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So, did you ever meet Mr. Carter?
Mrs. Morgan shook her head. He d supposedly gone off somewhere when Sarah was still living back
in Bristol. Not that I knew her well, you know, but when she died there was a lot of gossip and it all came
out.
She didn t wear her wedding ring?
Not that I ever saw. And I d have noticed.
Jonty could believe it whatever else this woman was, she wasn t dull-witted. And was there any
gossip about him?
I heard he was a sailor, girl in every port and she was the one for Bristol. He s probably off at the
Cape with some brown doxy now. Mrs. Morgan sipped her tea then drew her finger around the rim of the
cup. I suppose you think we were the lowest of the low, but we didn t need to look too far for business.
Plenty of very fine gentlemen would pay us in those days, not just Dr. Keane. Two groups of folk were
using the baths that night. Our group, that was me and I can t remember the girl s name, she moved to
London not long afterwards and our gentlemen. Sarah Carter was with the other crowd and they was said
to be the real gentry. There was another girl or two used to hang around with her. They were both there that
night although I never knew their names.
What was there about Mrs. Carter that made her so popular, do you think? Was she a beauty?
No, not really. One of the girls who hung around with her was, you d call her a real stunner, yet
Sarah was the one the men used to like. She made them laugh, I suppose, the really pretty one was always
too po-faced to do that. When we were both at the baths together, our two groups of gentlemen, the others
were always smiling and joking, much more than we ever did. She stared out of the window, as if she
were hoping to catch a glimpse of the girl she d been twenty-five years since.
Did you ever suspect that there had been foul play?
No. They said that it was her heart and we all believed it. We were all shocked, our gentlemen as
well, and it rather took the shine off things for a while. That and not being able to go back to the baths. That
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Lessons in Temptation
had become a special place for us all, so after we were banned from there it all sort of fizzled out. There
were no more parties, just the usual and that increasingly rarely&
Jonty could guess what the usual might have been, from tales his father had told of his less upright
friends and their boating trips down to Skindles. Have you any idea who might have left flowers on her
grave, or who might still do so?
No idea at all. I ve not thought of Sarah Carter for years, not even out of curiosity.
Jonty, accepting he had no more to be gained, pushed his tea away largely undrunk then left the pub,
walking along the towpath towards the city and mulling over the little he d learned. He decided to try to
make a second call that morning, to another lady who had once been of ill repute. Dr. Buckner had obtained
names (of a sort) for three of the four other prostitutes who d been present the night of the murder. Mrs.
Morgan was one and her companion had been known as Roulette . The now-respectable woman at the inn
hadn t been able to translate that alias into something usable. The other name Jonty had on his list was
Clarissa Simmonds, and while Dr. Buckner senior had given a place where she might have been found in
the 1880s, he hadn t given an address for more recent times. Nor had Keane any information to give, as this
girl had been with the other group.
Undaunted, Jonty decided to begin at the original location. Plenty of people could still be found in the
same house they d lived in a quarter of a century ago, although Clarissa wasn t one of them. A harassed
housewife with an infant at her skirts opened the door to him, was shocked at meeting such a well-dressed
and well-spoken gentleman at her step then swore that she d no knowledge of any one called Simmonds
ever having lived there.
Jonty thanked her and was turning away when he was recalled with a coarse cry. Old Mrs. Franklin
might know. She s lived around here since Noah came out of the ark.
And where can I find this antediluvian lady? Jonty grinned.
The housewife stood a little taller, preening herself a bit, which seemed to be the normal reaction in
women whom Jonty had to deal with. He hoped they weren t trying to impress him. She lives on the next
floor up. The woman indicated the flight of stairs behind her, leading up into the gloom of a house which
had fallen into disrepair. I can take you there.
There s no need I ll call if I get lost. Jonty thrust a two-bob piece into the woman s hand then set
off up the stairs, hoping he didn t get lost as he wasn t enamoured of the predatory look forming in her eye.
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