An untrained eye would have missed her. An elegant young lady in a sea of elegant women was hardly worth the second look. But it was the stillness amongst the bustle that demanded attention. The oddity of a girl allowing the biting chill of the air to flush her cheeks, as her scarf remained haphazardly draped on her shoulders.
Jennie Harris was anything but an oblivious bystander. Stepping out of the 6th Avenue elevated, it took nothing more than a quick sweeping glance to spot her. Finding Audrey Alexandra Kai was almost a natural response to being in Manhattan that Jennie wished she might forget. The train creaked and squealed as it surged forward and the arrivals pushed excitedly down the steps to spill onto the busy corner.
Jennie moved without losing sight of the seemingly frozen Audrey, unable to shake the need to keep sight of the familiar face. The retired bird had the familiar pit in her stomach that the troublesome Kai would wander away. Jennie silently wished her eyes were mistaken, that the young lady merely resembled a ghost of her past. However unlikely the wish for a bird was a bird until one was no more.
Ladies Mile teemed with life's busyness unlike any other part of all of New York City. Jennie allowed for the natural movement of the women around her to carry her down to the street. She inattentively listened to the gossip, whispers and low voices, catching attitudes about latest fashions and the assured best deals of the mile. She winked at a younger boy getting chastised by his mother, encouragingly. But it wasn't until she had almost reached the object of her attention that she became suddenly attentive to the chatter.
"… Odd creature the Longfellow ward, see her standing there?" One lady was whispering to another.
"All the young men she's met are smitten with her, but it's scandalous the way girls are hardly having a proper coming out as young ladies." The other women criticized.
"Isn't she of the proper age? It's so hard to tell when they spend time abroad and all those terrible things that happened to her family so long ago… Her looks must have saved her from ruin." The first woman nodded righteously sure of her assessment.
"I've heard she was taken in by foreign friends as a baby when her father began to run into trouble, apparently she was a sweet child…"
"Or a lucky one." Jennie muttered, rolling her eyes. She tucked herself beside the large stand of newspapers, just behind the sleeping sales attendant. The old bird wanted just a moment for inspecting every detail of the young lady. She hoped to entertain the fancy she and the gossips might have imagined the familiarity. But Laces was unmistakable, even shroud in a tailored afternoon dress. The girl was the same from the serious stare down to the untied boot hardly concealed by her skirts.
Audrey didn't notice Jennie. So use to the heavy settle of watchful eyes was the young lady of society, the favored mark of the Brooklyn Birds. The girl's brown eyes barely flickered from the newspapers as the crowds around her moved. Another set of ladies strolled by, also gossiping about the young Longfellow ward and Jennie sighed impatiently.
The old bird effortlessly moved amid the crowd to be behind the girl. The young lady didn't flinch refusing to notice anything else but the headlines. Jennie leaned forward and frowned at Audrey's refusal to acknowledge her presence, her refusal to acknowledge the world.
"I get better stories from the copper on the beat." Jennie whispered her mockery. Audrey took a deep breath and let out a low grunt of annoyance.
"That fat little man is barely trying to sell those papers at all." Audrey shrugged her shoulder, pushing Jennie back.
"Ladies don't buy papers, he'll wake by and by." Jennie explained patiently as she stepped back but kept a ready arm out.
"Ladies…" Audrey spat the word, as if the word were offensive. She pressed a frustrated palm against her eye and pushed back stray strands of hair.
"You are making yourself quite a spectacle." Jennie warned before pushing Miss Audrey in the small of her back. Audrey began to move along the street, away from the train platforms, picking up her skirts decisively. In a manner familiar to a certain Brooklyn boy, Audrey walked expecting to be followed.
"I didn't arrive alone, as you must know." Audrey commented.
"I just arrived and you appeared rather alone." Jennie sighed. Habit taking over the retired bird's actions, Laces must not be left to her own devices. She took a stride long enough to be in pace with the young lady of society. Audrey tilted her head to examine her companion, searching for the truth of her words.
"You don't look like Sugar anymore." Audrey accused.
"I hoped you weren't Laces." Sugar gave her a sad smile. Jennie Harris hadn't been called Sugar in some time, not since before Spot Conlon and Jack Kelly had left the city.
"No one dares to call me Laces anymore." Audrey whispered tugging at the chain tucked beneath the blouse of her dress. One that Jennie knew to hold a tiny key.
"No, they wouldn't dare. Not quite a respectable name for a young lady of society." Jennie laughed tugging at letter tucked in her skirts. "There is one, who still dares."
Audrey stopped in her steps and twirled around to face her companion. Sugar stood in a modest dress of navy blue, a color that against her fair complexion brought out her dancing blue eyes. Audrey frowned at her appearance, imaging the woman instead as a girl in a pair of brown trousers and cream shirt. Jennie held out a letter between them, the unmistakable cramped script of a brazen young man.
"What are you called now?" Audrey wondered more to herself than to the bird in front of her. She didn't reach out for the letter but focused her eyes on the face in front of her.
"My name," Jennie shrugged. "Jennie, Jennie Harris."
"Audrey! Audrey!" A voice rang down the walk and Elizabeth Samson came hurrying through the crowds of ladies.
"He loved you once." Audrey stared down at the outstretched letter.
"No, not really. I was a pretty girl and he was a bored boy." Jennie laughed but shook her head. Audrey frowned at the explanation.
"He stayed…" Audrey began but Jennie shook her head.
"You let him go." Jennie explained, a tinge of her youthful impatience crept into her voice. Audrey blinked and Jennie was gone, the letter pressed into her hand. Elizabeth Samson had finally reached her. Audrey stared in the direction she suspected Jennie had gone, catching sight of a single feather in a window display of a smaller shop.
"Heavens, Miss Kai! I was almost to Lord and Taylor before I even realized I had lost you. Did something catch your eye?" Elizabeth set a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Yes, yes. I am sorry, there was a bobble in the window." Audrey nodded apologetically as she hid her letter. She tinkered with her necklace once more before sliding her arm to lock arms with Elizabeth.