As fast as he could, the man rapid-fired his responses. “I don’t know why McCoy took the bay, I only know he gave the order and it happened — but it took ’em all day. Pirates don’t hand over easy, especially not when they’ve been dug in somewhere for so long. Your brother was there hitching a ride on a Cajun rig called the Crawdaddy, doing I’m-not-sure-what. Rick got caught in a firefight and he’s taken two bullets. Neither of them killed him, but he needs a doctor, and that means he’s got to get upriver. Nobody in the city will risk treating him right now, and with the curfew — well, he’s still at Barataria, holed up with Fletcher and one of the Lafitte boys,” he said. “But they’ll move him out one way or the other, come morning. They’ll get him someplace safe.”

“How bad is it? And don’t you lie to me, now.”

“I didn’t see him, I only agreed to run the message from Fletcher. Let’s get back to the Garden Court, and we can talk about it. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“I have to go to my brother.”

Horrified, Agatha said, “You don’t mean it, Josie! Let the men take care of their own. When he’s out of town and all healed up, you can go meet him. You’ll do nobody any good by throwing yourself in harm’s way. Think what Rick would say if he knew you were coming.”

“He’d tell me to get the hell back into my house and he’d see me on the other side. But he isn’t here, and I never listened to him much, anyway.” Her words cracked around the edges, and she was glad for the darkness. “I’m the elder. It’s his job to listen to me, and mine is to…” She tore the note to tiny pieces and dropped it into a stream of manure and river runoff along the street’s edge. “Mine is to take care of him. Just like I promised Momma I would.”

A rolling-crawler went roaring past the alley, filling the slim space with diesel fumes and a rattling echo that rang around the walls. It dimmed, the brownie moved on, and Josephine continued. “I won’t leave him out there, nursed by pirates who can’t stitch a button. I’m going to him, and I’m going to take him to the bayou myself — so Edison Brewster can run him north and get him the help he needs, if he needs more of it than I can give him.”

“Josie, you’re daft.”

“You know it’s true, both of you,” she appealed to her companions in turn. “If he stays there, under siege on the islands until morning … God knows what’ll become of him. No.” She shook her head, not clearing her thoughts but winding them up. “No, I’m going after him. I’d rather die knowing than sit at home and wonder.”

The young man sighed and caught her arm when she turned to run back the way she’d come. Before she could haul off and hit him, he said, “Fletcher told me you’d say as much. He said you wouldn’t stay put and it was up to me to keep you from coming out there, but he also told me it was a lost cause from the get-go.”

“Do you know where they are? Right now?” Josephine asked. She pried her arm out of his grasp.

“Just like the note said, they’re at the fort — unless somebody’s moved them. I’ll take you there, if you won’t have it any other way. But first, we have to get off the streets. The patrols will catch up to us any minute. Hurry up now, back to the Garden Court,” he begged. “We can leave from there — it isn’t far, is it?”

“Only a few blocks. And you’re right, I have to go home first. Come on, let’s go.”

“Josie?”

“Aggie, you coming, too?”

“No, I’m heading back to my own place like a law-abiding citizen. But I want to say good luck, and I love you.”

Josephine swallowed hard, then kissed Agatha on the cheek. “Don’t say such things. It’s like you don’t think I’ll be back.”

“I hope you’ll be back,” she said. Josephine didn’t answer.

Instead she fled the alley and rushed back down the warren of narrow blocks overhanging with balconies and lamps, streets wet just like always. Her feet slapped side by side with the young man’s as together they darted through the Quarter. All along the way, doors were being closed and windows were being drawn; shutters were being pulled and lights inside were coming on, same as the lights in the streets — lit one by one as low-ranking Texian enlisted men complained their way up and down the ladders to spark the lights and brighten the gloom.

They slipped inside the Garden Court just ahead of the first patrol of rolling-crawlers, their dastardly engines churning and lumpy wheels rolling up and down over the curbs, splashing through puddles, and spewing ghost-gray clouds with every shove of every cylinder.

Josephine slammed the door shut behind them and nearly locked it, but changed her mind when she realized she was only frightened.

Curfew or no, this was an after-hours business. So long as customers stayed off the streets, no one had gone to the trouble of shutting them down. Business was off by about 30 percent, yes. But it could be worse. It could be off altogether, and locking the front door would be a start in that direction.

The madam’s sudden and dramatic entrance stunned the lobby’s occupants into silence.

Delphine Hoobler and Septima Hare had been talking together on the long dais, but their conversation drew up short and now they stared at their employer. Likewise, Olivia Tillman and her suitor had paused on their way upstairs, and the perennially present Fenn Calais had stopped in his tracks, Ruthie under one arm and Caroline under the other.

“Miss Josephine?” asked the old Texian with the deep pockets and large appetite.

She put one hand on her chest beneath her throat, and did a ladylike show of not gasping for breath. “I beg everyone’s pardon, please,” she said — directing the apology first to the unknown guest and Fenn Calais, then the rest of the ladies. “The curfew, you understand. This gentleman was trying to find his way here, and I only stepped out to lend him a hand. Please, everyone. Carry on, and let’s enjoy the rest of the night.”

But Ruthie slipped out from under Calais’s arm, quickly replaced by Septima — with Fenn’s blessing, or apathy. She came back to Josephine, who dropped herself onto the hard-padded couch beside Delphine. Still waiting for the coast to clear, she gave the men another half minute to retreat and then gave her orders quietly as the women gathered around and the man who’d accompanied her stood stiffly, nervously by the door. He looked out the window, watching through a slit in the curtains.

“I’m leaving tonight,” Josephine said. “For a day or two — that’s all. My brother’s been hurt, and I need to see him.”

“Deaderick?” gasped Ruthie. “What happened?”

“He’s been shot, but he’s alive — and he’s going to be all right, I’m pretty confident of that. I have to go take care of him, though. I have to help Fletcher Josty move him safe back to the bayou. From there, Edison will take him up the river to a doctor, if we can’t find one any closer.”

Olivia’s eyes welled up with tears. This was not an uncommon event, but just this once, Josephine didn’t mind it. The young woman asked, “Is he in town? Why don’t they bring him to town? We’d find a doctor for him here. Maybe Dr. Heuvelman—”

“Miss Tillman,” the madam said with less than her usual measure of patience. Olivia was lovely, kind, and well intentioned, but sometimes painfully slow. “Between the curfew and his face being on wanted posters from Metairie to the Gulf, that’s possibly the worst idea in the world. I’ll go to him and get him moved, and then I’ll be back here by week’s end.”

Ruthie, on the other hand, was much sharper. “He’s not in town and he’s not in the bayou? Where is he?”

“Somewhere else. This fellow here — I’m sorry, darling, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Gifford,” he provided. “I’m Gifford Crooks.” Upon suddenly finding himself the most interesting person in the room, he blushed and kept talking. “I’m with Mr. Pinkerton’s Secret Service — his Saint Louis office, working with the bayou boys as of last week. I’m … new. This is my first job.”