Page 79 of Trouble

Grace?Missing?

Emily could not make sense of this.Astermissing made perfect sense, but Grace would never be so irresponsible as to wander off alone.

This thought led to a spike of panic, because it was true – shewouldn’twander off alone. Which meant that something truly terrible might have befallen her.

‘Why do you need me?’ Emily said, as if she hadn’t already made her mind up to go.

‘Captain’s orders,’ said Oliver. ‘Come on. Throw some things in a trunk – we might need you to stay for a few days.’

Emily went to tell her sister. Amy understood at once and bid her to go with haste.

‘And you will be all right?’ Emily said, reluctant to let go of her hand.

‘I know you are not particularly impressed by our mother,’ said Amy, ‘but she is perfectly capable of feeding me. And besides, you arenotto use me as an excuse to loiter here when I really am feeling much better.Go.’

Emily left all the money she had on the dresser by the bed and then went to join Oliver in the gig.

‘How long has she been missing?’ Emily asked, over the racket of speeding horses.

‘She hasn’t been seen since yesterday afternoon,’ said Oliver. ‘We’ve been searching the grounds, but Ben thought you might have better luck, as the two of you have been thick as thieves lately.’

Emily somewhat doubted this. She did not know the house and grounds any better than the rest of them, and while she and Grace had become relatively close in the time Emily had been at Fairmont House, Grace lovedallthe staff just as much, if not more.

‘How is your sister?’ Oliver said.

It sounded odd, coming from him. Too kind and earnest. It felt wrong that he even knew shehada sister. Emily wondered what else he might know by now, if the captain had shared what he’d learned about her just before she had fled back home.

‘She will be all right.’ For some reason, saying it to him made it feel more true. ‘At the house, are they .?.?.?? Is Captain Edwards engaged?’

Oliver looked at her sideways, faint amusement playing about his mouth.

‘Not yet,’ he said, which sort of answered her question, and sort of told her nothing at all.

He told her, instead, about the moment they’d realised Grace was gone, and all the places they had already checked. When she was caught up, they lapsed into silence. To Emily’s surprise, it felt comforting to sit with him. Companionable.

When hadOliverbecome hercompanion?

Emily hadn’t expected to be making this journey again, and it felt strange, as if she was stealing a glimpse of something she no longer had the right to. When they reached the familiar land around Fairmont, she almost didn’t want to look at it; didn’t want to acknowledge that she really had returned. She wanted it to feel natural when she slipped away again in a day or two, leaving no mark, and letting the house leave no mark on her.

When they entered, Meera met them, her usually neat hair in disarray and her mind clearly just as scattered.

‘Oh! Amy, you’re here!’

If Emily was still Amy to Meera, Captain Edwards must not have told anybody about her lies. Good. That was one less complication.

‘If you just .?.?.’ Meera’s voice tailed off. ‘Sorry, the constable is here and I’m just bringing him some tea.’

Emily couldn’t help it; she flinched at the news that a man of the law was sitting in the drawing room, just a few feet away. It only occurred to her now that this all could have been a trap – Captain Edwards’s way of luring her back here to be arrested, if Charles had become frustrated by her lack of attendance at the Rose and Crown this past week and decided to reveal her as a thief. Perhaps the captainhadthought it of note that she had been using a false name, and was dragging her back here to face the consequences.

She took a step backwards, feeling cornered, but then Aster came rushing down the stairs two at a time, ran over to Emily and actually gave her a brief, tighthug.

‘You’re back,’ he said. ‘Good. Where do you think she is?’

‘Ah,’ Emily said, still reeling from the hug, watching as Meera bore the tea tray away into the drawing room for the constable. ‘I don’t know.’

‘Oh,’ said Aster, deflating. ‘I thought for certain she might have said something to you. There’s nowhere she likes to go to be alone? No secret hiding place?’

‘She would have toldyou, if there were,’ said Emily. ‘Not me.’