Murphy's Law (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #1)

"But then you wouldn't be able to get in." "Of course I will. We'll both use it. You go ahead with the children. Then you find an excuse to come back and talk to me, and you can pass me the money. They've so many people to deal with that they won't even notice."

"But what if they won't let me find you? I can't risk that. No, you keep your own money, and if you can find a way of getting back to me, then I'll borrow it."

"Don't be silly." He thrust the money at me. "It will work. Other people are doing it--they say it's done all the time. Go on. I want you to take it. It will be much easier for a lady like you, with little children, to find a way back to me. Say the little one has left her doll behind. Her favorite doll. Her only doll."

I smiled. "For someone who looks like a choirboy, you have a devious mind."

"I'm not nearly as innocent as I look," he said. "In fact a man in a Liverpool pub suggested I'd make a fine confidence trickster. He said he was prepared to teach me the tricks of the trade."

"Did you take him up on it?"

"No, but I was tempted."

We laughed. It felt good to laugh again.

Five

Overnight the seas picked up again. We were thrown from side to side in our bunks until even I began to feel sick as a dog. It was all I could do to stagger my way down the corridor to get myself a cup of tea and a slice of bread in the morning. The common room was almost deserted, no sign of O'Malley--so even he had succumbed to seasickness. In which case, I thought, let it keep on rolling until we get to New York.

By the end of the day I'd regretted that remark. We rolled and heaved all day. The engines groaned and shuddered. All around were moans and sounds of vomiting. If only I had been allowed up on deck! I was determined not to vomit. After what seemed like an eternity, I noticed the rolling and pitching was becoming less violent. Maybe that meant that the coast of America was truly close.

When we woke in the morning the rumor was already spreading through steerage. The coast of America had been sighted. People were hurriedly repacking their bundles and piling them in the hallways. We started lining up by the door that led to freedom. The men stopped playing cards and stood dutifully beside their families. But nothing happened. We sat or stood, listening to the rhythmic thudding of the engines, waiting.

At last a door was opened and a steward appeared.

"Captain says you can go up on deck if you want," he says. "So that you can see the Lady."

The lady? Was this the start of the immigration process? I picked up Bridie, and

Michael took Seamus by the hand, and up we went. The cold, stiff breeze in our faces felt wonderful. We blinked in the bright sunlight. Then we looked and gasped.

She was standing ahead of us, across the harbor, her crown glinting with gold and holding a light in her hand. Women around me were crying and I felt my own eyes misting up.

"See the pretty lady?" I whispered to Bridie. "That's Lady Liberty, waiting to welcome us to the New World."

When I turned to look away from the Statue of Liberty, I gaped at another spectacular sight--the isle of Manhattan. The sun was low in the winter sky and reflected back from thousands of windows in tall thin buildings, making New York glow and wink and sparkle like a magic city. I had never imagined buildings could be so tall.

Michael was standing beside me. "Would you look at that." He breathed. "Those buildings must be all of twenty stories high."

I laughed from the sheer delight of being in the fresh air and seeing my destination so close. "So you're having second thoughts now about working on one of those monsters?"

"Indeed I am not. Just think if I can tell my children one day that I helped build the tallest buildings in the world!" His face was glowing, too. "Will you be staying in New York, too?" he asked.

"I--I expect so." I wanted to tell him the truth, but I couldn't.

"Your husband has a job here, then? And a place for you?"

"I imagine he does. He'll be there to meet us and then we'll know."

"I hope we get a chance to meet again," he said shyly. "I mean, if you're in New York, I hope I'll be permitted to call on you and your husband. I've no family over here or anything. ..."

"Of course we'll meet," I said. "We must arrange a time and place before we leave the ship."

He shrugged. "I don't know any places in New York."

"How about at that little park?" I pointed to the very tip of Manhattan that we were now passing. "Two days from now. Midday?"

A big grin spread across his choirboy's face. "All right. I'll be there. And you'll bring the little ones with you, I'm thinking. I'd like to see them again." He ruffled Seamus's hair

and the boy grinned back at him.

I felt a warm glow of contentment. At least I'd have one friend in this new land. In two days from now I'd be safely ashore and I could tell him the truth--and maybe we could face the new land together.

We watched the tugs come alongside to tow us into port. The wind was bitter and the children began to complain of the cold, but I didn't want to go back below to that dark, smelly hold. There was ice floating in the harbor as we came into shore and the smoke hung in the frosty air.