When the carriage lurched into motion, Sarah took a seat on the opposite side. After she’d covered Richard with the lap robe, she laid a hand on his chest and found his heartbeat slow and labored. Rage roared inside her. How could that woman have managed to stab him in the heart?
“She’s killed me, too, hasn’t she?” he asked quietly.
“Oh, Richard, we don’t know that,” she said, taking his hand in hers. “We’ll get you to a doctor and – ”
“No, that won’t help,” he said. Oddly, he didn’t sound frightened or even upset. “I know I’m going to die, Sarah.”
Sarah felt her eyes filling with tears and his image blurred. She blinked them away determinedly and squeezed his hand. “I’m so sorry, Richard.”
“I’m just glad it wasn’t you,” he told her with a weak smile. “Or that child. I saved her, didn’t I?”
She thought of how he’d thrown himself at Mrs. Wells to save Aggie. “Yes, Richard, you saved her life,” she agreed. She would make sure everyone knew he’d died a hero. “Now you’ll see Hazel, and you’ll be able to tell her that you loved her.”
His breathing was growing labored. “Yes,” he said, his voice raspy. “And that I’m sorry.”
“And that you brought her killer to justice,” Sarah whispered as his eyes closed.
She held his hand tightly, tears rolling down her cheeks. His breaths became more and more shallow until a shudder wracked his body, and he finally lay still.
Epilogue
THANK HEAVEN FOR TELEPHONES, SARAH THOUGHT. What had they ever done without them? She never would have been able to take care of so many crises all at once without this marvelous invention. She was beginning to think she might even get one herself.
She made her first telephone call from the hospital to Opal Graves. Opal was shocked and saddened by Richard’s death and outraged by Mrs. Wells’s perfidy, but she also realized the urgency of seeing to the needs of the girls at the mission. She promised to contact some of the volunteers from the mission at their homes and recruit women to stay with the girls until decisions could be made about what to do.
Sarah’s second call was more difficult. While she was only calling her own parents, she had to ask them to notify Richard’s family of his death. News like that shouldn’t come over the telephone from someone they didn’t even know. Her parents were stunned by Richard’s death, but they agreed with her on the need to break the news gently to his family.
Then came the most difficult task of all: waiting. She simply couldn’t leave Richard’s body alone at the hospital until his loved ones had come to claim him. Besides, she knew they’d have questions about what had happened, questions only she could answer. She spent the hours until they came by preparing the story she would tell, the story that would make Richard a hero.
The hour was quite late by the time Richard’s father had taken him away, and Sarah was free to go. Her own father, who had accompanied Richard’s, insisted she go home to get some rest and took her there in his own carriage. Although she was exhausted and emotionally drained, she slept fitfully. By midmorning, she was up and dressed and hurrying back to the mission, where she might be desperately needed.
Mulberry Street was oddly quiet in these morning hours. People milled on the sidewalks, as always, but their conversation was muted and their expressions solemn. Word of what had happened would have spread like lightning through the community. Girls who had sought refuge at the mission had been brutally murdered by the woman who should have been their protector. A woman who claimed to have been called by God had been a spawn of Satan. Even among people who had known nothing but hardship their entire lives, this would be devastating news. And what would it do to their faith in the future?
When she passed Police Headquarters, Sarah thought about stopping in to look for Malloy. She wanted to see him, and she needed to talk to him, to help her make whatever sense could made out of this whole mess. But she knew he probably wouldn’t be there. He had taken Mrs. Wells to the city jail – The Tombs – and spent most of the night getting her confession. Then he would have gone home. He couldn’t possibly be back this early.
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
“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
