Authors: Rhys Bowen
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.”
I laughed too. “You’re right. She’ll be thrilled.”
Twenty-three
At six o’clock the heavens suddenly opened and we rushed into the garden, frantically trying to carry in furniture and rescue the lanterns. We were soaked to the skin by the time we had finished.
“Look at us,” Gus said, laughing as water trickled down her face. “Talk about orphans of the storm. Let us just pray that our guests don’t arrive early.”
You can see why these two women were so dear to me. Most young ladies would be mortified that their coiffure was ruined. Sid and Gus were simply amused.
“I think we should sample the punch to fortify ourselves, don’t you?” Sid poured us each a generous glass.
I went up to change and visited Bo Kei on the way. We had been having such good fun that I had forgotten for a moment that she was virtually a prisoner up there in Gus’s studio. She eyed me hopefully as I came in.
“You have news of Frederick?” she asked.
Then I felt guilty that I hadn’t done more. But in all honesty, there was nothing I could do at this moment, other than keep Bo Kei safe and out of Captain Kear’s clutches. I could hardly go to the Sixth Precinct and petition on Frederick’s behalf without revealing my own involvement. And Daniel had made it quite clear that I was to stay away.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ve heard nothing yet. They will probably keep him in a cell overnight. They do that sometimes, hoping that a prisoner will break down and confess. But Frederick is innocent. We know that and I’m sure the police will realize it too.”
“Poor Frederick. That he should suffer for me,” she said. “Surely the American police are smart and they will soon discover who really killed Lee Sing Tai.”
“I hope so,” I said, not wanting to tell her that Captain Kear was probably not going to investigate when he had a bird in hand, so to speak.
“Who could have killed my master, I wonder?” she said, staring out of the window at the rain.
“Do you have any ideas on the subject?”
“Me?” she asked sharply. “How would I have ideas about this? I know nothing about his life. I was not allowed to leave the house. I was sent to my room when he had guests. I only meet wife number one, and Bobby Lee.”
“And what about them?” I asked. “Could either of them have killed him?”
She looked shocked. “Kill their benefactor?” Then I saw her considering this. “Wife number one could not kill him,” she said. “She is too frail. Besides, he is her protector in a foreign land. With Lee Sing Tai gone, what will happen to her?”
This was true enough. I had witnessed her distress for myself.
“And Bobby Lee? You don’t think he is capable of killing his paper father?”
“For what reason?”
“To inherit all Mr. Lee’s business empire.”
“But surely he will not inherit. He is only paper son. Mr. Lee has relatives at home in China. I heard him say this once to Bobby Lee. They have a big fight and Lee got mad. He said, ‘You assume too much. Never forget that you are only a paper son and for me family will always come first. Remember our agreement. I could send you home tomorrow if I wanted to.’”
“Ah,” I said. “Interesting. Mr. Lee was threatening to send Bobby Lee home? Now that is a strong motive and he had better opportunity than anyone. Nobody would even question his entering that house. He must have his own key. And he’s strong enough to throw a man off the roof.”
“Yes, he is strong.” Bo Kei turned her face away again and I wondered if she really had been able to fight him off or if he might have raped her.
“And they talked of an agreement he had signed,” I went on. “And that paper would have been kept in the big cabinet where Lee Sing Tai kept all important papers. But then why would Bobby have drawn attention to it, and why would he have left it in such disarray? Couldn’t he have slipped in and removed the agreement at any time he chose?”
“The cabinet in the corner?” Bo Kei asked, turning back to face me. “But that was always kept locked and Mr. Lee kept the key on a chain around his neck.”
“Did he? But when I was there today the key was in the cabinet.”
“Then Bobby Lee had to kill his paper father to get the key,” she said. “You will tell this to the police. They will arrest Bobby.”
“I’ll certainly mention it to the police,” I said, “but I think they’d have a hard time proving he was guilty. If he found the paper he had signed, he’d surely have destroyed it by now.”
