Page 72 of Of Fate and Phantoms
He glanced at my chest again. "Aye."
"I live at Lichfield Towers in Highgate on the edge of the Heath," Lincoln said. "It's the big estate with iron gates on Hampstead Lane. Come there if you have anything to report."
We watched Finley and Mink return to their hideout then we turned to go. "You shouldn't have told them where we live," I said.
"You don't trust them?"
I glanced back over my shoulder. The plank of wood had stopped swinging, hiding the door completely. "I don't know."
* * *
Lincoln hadsome informants he wanted to question alone, so Seth, Gus and I returned home without him. We arrived at the same time as the post.
Alice met me on her way to the library, a book in hand. "There's a letter for you," I said, passing it to her.
She tucked the book under her arm and opened the letter. She read it once then re-read it. The color leached from her face. "I can't believe this," she said, shaking her head over and over. "The nerve of them!"
"Of who?"
"My parents." She looked up at me, her eyes full of tears. "They're demanding that I return to the school immediately. If I don't, they'll have Mr. Fitzroy arrested for abducting me."
Chapter 10
"They can't do that!" I accepted the letter she handed to me. "They disowned you." Alice's parents had refused to pay her school fees any longer and ordered her not to return home. She'd had nowhere else to go but here.
She folded the book against her chest and looked as if she would burst into tears. "I don't want to bring trouble here or to Mr. Fitzroy. You've all been so kind to me, and you have enough worries."
I shook my head as I read. It said they regretted their hasty decision to cast Alice out and traveled to the school to take her home for Christmas. There they learned that she had fled here after receiving their message, and they now worried that Lichfield was a den of sin and that Lincoln is a whoremaster. "Good lord, it's so outrageous as to be laughable," I said.
"I'm not laughing, Charlie, and neither are they, I'm sure. My parents always think the worst of strangers."
"If they were that worried, why not come here themselves? Why send a letter?"
"Because they don't really care what happens to me. They simply want to beseento be doing the right thing." At my frown, she added, "Me being here makes me look wayward. If any of their friends found out, they'd be horrified. My parents care more about the opinions of their acquaintances then my wellbeing."
"In that case, the threat to have Lincoln arrested is just that, a threat. Going through with it would bring them notoriety they don't want."
"They would be horrified," she agreed. She blew out a breath and looked relieved beyond measure. "Hopefully you're right and it's just an empty threat."
Doyle appeared from the shadows at the back of the entrance hall which led to the kitchen and service area. "My apologies, miss, I didn't hear you arrive home," he said.
I handed the letter back to Alice and removed my coat and hat. Doyle took them, and I walked with Alice to the library.
"Write a polite response," I said. "Tell them you're simply visiting me and will, of course, return home if they wish."
"But I don't want to go! They hate me."
"I doubt they hate you. It's more likely they're afraid of you." I hooked my arm through hers. "Afraid of your dreams."
"I suppose," she said heavily. "But they might make me go back to the school. Charlie, what if they insist I return to the schoolforever?"
It had been something that I'd feared too when I'd been sent to the school in Yorkshire. Sometimes, students with nowhere else to go after their graduation were employed by Mrs. Denk as teachers. Those women never left, and were unlikely to. The thought filled me with hopelessness.
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," I said. "For now, just tell them that Mrs. Denk didn't want you to return. Lincoln can write to your parents, too, and reassure them that you're welcome here and that you're a good companion to me, his…ward."
"Not fiancée?" she asked.
I removed my arm from hers. "His letter requires a delicate and amiable touch. Perhaps I should draft it. I'll end it with an invitation for them to visit and see our household for themselves." There. That ought to ward off any more threats of arrest.
