Another inquiry directed her to Helen Arnold’s office. Kim gave her name to a secretary and was told she’d have to wait. No sooner had Kim sat down when a tall, slender, and strikingly attractive black woman appeared in a connecting doorway and waved her in.
“I’m Helen Arnold, and I’ve got some good news for you,” the woman said enthusiastically. She led Kim into her office and motioned for her to sit down.
Kim was struck by the woman’s appearance. It wasn’t what she expected at a law school library. Her hair was done in the most exquisite cornrows Kim had ever seen, and her dress was a brilliantly colored silk chemise loosely gathered at the waist with a gold chain belt.
“I spoke this morning, quite early if you must know, with Ms. Sturburg, who is a wonderful woman by the way, and she told me all about your interest in a work by Rachel Bingham.”
Kim nodded through this dialogue which Helen delivered in rapid-fire.
“Have you found it?” Kim asked as soon as Helen paused.
“Yes and no,” Helen said. She smiled warmly. “The good news is that I confirmed Katharine Sturburg’s belief that the work survived the fire of 1764. I am absolutely sure of this. Mark my word. Apparently it had been rather permanently housed in the chambers of one of the tutors who’d lived outside Old Harvard Hall. Isn’t that good news?”
“I’m pleased,” Kim said. “In fact I’m thrilled it wasn’t destroyed. But you qualified your answer to my question whether you’d found it. What did you mean by ‘yes and no’?”
“I meant simply that although I hadn’t found the book itself, I did find reference to the fact that the work did indeed come here to the Law School for the Law Library. I also learned there’d been some confusion and difficulty of how or where to file the work, although it had something to do with Ecclesiastic Law as your letter from Increase Mather suggested. By the way, I thought the letter was a fabulous find, and I understand you have offered to give it to Harvard. That’s very generous of you.”
“It’s the least I could do for all this trouble I’ve caused,” Kim said. “But what about the Rachel Bingham work? Does anybody know where it might be?”
“There is someone,” Helen said. “After a bit more digging around, I discovered the work had been transferred from the Law Library to the Divinity School in 1825, right after the construction of Divinity Hall. I don’t know why it was transferred; perhaps it had something to do with the filing difficulties here at the Law Library.”
“My Lord!” Kim exclaimed. “What a journey this book has had.”
“I took the liberty of calling my counterpart over at the Divinity School Library just before noon,” Helen said. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course I don’t mind,” Kim said. She was pleased Helen had taken the initiative.
“Her name is Gertrude Havermeyer,” Helen said. “She’s something of a battleax, but she’s got a good heart. She promised she’d look right into it.” Helen took a piece of note paper and wrote down Gertrude’s name and phone number. She then took out a single-sheet map of the Harvard campus and circled the Divinity School.
A few minutes later Kim was on her way across the campus. She passed the Physics Lab and skirted the Museum Building to reach Divinity Avenue. From there if was just a few steps to Gertrude Havermeyer’s office.
“So you’re the reason my entire afternoon has been wasted,” Gertrude said when Kim introduced herself. Gertrude Havermeyer was standing in front of her desk with her hands aggressively settled on her hips. As Helen Arnold had suggested, Gertrude projected a severe, uncompromising temperament. Otherwise her bravado belied her appearance. She was a petite, white-haired woman who squinted at Kim through wire-rimmed trifocals.
“I’m sorry if I’ve inconvenienced you,” Kim said guiltily.
“Since I took the call from Helen Arnold I’ve not had a second to do my own work,” Gertrude complained. “It’s taken me literally hours.”
“I hope at least your efforts weren’t in vain,” Kim said.
“I did find a receipt in a ledger from that period,” Gertrude said. “So Helen was right. The Rachel Bingham work was sent from the Law School, and it did arrive here at the Divinity School. But as luck would have it, I could not find any reference to the book in the computer or in the old card catalogue or even in the very old catalogue which we’ve saved in the basement.”