more than she wanted to know.
Biting her lip and fighting dizziness, she passed all her brothers into Abe’s care, then whirled and ran back into the street, pushing her way through the gaggle of onlookers.
A young, dark-haired man in a black frock coat was crouched down next to three bodies that lay on the walkway. Two had already been covered and he was laying the muddy folds of a wool cape over the face and upper torso of the third to mask it.
Sara Beth immediately recognized the fabric of her mother’s skirt and gave a little shriek.
The hatless man quickly stood, focused his dark, somber gaze on her and grasped her arms to stop her from proceeding.
She tried to lunge past him toward the bodies as she fought to free herself. “No. Let me go!”
“I’m sorry,” he said, holding her fast. “I did all I could. By the time I got here they were gone to Glory.”
“No. That can’t be true.”
“Unfortunately, I’m quite certain it is,” he answered. “I’m a doctor.”
“But you’re wrong! You have to be wrong.”
“I am sorry, miss.”
Truth and sympathy were evident in the man’s darkly serious gaze.
Bright lights sparkled in Sara Beth’s field of vision. Her head spun and she felt wobbly the way she sometimes did during an earthquake.
Her mouth was dry, prickly. She took several shuddering breaths and blinked rapidly, trying to clear her thoughts, to accept what her heart insisted was impossible. It was no use.
Darkness akin to a starless night began to close in on her. She sensed herself descending into a bottomless pit of hopelessness and despair.
No longer wanting to see or hear anything that was transpiring around her, she closed her eyes and let go of a reality too painful to acknowledge.
She was only vaguely aware of someone’s strong arms catching her as she sank blissfully into the welcome void of unconsciousness.
Chapter Two
Dr. Taylor Hayward’s boots clumped up the creaky wooden steps as he carried the unconscious young woman into Warner’s Cobweb Palace.
He laid her atop the bar rather than lower her onto the dusty floor. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be offended when she awoke to find herself the center of interest in the old saloon. In his opinion the bar was the cleanest area in the entire building and therefore the best choice as a makeshift fainting couch.
He didn’t think the girl was ill or would be in need of his services once she regained consciousness. She had simply received a shock when she had stumbled upon the grisly scene and would surely come around soon without medical intervention. Still, he planned to stay close to her until she was in possession of her full faculties and to offer smelling salts if need be.
Suddenly, there was a high-pitched shout and a sharp pain in his ankle. He looked down to see a reddish-haired boy of about eight drawing back to give his shin another whack. Before the child had a chance to kick him again, Taylor lifted him by the back of his coat collar and held him at arm’s length.
“Whoa, son. Take it easy.”
The wiry boy wriggled and swung his fists in the man’s direction even though his arms were far too short to reach his intended victim. “What’d you do to my sister?” he screeched.
“This young lady? Nothing. She fainted and I caught her so she wouldn’t fall and hurt herself. That’s all. What’s your name?”
Still struggling and obviously intent on doing more bodily harm, the boy ignored the question. Looking past him, Taylor saw a slightly older child holding a toddler and standing next to the proprietor. Since none of the children was familiar to him, he called out, “Hey, Abe. Do you know this little rascal who’s tryin’ to take me apart?”
The old man nodded as he laid a hand on Luke’s head and stroked his hair. “Aye. That’s Mathias Reese, Miss Sara Beth’s brother. So are these young gentlemen. This is Luke and the baby’s Josiah.”
“Then suppose you tell them I’m an innocent doctor, not a mugger?”
Mathias started to relax but his eyes looked suspiciously moist. “You’re a doctor?”
Taylor lowered him carefully to the floor at his feet and released him before crouching to speak with him on his level. “That’s right. And it’s a good thing, too, because I think my ankle will need medical attention.”
The child glanced out the door to where the crowd was still milling around the recently deceased