Bless the Bride

alive?”
    “He is not, God rest his poor soul. Killed in a street brawl, five years after we came to America. I came to the good Father here as housekeeper twenty years ago.”
    I was trying not to show my impatience.
    “So do you think you could take me up to see the girl now? I’ve come to take her off your hands.”
    “Thank the Blessed Virgin for that,” she said. “I mean, what could I do with the poor thing? She couldn’t stay up in our attic forever.” She glanced back down the hall. “Come on then. Tread quietly or you’ll have himself snooping after us. He’ll have nodded off in a minute and then we’ll be all right.”
    She started up the stairs. I followed. My heart had been beating fast ever since I had found out that Bo Kei was hidden here, but as we climbed flight after flight of stairs, it was positively pounding in my chest. Mrs. McNamara was breathing heavily in front of me and paused on the landing to say, “My old legs are not cut out for this sort of thing any longer. Five flights. It’s too much for a body.”
    As she put her hand on the door handle there was the sound of scurrying beyond. The door opened to reveal a white figure, trying to duck down behind the bed.
    “It’s all right, my dear,” Mrs. McNamara said. “You can come out. This young lady has come to help you.”
    The white figure stood up and I saw that she was wearing a white nightgown. Her black hair hung in a heavy braid over one shoulder and she was looking at me with terrified eyes. I recognized her from her portrait.
    “Bo Kei?” I asked gently.
    She nodded.
    “I’ve been looking all over for you,” I said.
    “Who are you?” She said the words carefully. “Why you want me?”
    “My name is Molly.” I paused. What did I say next? I’ve come to deliver you back to your husband? I wished I knew how the law stood in New York. Could she legally be forced back to her husband? Was she officially his possession? Was I going against the law by hiding her? I didn’t think Daniel would take kindly to finding his own bride fined or in jail for aiding and abetting a fugitive. But neither did I want to send her back to a man like Lee Sing Tai. I needed time to think. If I could get her to Sarah’s settlement house, then she’d be safe for the moment and I could buy myself some time. “I’ve come to help you get away from here,” I said.
    “Where go?” she asked.
    “I’m not sure yet.”
    “You can’t take her out onto the street around here. She’d be seen,” Mrs. McNamara said. “That man’s spies are everywhere and you can’t let her go back to him, the monster.”
    “Did he treat you badly?” I asked.
    She nodded. “He make me do bad things. He say I belong to him now. He pay my father plenty money. He want I give him son pretty damned quick.”
    “So you definitely don’t want to go back to him?”
    “I no go back. I kill myself first.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said. “We must think how to get you away from here, and then we can plan your future.”
    “She’ll need some clothes first,” Mrs. McNamara said. “She came here in her nightgown.”
    “How did you escape?” I asked.
    She gave me a shy smile. “I hear church bell and look down on street. I see there is church, so close. So I wait see which day is Sunday. When it’s hot night, master sleep on roof. He have boy bring me to him, and when he don’t want me no more, he send me away again. So this night he think boy take me downstairs. But I come back up again. I hide on roof. When master sleeps I go on roof as far as I can, and when I can’t go no more, I jump to next roof.”
    “Goodness,” I said. “How far was it?”
    “Far,” she said.
    “Weren’t you scared?”
    “I think if I die, is better than to stay with him.”
    “How did you get down from the next roof?”
    “Down iron stair outside,” she said.
    “Fire escape,” Mrs. McNamara corrected. “She came down the fire escape—can you believe the nerve of it?”
    “Fire escape,” she agreed. “And then down pipe to ground.”
    “Wearing your nightdress? Didn’t people see you?”
    “Middle of night. Nobody in street. I wait in alleyway and hide in garbage. When people go church, I go too.”
    “In your nightdress? Or did you have clothes with you?”
    A sly smile crossed her face. “I steal sheet from laundry hanging on next roof. Throw down to street. I put it over head like this.” She demonstrated. “Make me look like nun. People not look