“May I have something to drink?”asked Una.
“Of course,” said Mrs Alfred, putting Una’s keys on the side table.Una had the idea that there was something important about those keys, but she could not remember what it was.
Dugdale looked at Janushek.“I’m going to go rouse the magistrate.”
Janushek got up and said something in a serious undertone to Dugdale, which Pip heard but Una did not.
“I can stay with her,” offered Pip.
The room was very quiet when they left.Pip settled into a chair.
“How did you know what happened, Pip?”
“Oolong fetched me,” Pip answered.
Now Una’s chestdidfeel tight.The last she had seen Oolong, he had been defending her, and she hadn’t even thought to inquire what had become of him.
“Oh, Pip!”she cried.“He wasn’t hurt, was he?”
“Not to speak of.Just thoroughly fagged after going all the way to find me.I left him with Mam.He’ll be all right; I’m sure she’ll bring him over later.”
There was silence.
“Una, something awful happened.”Pip’s voice sounded thin.
“Something awful?”repeated Una.
She had been attacked at midnight by a thief in a fake moustache, but somehow, something yet more terrible than that had happened, because it seemed to bother Pip more.What could it be?
“It wasn’t the squire,” Pip said, and he was quite pale.
“What are you talking about?”Una asked.
“I don’t think—no.Iknow.I’m not your brother.“ He looked down, as if ashamed.“Mam told me, after supper.”
“Not my brother?”Una stared at him.“Then whoareyou?”
He laughed bitterly.“Even more of a nobody than I imagined, I suppose.What a joke!”
Una squinted at him.“But this won’t do, Pip.When Molly in the village was expecting her baby too soon, they just had the wedding earlier.But you were raised here,and given lessons with us, for some reason.“ She shook her head and then regretted it.“Ugh, my head!”
Pip blinked at her.“Oh.I’m sorry.Don’t worry about it for now.Just rest.”He picked up a book and sat back in the chair, but a moment later he shut it, his eyes brighter.“You really think there’s something more to it?”
“Of course there is,” Una said with a yawn, and just then Mrs Alfred came in with a tray.
“Yes,” she heard Pip repeat to himself, “of course there is.”
As soon as she’d swallowed some of the brandy-and-water, she was exhausted.
“Mrs Alfred,” she blurted, though she could hardly speak with weariness, “someone must go down to the village to see if the paper has run out yet at the ticket booth for Monday morning, I meant to do it yesterday.”
“It’s all right, old girl,” said Pip, and he squeezed her hand with a laugh.“Fancy worrying about something like that!”
Mrs Alfred looked from her to Pip with the kind of blank expression that usually meant she was anything but blank on the inside, but Una, for once in her life, was entirely incapable of imagining what another person was thinking, and fell asleep.
Chapter ten
Ormdale
