Dorothea Hall Mysteries

Love is a Mess

Nora and I retraced her steps to the Bunan abode. She told me more about her vision of opening a dress shop with her friend Maragaret. It was when she waxed poetic about how kind Maggie was that I began to realize the real problem. Nora described her friend as an absolute paragon. Along with working three paying jobs, Maggie got up early in the morning to volunteer at the mess for her local Workhouse. She made quilts for babies in orphanages. No woman was as perfect as all this.

"Nora, you're in love with Margaret, aren't you?" I asked.

"Of course I love Maggie. She's my best friend," Nora said.

"That's not what I mean. You want to be companions as well as business partners."

It was a very difficult subject to broach with a young woman. It was illegal to be in a sexual relationship with a member of the same gender, but many people found these forbidden fruits fascinating. Carmella had shared a story her sister, Audrey, had told her about visiting Rat Mort, a café in the Paris neighborhood Montmartre, where only women were allowed. She saw women kissing each other in public and whispering sweet nothings to each other.

Nora stopped short. "We shouldn't be speaking of this. It's dangerous."

"This is why you haven't told your mother. You're afraid she'll be horrified."

"I'm afraid she'll have me locked up in the madhouse."

"Let's think this through. Has your mother met Margaret?"

"Of course. She and her father lived in the same boarding house as we did when I was young. They moved to Northern England when I was ten. He still lives there, but she decided to come back to London because there wasn't much opportunity for a woman in the small town where they lived. She came to our house and asked if she could stay with us until she found a boarding house. Mother remembered her and her father as fine people and agreed. Our old friendship led to more."

"Your mother is very perceptive. You and the woman you love were under the same roof. I suspect she knows about it. How about this, if your mother is horrified and kicks you out of the house, I will help the two of you find a place to live. Even if she is supportive, I can get you two work which will allow you to be paid well for only one job each. I have contacts in the theater community and they always need excellent seamstresses. It pays very well and a number of the women involved have companions of their own."

She gaped at me. "Why would you do this for me and Maggie?"

"Let's just say I'm a new wife who's madly in love and wants everyone else to have the same privilege."