An Acquaintance with Darkness - Ann Rinaldi [40]
Their hands were manacled behind their backs. Even Annie's.
"No!" Again I started to get down from my seat.
Again Robert stopped me. "Don't be a fool!"
"A fool? To care about my friend? They're taking her away!"
"They have to. Likely to question her. If she and her mother are innocent, they'll let them go. What do you think you can do, anyway? Besides involving yourself?"
He was right. I could do nothing but watch as four detectives got into the carriage with Annie, Mrs. Mary, and Powell, and the other two walked back across the street to where their own carriage was parked. The two carriages, one following the other, drove right by us, going the other way.
I saw the detectives, grim faced, staring ahead. I saw Annie. She seemed to be struggling with her hands so manacled. She looked right at me as their carriage passed by.
"Robert!" I moaned.
"She'll be all right," he insisted. "If she's innocent, she'll be all right."
"You believe that? Didn't you just read that proclamation by Stanton in the paper? He's out for blood!"
"Damn," he said. "I knew that man Powell was up to no good, climbing out of a vault in the cemetery at midnight. Somehow he's connected with all this! Why didn't I stop him when I had the chance?"
"Midnight?" I looked at him. "They hold funerals at midnight now?"
"Sometimes they do," he said.
"You and Uncle Valentine seem to go to more funerals."
"Doctors do, when their patients die. And the time isn't always convenient. Don't split hairs, Emily."
"Don't you sit there all superiorlike and tell me not to split hairs. You just lied to me, Robert deGraaf, telling me you were working last night in the lab. And now it turns out you were in the cemetery at midnight, seeing a man climb out of a marble vault!"
"I wasn't aware that I had to account to you for my actions. You lied to me. You knew that man. You'd seen him before. Likely at the Surratts'."
"I think you're despicable to hold me to every thing I say when I've just watched my best friend being taken away by the police! You don't know how that feels!"
"My best friend was killed at Gettysburg. So don't tell me I don't know, Emily, please."
"Well, this is different."
"It sure is." He picked up the reins and clicked to the horse.
"Where are we going?"
"Home."
"No, we can't, please. We must go in the house."
"The house! What for?"
"The cat," I said. "Annie has a cat."
His stare got colder and colder. "Go on."
"Well, there's no telling how long the police will keep Annie. And Puss-in-Boots has to be fed, doesn't she?"
"Puss-in-Boots?"
"The cat. Annie took care of my cat and my bird when we had to leave Surrattsville and couldn't bring them here to Washington. I can't do any less for her, can I?"
He agreed that I couldn't. But he didn't like it. Reluctantly, he guided the horse up in front of our old house. "Now what?" he asked.
"The detectives are all gone. And I know how to get in the back door. Please."
He relented. But only if he could come with me. So we went through the yard of my old house, then through the yard next door and into the Surratts' yard. The last time I'd been here was when Uncle Valentine came to fetch me in the rain. It seemed like years ago, instead of days.
No one was home in the house next door. Or if they were, they were minding their own business. "I'm indulging you," Robert kept saying as he followed me up the back steps and I fetched the key from under a flower pot on the back porch. "I know I'm going to be sorry for this."
"Here, kitty-kitty," I called.
We went in through the kitchen. I kept calling for Puss-in-Boots. Then I heard her meowing. "She's upstairs," I told Robert.
He gestured that I should go and he would follow. We found Puss-in-Boots in