Back in the City, Agatha Hannigan was pacing the floor agitatedly. Rebecca Aldonquinn's visit had spurred her to searching for information, but apart from the photograph, there was nothing in the office apart from documents about the orphans and several sticky lollies.
"Kay, you get your little self out here now!" She called and Kay sauntered into the room.
"Yeah?"
"Did the St. Regis say anythin' to ya before she left?"
"No, she just said that she didn't think it was workin' with Rooster."
"Anythin' else?"
"Yeah, she didn't like you callin' her Miss Sticky Fingers. She ain't a thief, but she said you is."
"Have I ever stole anythin' from ya?" Aggie demanded, patting Kay on the shoulder.
"Nah, but what would we know? Ya keep gin in ya bath tub though, Roosty told us!" the girl laughed and Aggie shook her head.
"Okay, kid, you tell me what'cha know about Miss Sticky Fingers and I won't wallop ya."
"Hmm, it'll cost ya." Kay replied. She was a streetwise girl who knew how to play a bargain.
"What do ya want, kid?"
"Twenny bucks."
"Twenny bucks? You think I've got that kinda loot?"
"Yeah. You gets paid by Warbucks, don'tcha?"
"Dag nab it, alright. Twenny bucks."
Kay spat on her hand and held it out.
"Shake."
Aggie rolled her eyes and shook the girl's hand.
"What d'ya want it for anyways?"
"We wanna put a new window in our dorm. Sarah used her catapult."
"You think you can get a new window for twenny bucks?" Aggie repeated.
"Yeah, or just patch it up with a coup'la boards."
"There are fifteen dorms in this place, all o'ya move to another one."
"We can't." another girl poked her head around the door.
"Oh and why's that?"
"Cos some lady's in it."
"What are ya talkin' about?"
Kay glared at the younger girl.
"There's a lady in the fourth dorm. Come and see!"
The girl, whose name was Marnie, dragged Aggie to the room, where a group of girls were gathered around the door.
"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, did you tell, Marnie?" July asked.
"Yeah, she's a snitch!" Pepper sneered, "she'll get a knuckle sandwich for it."
"Leave her alone, Pepper!" Retorted Duffy, "we don't know who the lady is, Miss Hannigan."
Miss Hannigan walked into the dormitory, one row of broken and dirty beds lined one wall and on the other there was another, one of them occupied by a lady who was reading.
"Hey!" Aggie exclaimed and the lady squealed. July ran in with a torch and revealed the occupant, it was Rebecca!
"What are ya doin' here?" Aggie demanded.
"The hotel I paid for was locked when I went there, I didn't have anywhere else to stay."
"Which one of ya let her in?" Aggie turned on the girls.
"No one," Rebecca admitted, "I unlocked the front with a hair pin."
"Lookey here, girls, a master criminal. Well ya can get on ya tracks now, can't ya, back to this hotel o'yours?"
"Not really, the hotel won't have room for me now."
"Can't she stay here Miss Hannigan?" July queried kindly.
Miss Hannigan looked at July. Still very sweet despite her raggedy clothes, she was sensitive and well-meaning.
"This ain't a halfway house and what do I tell Mr Donnatelli if he turns up here? Hmm?"
"You just say she's a relative." July replied.
"Okay, okay. What with you and that other kid, Katie, you should be runnin' this place."
July smiled.
"Thanks, Miss Hannigan."
"Introduce yourselves to Miss Aldonquinn," Miss Hannigan instructed to the girls who were listening outside the door, "go on!"
The girls rushed in and gathered around Rebecca, introducing themselves and commenting on her pretty face and clothes.
"What's this picture?" Duffy asked, pulling out a photograph from Rebecca's purse, "who's she?"
"That's Sara." Rebecca told them.
"She's pretty too." Molly remarked as the photo was shown to the girls, who all agreed that the girl in the photo was pretty.
"So how come you're here?" Pepper demanded, nudging Molly hard with her elbow.
"I came to New York to find her."
"Oh yeah? We had a girl like that here once, always talking about how she knew her parents would come and get her. Then she got adopted by a billionaire."
