Page 32 of Trouble

She started searching more urgently.

Up on the first floor, she made it through the first two empty bedrooms without incident before she opened a door and realised she had accidentally walked into Captain Edwards’s study – and even worse, that he was inside, sitting behind his desk.

‘Miss .?.?. Laurence?’ he said, seeming baffled by her presence. He had that undone look about him again, a middle-of-the-night haziness that made him look far less intimidating. He glanced down at what she was wearing – her coat hanging open, exposing the nightdress underneath – and then very quickly returned his gaze to her face with a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Emily tucked her coat tighter around herself and grimaced.

‘Sorry,’ she said, backing away. ‘I was just .?.?. I didn’t realise this was—’

‘Stop,’ said Captain Edwards, and Emily found herself obeying at once. ‘Explain.’

‘Aster is not in her bed.’

Captain Edwards stared at her, the words hanging in the air between them, and then he exploded into action, shoving his chair roughly back and striding to the door.

‘Where is Grace?’

‘She’s up by her room, but—’

‘Grace!’ Captain Edwards shouted.

He hadn’t stopped moving; Emily followed him at a fast clip as he marched down the hallway and then took the stairs two at a time.

Grace looked exceptionally woebegone, her eyes enormous and glossy with tears.

‘Where is she?’ Captain Edwards said, apparently unmoved by his daughter’s impression of a woodland creature.

‘I don’t know,’ Grace said in a very small voice. ‘I just checked her room and she wasn’t there—’

‘Where,’ Captain Edwards said again, enunciating slowly, ‘is she?’

Grace bit her lip and seemed to be attempting a vow of silence, but it was broken after approximately three seconds under Captain Edwards’s glare.

‘I didn’t think she’d actually do it! I told her the tide might come in, but she said .?.?.’

Apparently this was all the information he needed, because he immediately made for the stairs.

‘Ohno,’ Grace said, watching him go with fresh tears on her cheeks. She turned to Emily, and her expression darkened into something akin to a cross kitten. ‘Why did you tell him? That was the one thing I asked of you!’

‘Theone thing.?.?. ?’ Emily started, instantly vexed. ‘You knew more than you were letting on, you let me search the house when you knew exactly where she was!’

‘But Iforbadeyou from—’

‘Damn it, Grace, if she’s down by the water she could be in danger! You are being just as arrogant and selfish as your sister.’

It was not what Amy would have said. It was not what anybody sensible would have said. Aster might not have cared to pass on the insults they had exchanged in the schoolroom, but Emily was running out of chances; Grace might go to her father and tell him exactly what Emily had shouted at her.

But Grace looked remorseful at once, and Emily’s anger turned to sickly unease as she burst into fresh tears.

‘I’m sorry,’ Grace sobbed, before rushing back into her bedroom and slamming the door.

At a loss for what else to do, Emily went downstairs, where she found Captain Edwards pulling on his coat.

‘A lamp,’ he said to Emily, and after a moment’s delay she realised that she was being given an order and went in search of one. Upon her return, she expected him to snatch it from her and make his way out into the night, but instead she found that the door was already open and he was striding across the lawn.

When she caught up with him, slightly breathless, he didn’t even acknowledge her presence – which was particularly silly considering that very soon, the lamp in her hand became the only source of light in any direction.

They reached the cliffs and started rapidly descending a path that did not feel secure enough for Emily’s liking. Captain Edwards had gone ahead, which did not make sense based on the logic of lamplight, but did mean that, when she stumbled on a loose rock and almost went crashing into him, he was able to brace against her and stop her from going over and rolling jauntily all the way down to the beach.