In Dublin's Fair City Read Online Free PDF Page B

in the first place. And when I was arrested I never believed I’d be put in jail. Nothing seems secure anymore, Molly. Only you. Stick with me, won’t you? One day maybe we’ll be able to look back on this and laugh.”
    “One day,” I said.

Five
    A few days later a packet of instructions arrived for me, along with a second-class ticket on the White Star Liner Majestic , sailing out of New York on September Twenty-fourth bound for Queenstown and Liverpool. The irony of this was not lost on me. It was on this very ship that I had fled from Liverpool less than two years ago. Only that time I had been down in the hold, battened down and crammed in with all those poor wretches in steerage. This time I was to have a second-class cabin to myself. I was moving up in the world.
    Now that the trip was actually becoming a reality, I couldn’t help feeling excited as well as apprehensive. Going home, the words whispered in my head. And not going home a failure, but as a successful businesswoman on an assignment. I’d have dearly liked to travel out to county Mayo to visit my family and let them see that I hadn’t come to a bad end after all, but that would have been tempting providence too much.
    Sid and Gus came over to help me pack, offering to lend me everything from clothes to reading matter for the journey.
    “You two have already given me more than enough,” I said. “I’ll do just fine with the clothes I already have. Besides—” I added, trying to think of a tactful way of putting things, “I don’t want to stand out over there. It's important that I look like one of the locals. And your lovely clothes—”
    Sid threw back her head and laughed. “I wasn’t suggesting lendingyou my emerald green smoking jacket, my sweet. Yes, I suppose our clothes would stand out at a provincial Irish market, wouldn’t they, Gus dear?”
    “What I really meant was that cupboard full of stuff from my former life in Boston society,” Gus said. “I’m sure there is a smart, fur-trimmed traveling costume there that would suit you, Molly. And you know I’ll never wear it again, I’m sure.”
    I smiled at them. “Thank you, but I don’t think I’ll be mingling with the smart set in Ireland. The Burkes were the poorest of peasants when they left. Their child would either have been farmed out to another peasant family or sent to an orphanage. Frankly I think it would be a miracle if she was still alive after all these years,- but I’m being paid to search for her, and search for her I will.”
    “Then at least take my crocodile-skin train case,” Gus insisted. “I found it so handy when I did my European tour with my mother. Now it's just languishing on the top shelf on my wardrobe, and we want you to have something of ours with you to remind you of us.”
    “And to make sure you come back quickly,” Sid added.
    “We’re worried that you’ll decide to stay in Ireland,” Gus said.
    “And why would I want to do that?” I laughed. “I’ve told you before, and I’ll repeat it now—there is nothing for me in Ireland. My life is here now.”
    “Gus was worried that you’d realize what you’d missed if you go back there,” Sid said.
    “You were worried too!” Gus tapped her hand.
    “All right. I was worried too. And what about Captain Sullivan? I’m surprised he's allowing you to go.”
    “He's not at all happy about it,” I said, “but there's nothing he can do to stop me, is there? And I think it will be good for me to get away from him—give me time to think about what I really want for my future. So don’t worry about me. I’ll be just fine, and I’ll have a grand time and be back before you know it with tales to tell.”
    “Of course you will.” Sid shot a look at Gus and suddenly I felt a shiver run up and down my spine. They were afraid for me. Was I foolish not to be afraid for myself?
    The morning of the twenty-fourth came, bright and breezy, with puffy white clouds racing across the sky. A