"There's no need to be nasty, Pepper." Duffy commented, "Annie loves Daddy Warbucks."
"Yeah, so what do we get? Huh? Nada."
"We got Rooster and Lily." Tessie put in, "I mean, she took care of us when Rooster was working and stuff."
"Yeah," agreed Kate, "we tidied the office and she filed everythin'. Then her bracelet went missin' and we had to find it."
"Bracelet?" asked Rebecca, "what bracelet?"
"I dunno, some kinda bracelet, it wasn't like a jewellery one though, just a bit of ribbon attached to…"
"A little key thing?" Rebecca questioned curiously.
"Yeah, like a round thing."
She was convinced. The photo she had seen in the office was Sara.
The round thing was the Larent school crest, which she had given to Sara as a child, but Sara had left this annex it seemed.
"Girls, do you think you can find 'Lily'?"
The girls looked at each other.
"Yeah, I mean, she has to be somewhere in America, doesn't she? You hear that, kids? We're going on a road trip." Pepper sneered.
"Pepper," groaned Duffy, "can't you be nice?"
Pepper pushed Duffy and the fight soon became a scramble, with July trying to stop them.
"Do you want Hannigan to come up here?!" She demanded but the girls ignored her. Rebecca whistled loudly and the girls immediately stopped, looking at her.
"There is no reason to fight," she told them, "particularly you, Pepper, is it?"
Pepper nodded.
"Yeah."
"Well, Pepper, you should know better."
Usually the tough streak in Pepper would have responded with a clever remark, but something about the stern expression on Rebecca Aldonquinn's face made her think otherwise.
"Apologise to Duffy, please."
Pepper did so and just as Rebecca was about to read them a story, the girls were called for supper.
They scuttled out of the room and downstairs with Rebecca following them to the dining room which also served as a classroom when the girls were being tutored.
"You know where ya sit," Aggie remarked as they walked into the room, "here's your dinner." She placed a bowl full of mush in front of each girl and then sat with her own plate filled with easily distinguishable chicken slices and vegetables.
"Miss Hannigan, may I ask a question?" asked Rebecca.
"Sure, ask away, honey, I ain't gonna say nothin'."
"Why do the girls have mush when you have a proper meal?"
The girls gaped at Rebecca, no-one dared to complain about their portion.
"What are you implyin'?"
"Well, I can cook them something; it seems a little unfair that you should have a proper meal."
Miss Hannigan stared at Rebecca; she wasn't used to being told what to do.
"A proper meal, eh? What d'ya think this is, a hotel?"
"Not at all," Rebecca answered kindly, "but surely this isn't all there is?"
Aggie chuckled mockingly.
"Kids don't care 'bout what they eat, s'long as they get somethin'."
However, by the looks on their faces, the girls disagreed. Molly twirled her spoon in the lumpy mess of her bowl and let it drip slowly back in, plopping on the mush like bubbles.
"I'll cook you something, girls. What would you like? What's in the larder, Miss Hannigan?"
Rebecca put on an apron and opened the cupboard doors in the small kitchen eagerly, looking for ingredients.
"Larder? What d'ya think this is? A mansion?"
"No. Where do you keep your groceries?"
"Groceries?" Aggie laughed, "It's all in their dinners."
"You don't have anything else?"
"I get deliveries from the Board when I need it. So what are ya gonna do?"
"There must be something for them," Rebecca retorted, exasperated. She pulled open the drawers and checked the cupboards. The only things in them were packets of sugar, medicine and a tin of broth.
"This won't do," Rebecca told them, "Miss Hannigan, if you do have other supplies, please tell me where they are."
Miss Hannigan stood up and opened a cupboard everyone had assumed was for files, revealing all sorts of ingredients useful for making meals. Jams, a small packet of flour, some sugar and three bottles of gin, which Rebecca tactfully pushed to the back.
"Right," She selected flour and some slices of ham and began to prepare some meals for the girls, "we'll soon have these for you."
