Free Fever Quest: A Clean Historical Mystery set in England and India (The Isabella Rockwell Trilogy Book 2) by Hannah Parry Page A

worst.
Think! Think! Her mind twisted this way and that, crawling its way up the walls
of the crevasse into which it had fallen. She bent over, hearing the blood
rushing in her ears and seeing stars start to jump before her eyes. Remus
Stone? Colonel Stone? The man in the library with the diamond. Now he wanted Al
Hassan’s package too? Enough to kidnap Midge. Isabella forced a breath in and a
breath out. Mr Jefferies took her arm.
    “Are you all right?”
    Isabella shook her head.
    “Is it terrible news?”
    “It’s a note to me from Midge. He … er … got one
of the servants to write it. He says he needed to get away for a bit – that he
would meet me in Hyderabad. It’s only a day’s ride from here.”
    Mrs Jefferies’ face was horrified.
    “Get away where? From what? He can’t just go roaming about
by himself. He’ll never survive.”
    Isabella was in a fog, as her mind searched for a way out.
But the elderly woman in front of her was in a terrible state.
    “Mrs Jefferies, please try not to worry. Midge lived with
his sister Ruby alone on the streets of London from the age of five. Survival
is what he does best.”
    “But with no money or –”
    Mr Jefferies held up his hand.
    “That’s enough, my dear. He must have felt he
wanted to continue his travels on his own.” Mr Jefferies took off his glasses.
“And that is his right.”
    An hour later, a servant showed Isabella into the
drawing room, where the travellers sat having mint tea and biscuits. It was a
giant shady room with pale silk curtains at the windows and paintings of
surprised British wildlife on the walls. Mrs Rodriguez stood and embraced her.
    “My dear, I am so sorry to hear of your news. He left a
note, I understand?”
    The whole room, Rose, Livia and all the adults, turned
together to look at her. Isabella felt as if she were on stage.
    “He did.”
    “Well, what does it say?” said Livia impatiently.
    Isabella took a deep breath.
    “It says he wanted to travel on by himself. That he would
meet me in Hyderabad.”
    “Well, that’s not too far from here, is it?” said Lady
Denier.
    “It is a three day journey,” replied the governor’s wife.
    “Well then, that’s not so bad, is it?” said Lady Denier.
“It’s not like he’s crossing a desert. You will see him in a few days, then.”
    Isabella nodded, careful to keep her face blank.
    “Yes, but still,” said Mrs Rodriguez. “I wonder what made
him go off like that. The Jefferies seem like such nice people.”
    “Bored to sobs, probably.”
    “Livia!” Lady Denier’s voice was horrified, but Livia’s
face was calm as she twisted a dull strand of hair through her fingers.
    “Oh, Mama, of course he was bored. Let’s be honest about
it. Travelling with a pair of old turtles across the most exciting countryside
on earth. No wonder he went off. He was probably suffocated. Smothered by
kindness.”
    Isabella tried not to smile and looked gratefully at
Livia, who had brought the full extent of her mother’s anger down on her head.
    “That’s enough, Livia. Go to your room.” Rose and Isabella
stood to go with her.
    “I don’t know where it is.”
    The governor’s wife rang for a servant. Midge’s loss had
made the adults nervous.
    The two young officers who’d accompanied them had made
themselves scarce at the first sign of discord, and Isabella could hear them
outside, unsaddling their horses and practising their hesitant Hindi on the
grooms.
    “I wish I were a man.”
    Rose’s voice echoed Isabella’s thoughts as they climbed
the broad staircase. Isabella looked back at her and nodded, her mind
elsewhere.
    “Then it wouldn’t matter what I looked like.”
    Livia disappeared down a corridor ahead of them.
    “Why does it matter what you look like?”
    Rose’s face was hard as she looked at Isabella.
    “Why do you think?”
    To Isabella, Rose always looked as if she were trying to
copy Livia. She would wear her hair in the same style, and if Livia