A New York Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page A

Brent then find his own home? Or would they all remain under one roof? The house was certainly large enough.
    “This is Little Italy—Mulberry Street, to be exact. Would you like to walk a bit?” Harley invited as the carriage drew to the curb. “Perhaps we could have a hot cup of coffee? There is a place a couple of hundred yards away, not very glamorous, but the coffee is good.”
    Jemima accepted with pleasure, and fifteen minutes later they were seated in a crowded but most agreeable small restaurant. All around her people were speaking in Italian, a musical language, much of it loud. The walls were hung with pictures of Naples and Sicily, and there were Chianti bottles on the tables.
    Harley leaned toward her. “Miss Pitt, may I confide in you? I am certain you have Delphinia’s happiness very much at heart, as I have my brother’s.”
    Suddenly she realized why he had brought her here. It was far more than a matter of hospitality, or even ofpride in his city. He was deeply concerned about something and it showed clearly now in his face.
    “Of course,” she agreed, putting her coffee down and giving him her full attention.
    He considered a moment before he spoke again, as if carefully formulating his words.
    “I am not sure how much Phinnie knows about her mother, Maria Cardew, although that may not be her name now …”
    Jemima was startled at the mention of Maria’s name, especially coming from Harley. She had assumed none of the Albrights wished to speak about her.
    Harley saw the expression and smiled bleakly.
    “I’m sorry to raise the subject, but you seem by far the best person to turn to. You clearly care for Delphinia and are taking your role in her life most seriously. Your first concern is always her well-being.”
    Jemima felt herself blushing. He was praising her where she felt she had not yet deserved it sufficiently.
    “You are modest,” he said quickly. “But what I say is true. Also, if I have understood correctly, your father is a man of some wisdom and experience in matters of … I really don’t know how to put this delicately … ofcriminal acts …” His phrasing was awkward, yet he did not look discomfited. She realized with a rush of very mixed emotions that he was too confident in himself to care what she thought of him.
    “He is head of Special Branch,” she said coolly. “They are responsible for any threat to the safety of the nation in a criminal or espionage kind of way.”
    He looked momentarily blank.
    “Not military attack,” she added for clarification. “Why do you mention my father? Do you think Maria Cardew is a danger to New York?”
    This time it was he who blushed, and a flash of appreciation gleamed in his eyes for an instant.
    “No, of course not,” he answered. “She is simply a woman of poor judgment and even poorer morals. Despite her being absent for most of Delphinia’s life, I am afraid that she may turn up at the wedding. If that happened, it would be in appalling taste and desperately embarrassing. And goodness only knows who she might bring with her. Some of her associates were …” He spread his hands in a gesture of hopelessness. “It might be better if I left it to your imagination. I don’t wish to use language you would prefer not to hear.”
    Jemima’s imagination was racing. What kind of woman was Maria Cardew? If she had been impossible to understand before, she was now also frightening.
    Jemima could see in her mind’s eye the vision of a cathedral wedding, the high-society guests in their gorgeous clothes, with their stiff faces and their polite laughter. And then suddenly Maria Cardew, perhaps drunk, loud-voiced, announcing that she was the mother of the bride. Phinnie would never live it down. Ruin had been brought about by less.
    How could any woman twice so injure her own child?
    “Is she mad?” she asked quite seriously.
    Harley Albright looked at her with something close to gratitude.
    “I see that you