Fatal as a Fallen Woman by Kathy Lynn Emerson Page B

herself into with an entire week's head start.
    "But I suppose you can't just drop everything and go after her," Foxe said with mock sympathy. "Not with your responsibilities at home, and all." He tipped back in his chair, chewing on the end of an unlit cheroot. "How is your brother?"
    "Better."
    The curt reply seemed to amuse Foxe. "Good. Good. Well, you go on back to Maine and take care of him and your other patients. Perhaps I'll go West and lend Diana a hand. There's a story in it, and she won't want to write it." He nodded, as if coming to a decision, and slanted a sidelong glance at Ben. "Shall I tell her you'll be waiting for her when we come back East? Perhaps I can suggest that she send you regular reports by telegram in the interim."
    Ben held onto his temper by a thread. "Telegrams and letters are most useful, but no substitute for talking to someone in person."
    "Indeed. For that reason neither would do your brother much good if you were in a distant city when he needed medical assistance. Are you sure he's in the care of a competent physician?"
    Ben remembered Aaron as he'd last seen him, on the mend but so determined to get back to his painting that he might well break his promise to take things slowly. He pictured Maggie, so wrapped up in her own fey world that he wasn't entirely certain she'd notice if Aaron had a relapse.
    "You took an oath as a physician." Foxe's whispered taunts echoed the voice of Ben's own conscience. "You have an obligation to your patients, as well as to your blood kin."
    "I made a promise to Diana, too. And to myself."
    "Ah, yes, our strong, brave, self-sufficient Diana, so determined to see things through on her own. When it comes right down to it, Northcote, I don't believe you really have any choice at all."
    * * * *
    "Ning?" Diana called, stepping out onto a back stoop.
    He was too far away to hear her but she could still see him. The blue blouse was distinctive. He'd be easy to follow, she decided, and if she caught up with him now to ask him to do a small favor for her, it would save him the trouble of another trip later, when he got back from running Jane's errands. Diana delayed only long enough to borrow a shawl from the peg just inside the kitchen door before setting out in pursuit.
    The boy moved faster than she'd anticipated and she had to scurry to keep him in sight. He slipped down a side street, hurried along a narrow lane, and turned again into an alley crowded with two-story wooden buildings. Diana rounded the last corner and looked about in bewilderment. Orientals in blue cotton were everywhere. Men and women as well as boys and girls. Ning had vanished, a needle in a haystack, lost in a crowd of similar faces.
    Diana froze, feeling as if she'd stepped into another country. Even the smells were different here. Herbs she didn't recognize by sight or scent were offered in the shop nearest her. From the store just beyond came a tantalizingly exotic aroma of cooking food.
    The buildings were jammed together, a church up against a restaurant, a saloon beside a laundry. As she moved slowly forward, entranced by her surroundings, she caught a whiff of borax, sulphur, and lye, all of which were used in bleaching.
    A clatter arose, signalling the approach of a train. She heard it slow as it prepared to stop at the nearby depot. The engine groaned and spewed noxious smoke into the air.
    When the din died away, Diana found herself listening to voices, all speaking in a foreign tongue. The high-pitched, singsong words did not seem threatening, but she'd taken only a few more steps before she smelled a faint, sweet odor running beneath all the other scents.
    She knew at once what it must be. One of these close-packed buildings housed an opium den.
    Suddenly all the horrific tales Diana had been told about "Hop Alley" came flooding back to her. She'd been away at school during Denver's notorious Chinese riot, but she'd heard the stories. San Francisco had a large Chinese population