The Girl Underground

Chapter 6: A Conscience Clear as Mud

Chapter 6: A Conscience Clear as Mud

New Orleans, Louisiana, 1850

Ronald watched with a certain degree of patience as Dorsey sipped his tea. The man was clearly disturbed with the telling of this story, but not for the reasons one might have thought. In the lone hour he had begun speaking, Ronald had drawn the conclusion that Dorsey had cared a great deal for the girl, Malia, if only as a friend. The idea of her pain, suffering, and downfall brought him a great deal of pain to tell it.

"We can stop, if that is what you wish," Ronald said, though reluctantly. For he wanted to hear this story until the end... But not at the expense of his friend's discomfort.

"Oh no, there is no need for that," Dorsey chuckled bitterly and shook his head. "Ah, in fact I was just thinking that I may, perhaps, be speaking about these characters in the present tense when, in fact, many of them have passed."

"It is a way for you to keep them closer?"

"Perhaps..." Dorsey mused. "You know, I quite often wonder what Malia would do if she found out that I was hiding her story. She was never ashamed of it, not afterwards. During is a different sort of tale, she was scared and ashamed... But that did not make her love the Magistrate any less."

"To the chagrin of his wife, I suppose," Ronald laughed. "From what you tell me, Abigail Quincy had no respectable thoughts on the girl."

"Oh, trust me, good fellow, her negative thoughts towards my dear friend did not come a place of morals," Dorsey's face darkened. "That woman carried herself with airs as if she were the Queen herself, but she was lower perhaps than she was known to be."

"What do you mean?"

"You remember that I spoke of one Arthur Denning? The man the Magistrate was investigating at the time?"

"The one who was suspected to have stole the old woman's jewels?" Ronald nodded. "I do remember you bringing up that old tale at dinner once."

"That I did, and it turns out that man has a great deal more of a role to play in this tale, at least on Abigail's side of things."

"Oh, really?" Ronald leaned forward intently. "Indulge me."

"Do you remember that I told you about the Magistrate having three children, but one was by Malia?"

"Yes."

"Well there was one daughter that was, in fact, not by him," Dorsey said, sighing heavily. "Abigail fell pregnant while she was having an affair with Arthur Denning. Of course, Arthur didn't know, and since her romance with the Magistrate was at its height at that time, before it faltered. Everyone, even the Magistrate, knew for sure that it was his."

Ronald's jaw almost dropped at the thought. "Abigail Quincy had a child with her lover?"

Abigail Quincy had a lover?!

"Indeed," Dorsey nodded. "Yet no one questioned that is was the Magistrate's. Even during the events of this tale, Arthur did not know that the girl was his child. If he found out, I am not aware of it."

"But did she not look like Denning?"

"No," Dorsey almost laughed. "That Abigail's luck made it so that she was in bed with two men at the same time, produced a child, and that child came out looking like the spitting image of her. Blue eyes and amiable features of the face. The only thing she carried from Arthur was her dark hair, but that was something constantly overlooked."

"Bloody hell," Ronald shook his head. "Dumb luck, if I ever heard it."

"And to a woman least deserving of it."