The mission still looked exactly the same, even though everything had changed. When Sarah knocked, a woman she didn’t recognize opened the door. Her clothes marked her as a resident of a much more prosperous part of the city. “I’m Sarah Brandt,” she said. “Opal Graves contacted you at my request.”
The woman’s suspicious frown vanished, and she admitted Sarah immediately. “I’m so glad you’ve come, Mrs. Brandt. Some of the girls have been very concerned for your welfare.”
“And I’m so glad you’ve come to help,” Sarah replied. “We couldn’t leave the girls here without an adult,”
“I was glad to do it when Opal told me what Mrs. Wells had done. I still can’t believe it!”
“Neither can I,” Sarah assured her.
Sarah heard a small cry and then the clatter of little feet on the stairs. She looked up to see Aggie barreling down from upstairs at an alarming rate of speed. Sarah hurried over to the stairs to catch her. The child threw herself into Sarah’s arms and clung to her neck as if she would never let her go.
Other girls came creeping out more cautiously, some from the parlor and others from upstairs. Most of them looked as if they’d been crying, and they all looked frightened.
Maeve was taking her role as “head girl” more seriously than ever. She stepped forward. “Is it true what they said, Mrs. Brandt? Did Mrs. Wells kill Emilia?”
“Yes,” she told them. She wouldn’t mention the others. Perhaps they’d never have to know the extent of Mrs. Wells’s evil. “But you don’t have to be afraid. She’s in jail now, and she won’t ever be free again.”
Maeve and the others looked far from reassured, however. “Then what’s going to happen to all of us?”
“Not a thing,” Opal Graves informed them as she emerged from the kitchen. She was wearing an apron and her plain face had been transformed by a beatific smile. “You will stay here just as you’ve been doing. It may take us a little while, but we’ll find someone to take Mrs. Wells’s place – someone good,” she added, just in case they were in doubt. “And meanwhile, my friends and I will take turns staying with you.”
Sarah shot her a grateful look. She would thank her more profusely when they were alone.
“Will you stay here, too, Mrs. Brandt?” Gina asked anxiously.
“I can’t stay all the time, but I’ll certainly help as much as I can,” she replied.
“Have you had anything to eat?” Opal asked her.
Sarah had been in a hurry to get here this morning. “No,” she admitted.
“Come into the kitchen, and we’ll fix you something,” Opal said. “And bring your friend, too,” she added with a nod at Aggie, who was still clinging fiercely to Sarah’s neck.
The girls followed Sarah and gathered around where she sat at the small kitchen table. Aggie consented to sit on a chair beside her, but only if she could hold on to her skirt. The other girls stood or sat around the room, watching her eat the bread and jam Opal set before her. When she was finished, they started asking her questions, and she answered them as honestly as she could. At some point, Aggie climbed up into her lap and settled in comfortably.
Finally, Opal sensed Sarah’s exhaustion and sent the girls off to do their lessons. When they protested, she explained that they needed something to occupy their minds. They all drifted out except Aggie, who refused to leave Sarah’s side.
“I heard you yelling at Mrs. Wells last night,” Sarah said to Aggie. Sarah looked up at Opal and said, “She yelled ‘no’ to stop her from coming after me with the hat pin.”
Opal’s eyes widened in surprise, but she wisely said nothing.
Sarah shared her wonder, but she didn’t want to make too much of a fuss over Aggie and scare her out of ever speaking again.
“You were such a brave girl to help me,” Sarah said, giving the child a hug. Aggie beamed with pride.
Finally, Opal and Sarah moved to the parlor. Aggie screamed when Opal tried to separate her from Sarah, and Sarah realized she needed someone warm to cuddle, so the child accompanied them, too. Sarah sat in the rocking chair and rocked Aggie until she fell asleep, still exhausted by the night’s terrors. Then she answered Opal’s questions about how Richard had died and why Mrs. Wells had murdered Emilia and other girls as well. Then she told her how Mrs. Wells had killed Hazel, too.
Sarah wept with her over her lost friend and listened while she vented her fury at the woman who had taken God’s power of life and death into her own hands.
After everything had been told and the storm of emotion had passed, Opal said, “The best thing we can do now is keep the mission operating and try to make up for the evil that woman did. We’ll have a difficult time of it, at least for a while. Three of the girls had already run off before I got here this morning.”
“Oh dear!”
“I’m sure they were frightened when Richard and that detective came in shouting. Now that things have settled down, they’ll probably come back. We can hope, at least.”
Sarah sighed and looked down at Aggie’s sweet face. “What should I do with Aggie?” she asked, wondering where the child normally slept so she could put her to bed.
“I think she should go to an orphanage,” Opal said, misunderstanding the question. “This certainly isn’t the right place for her, and a child that young deserves a chance to be adopted.”
Sarah gaped at her in surprise. “I… I didn’t mean that, but now that you say it… I realize you’re right. These girls have so many problems themselves, they shouldn’t be expected to look after a child. And neither should whomever you find to operate the mission.”
“Some of the girls might also be a bad influence on her,” Opal pointed out. “I’m sure Mrs. Wells kept her here out of selfishness, probably because she wanted a replacement for her daughter who died.”
“She might not be adopted from an orphanage, though,” Sarah said with a frown. “Many children aren’t, and a child who doesn’t speak isn’t very likely to be chosen. I hate the thought of her growing up in an institution.”
“If you feel that way, maybe you should keep her yourself,” Opal suggested with a small smile. “She’s very attached to you already. Come on, we’ll take her upstairs and tuck her in.”
But Sarah was looking down at the small face, so angelic in sleep. Opal had just been teasing, but Sarah didn’t find the suggestion humorous at all. In fact, she found it terrifyingly compelling.
She couldn’t raise a child, of course. She worked long hours and got called out in the middle of the night. Who would take care of Aggie when Sarah couldn’t be home? The whole idea was insane.
“Sarah, you didn’t fall asleep yourself, did you?” Opal called from the doorway.
“No, I’m coming,” she said, lifting Aggie’s delicate body in her arms. Yes, she would be crazy to take on the responsibility of a child. What had she been thinking?
For some reason, Frank hadn’t expected the mission to look exactly the same as it always had. By rights, he supposed, it should have changed color or something, now that it was free of the Devil Woman who had run it.
While he’d been taking Mrs. Wells out to the police wagon, the old priest had accused her again of killing other girls in the past. To Frank’s horror, she had admitted it, perversely proud that she had sent them to heaven while they were in what she called a state of grace – before they could backslide into evil once more. He still shuddered when he thought of the righteous expression on her face when she described robbing those young girls of their lives.
This morning, Frank only knew that he had to see Sarah Brandt and make sure she was truly all right. By the time he’d gotten Mrs. Wells legally incarcerated last night, it had been too late to seek her out. Now he was making his first stop at the mission, figuring she would have returned there at the first opportunity.