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boned and tall. Her clothes fit loosely, so no one noticed anything out of the ordinary for almost two months. Then yesterday, two of the girls came to me with their suspicions. I questioned Hannah privately, and she finally confessed that she is with child. She apparently suspected this when she came to us, but lied about it so we would take her in.”
    “I don’t suppose we can blame her for that.” Sarah sighed. “Do you have any idea how far along she is?”
    “Not more than six months, I’d guess, from what she told me.”
    “And the father?”
    “Was a man who lived in the same building. He raped her, apparently.”
    “Oh dear, so that’s another reason she came to us, I guess.”
    “Combined with the fact that her mother had just been evicted and told her she’d have to make her own way from now on. There were several younger children as well, I gather, and she couldn’t feed them all.”
    It was an all-too-familiar story. “I suppose you explained to her that we don’t usually accept girls who are expecting.”
    “Yes, but she . . .” Mrs. Keller frowned and shook her head as if silently chastening herself. When she met Sarah’s gazeagain, she looked almost angry. “You should have seen her, Mrs. Malloy. She was terrified. She must have gone to one of the charities that helps girls in her situation. They wouldn’t take her in, of course, because she wasn’t far enough along. That meant she’d have to live on the street for months, making money however she could in the meantime. We both know what she would have had to do to survive, and if she somehow managed to do that and didn’t lose the baby and finally found a place that wasn’t already full and would take her when her time came, they would probably pressure her to give her child up to an orphanage. So she came here and hid her condition for as long as she could.”
    “I guess she hoped to keep her secret at least until she was far enough along to be accepted into a maternity home,” Sarah said.
    “Yes, and if what she told me is true, that will just be another month or so. She’s a good girl, Mrs. Malloy. She works hard and never complains or fights with the other girls, no matter how they provoke her, and heaven knows, the girls do provoke each other.”
    Sarah felt like the wicked stepmother in a fairy tale, but she had to say, “We have these rules for good reasons. You know that even better than I.”
    “Yes, I do.” Mrs. Keller was even more angry now. “I know if our girls began producing babies, it would cause all kinds of rumors about this place. Our perfect reputation would be tarnished, and people would begin to wonder if we were a brothel in disguise, luring unsuspecting young women with false promises of protection.”
    “And as a result, the girls who leave here would always be under a shadow,” Sarah said gently. “We’ve worked very hard to protect them up to now. I would hate to see that ruined.”
    This time Mrs. Keller sighed. “I know all that, and you’reright, I know it even better than you do, because I see these girls every day. If only I didn’t also know Hannah so well. It’s much easier to turn away a stranger, isn’t it? And she’s right, she would have no place to go if we turn her out. I’m not suggesting that we change our rules, but just this one time, couldn’t we let her stay a little longer so she doesn’t end up on the streets?”
    Sarah really hated sounding like the wicked stepmother in a fairy tale, so she decided not to. “I certainly don’t want her to end up on the streets. How about if we let her stay for now, and in the meantime, I try to find a place for her at a maternity home? There might be someplace outside the city that would take her immediately.”
    “Oh, Mrs. Malloy, would you? That would be so kind.”
    “Letting her stay a week or two longer won’t hurt anything, I’m sure. And if you don’t mind, I’d like to meet Hannah and examine her to make sure