When she reached her chamber, she burst in to find Louisa at the opposite side of the room, startled awake from her nap and nearly falling out of her chair in surprise.
“My Lady, is something wrong?” Louisa asked, jumping to her feet. “You’re back so soon!”
“Believe me, Louisa, if everything goes according to plan then the biggest wrong of our lives could be gone for good,” Phoebe said hurriedly as she closed the door behind her and rushed across the room, lowering her voice to a whisper. “You remember my friend, Lady Dodge?”
“I do, she’s a lovely lady,” Louisa confirmed with a nod as Phoebe took her hands.
“Lady Dodge has formed a plan tonight to get us out this house for good, so that I may file for separation from Graham!”
“Could it be possible?” Louisa asked, raising her free hand to cover her mouth.
“It is,” Phoebe nodded eagerly. “They have found a place to hide us.”
“I can scarcely believe it,” Louisa said as her breath hitched, then tears appeared in her eyes.
“Oh, Louisa!” Phoebe threw her arms around her maid, holding her dear. “I pray these are tears of happiness.”
“Of such happiness I cannot tell you,” Louisa laughed through her tears. “After how you helped me, my Lady, I have prayed for a long time I could someday be in a position to help you, but no such day has come. Thank our Lord! I now see He has seen fit to deliver the help you need.” She stepped back, squeezing Phoebe’s hand again.
Phoebe felt the same tears Louisa was suffering swell in her own eyes, mirroring the moment. She knew well what had happened to Louisa all those years ago and was only thankful that she could help when she could. It pained her to know that after the suffering Louisa had already been through, she had to stay in a house with a man like Graham. Now Phoebe was getting them both out of here.
“Perhaps our Lord is a kinder soul than I thought him before,” Phoebe confessed as she pressed the back of one wrist to her eyes to try and stop the tears. “Louisa, we do not have long. Any minute Lady Dodge will arrive in her carriage for us, and we must leave.”
Louisa nodded and abated her tears before standing a little straight, her expression altering as though a sudden thought had occurred.
“But…if we walk out the front door, Lord Ridlington’s loyal staff will see us,” Louisa said slowly.
“I…erm…” Phoebe hadn’t gotten that far.
They’d tell him in a heartbeat! Maybe even send a message for him right away at the ball.
“Lady Dodge’s carriage is to wait at the end of the road for us, so at least they won’t see that,” she said, thinking aloud.
“Then, I have a plan.” Louisa released her hand and hurried toward the cupboard nearby, flinging open the doors and beginning to pull out gowns. “Let us pack lightly. With just a few bags to take with us, I know of a way we could sneak out of the house.”
“How?” Phoebe asked, hurrying to help her friend pack as she stuffed gowns and shoes in a small portmanteau.
“The cook here owes me a favor,” Louisa said with a twinkle in her eyes. “She keeps a keen eye on the kitchen door at all times, she does. I am certain I can persuade her to let us out of the kitchen door, without anyone seeing us. Then we can sneak off down the back alley to find Lady Dodge’s carriage.”
“Louisa, you are a genius,” Phoebe happily praised her maid, to which Louisa affect a curtsy with a laugh.
“I aim to please,” she giggled before hurrying back to the clothes. “Now, we must be quick! The sooner we are out of Lord Ridlington’s house and into that carriage, the happier I will be.”
“As will I,” Phoebe said, pausing in her packing and lifting a hand to the ribbon around her neck momentarily. She smiled briefly, thinking of a life where she wouldn’t have to hide bruises or wear odd garments to cover up scratches and grazes.
Soon, she could have a new life, as long as Graham never found out where she was going.
* * *
Francis couldn’t sit still as the carriage came to a stop at the end of the road, in the exact meeting place Diana had described. They were beside the church tower at the edge of Smithfield Lane within the heart of the city, a short distance away from Lady Ridlington’s house.
“You look the least calm of the lot of us,” Josiah declared from where he sat beside Francis in the carriage. Francis turned his attention on his friend, trying his best to still his leg that couldn’t stop bouncing up and down.
“Can you blame me?” he asked.
“I can blame you for wearing a hole in my carriage floor,” Diana pointed out, gesturing down to his leg. “Desist!” Francis made a point of merely moving his leg harder then. “Francis.”
“It cannot be helped, Diana,” he said with caution. “I am about to hide a viscountess in my house for goodness knows how long, away from not only her husband, but her father who is a baron. You neglected to mention that part.”
