herself up and spat onto the floor.
“Annie, that’s not nice,” Hermione said. “No spitting. Not hygienic.”
The girl lay back again as if exhausted.
From her outburst it was clear that she wouldn’t be too keen on going back.
“He is looking for you,” I said.
“No! Why he look for me? Not want me no more,” she said, turning her gaze away. “Send me away. No son.”
“Send you away? He sent you away?”
She nodded. “No give him son. No use, he say.”
“I don’t understand. You came from China a month ago, is that correct?” I asked her. “One month?”
Hermione touched my arm. “What’s this about coming from China as a bride? We took Annie in when she was thrown out of a local brothel. Usually they turn them out with a very different sort of disease, but in this case they were worried she had consumption and would pass it to clients.”
“A brothel?” I asked, completely confused now. “Then she’s not the girl I’m looking for. And why do you call her Annie?”
“That’s the name she gave us.”
I sat on the bed beside her. “Annie? How long have you been in America?”
She wouldn’t meet my gaze. “Five year,” she said.
Something that had been said passed through my mind—something about Lee Sing Tai bringing in another bride before this, and then sending her back to China because she didn’t produce a son.
“Did you come here as the bride of Lee Sing Tai?” I asked. “Did he have you brought here?”
She nodded, her face expressionless as if she was made of stone.
“And you didn’t give him the son he wanted, so he sent you to a brothel?”
She nodded again. I looked up and met Hermione’s concerned eyes.
“Annie, listen,” I went on. “He’s brought in another girl from China, but she has run away.”
“She smart girl,” Annie said. “He bad man. Bad man.”
“I’m trying to find her,” I said. “Do you have any idea where she might have gone?”
“Maybe she come place like this.”
I looked up at Hermione again. “Are there other settlement houses around here? Other places where a girl might seek refuge?”
“There’s the Henry Street Settlement and the University Settlement on Eldridge, but they are farther away from Chinatown and I don’t know how she would have come across them,” Hermione said. “There are a couple of Christian women’s hostels, but I don’t know if they’d take in a destitute Chinese girl.”
“You’re right,” I said. “I stayed in one near the Battery myself when I first arrived in New York. They were extremely strict—and devout.”
Hermione smiled. “That’s why we make a point of being completely open and impartial. No hint of religion here, only humanitarianism.”
Annie touched my hand. “This girl—she come from same nuns like me?”
Nuns! Why hadn’t I considered that the missionaries might be nuns?
“Yes,” I said. “I believe she came from the nuns.”
Annie gave the ghost of a tired smile. “We call them white ghost ladies. They dress all white, like ghost.”
I stood up. “Is there a convent of any kind around here?”
Hermione shrugged. “I don’t know of a convent. I’ve seen nuns in the streets occasionally, so they may be attached to local churches.”
I took a business card out of my purse. “I’m going on the hunt again, but if the girl should turn up here, please keep her and send someone to find me.” I gave Annie a reassuring smile. “Nice meeting you, Annie. You’re in good hands now. You’ll get well soon.”
“Okay, miss,” she said flatly.
We started the long descent, our footsteps echoing on the bare boards of the stairs.
“She won’t get well, you know,” Hermione said when we were safely out of earshot. “Frankly we’re in a pickle here. We don’t know what to do with her. We shouldn’t really keep her or she might infect the other women who come here, but there’s nowhere to send her.” She paused, sighing. “Poor little thing. So she came over here as a bride, did she?”
“It appears so. And she didn’t give him a son, so he got rid of her.”
“Sent her to work in a brothel. That’s disgusting.”
“From what I’ve learned of this Chinese gentleman, his people look upon women as objects to be traded and disposed of.”
“Horrible.” Hermione shuddered. “I wish you luck. I hope you find this girl before her lord and master does.”
