The girl flinched violently away from her. Bridget cursed herself. She should have known better than to do that. “I’m sorry,” she said, pulling her hands back. “I’m not going to touch you, I promise.”
The girl relaxed ever so slightly. She reached out for the pen and paper, and Bridget gave them back to her.
Emma, she wrote.
“Emma. Is that your name?”
She nodded, green eyes filling with tears.
“Emma,” Bridget said softly. “All right, Emma. Is there anyone looking for you? Besides the monster, I mean. Any family that we could try to find?”
Father, Emma wrote.
“Your father?” So, she wasn’t an orphan. That was probably good news. “Do you know his name? Can you write that down for me?
Reeves Langford. Duke of Greystone.
“Your father is a duke?” This was shocking. How could a duke’s daughter have found herself in such dire straits?
Emma nodded again. The tears spilled from her eyes and began to run down her cheeks.
“All right,” Bridget said quietly. “It’s all right. It’s good that you told me. We’ll be able to find him, and you’ll be back with him in no time. But until that happens, will you stay here with me? This place is an orphanage. It’s a home for children with no families. I live here too. My name is Miss Bridget. I can take care of you, if you’ll let me, until we find your father.”
Emma hesitated, then nodded.
Bridget breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t been at all sure that Emma was going to accept help. “Let’s go find you a bed,” she suggested. “You must be exhausted.”
Emma pulled the paper toward herself and touched the wordmonster, her eyes wide and fearful.
“No one will find you here,” Bridget assured her. “We have locks on all the doors. Did you come in through the kitchen window?”
Emma’s cheeks turned bright red. She ducked her head.
“You aren’t in trouble,” Bridget said. “But let me lock that window. Our cook must have wanted to let in a breeze, but let’s just make sure we don’t let in anything else tonight.”
She went to the window, pulled it closed, and locked it.
“Will you come to bed now?” she asked Emma. “I’ll let you use the bed in my room tonight, so you won’t have to be with the other children yet. I’m sure you could use some time to yourself.”
Emma got to her feet slowly and picked up the crust of her bread.
“Want some more of that to take to bed with you?”
Emma’s eyes widened with hope. It nearly broke Bridget’s heart.
She went to the pantry and retrieved another piece of bread. Then she held out her hand to the girl. “Bed?”
A long pause.
Then Emma moved close to her and took her hand, allowing Bridget to lead her away.
CHAPTER 2
Dear Prudence,
I’m very much hoping that you can help me with a situation that has recently arisen here at the orphanage. I hate to have to turn to you in this way, but this is urgent, and I don’t quite know what else to do.
A young girl appeared in our kitchen last night, claiming to be the daughter of the Duke of Greystone. As you are Duchess of Desford yourself, you are more ideally positioned than I am to make contact with Greystone and discover whether or not he is missing a daughter. If he is, he should be informed that I have her here. But she claims that she is being pursued by a “monster,” so I am hesitant to make her whereabouts publicly known to anyone.
