Page 14 of The Lady's Last Mistake
He turned to her. “Yes, at an excavation site near the Nile. A tomb for an ancient pharaoh.”
Michael was watching her for her reaction, and though she did suffer a moment’s interest, Cassie only gave a polite nod. “I see.”
“Did you find any butterfly fossils?” Jane asked. At Mr. Forsythe’s quizzical look, she added, “Lady Cassandra has an interest.”
“Lepidopterology? We have a common interest then. As it happens, there was a lecture on the topic just last week at the Lyceum?—”
Abruptly, Cassie stood, and at the startled reaction of everyone around her, cleared her throat loudly. Anything to stop Mr. Forsythe from speaking more about a lecture she was supposed to have attended. She forced the husky sound out again, raising a hand to cover her mouth. “Sorry. Something in my throat. If you’ll excuse me.” She then fled through the door and into an adjacent room.
Only after hearing Michael and Mr. Forsythe depart through the front door, did Cassie return to her seat. She feigned disappointment. “Oh, did the gentlemen leave already?”
“Your throat sounds much better,” Genie said with a smirk.
Cassie endured the next half hour, sneaking furtive glances toward the tall case clock. As soon as Jane departed Violet House, Cassie did as well. Although it had taken quite a bit of convincing to get Michael to agree to her living on her own, rather than under his roof on Curzon Street, it had been worth the struggle—even with the much lower annual income she’d used as a bargaining chip. If she still lived at Violet House, she would never have been able to disappearfor hours on end. Someone would have always been watching.
“To the house, Tris,” she said as she approached her driver, who was standing at the ready in the half-moon drive. He tipped his hat before helping her up into the carriage.
He turned out of the drive and started east. Whenever Cassie said, “the house”, Tris knew that meant Hope House, while “home” was her residence at number twelve Grosvenor Square. Other than Tris, no one else knew. Not even her maid, Ruth. While it would have been more appropriate for Cassie to move about Town with her maid in tow, she didn’t have the patience for such stuffy rules, and thankfully, Michael had given up on requesting she be accompanied. She also preferred to keep some distance between herself and Ruth. While her maid knew of the child Cassie had borne in secret, and she trusted Ruth to keep mum, to alert her to any more scandal would just be courting disaster.
The more people who knew, the greater the risk of being found out. Which is why Grant Thornton knowing had continued to prickle under her skin. Knowing his secret identity as Dr. Brown only gave her so much solace. The sorry fact of life was that if he were to be found out, he would suffer some minor unfortunate consequences, while she would be thoroughly ruined.
After twenty or so minutes, Tris pulled behind the Crispin Street block, into the narrow alley where he kept the carriage whenever she was there. While it was unlikely anyone from her set would be in Spitalfields to recognize it, parking along the street was an unnecessary risk.
At the back door, Cassie knocked twice, paused, then knocked three more times. The back entrance was alwayslocked, and though she had a key, there were two chain locks that needed to be undone too. There was usually always someone in the kitchen to hear the coded knocking.
“Dorie is holding steady,” Elyse said as soon as she allowed Cassie inside. Sister Agatha was at the table, chopping carrots.
“Excellent. And has Dr. Brown returned?” Cassie asked as she hung her flannel cape on the stand near the stove to keep it warm.
In the carriage, she’d shed her sumptuous velvet pelisse and fashionable hat, and replaced them with the unadorned cape and bonnet she’d purchased at a thrift shop. The exchanges couldn’t cover up the fine make of her dresses, but so far neither Mabel nor Sister Agatha had said anything about them.
“Not yet,” Elyse answered. Cassie’s stomach dropped. She’d hoped he would have come and gone by now.
After Lord Thornton left the night before, Elyse had come to Cassie’s office. She’d shut the door before saying, “You two know one another.”
“He is a peer,” Cassie admitted. Her friend had only nodded.
“He sounded like a toff,” she replied. “I take it his name is not Brown?”
Cassie had shaken her head but had refrained from saying what it truly was. She’d already complained to Elyse about Lord Thornton and the closet fiasco. If she knew the doctor was one and the same, she might refuse to allow him back into Hope House. Dorie needed care too desperately for such stubbornness.
Thankfully, Elyse had onlyasked if the doctor might inform other peers of her involvement. “No,” Cassie had firmly replied. She would not allow it. Grant Thornton wasnotgoing to take this from her.
“Lila is restless today,” Elyse said as she took a seat at the table across from Sister Agatha and picked up a half-peeled potato. “I found her in your office, looking for something to read from your shelves.”
Cassie poured herself a cup of tea from the pot that was always kept hot and refreshed on the stove. “That is a first.” No other woman they’d sheltered had ever taken an interest in her books. Most could not read beyond basic words, and more than a few had not even known how to write their own names. Cassie would try to teach them at least that one skill before they left Hope House, though many didn’t see the value in it. Skills like sewing or embroidery would better help them provide for their families.
“I thought that girl sounded educated,” Sister Agatha said, scraping the rough skin of a carrot. Her hands were deft with a peeling knife even though they were knobby with age. From the savory smells in the kitchen, she was making a roast for supper. They usually ate communally in the dining room, and Cassie enjoyed the evenings she was able to join them.
She slid into the chair next to Elyse. “I wonder what she is doing here. A girl like her should have money enough to be sent away.”
“Unless her family doesn’t know,” Elyse replied.
“If that is the case, where do they believe she is?” Cassie frowned into her tea. “They will surely launch a search for her.”
She and Elyse, and Mabel and Sister Agatha, were all aware that they could find themselves in serious troubleshould a family ever accuse them of “kidnapping” their daughter, or hiding her away. It was one of the reasons they were so careful to keep Hope House hush hush. Another reason was because most of the womenwerein hiding—from unkind men. To keep them safe, not one of those men could be allowed to find them.
Elyse finished peeling the potato. “Let’s not worry about that just yet. Lila hasn’t said much. Maybe soon she’ll be comfortable enough to let us know her situation.”
