Page 84 of From the Ashes
"Aren't you?" she said mildly.
"He did a heinous thing, Mother," Seth said before I could respond. "He took Charlie away from her home."
"Aye," Gus chimed in. "She'd been livin' on the streets for years, with no home, no one to care for her, and just when she gets settled here, he sends her off."
"I know her history," Lady Vickers said crisply.
I looked from one to the other, my heart in my throat, tears in my eyes. I ought to stop them, and remind them that I was right here, but I couldn't.
"You know it, but you don't trulyknowit, Mother," Seth went on. "Let me explain. Charlie was only a little girl when her father banished her. Girls are supposed to trust their fathers. It's the one person a girl should know is on her side, and Holloway wasn't. He pushed her off the end of the pier and she had to swim or drown. She swam, but only just. Then she comes here, and just as she begins to hope that she could once again have a home and is surrounded by people she can trust, Fitzroy does exactly the same thing as her father did. He took away her home, her family, and dropped her off the end of the pier." He shook his head. "Heoughtto be punished."
"I'm not punishing him!" I swiped my damp cheeks and stood.
Lady Vickers caught my hand, but I wrenched free and ran out of the room. I halted in the doorway. Lincoln stood there, his eyes huge black pits surrounded by deep shadows. He stared at me, unblinking, not breathing, his hands fisted at his sides. He'd heard everything.
"I didn't get to finish," Lady Vickers announced, joining me.
"I don't want to hear it!" I snapped.
"Very well." She cleared her throat. "This letter came for you. That's why I was looking for you, but then I saw…." She handed me the letter then returned to the sitting room.
Lincoln didn't move. He seemed to be waiting for me to do or say something first. I couldn't think what. I'd said everything I needed to say already.
I opened the letter because I could no longer bear to look at his haunted eyes. I drew in a steadying breath, but my hands still shook as I read. It was from Alice, and she had news. Dreadful news.
Chapter 17
Lincoln strode to my side, but didn't get too close. "What is it? What's happened?"
"Alice's dream came to life again." I showed him the letter. It was brief, only a paragraph long, but it told me everything I needed to know. Alice's parents refused to keep paying for her place at the School for Wayward Girls, and had forbidden her to return home. They'd disowned her and Mrs. Denk had given her until Christmas to leave. That very night, Alice's dream had come to life again. This time, two fat twins visited the school looking for her, both of them bumbling fools, according to Alice. She'd met them often in her dreams. Two portly idiots were better than an army, but Mrs. Denk became cross and ordered them to leave. Apparently the men wouldn't listen to her. I wondered if she marched them down to the dungeon to teach them a lesson.
"Alice will come here," Lincoln said, handing the letter back to me. "Write to her today and send her some money for the journey."
I nodded through my tears. Why was I still crying? I was happy to be seeing her again, yet I couldn't stop. "Thank you, Lincoln."'
"Don't thank me." He walked away and did not look back.
"What is it?" Seth asked, joining me.
I showed him the letter. "Alice is coming to stay."
He laughed as he read. "I hope we get to experience these dreams of hers. Her fat twins will get along superbly with Gus and Cook."
"Hopefully a safe environment will put an end to that."
"How safe is it here at the moment?" He put his arm around my shoulders. "Let's go see Cook. You look like you could do with a slice of one of his cakes."
* * *
The eveningat the Overtons began well enough. Miss Overton stuck to her mother's side so I simply avoided them both during the pre-dinner drinks in the drawing room. Lincoln managed to slip out of their trap, too, thanks largely to Lady Vickers accosting Mrs. Overton. Catching one Overton inevitably led to the capture of the other.
"Two birds, one stone," Seth muttered in my ear. "But my mother needs to think again if she's setting her sights on that girl for me."
"She might be quite lovely, when she's separated from her mother's skirts," I said.
"How will we ever know? I prefer a girl with a mind of her own."
"Like Miss Yardly?" I nodded at the buxom woman giggling at something Andrew Buchanan had said. I'd been prepared to like her for her spirit until I saw her fawning over him. He was a cad and not very good at hiding the fact. Clearly she had poor taste.
