Maggie sighed as she followed one street sign and then another, finally finding the trolleycar connection that would carry her to the menagerie. The glint of her diamond ring blurred as she looked down at it.

“Maggie!” hailed a man’s voice as she stepped down from the car a short distance from the menagerie. “Is that you?”

Maggie looked around and saw Samuel Fairmont striding toward her, his face wreathed with smiles. She managed a faltering smile of her own, very glad to see her friend. “I came to see the animals,” she said witlessly.

The expression in Samuel’s eyes revealed that he’d guessed that she was upset, though his dazzling smile remained in place. “So did I. A happy coincidence—we’ll see them together.”

Maggie burst into unceremonious tears. She’d held them in check for so long that now they flowed uncontrollably. Samuel frowned, took her arm, and escorted her swiftly to a secluded bench, providing her with a fresh white handkerchief.

“What is it, little one?” he asked ever so gently. And that very tenderness made Maggie wail with grief and confusion.

Haltingly, she told Samuel her deepest secrets: how she was carrying Reeve’s baby, how she wondered if he’d only pretended to want her because he thought she knew more about his missing brother than she was admitting, how threatened she was by Eleanor Kilgore, the nurse Dr. Claridge had engaged.

Samuel listened compassionately until the whole story had been told, and then he held Maggie close in an effort to comfort her. “Poor child—what a life you’ve had. Perhaps you should come to America with us after all.”

Maggie shook her head, sniffling, and drew back from Samuel’s comforting arms in an effort to compose herself. “I couldn’t go, Samuel—I think I knew all along that I couldn’t leave Elisabeth, let alone Reeve. Besides, such a journey would be too much to ask of a little baby.”

Samuel used his thumbs to dry Maggie’s face. “I have no idea who Elisabeth is, and Reeve clearly doesn’t deserve you. As for the baby—Maggie, infants have been making crossings like that for centuries. They’re really remarkably resilient, you know.”

“Elisabeth is Reeve’s niece—oh, it’s all too complicated! Samuel, I just can’t go—it would break my heart.”

“It seems to me that your heart is already broken.” Samuel sighed, but then he stood up and offered his hand. “Come. Let’s have a happy afternoon, shall we? We’ll see all of the animals and then we’ll have a nice supper somewhere and I won’t say another word about America or the theater.”

Maggie smiled, knowing that her eyes were red-rimmed and puffy, that her face was mottled. “You really are so kind. I’ll miss you terribly when you go away.”