Maids of Misfortune Read Online Free PDF Page B

shut the door behind him, he looked around. While a fire was crackling in the grate, the oil lamps scattered around the room were turned down low and provided little illumination. Across from him stood a small round table, draped to the floor by dark green velvet. The woman behind the table motioned peremptorily, clearly indicating that he should sit. Nate tried hard not to stare at the woman as he took his seat. Her skin appeared almost ethereally white in the lamplight, and her eyes glittered in their black depths. He'd never seen eyes so large. She was wearing some sort of scarlet shawl that matched the color of her lips. Then there was the woman's hair! Nate was reminded of an old engraving in his Latin grammar of Medusa.
    Clearing his throat, he got right to the point. "I expect Mrs. Fuller told you I represent the estate of Matthew Voss and that I have come tonight to ask you a few questions."
    When the woman across from him nodded, he continued. "First, is it true that you are the woman known as Sibyl? And if so, just what was the nature of your relationship to Mr. Voss?"
    The woman stared at him for a moment and then in a soft, lightly accented voice replied, "Yes, I am Madam Sibyl. I consulted with Mr. Voss twice a week to give him personal and financial advice. I have done so for over seven months."
    Nate went on, "Just what sort of financial and personal advice were you giving him?"
    "Excuse me sir, but I don't see that it is any of your business," the woman replied. "Please explain yourself."
    Nate could tell that for some reason his questions annoyed her. Despite the vetting the Steins had given this Sibyl, he wondered if perhaps his Uncle Frank had been right all along. There was something suspicious about such a well-regarded businessman going to see a damned fortuneteller.
    "It seems to me that it's you who need to explain yourself." Nate leaned forward. "Here we have a man, Mr. Voss, who apparently had everything to live for: a beautiful wife, a fine upstanding son, an assured position in society. Yet, for some indiscernible reason, he begins to see a fortuneteller. I find it difficult to believe it was simply coincidence that not long afterward he died in mysterious circumstances."
    He clearly caught the woman off-guard. She started to rise and then sat back abruptly, two vivid red patches staining what he could now see were highly powdered cheeks.
    "I don’t believe it!" she hissed at him. “You are trying to blame me for the death of Mr. Voss! What am I supposed to have done? Broken into his house and slit his throat? Or am I more diabolical than that? Did I put some sort of curse on him?”
    "Don't be ridiculous," Nate interrupted. "Voss wouldn't be the first man to become so addled by the ranting of some so-called spirit medium that he was no longer responsible for his own actions."
    At this, the woman did rise and swept over to the cabinet to her right, putting her back to him. She reached out and picked up a carved ivory elephant on the cabinet in front of her, and Nate could see her take several deep breaths. Putting the carving down with a click, she turned and spoke quickly. "I am so sorry, sir, but it's you who are ridiculous. First, for no apparent reason, you mistake a respectable woman for a keeper of a house of prostitution."
    Nate scrabbled his chair backward and stood, leaning over the table, trying to staunch her flow of words. "Oh no! Listen, that was an unfortunate mistake; I had hoped she didn't realize. If I could only explain to Mrs. Fuller."
    She continued, ignoring him, "And now you accuse me of being some kind of a fraud who is responsible for a good man's death. What a fool you are! Tell me, do you really think a sober, responsible man like Mr. Herman Stein would have encouraged people to come to me for advice if I were a charlatan?"
    Nate was appalled that Sibyl, or more importantly, Mrs. Fuller, had discovered the mistake he had made in thinking the house a brothel, but he was