Free A Fatal Freedom by Janet Laurence Page A

detective have been able to follow me?’
    ‘So you didn’t tell Millie you were going to leave?’ Rachel said.
    Alice shook her head. She’d taken off whatever hat she had been wearing and tendrils of fair hair hung down beside her cheeks. ‘I posted the letters myself. Last night I hardly slept. I rose very early, long before it was Millie’s time to come and wake me, and I dressed myself.’ She gave a little laugh. ‘I had trouble with my corsets and then could hardly do up my waist band; it was such a relief to have Martha pull the strings properly tight.’
    Ursula could not help wondering at the girl’s anxiety about the size of her waist, then told herself she did not care enough about her own. As long as she looked neat, she was happy.
    ‘I left a note for Joshua and took a small bag with necessities. Nobody saw me leave.’ Another little gasp. ‘Millie will have had such a shock!’
    Martha reappeared. ‘Thought you might need some hot water,’ she said, filling the teapot. ‘Are you all right now, dear?’ she said to Alice. ‘Your poor mother would be so upset to see you in this state.’
    Alice smiled at her. ‘If only I had taken you as my maid after Mama passed away.’
    ‘There, there, my little dear. Who would have looked after your sister? Now, you let me know if there’s anything else I can do.’ She looked across at Rachel Fentiman. ‘Will there be anything else?’
    ‘No, thank you, Martha, that will be all.’
    The woman patted Alice’s shoulder and left the room.
    ‘I do wish you had let me know what you meant to do, Alice,’ said Rachel, handing her cup to Ursula for a refill. ‘I could have told you that Mrs Rokeby was unexpectedly called away. Her mother is very ill in the Lake District. I met Daniel at a friend’s house three days ago and he told me he was to take her there the following day. Did you go to her house?’
    Ursula offered more tea to Mrs Trenchard, who waved her away with an impatient gesture.
    ‘No one was there,’ Alice wailed. ‘So then I went round to Daniel’s rooms and no one was there either. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t dare come here because I was certain this was the first place Joshua would look for me. I couldn’t think where to go.’ Tears came again and Rachel found a clean handkerchief for her. ‘I wasn’t far from Regent’s Park. Daniel took me to the Zoological Gardens there a little while ago; he wanted me to see the new idea of bringing the animals out into the open instead of keeping them inside. I was amazed that camels and lions and monkeys, which are used to such hot climates, could survive our cold weather, but they do!’ Her eyes were wide with surprise. ‘And they looked so happy to be in the fresh air. Daniel said I mustn’t think they have emotions like us but they really did look happy.’ It was as though she felt it important they believed this. Gradually she had become much calmer, as though she had once again found that inner strength she had talked about earlier.
    ‘So you went to the Zoological Gardens just now? Did you expect to see him there?’ Her tone suggested this would have been a vain hope.
    ‘Not really but they have tea rooms and I thought I could get some refreshment and work out what I should do. Even though I took cabs, I was exhausted from all the travel and carrying my bag, and everything seemed so hopeless.’ She looked like a child who had been dragged around beyond its strength. ‘I thought that perhaps Mrs Rokeby had been so scandalised by my letter she had decided not to open her house to me after all.’ She closed her eyes. ‘I tried not to think that Daniel might also have regretted encouraging me.’ Then she looked straight at her sister. ‘But I knew I could not return to Joshua. So finally the only place I could think to go was to Aunt Lydia’s. I didn’t realise that Uncle Felix was ill. I am so sorry.’ She sounded hopelessly sad.
    A capacious Gladstone bag stood by