“The truth is, Scarlet, I shouldn’t have let myself get into that situation with Win.”
“What situation? You were eating lunch.” Scarlet always took my side in everything.
“Win shouldn’t have taken my hand, and I shouldn’t have let him. I should probably never have gone back to Trinity either. And Gable is right about one thing. Someone else would have taken that picture, trust me. It was coming with or without Gable Arsley’s involvement. Someday, I’ll be able to explain all of it better.”
Scarlet approached my bedside. “You have to know I had nothing to do with this.”
“Scarlet, I wouldn’t even think that!”
She lowered her voice. “I never told him about what we did for Leo.”
“I didn’t think you would have.”
Scarlet smiled weakly. Suddenly, she ran across the little hospital room to the bathroom, where she threw up. I heard the toilet flush and the water come on. “I think I’m getting the flu,” she reported once she’d returned.
“You should go home,” I told her.
“I’ll come see you as soon as I’m feeling better. I love you, Annie. I’d kiss you but I don’t want to get you sick.”
“I don’t care. Kiss me anyway,” I said. In case she didn’t make it back to Liberty before Sunday, I wanted to know that we had said a proper goodbye.
“Okay, Annie. As you like it.”
She kissed me, and I grabbed her hand. “Don’t blame yourself for any of this, Scarlet. I am only sorry that the tragedies that dog me have caused you grief, too. What I said after the party … You really have been the most loyal and true friend anyone could ever ask for. When I think about these last couple of years, I can’t even imagine how bleak things might have gotten for me without you.”
Scarlet flushed the color of her name. She nodded, and then she was gone.
The rest of the week passed quickly, with visits from just about everyone and with plans for my escape.
By Thursday, Simon Green and I had settled the arrangements. I was to be released from the hospital on Sunday morning. On Saturday night / early Sunday morning, well after the last nurse had checked on me, I was to get out of my bed and improvise a way out of the hospital, then past the fence that encircled Liberty Island. At that point, a rowboat would transfer me to Ellis Island. On Ellis Island, I was to be met by another boat that would take me to Newark Bay, where I would take a shipping vessel to the west coast of Mexico. In the morning, when the nurses came to transfer me back to the dormitory at Liberty, I would be long gone.
Simon had left me with a copy of the handcuff key, which I stuffed into the side of the mattress under the sheet. The only thing we hadn’t figured out was how I was to get past the guards at the end of the hallway. “Do you have anyone here who can provide a distraction of some sort?” Simon Green asked. Reluctantly, I thought of Mouse and her assertion to me that she could do “hard things.” Even though I needed her help, I didn’t want her to get into more trouble on my account, and yet I lacked other options.
I got a message to her to come see me, and that afternoon, she did. She had a black eye. I asked her what had happened.
She shrugged. Then wrote, Elbow to the face. Rinko.
I told her what I needed. She nodded. Then she nodded some more before putting pencil to pad. I’ll come up with something. I am honored that u came to me, A.
“Once I’m gone, they’ll probably figure out you helped me. You understand that means you won’t get out in November, right?”
I do. Don’t care. Nowhere to go. Better to have friends in a year or 2 than b friendless, homeless, & penniless in Nov.
“I feel selfish asking you to help me,” I said. “Asking you to stay here longer when I’m trying to avoid the same thing.”
Mouse shrugged again. Our situations are diff. I am a criminal. U are a name. Besides, they are stupid here & they might not figure it out & then u will owe me anyway. I will bet on u, if u will bet on me. Around 2 a.m., right?
“Yes. Go see my lawyer Simon Green when you’re free. He will help you with whatever you need.”
She made an “okay” sign.
“Thank you, Kate,” I said.
She bowed, then slipped out of the room. No one had seen her come in, and no one had seen her leave. I wondered if I could count on a girl so quiet to make enough of a distraction.
Saturday morning, Natty and Imogen came to see me. They knew nothing of my plans, and so I tried to keep the mood light. I did hug Natty extra tight. Who knew when I’d be able to see her again.
Simon Green and I had decided that I shouldn’t have any visitors in the afternoon. I needed to rest for the long night ahead.
Still, I couldn’t sleep. I was anxious and I couldn’t even walk around to calm myself. I was starting to wish we hadn’t told everyone not to come.
I looked at the clock. It was 5:00. Visitors weren’t allowed after 6:00 anyway.
I closed my eyes.
I had fallen into a sort of half sleep when someone came into the room.
I rolled over. A tall boy with longish blond dreadlocks and thick black glasses. I didn’t recognize him until he spoke. “Annie,” Win said.
“You look ridiculous,” I told him, but I couldn’t help smiling. “Where’s your cane?”
He walked over to me, and I struggled to sit up in bed and tugged at his ropy wig.
“I didn’t want anyone to figure out who I was.”
“You didn’t want to make things worse for your father.”
“I didn’t want to make things worse for you!” He lowered his voice. “Dad said you were being transferred from the hospital tomorrow. That if I insisted on seeing you, today would be the best day. And that if I needed to behave so foolishly, I should at least wear a disguise. Thus, the wig.”
I shook my head and wondered how many of my plans Charles Delacroix had guessed. “Why would he do that?”
“My father is a mystery.”
He pulled a stool over to the bed. He rubbed at his hip.
“Arsley was the one who took the picture,” I told him.
“I know,” Win said, bowing his head. “I shouldn’t have done that. Taken your hand, I mean. Not in such a public place.” As he said this, he stroked my fingertips with his own.
“You couldn’t have known how it would all turn out.”
“I did know, Annie. I did. I had been warned. By my father. By my father’s campaign manager. By Alison Wheeler. By you, even. I didn’t care.”
“What do you mean, ‘by Alison Wheeler’?”
Win looked at me. “Anya, haven’t you guessed?”
I shook my head.
“I was the one who asked Alison to go to you in the library.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Well, she didn’t want to but she knew I wanted to be near you. And I convinced her that lunch would be safe enough since Arsley and Scarlet and Alison would be there, too.”
I was still confused. “Why would your girlfriend do that?”
“Anya! Don’t tell me you didn’t suspect!”
“Suspect what?”
“Alison is my friend but she also works for my father’s campaign. They asked her if she would pretend to be my girlfriend during the campaign season so it would appear that I had put my relationship with Anya Balanchine—you—behind me. It was July—we weren’t together—and, despite everything, I wanted to help my father. How could I say no? He is my father, Anya. I love him. As I love you.”
Had Anya Balanchine—me—not been handcuffed to the bed, she would have run out of the room. I felt like my brain was exploding and my heart, too. He reached over the bed rail and wiped my cheek with his sleeve. I suppose I was crying.