Page 28 of Return Ticket

“You expecting someone?” Solomon asked his uncle.

Mr. Rodney shook his head. “Maybe it’s Jerome?”

George stuck his head in. “Jerome says there’s a man here for you, Gabriella. Just been up to knock on your door. Not the copper.”

She wiped her hands dry and walked to the front entrance. Just Jerome stood in the hallway.

“I let him go. Wasn’t sure if you wanted him to know you were in.” Jerome shrugged.

“He left?” Gabriella hurried to the main entrance to the old Victorian that had been divided into small apartments. She was curious as to who it could be.

As she opened the door, she was just in time to see Ben closing the garden gate in the weak light of the street lamp.

“Ben!”

He turned, smiled in relief, and came back up the path toward her.

“I was visiting my neighbor. Come in.” She stepped back, giving him room to enter, and then saw George, Solomon, Jerome and Mr. Rodney all watching from the hallway.

She cleared her throat. “Ben, these are my friends and neighbors.” She introduced them, and Mr. Rodney insisted on inviting Ben in for tea.

“You came over on the ship with Gabriella from Australia?” Mr. Rodney sounded intrigued. “You’re one of the friends she meets with every now and then?”

“Yes.” Ben glanced at her, as if surprised at how much Mr. Rodney knew. “Trevor, Dominique, Gabriella and I traveled over to London together from Melbourne. We like to keep in touch.”

“Mr. Rodney used to live opposite me on the second floor,” Gabriella explained. “We walked to the bus stop together a few times when I went out to meet you and the others.”

“Now I have this lovely flat,” Mr. Rodney said, waving his hand around. “And it came with an oven that Gabriella can make her bread in.”

“She made the bread for the passengers on the ship over,” Ben said. “We all worked in the kitchen, but Gabriella was the only one who had actual skills.” He sniffed the air. “I’d forgotten how good it smelled.”

They indulged in small talk for a while, and finally Gabriella realized she couldn’t stand it any more. “What couldn’t wait until tomorrow?” she asked Ben. “Have you been told you can’t help me?”

There was sudden silence.

“What’s this about?” Mr. Rodney asked. “Help you with what?”

She clasped her hands, trying to contain her nerves. “Ruby Everett has found my father for me. Or, we think she has.” She had no qualms talking to Mr. Rodney about it. She had long ago told him her reason for coming to London and he had given her help in her early efforts to find birth and death certificates. “Ben is a lawyer and I asked him to look into what my next steps should be.”

“Gabriella, this sounds very promising.” Mr. Rodney set his mug of tea down.

“I know.” She lifted her shoulders to get rid of tension. “I wanted Ben to make sure the information was right before I approached the man Ruby thinks is my father.”

“You make it sound as if there might be trouble,” Solomon said.

She looked over at him, gave a nod. “Big trouble.”

“How so?” George asked.

“Because of who he is. Did your senior tell you you can’t do it?” she asked again, her gaze fixed on Ben.

“No.” He looked like he was uncomfortable talking about it, and she realized he didn’t want to say anything in the company of people he didn’t know.

“You can speak freely.” She had been through a lot with every person in this room. She trusted them, and knew they might have some interesting insights.

Ben looked around, and then gave a nod. “My senior hired me, an unknown Aussie outsider, because he’s pretty anti-establishment. I think he’s got a chip on his shoulder against the upper classes. The rumor is that he’s the bastard son of a lord or something. Got sent to the right schools and universities by his father, but his old man never acknowledged him openly. It led to him being tormented by his legitimate peers.

“I don’t know if that’s true, but it is true that he has utter contempt for a lot of his colleagues. He hides it pretty well, but it’s there. He hired me mainly because I’m an Australian who has no connections to the law community here.”

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