Page 37

T he police, and resulting crowd, began arriving after breakfast. Evelyn had just left the dining room when she heard the commotion outside. She almost went to go look out the window when Ollie had spotted her from the parlor.

“Don’t!” he shouted as he hurried out of the room. “Stay away from windows. They still think we’re gone.”

Panic mounted. The walls were finally starting to close in. She should have realized she wouldn’t be able to be on the run for long but had hoped it would have been more than a few days. “What do I do?” she cried out, not expecting an answer.

“What do you want to do, Evelyn?” Ollie asked.

She knew she couldn’t run forever. She had to marry the earl, whether or not she wanted to.

But she could also run away, head north, stay in a hotel for some time.

Though, because it wasn’t safe for her to go to her bank, she didn’t have the money to do so. And there was no way she could ever ask Ollie for that. He had already done so much for her.

As desperate as she was, there wasn’t much of a choice.

No longer could she run. No longer could she avoid her fate.

But she did have to take care of one thing first before returning to her family.

“We’re supposed to get a note from the Signature Swindler by noon,” she said. “That’s only half an hour from now. Though with that crowd, I doubt it will get to us. But still, I want to get the painting back before I go home.”

Ollie’s face fell. “What are you saying?”

“I can’t do this anymore, Ollie. Look at what chaos this is causing you!

” She threw a hand toward the window. “I have been far too much of an imposition. I have to end this madness; it’s out of hand.

It’s obvious the Signature Swindler turned me in.

We can get the painting back, he gets his money, everyone’s happy. ”

“ I’m not going to be happy when you leave, Evelyn,” Ollie said, making her feel worse.

His words gutted her. The memory of their kiss began to swirl around her, sending sparks throughout her body.

It was torture. In some other life, perhaps she could have seen if something more could happen with Ollie, perhaps she could have kissed him one more time, but that was an impossibility.

She would never know if he could have fallen in love with her if everything had been just a bit different.

Evelyn swallowed. Her legs were restless again. “As soon as noon hits, I need to leave the house. I may go mad if I stay any longer. I can’t be here with that out there.” She paused. “That’s it, then, I suppose. We get the painting back today, and I’ll go home after that.”

“Is that truly what you want?”

Vague images of her and Ollie dancing together rose up in her imagination.

Riding through Hyde Park together. Dinners together, walks together.

All mundane things to which she’d given hardly a thought before this, but that seemed exceptional if he were with her.

But it would never be. “Yes. It’s what I want.

” And then she hurried up to her bedroom.

She didn’t emerge until the clock struck noon, and they left. “Did the note arrive?” she asked Ollie as they made their way to the servants’ entrance.

“No, but I’m not surprised, either. I don’t know if you heard, but the police began knocking on the door. Mrs. Chapman was able to convince them we weren’t here, but I don’t think she can hold them off much longer.”

It would all be over today, which should have been a relief. No more hiding, no more running, no more of the imposition she was. Yet it wasn’t comforting.

As soon as they stepped out of the servants’ entrance and into the sunshine, Evelyn spotted something on the ground. “Ollie, look.” She pointed at an envelope kept in place with a round stone.

Ollie let out a sigh and picked it up. As usual, Hello was written on the face of the envelope in dramatic script.

Ollie pulled out the piece of paper and read it.

And his face completely drained of all color.

“What is it?” Evelyn spit the words out. The dramatic change in Ollie’s demeanor scared her. Something truly bad was written on the note.

Ollie continued to stare down at the paper, wordless.

Evelyn went to his side to see what it said for herself.

She didn’t know what she was expecting, but she definitely wasn’t expecting what she found.

All it was was an address on Whitechapel Road.

They needed to be there two hours past noon. And not a minute late.

“He wants us to meet him in Whitechapel?” Evelyn frowned. “Does this address have any significance to you?”

But Ollie didn’t respond. Instead, he mumbled a string of curse words and ripped up the letter into little pieces, before letting it blow away in the wind.

“ Ollie !” Evelyn hurried after the bits of paper as they lifted into the sky, but it was no use. The note, the address, were gone. “Why did you do that?!”

“Because I refuse to go to that address,” Ollie responded with evident strain.

She needed to push down the rising anger because something significant had happened and she needed to uncover what it was. “Please tell me what it is.”

