“I mean Lily mayn’t have had any choice in the matter.Even if it was Percy.”Violet gave a shudder.“Let’s not talk of it—it makes me sick.”
Una suddenly felt ill herself.Perhaps she should go find Pip now.She hadn’t seen much of him lately, and she had never got the keys back from him.There was always so much todo!
“I should go,” Una said, pushing herself up.
“Stay?”Violet asked quickly, a hand catching Una’s skirt.
Una hesitated.There were those evening damps to contend with, and she was tired, and longed for a quiet night in her own room with Oolong.
But Violet’s brown eyes were strangely uncertain, and she dropped her hand quickly, as if she was afraid she’d damage Una with a simple touch.
What had Una said just the day before?
Staying is what people do for each other.
Una considered the consequences.Oolong, she knew, would be quite happy in his basket in the warm kitchen for the night.Hewasn’t at risk of catching his death.
But if Una and Violet were both carried away by fever or influenza—like the mother Una could not remember—what would happen then, she mused?Perhaps Cousin Edith was right and after everything fell apart for a time, somebody would put it back together.Aunt Emily would come home from the seaside and Cousin George would come home from Africa.Between them and everyone else, the menagerie would go on eventually—without her.
“Pass me that hot water bottle, then,” Una said, with a silent, fervent prayer of protection against the evil spirits of the evening air.
Chapter forty-two
London
Pennymightaswellhave been screaming at the wall, and it certainly looked as if that was what she was doing as her prey disappeared into a crevice like the nasty little spider he was.
One of the bobbies threatened to cuff her ‘if she didn’t quiet down and tell them what had happened like a nice young lady.’
“I’m not a nice young lady!”she shrieked.“I’m ajournalist!And there’s a fugitive from justice getting away—again!”
It was impossibly good luck to have happened across the very man she wanted in all London.To lose him now would be unthinkable!
Her eyes met Miss Wu’s and suddenly, inexplicably, she thought of Qiu Guijin.
Perhaps it was the spirit of the martyr that inspired her, for Penny slipped off the policeman like water on a bird-wing and plunged into the narrow slit of darkness alone.
The first thing that happened was that she stumbled over the broken shards of a crate.The yowl of a surprised cat ahead of her confirmed that she was on Eames’s tail.
Penny picked up her pace, twisting sideways to get through the smallest places, and keeping her umbrella point ahead of her to identify obstructions.The sounds of her own breathing and footsteps thundered at her.
Rounding a corner, she almost fell into a busy street, loud with traffic, both animal and machine.
And there was Eames, across the street and a city block ahead of her, leaning against a wall to catch his breath.
Their eyes met across the street, and they both froze.Then a heavily laden lorry rumbled between them, horn bleating.
Penny darted into the street behind the lorry and seized the taut ropes lashing down its load.Then she swung herself nimbly up, finding a foothold on the bumper, and thanking heaven that she had worn her sensible shoes.
A moment later and she was neck to neck with Eames, who was running down the pavement.He was fast, but he would get tired if he kept this up, and Penny had the upper hand now.She was young and fleet of foot, and her cause was just.
“I just want to talk to you, Mr Eames!”she shouted.
His eyes bulged with disbelief.
“I want an exclusive interview!”she tried again.
At that moment the lorry lurched to turn off the main road.Penny lurched too.She used the momentum to spring down onto the sidewalk, breaking her fall by running, and just narrowly missing a flower girl’s cart.
