“I’m sorry,” I said. “I should never have brought her here, but I had to act quickly, before the police raided the settlement house. I’ll go upstairs and fetch her and take her over to my place. You can claim no knowledge of her if the police ever question you.”
“Oh, no, Molly, don’t misunderstand us,” Sid said. “Of course we want to help. It’s just that—” She paused and looked across at Gus for reassurance again. “Molly, are you quite sure that she is innocent? This is a girl who has already proven that she is prepared to take tremendous risks and is remarkably agile. She leaped across rooftops once. What was there to stop her from repeating the action?”
“She was in the settlement house last night,” I said.
“I’ve been to those places,” Sid said. “People are always coming and going. She could certainly have slipped out if she’d wanted to.”
“And she does have such a perfect motive,” Gus added. “She could never be safe or free while the old Chinaman was alive. These people are so different from us and it is not easy to read their expressions. How can you tell if she is telling the truth? Even our own kind can sometimes lie and deceive us.”
“This is all true,” I said. “And the answer is that I don’t know if she is innocent. But I don’t see how she could have done it alone.” As I said it I thought of those dainty footprints in the soft tar on the rooftop. “But you’ve seen how petite she is. How could she have the strength to hurl a grown man to his death?”
“Then perhaps her lover Frederick is not the nice, innocent boy he seemed to you,” Sid said. “You’re a kind person, Molly Murphy. You’ve let people use you before now.”
“I know that too,” I said. “But I also know that my Celtic sixth sense has often served me well, and my gut feeling is that Bo Kei is innocent. If another policeman was on the case—if my Daniel would only take it over—I’d be happy to leave the whole thing in the hands of the police. But you haven’t seen this Captain Kear. He is brash and arrogant and I could see that he’d already made up his mind that Bo Kei and Frederick are the guilty parties. He won’t even bother to go on looking for the true murderer.”
Sid glanced across at Gus and sighed. “We want to help, Molly. We feel angry at the way this girl has been treated. Of course we can’t condone the buying and selling of women.”
“Sid even thought she was quite justified in killing him,” Gus said with a grin, “but you know that Sid sometimes does get a little heated on the subject of women’s rights.”
I shook my head. “No. I’ve just realized that I can’t leave her here. I know she hadn’t exactly been charged with a crime yet, but I can’t let you run the risk of harboring a fugitive. I’ll take her over to my house. She can stay up in the attic and I’ll take her food and drink until we can decide what to do with her.”
“And if your bridegroom decides to make a sudden inspection or brings back the paper-hanger, what then? He’d be furious if he knew you were even working again.”
I sighed. “I’m afraid he’s already discovered that much. He burst into the room at Mr. Lee’s house. And believe me, he was furious. I was tempted to tell him that I knew of the whereabouts of the Chinese girl, but while that Captain Kear is in charge of the case, I just couldn’t risk it. They were already talking about throwing Frederick in the Tombs to soften him up. What if they did that to Bo Kei too?”
Gus slipped her arm around my shoulder. “Don’t get upset, Molly. She can stay here. We don’t want to do anything to cause friction between you and Daniel. I’ll make up a bed for her in my studio. Then she’ll be well hidden away when the guests come for the party tonight.”
“Oh, the party.” I started to laugh. “So much has happened today that I completely forgot. Did your lanterns survive the wind so far, Sid?”
Sid glanced out of the window. “So far, but the sky does not look too promising, does it? We must make alternative plans in case we have to move the whole thing inside.”
“Candles,” Gus said firmly. “We’ll need hundreds of candles. Paper lanterns are just too dangerous, but we do need to set the mood. What a pity we took down that big chandelier in the dining room when we moved in here. Do you think we still have it in the attic, Sid? Maybe we could rig it up again.”
“No time, dearest. We have so much to do as it is.”
“Put me to work,” I said. “I’ll do anything I can.”
“We could send Molly out to every candlemaker in the Village,” Gus said.
“The bad weather may pass over,” Sid said. “We may be able to hold it in the garden and use our paper lanterns after all. It’s more important to make sure the ice is delivered or our tubs of ice cream will be a disaster.”
And they were off, discussing party provisions and whether they should serve the fruit salads in individual rock melons. I found it hard to think of domestic details while a girl waited up in that room.
“I’ll go and make up a bed in your studio then, Gus,” I said. “And if I may, can I take up some food and drink to Bo Kei? I don’t know what she’s had to eat today.”
Then, of course, they fussed around, suggesting all kinds of delicacies that might tempt a Chinese palate. Sid even wanted to get out her Chinese cookbook and see how to make bird’s nest soup. I stopped them and took up a cheese sandwich and an orange. The way she devoured them made me think that she hadn’t had breakfast. I then explained about the party, how busy we’d be, and how she must stay well hidden when the guests arrived. I found her some books, although I wasn’t sure whether she had learned to read much English. She was more interested in the dolls that Gus had sitting on a corner shelf and I was reminded again that she was little more than a child herself.
Then I went down to join in the preparations. As with everything that Sid and Gus did, they threw themselves into it wholeheartedly. Some might say that they went overboard. By evening the tables in the conservatory were groaning under the weight of hams and cold chicken and salads and exotic cheeses. There was asparagus in aspic and oysters and potted shrimp, fresh fruits of all kinds, including pineapples, which I had never seen before, cake stands of tiny French pastries, and tubs of ice cream keeping cool for the right moment. Then there were drinks of all descriptions—fruit punches and chilled white wines for the ladies, claret and stout for the men. They had even borrowed the young man who normally worked in their favorite tavern to act as barman. There were Japanese lanterns and banks of candles waiting to be lit, flowers on the tables, and greenery trailing from the picture rails.
As I stood and surveyed the scene and thought of the cost of it all, it dawned on me that this was all for me. The thought was so overwhelming that I felt tears springing into my eyes. They had been good friends since they took me under their wing at a difficult moment in my life and they had constantly rescued me and cheered me up ever since. And I—I had repaid them by constantly rushing around and making demands on them. I watched them standing there, admiring their handiwork, and I came to a sudden decision.
“I’ve changed my mind,” I said. “I want you two to be my bridesmaids.”
They looked around. “But I thought we’d been through this. Daniel doesn’t approve of us. His mother wouldn’t approve of us.”
“I approve of you,” I said. “You are my dear friends, closer to me than family. If you are not at my side, then the wedding won’t be perfect.”
“Well, if you insist…” Gus looked pink and pleased.
“Only one stipulation,” I said. “You are not to dress as French maids or nuns or anything else outlandish.”
“Spoilsport.” Sid laughed. “Don’t worry, we shall not disgrace you. We were both brought up to behave properly in polite society and you shall help us select the most demure of dresses. And you’ll find that Daniel’s mother will be overwhelmed by having one of the Boston Walcotts in the bridal procession.”