“The week before Christmas is a season of infinite perplexity to grown-up people, who must select presents for the children.”––San Francisco Chronicle December 25, 1880
Friday afternoon, December 17, 1880
“Jamie, this is going to be fun,” Annie said, walking with her young boarder into the Silver Strike Bazaar. She’d picked him up at his grammar school at three so that he could buy people presents with money he’d saved from running errands during the year.
“Yes, ma’am. I really appreciate you taking the time so I can get something for my mother that’s a surprise.”
“Well, I am depending on you to help me pick out something for Chapman and Harvey. You spend more time with them than I do.”
Besides buying something for these two boarders who shared the back room on the second floor, Annie only needed to get presents for the Moffets and she’d be done with her shopping.
“Oh, ma’am, I know what to get Mr. Harvey. He said he could really use some new wool gloves. Said that his hands get really cold on the ferry ride up to Sacramento. Do you think he’s ever going to be able to bring his wife and children down here to live?”
“See, I knew you’d be a help; that is a very thoughtful suggestion,” Annie said. “I think Mr. Harvey hopes that if his employer finally promotes him to head clerk, he’ll be able to afford to bring them here. But then his wife will have to leave behind her parents, who have been such a help to her. Sometimes there just isn’t a good choice.”
“That’s what my mother said.” Jamie shrugged. “Seems such a shame. Maybe I could find a scarf to go along with the gloves?”
“What a good idea. But if you don’t mind, before we start to look for anything, I need to nip up to the fourth floor first, just for a minute.”
Jamie was perfectly amenable to the idea of taking a ride in the elevator, and when Annie saw that Emmaline was sitting in Miss Birdsoll’s office, reading a book, she was glad she’d brought him along. Leaving the two youngsters to get acquainted under Miss Birdsoll’s watchful eyes, Annie went in to see Mr. Livingston.
Her purpose was to report some of what she’d found out the day before from reading the letters from Phillip to Mrs. Fournier. Especially now that there was a strong possibility that Emmaline did have some family––if not the author of the letters––then relatives of the man who had set her mother up in her dress shop and was more likely Emmaline’s father. As she expected, Livingston expressed his dismay over what this might mean to the Villeneuves’ plans to adopt, but he promised to tell his junior partner right away.
What Annie didn’t tell him was that the letter writer thought that Marie had recently taken up with someone from the Silver Strike. Nor did she reveal that she and Nate feared that the letter writer might have killed Marie Fournier in a jealous rage over this rival. She knew he’d worry about whether the letters were referring to his son, and without any evidence it seemed unkind to bring the subject up. But she and Nate had agreed that they needed to tell Thompson about the letters.
When Annie left Livingston, she was delighted to find Jamie and Emmaline engrossed in a spirited game of knucklebones. The girl apparently was quite skilled at catching the ink-dyed bones Jamie carried everywhere in his back pocket. Annie suspected the proper Madame Villeneuve would have been horrified.
Miss Birdsoll, not at all horrified, said to Annie, “What a nice young man. He said that you were going to take him shopping. I was wondering, if it isn’t too much of an imposition, if you would mind taking Emmaline with you. Mr. Livingston told her he would give her some money to buy presents, but neither of us has had the time to accompany her. Nor do we feel comfortable letting her wander around the store on her own…not after…”
“Of course, it will be my pleasure. I am glad they are getting along,” Annie quickly replied. More loudly, she said, “Emmaline, would you like to come shopping with Jamie and me? We both have a short list of people we desperately need to buy presents for, and we would love your help. Jamie, did Emmaline tell you she actually lives in the store…up on the fifth floor? She probably knows the place inside and out.”
Emmaline nodded gravely but then gave Annie a sweet smile. She started asking Jamie questions about what sorts of presents he was looking for while Miss Birdsoll unlocked her desk and retrieved a purse. She gave twenty dollars to Annie, an extravagant amount, telling her to make sure Emmaline got gifts at the very least for the Villeneuves, Mr. Livingston, and the restaurant cook, who was always slipping Emmaline special snacks.
Two hours later, Annie, Jamie, and Emmaline climbed up the stairs to the fifth floor apartments, their arms loaded with packages. As they’d crossed the landing where the girl had found her mother’s body, Annie winced, thinking how unfortunate that this was the only way the child could access her rooms. Maybe it would be better all around if Mr. Livingston became her guardian and moved her to his house.
As Annie stood back to let Emmaline open up the door to her apartment and take Jamie inside, she noticed a raised female voice shouting in French from the Villeneuves’ apartment behind her.
Oh dear, I wonder if Monsieur has already told his wife there might be some difficulties with the adoption. If so, Madame is not taking the news well.
Annie quickly followed Jamie and Emmaline through the door, closing it firmly behind her, relieved that this eliminated the sounds and that Emmaline didn’t seem to have heard anything. Following Emmaline and Jamie down a short hallway, she stepped into a large parlor with southern-facing windows. To the left, a door opened into a small compact kitchen, and Emmaline indicated that a second door led to a bathroom. Jamie gratefully dumped his packages and disappeared into the facilities while Emmaline led Annie to the right into the larger of two bedrooms. Miss Birdsoll had told Annie that after the holidays, when the governess arrived, they would permanently move Emmaline into her mother’s bedroom, and the governess would take the smaller room.
“I need to find a place to hide Miss Birdsoll’s presents,” Emmaline said. “I think she will be pleased. Thank you for suggesting the book of poetry. I know she reads a lot at night but not that she read poetry. And I think she will really like the slippers.”
Annie was glad she had remembered the older woman mentioning her fondness for Emily Dickinson. She knew that one of Dickinson’s poems was in a recently published compilation entitled A Masque of Poets. Mr. Brown, the book department manager, assured them Miss Birdsoll didn’t have the book yet and would be delighted to get it as a gift.
As for the slippers, when Annie started looking for cashmere shawls for the Misses Moffet, saying that she knew the attic got chilly in the winter, Emmaline chimed in that Miss Birdsoll complained that she felt a terrible draft on her ankles when the heat was turned down at night. Hence, the red velvet, fleece-lined slippers that Emmaline bought as Miss Birdsoll’s second gift. Annie had trouble imagining the proper Miss Birdsoll wearing them, but she knew she’d appreciate the sentiment. As would Jamie’s mother when she opened up Jamie’s present to her containing her own pair of slippers, this pair bright blue.
Emmaline bent down to put the packages into the bottom of the room’s wardrobe, and Annie was relieved to see that it no longer held her mother’s clothes. But when she saw the girl move aside the large wooden box she’d brought to her from the dress shop, she recalled that she still hadn’t had a chance to ask her about the photographs in the box.
But not today, not when the girl was in such good spirits.