Page 91 of Gilded Locks

“Go,” Grace whispered.

James looked at her, tears pooling in the corners of his eyes, then turned and darted away.

When the patrolman came upon Grace, she was trudging slowly toward the edge of the forest nearest Lizzy’s estate.

Rather than the accusations she expected, she was greeted with excitement. “I found her,” the patrolman shouted. “Come, Miss Robbins.”

She followed him to the town square.

In the clearing just outside the forest, a group gathered around her.

“Grace! You’re safe. There you are.”

“The mayor said you’d run after the Rogues. He didn’t know if you were safe or not.”

“Did he hurt you?”

Grace ignored the words and the hands checking her face and limbs.

She just kept walking toward Lizzy’s house.

The crowd gathered around the home was larger than the swarm of people hovering around her.

Frank and Milo Tucker were standing at the base of the porch stairs, arms crossed.

But there were also a few patrolmen standing closer to the crowd, keeping the people away from the crime scene.

A quick glance at the crowd suggested that the Stantons were inside. Lizzy would have been at her side otherwise. Where were her parents? Grace wondered.

“She’s here,” Frank called, and Mother exited the home.

“Grace!” Concern twisted Mother’s features. She hurried down the stairs, Frank stepping out of her way. She placed a hand on Grace’s cheek. “What happened, fledgling?”

“I’m fine,” Grace said, but she knew she didn’t sound fine.

“In here,” Mother said, and led Grace up the porch stairs. As she passed the front door, Grace glanced at the handle plate and saw a gaping hole dripping with melted gold where the keyhole should have been.

Frank took his post again, shooing away the crowd. “Send them home,” Mother instructed, and Frank started shouting for everyone to leave.

Mother led Grace into Lizzy’s manor. The destruction should have shocked her, or at least pained her, but Grace felt empty, and the emotion couldn’t reach her. Not even when Lizzy came rushing from the kitchen and wrapped her arms around her.

“Oh, Grace! You’re fine. It’s so terrible. Mother is falling apart. But Frank, sweet Frank, he stopped the Rogue before he destroyed everything. The kitchen’s bad, and this room, and my bedroom is in tatters! It’s unnerving. What is a person supposed to do with all this destruction?”

Grace patted Lizzy’s back. It was all she had to offer.

“But your parents have been helping. I don’t know what we’d do without them. Your mother packed some of my mother’s things, Father has his own, and we are going to stay with Aunt and Uncle Durr. Russell took both my brothers there. Oh. Cyrus! They freed him. You wouldn’t have known that. Didn’t have a choice, did they, when the Rogue showed up there. Two of them, even.”

Grace nodded. “Good.”

Action continued around Grace. The Stantons gathered what they could and Mother and Father ushered them to the Durrs’. Only as Lizzy wrapped Grace in another hug did she start to feel again.

“We can talk sometime. Yeah?” Lizzy looked at her with concern. Grace managed a smile.

“Yeah. I’m sorry. It was just stressful. I’m fine, really. Just processing.”

Lizzy nodded but seemed to sense that it was more complicated than that.

With the Stantons gone and the square empty, at Frank and Milo’s insistence, Grace’s parents led her outside. Someone hadalready retrieved a wheelbarrow, and her parents set about collecting the gold. The pounding of a pry bar against the hinges and the axe against the wood barely registered, but Grace refused to go home before her parents. The gold on the door needed to be dealt with, but she had far worse news to share when they were alone.

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