“But at least they would then know that Frederick was innocent,” she said. “And Bobby Lee is a bad man. It is right that bad men should suffer.”
“I’m not sure about that.” I laughed. “We can’t play God.” I brushed a sodden hair back from my face and remembered that I should be hurrying to get ready.
“Listen,” I said. “Tonight there will be a party at this house. It is important that you stay upstairs and unseen. A policeman may be present and you don’t want to take any risks.”
“I will stay in the room,” she said.
“I’ll bring you up some food before the guests arrive. But now I must go and make myself respectable.”
“I think you are most respectable woman already,” Bo Kei said.
I had to laugh at this. “There are some who would dispute it, but thank you,” I said.
“Thank you, Missie Molly.” She gave that funny little bow.
I dried my hair and dressed. I had decided against wearing a costume, although Sid and Gus had tried to tempt me with everything from Marie Antoinette to a Vestal Virgin. Somehow it seemed to be mocking my wedding to dress up in costume at my prenuptial party. So instead I borrowed one of Gus’s evening gowns—relics of her former life when she had moved in glittering society. It was a simple affair in gray silk, dotted with pearls, but it showed off my red hair and my curves. I even managed to put my hair up, with the aid of several combs and was feeling quite sophisticated as I went downstairs to join Sid and Gus. They had taken my pleas not to be too outlandish to heart. Gus was costumed as a water sprite, with lots of trailing green and blue chiffon, and Sid was a wood nymph with a similar costume in green and brown. She wore leaves in her hair, while Gus had a crown of silver starfish.
“You both look spectacular,” I said.
“If you hadn’t been such a fuddy-duddy we could have made you a spirit of the air and then we would have been complete,” Sid said, “but as it is, you look as the future Mrs. Daniel Sullivan should—respectable and demure.”
“Oh, dear. That sounds boring.”
“My sweet, you are marrying a boring and respectable man. What can I say?” Sid chuckled. “But I’m sure you’ll be blissfully happy and that’s all that matters.”
I thought about this as we removed the aspics and cold salmon from the pantry where they had been sitting on ice. Was I really destined for a boring, respectable life with Daniel? Would he forbid me to attend such functions as this in future? Would he even pressure me eventually to break off my friendship with Sid and Gus?
Rubbish
, I said to myself. I was a strong person and not even my husband was going to tell me what to do. I swept out of the pantry with the platter of salmon, narrowly missing a calamity as it slid across the tilting plate.
The first guests started to arrive—artists and actors, suffragists, and society ladies I had met through my hostesses, as well as people I had never met. Some were in fabulous costumes, while others had chosen more conventional evening dress. Sarah and Monty were of the latter. She looked enchanting in powder blue while he was dashing in white tie and tails. He looked distinctly uncomfortable as he examined the other occupants of the living room.
“Come and try the punch, Mr. Warrington-Chase,” Gus whisked him away. “Or would you prefer champagne to start with?”
“Most kind,” Monty muttered, looking distinctly uneasy as he was led away by a water sprite.
“Oh, dear.” Sarah gave me an embarrassed grin. “I was not at all sure about this and I’m afraid it’s going to be a disaster. Monty really doesn’t approve of this sort of thing. I tried to persuade him to wear a costume—I suggested that he come as Lord Byron. That’s respectable enough, isn’t it? I even bought him the wig, but he refused to wear it.”
“But they have costume balls in England.”
“Yes, but with the right sort of people. It’s apparently all right if lords and ladies put on masks and costumes, but not bohemians. I know he only allows me to mix with Sid and Gus because it’s such a short time before we sail for our new life at his country estate.”
“You must put your foot down and not find yourself under Monty’s thumb, Sarah,” I said. “Daniel would prefer that I not have Sid and Gus as my friends. He wanted us to take a house in a very different neighborhood so that I could be away from them, but I made it clear that I was not abandoning my friends.”