Bless the Bride

hurried off, leaving me standing there. I knew I should do as he said and go straight home, but I couldn’t. I had been too late to save Frederick Lee, but it would only be a matter of time before they found Bo Kei if every policeman in the city was looking for her. I had to go and warn her immediately. I made my way with all haste to Elizabeth Street. Hermione wasn’t on duty and I was surprised to find Sarah coming down the stairs toward me.
    “Molly!” she said. “How nice to see you.”
    “What are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought his lordship had forbidden you from coming here.”
    “He changed his mind,” she said. “He said that he could see how much this work meant to me and it was wrong of him to deprive me of these last weeks of satisfaction, so he would not object as long as I allowed him to escort me. Wasn’t that sweet of him?”
    “Very understanding,” I said, mentally reversing my opinion of Monty as a spoiled, arrogant, and stuck-up Englishman.
    “I’ll only be helping out occasionally, as there is so much to do for the wedding,” she said. “Isn’t it incredible how many fittings are needed for a wedding dress that one will only wear once in one’s life.”
    “My mother-in-law is making mine,” I said. “I was supposed to be helping but my sewing was so terrible that she banished me to undergarments. I am a hopeless failure, according to her.”
    Sarah laughed. “Oh, dear. In-laws are not all they should be, are they? Monty’s mother looked through her lorgnette at me as if I was something that had crawled under the door. Have you come to see your Chinese girl?”
    “Yes, I have.”
    “She’s doing awfully well. In fact they both are. The other girl seems to have a new lease on life since Bo Kei arrived. We thought she wouldn’t be long for this world and that the consumption was at a late stage, but now she seems so much brighter that we have hopes she may even recover.”
    “I’m glad,” I said. “May I go up to see Bo Kei?”
    “Of course,” she said. “She’s in the room facing the stairs on the third floor.”
    “Not with Annie?”
    “We’re keeping Annie in isolation as much as possible. It wouldn’t be wise to have anyone sleeping in a room with her, considering how sick she is. I don’t think consumption is horribly contagious, but one can’t be sure.”
    I started up the stairs, hesitated, then made up my mind. “Sarah, can I be frank with you?” I said, looking up and down the hallway to make sure we were not being overheard. “The police will be searching for Bo Kei. They think she might somehow be involved in a murder that took place last night.”
    “But that’s absurd. She was here last night.”
    A wave of relief came over me. Of course she had a perfect alibi.
    “Would you swear to that? The doors are locked, and nobody comes and goes?”
    “Well, no,” she said. “Our doors are never locked. We are known to be a haven for battered women and prostitutes escaping from brothels.”
    “So it would be possible for anyone to enter or leave during the night if they wanted to?”
    “I’m afraid it would.”
    “Oh, dear,” I said. “I’m sure she’s innocent, but you know what some of the police are like, and she doesn’t know anything about life in America. They can probably trick her into confessing anything. Would you be prepared to hide her?”
    “Hide her?”
    “If the police came to the door, I mean. Would you be prepared to lie and say that she wasn’t here? Or hide her away in a cupboard if they wanted to search the place?”
    Sarah looked worried. “If I was hiding someone in my own home it would be different,” she said. “But I’m just one of many volunteers here. I can’t risk the future of this house by lying to the police and harboring a fugitive. They’d shut us down, and then who would do the good work that we do here?”
    I did see her point. “Then I’ve no choice,” I said. “I must get her away as quickly as possible. Could you send someone to hail me a cab? I’ll go upstairs and get Bo Kei ready. That way, if anyone asks you if she is with you, you can truthfully deny it.”
    Sarah sighed. “I really think that would be best. But where would you take her?”
    “I’ll see if Sid and Gus would be prepared to take her in,” I said. “If not, then my own house is across the street and nobody’s living in it at present. I could hide her there, at least until we decide what to do with