“It’s where my mother is buried.” He shook his head, a vacant look on his face. “The blasted idiot wants us to meet him at my mother’s godforsaken grave!” His face twisted with pain. “What kind of game is he playing now? What is the blasted point of all of this?”

The revelation hung in the air, putrid and heavy.

Ollie walked past her and toward the stone wall, and she decided to keep quiet.

They climbed back over, and she followed him in silence through the neighboring gardens.

They had two hours until they had to meet the Signature Swindler, but she hesitated to ask what they were going to do to pass the time.

In the end they walked aimlessly around London. Evelyn kept glancing at the uncharacteristically quiet Ollie. His normally bright-green eyes were dark. His jaw was tense, his back rigid.

She had tried a few times to offer words of comfort, but they hadn’t worked. Because there were no words that could offer comfort. She had to give him the space he needed for the time being.

They went to the Thames and walked along its foreshore to keep away from the crowd. The only people around were more interested in finding historical objects left behind by the past than Evelyn and Ollie.

Evelyn tried showing him old buttons and coins she’d found, but Ollie mostly grunted in response.

Sometime after that, they found themselves walking along the streets of London again and Evelyn realized they were in a familiar area.

“I think we’re close to my house,” Evelyn said with surprise as she looked around.

It was a residential street, so there weren’t many people, and it wasn’t an area she had found herself in very often.

But still, she recognized it. Back before she married, Cordelia used to go for walks up and down this exact street after the luncheon hour.

Cordelia said she liked the street because of the large trees that lined the road. “Ollie, what time is it?”

Ollie checked his pocket watch and spoke for the first time in an hour. “Just a few minutes before one. Why?”

A jolt of excitement hit Evelyn and without thinking, she grabbed Ollie’s hand and began running down the street with him dragging behind. He did manage to keep up the pace, despite being caught off guard.

Three blocks down, Evelyn thought she saw a familiar form and paused. A woman up the street was walking at a slow pace.

Evelyn went to hurry toward her, but Ollie pulled her back.

“What in the blazes are you doing?” Ollie asked. “You’re racing down the street for God-knows-what-reason, and now you’ve targeted that woman like a border collie itching to get to its sheep.”

Evelyn pulled her hand away from him. “Did you just compare me to a dog?”

Ollie let out a long sigh. “Evelyn. What are you doing?”

Evelyn glanced back over her shoulder. The woman was getting farther away. “I think that’s my sister.”

“And you’re running after her? That seems extremely foolish.”

Evelyn shook her head. “Cordelia isn’t like my father or mother. She’s one of the only people I wholly trust in this world.”

Ollie tilted his head and paused for a moment. “Any chance she could be the one who turned you in to the earl?”

“No. There’s no chance of that. She’s the one who encouraged me to run away from him. And as far as I know, she doesn’t know where I’ve been.”

Ollie rubbed his jaw and stared down the street. “You really want to go talk to her? Despite how risky it is?”

Was it really that risky, though? Evelyn trusted Cordelia. Cordelia was not on board with the marriage. Could she have changed her mind?

“You’re hesitating,” Ollie pointed out.

Evelyn lifted her chin in defiance. “Don’t be silly. I have no reason to hesitate. Now, I’m going to go talk to her before we head to Whitechapel. Are you coming with me or not?”

Grudgingly, Ollie followed, making sure to reiterate he thought this was a bad idea.

As they hurried to catch up to Cordelia, Cordelia unexpectedly turned and stepped up to the front door of a house.

Cordelia knocked on the door, the door opened, and she stepped inside.

Evelyn made a sound of disappointment and stopped at the path that led up to the door. The property had square-trimmed hedges in front of the house and along the path.

“Who lives here?” Ollie asked as they both angled their heads back to look up at the townhome. It was modest but well kept.

“I’m not sure,” Evelyn admitted. “I can’t even think of anyone she still speaks to in England who would live here.”

“What do you want to do, then?”

Evelyn looked over to Ollie. “What do you mean?”

“She could be in there for a few minutes, or a few hours. We can’t wait, or we risk being seen.”

“True,” Evelyn conceded. “Let’s at least give her a few minutes.”

“Why do you even want to talk to her?”