Within an hour she had created filling dishes for the girls, who were delighted. They were used to meals which were either disgusting or lukewarm and this was a treat.
"Thanks Mam!" They chorused and Aggie stood next to the sideboard in the kitchen, staring at them.
"You see, Miss Hannigan, it's very easy." Rebecca dusted off her hands and took off her apron, brushing past the woman into the office. It seemed so much clearer to her that Sara, her Sara had been here and was still in New York. Her eyes turned to the photograph which was still propped up on the desk.
"You want to find her that much?" Aggie asked gently, stepping into the room behind her.
"Yes, I do." Rebecca murmured. Aggie wedged the door so that it was just ajar.
"I was like that with my brother, didn't see him for months, he was in and outta prison like a rat," she pulled another chair closer to the desk. "Then he met this girl and he changed. He didn't want to fool around anymore, he wanted a quick buck but he wasn't gonna put her in danger too. Then he did this."
Aggie pulled out the newspaper article from the drawer and handed it to Rebecca.
"You're his sister?"
Aggie nodded.
"Yeah, my baby brother. Daniel Francis."
"Then Sara was with him? The kidnapper?"
"Yeah, but don't worry, they ain't together."
"Oh." Rebecca pointed her finger at Daniel, "he is handsome, isn't he?"
"I don't know, he's just my brother."
Rebecca smiled.
"He's also Sara's beau. He might know where she is."
"I doubt it, honey, he was the reason she left."
Rebecca looked confused.
"Okay, they had an argument and she left, she didn't say anything to me, although I saw her."
"Okay, well, where's Mr Hannigan working?"
Aggie laughed.
"Workin'? Honey, he'll be flippin' wallets, I know my brother."
"He's a thief?" Repeated Rebecca, "but you must know where he is?"
"New Jersey, some posh school, Landen or somethin'," Aggie muttered, arranging the papers on the desk, "yeah, pretty sure it's Landen."
Rebecca's eyes widened. Was it possible that Sara's beau had gone to Larent unknowingly and become employed at her uncle's academy? Surely Jean would have objected to a thief working at such a prestigious establishment, though.
"Are you okay?" Aggie asked and Rebecca nodded, smiling.
"Oh, Miss Hannigan, thank you! I know where he is!"
She stood up and raced to the door, throwing it open and grabbing a cab. Aggie followed her in pursuit but the woman was too quick for her despite her petite size.
"Where are ya goin' to, Mam?" the cab driver asked.
"Take me to the station please," replied Rebecca, "the train to New Jersey."
"New Joyrsey? You wanna go to New Joyrsey?"
"Yes, that's right."
The cab driver drove her to the station and using the little money in her purse she took the train to Larentford. The journey was comfortable but Rebecca was so intrigued by the thought of her daughter's beau working at Larent that it seemed irrelevant to make comparisons with other modes of transport as the train chugged through the wide open meadows of East America.
Yet, something worried her about returning to the Academy. Her aunt had called her a 'disgrace' and demanded that she be sent to a 'corrective institution' where she might learn to behave like a lady, but in her anxiety of being refused by the father of her child, she had run to New York, which she soon realised was not a kind city to homeless beggars.
"Can I see your ticket, Ma'am?" asked the inspector and Rebecca subconsciously handed it to him, continuing to stare out of the window.
"Thanks."
The inspector shut the door and Rebecca clutched her bag tightly. Returning to Larentford would be returning to the few people who she could still talk to and secretly she wondered whether Aunt Jean would still be there.
"Larentford!" Called the guard on the platform and Rebecca opened her eyes, collecting her belongings and trudging out into the hazy air of the town.
"You need a hand with your bag, Miss?" asked a young porter kindly.
"Thanks." The porter escorted her outside the station where a row of battered cabs were sat and nervously, Rebecca took the most friendly looking one.
"What's a nice gal like you doin' in a place like this?" asked the driver, smiling widely.
"I need Larent Academy," Rebecca told him, ignoring his flirtations, "please, just do as I say."
Reluctantly the driver turned around and set off for the school, which was little more than a mile away.