Page 94 of Trouble

‘Do not talk about my sister,’ Emily said, the words coming out of her knife-sharp.

‘Youwere disappointingly easy to look up,’ said Charles, seeming to enjoy the fact that Emily was emanating waves of pure hatred at him from across the table. ‘Amillworker from an unremarkable town with a dead, unscrupulous father and an ailing sister. No wonder you started grabbing for everything that wasn’t tied down when you came to a house like Fairmont. It must have been like another world.’

Emily stood abruptly. Over by the bar, the innkeeper was watching them. ‘That’senough. Stop, or I’ll—’

‘You’ll .?.?. what?’ Charles leaned in horribly close. Emily felt disarmed, suddenly, and dizzy – she had promised herself that she would never be back in this position, at the mercy of somemanwho wanted to use her for his own ends, and yet somehow she had ended up right back here, powerless and cornered. She did not think that he would put his hands on her – but there were plentiful ways he could hurt her without needing to lift a finger. ‘You will do nothing, as you well know. I may not be a gentleman, but I have some standing – you have nothing. You are a poor, plain girl, good for nothing but what you can beg or steal. Run, if you wish, like the little rat you are – I won’t stop you. But I will catch up with you, Emily.Everythingwill catch up with you in the end.’

‘You disgust me,’ Emily spat, her breath coming in great, shuddering gasps as she grabbed her trunk, dragging it with both hands towards the door.

‘I really don’t care,’ said Charles, with a nasty sneer of a smile. ‘I am going to finish my cup of tea, Miss Laurence, and read my paper, and then I am going to Fairmont House. I would advise you to return at once, and to take up your position again before anybody knows about this little error in judgement. If I arrive and you arenotthere, well .?.?. Captain Edwards and I will havemuchto discuss.’

Emily succeeded in heaving the door open one-handed and fled into the dawn light, the one tear she had allowed to fall quickly drying on her cheek.

Emily had managed to cover the entrance hall with mud again. She had dropped her trunk multiple times on the journey, and the act of dragging it across the threshold had left brownish-grey muck smeared all over the tiles.

Beneath her feet, Meera and the others would already be working, urging the house into motion. She wondered if Meera would tut when she came upstairs and saw what Emily had done, or if her mind would be so preoccupied by what was to come next that she would barely notice the mess Emily had made.

She had been foolhardy. She had been reckless. She had made many unforgiveable mistakes, some of which would surely be beyond redemption.

She had never been, and would never be, a coward.

Meera was in her office.

‘I need to speak to Captain Edwards,’ Emily said, knowing how strange and stilted she sounded. ‘Could you please ask him to come down?’

‘Ask him to—are you well, Emily?’ Meera said, putting down the papers she was holding. She needed another candle in here; she was being far too hard on her eyes.

‘I just need to speak to him,’ said Emily. ‘Meera. Please.’

‘All right,’ Meera said seriously. She got up with a little sound of protest, as if her knees hurt, and on her way out she put a reassuring hand on Emily’s shoulder for a second before she was gone.

With a pang of sadness so overwhelming it almost winded her, Emily remembered that she had left the basket of gifts that the staff had so painstakingly put together under the table at the Rose and Crown.

She avoided the kitchen – she could hear Akia chatting happily to Joe inside, and could not face either of them at the moment – and went to sit in the empty servants’ dining room, her despair overwhelming.

When Meera finally returned, she looked puzzled.

‘Captain Edwards has come down, Emily, but – there’s a man here to see you. He said it’s urgent.’

‘He looks like a mean pirate,’ said Akia, coming in behind her. ‘And I mean that in a bad wayanda good way.’

‘Why is your trunk in the hall?’ said Meera.

Emily still could have run. It was not too late, and it was, after all, what a real thief would have done. She had come here to scam these people, and although she had done a very poor job of it, sprinting for the door while they all shouted after her would have been a fitting end.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said instead. Meera and Akia both made noises of consternation as she got up and walked past them, ready to meet her doom.

Oliver was standing in the entrance hall when she reached it. Captain Edwards was not. When she looked to Oliver questioningly, he nodded out of the open front door, looking puzzled, but had the uncharacteristic good sense to stay quiet.

Charles was there in the driveway, dismounting from his horse, just as he’d promised – and Captain Edwards was there to receive him.

‘Ah,’ said Charles, jovial in the way that only a true bastard could be under the circumstances, ‘there she is. Miss Laurence, good morning.’

‘Do not speak to her,’ Captain Edwards said. Emily was surprised by the contempt in his tone.

‘But she’s exactly who I have come to speak with,’ said Charles, his smile only faltering a little. ‘Miss Laurence, as I was just trying to explain to the good captain, I was simply here to call upon—’

‘Mr Pine, I have made it perfectly clear that you are not welcome in my house, my grounds, or anywhere in my vicinity. I will not allow you to bother my children’s governess.’