Della put away her notes with a touch of regret. There was little chance she’d get to write any more today. Why couldn’t she find a few hours of peace in this house?
“What have you done?”
“You remember Miss Greenwood?”
“Of course I do.” Honestly, they’d been buying bonnets for the girl just last week.
“I may have…climbed through her bedroom window last night. Don’t look at me that way. She wasveryinviting! Anyway, it seems that her father saw me when I snuck back out.”
“Good Lord, Annabelle!” How were they going to explain things this time? The older her sister got, the more difficult it became to excuse her actions by pleading some childish lapse in judgment.
“How was I to know that he smokes outside?” Annabelle protested. “Who smokes outside? That’s why they havesmokingrooms!”
“All right.” Della sighed. She held up a finger to signal silence as she contrived a plan. They were going to have to admit some measure of guilt on Annabelle’s part, if she’d been caught fleeing the scene ofher crime. The trick was to make it a socially acceptable measure of guilt. “Here’s what we’ll do. You’ll make your apology to her father and say you wanted to invite Miss Greenwood to sneak out with you to attend a party without your chaperones, but she convinced you the idea was too improper and sent you straight home. That leaves her looking innocent, and we’ll ask him not to speak of it to protect your reputation. If we’re lucky, he’ll agree.”
That would serve. She was too good at this, really.
“No, you don’t understand.” Annabelle’s voice shook as she continued. “It’s much worse this time.”
“Why? What is it?” Della was starting to feel uneasy. They would normally be at the bargaining stage by now. “He didn’t catch you in a compromising state with her, did he?”
“No.” The denial should have brought some measure of relief, but Annabelle still sat white-knuckled and bent under the weight of her distress. “It’s a question of what I looked like when he saw me. Promise you won’t be cross. I feel badly enough as it is.”
“Annabelle, just tell me.”
“I was wearing the suit I had made for when we went to Laurent’s Casino the other night. He thinks he saw agentlemanleaving Eliza’s room.”
“What? Why would you—”
“I had to get over theresomehow, didn’t I?” Annabelle hissed, cutting her off. “I couldn’t very well take the family carriage and be recognized. I needed to walk the streets to hail a hansom cab. I wouldn’t have been safe doing that dressed as a lady. Besides, it looked very dashing on me, and I wanted Eliza to see.”
Della felt as though she had a lead ball in her belly.
“Annabelle, this is bad.”
“I know that!” Her eyes were bright, and it didn’t look to be feigned. “Now her father won’t let her out of the house, and he’slooking to force the man who compromised his daughter to marry her immediately. Look here, she managed to smuggle me a note through her maid.”
Annabelle produced a worn and folded paper from her fist. By the looks of it, torn from the flyleaf of a book. The hurried script read:
Papa says I must be married or sent to the continent! I’m not allowed out. You must save me!!
All my love,
—E.
“I didn’t mean to get her in trouble.” Annabelle had begun to cry a little by now, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, so Della decided to forgo a scolding. It would serve no purpose at this stage.
“Did Mr. Greenwood see your face? Might he recognize you?”
Annabelle shook her head. “It was too dark, and he was across the garden. He just shouted after me, and I panicked and ran. All he could know is that he saw a man’s figure running away from her window.”
Until Eliza Greenwood confessed the rest of the story under familial pressure, which must be reaching considerable force. They would have to think of something before she cracked.
Owning the truth, in any form, was impossible. If it should be known that the girls were lovers, or that Annabelle had paraded around London after dark while dressed as a man, they would be cut from society forever.
“As I see it, there are only two choices, neither of which is ideal.” Della left her desk to join Annabelle on the divan, reaching an arm around her narrow shoulders to bolster her courage. “Either you abandon poor Miss Greenwood to her fate and let her be exiled, or we find you an excuse to join her on the continent and try to set youup in a place where you can live together discreetly.”
“Live together?” Annabelle jumped to her feet, withdrawing from Della’s embrace so swiftly that she caused her to lose her balance and lurch forward on the cushions. “I’mnineteen, not ninety! I don’t want to be banished to the ends of the earth.”
