“What on earth are you doing back at this hour?” Lill asked, bringing the lush scent of baking with her as she stopped at the foot of the stairs, wiping her hands on the tea towel she held and regarding Alice with confusion.
Alice groaned inwardly and yanked irritably at the clasp fastening her cloak. She avoided her friend’s eye, though she was more than a mere friend. Miss Lillian Brown had been a mother, big sister, and emotional support to Alice since she was a child,despite only being a few years her senior. She was also the only person in the world Alice really knew, let alone trusted.
“You were right.” The words hung in the air, stark and heavy with guilt. Alice braced herself, knowing she would never hear the end of this. “I ought not to have worn the brooch.”
There was a stony silence. It didn’t last long.
“You bleedin’ halfwit!I knew it. Didn’t I tell you? Well, that’s it, then. We’re done here, we’ll have to move, and we’ve only just finished decorating my room, and it looks so pr-pretty…” Lill sobbed, lifting her apron to cover her face.
“Oh, Lill! No!” Alice said, feeling like a monster for having put them both at risk. This was the first proper home either of them had ever had, the first time they had ever dared to put down roots and try to live a normal life, or as normal as Alice felt she could stomach. “It was this young fellow who recognised it, and if I can’t handle him, then I don’t know what the world’s coming to. I’ll get rid of the brooch, quick as I can, and then he’s got no proof. Who on earth would believe Miss Marwick, well-behaved spinster, would be involved in such a crime, I ask you? It’s ludicrous.”
Lill sniffed, looking up at Alice dubiously. “You reckon?”
“Certainly I do,” Alice said, with rather more certainty than she currently felt. “We’ll not have to move, Lill. My word upon it, and moreover I swear I’ll not do such a reckless thing again. I don’t know what got into me.”
“Oh, aye,” Lill remarked with a snort, though she looked less wretched now, which was a relief. “I do. One look at those sparkles and you fell madly in love. You’ve been desperate to wear the wretched thing ever since you lifted it. All that ‘I’m saving it for a rainy day’when you sold the rest of the set easily enough. You wanted it for yourself, and don’t deny it.”
“No, I don’t deny it.” Alice sighed as Lill took her cloak from her shoulders, wishing the weight that had settled there could be removed with such ease.
Lill chucked her under the chin, her smile fond. “Ah, not that I blame you. You deserve all the pretty things you want, my pet. You’re the one what takes all the risks to keep us in such fine style.”
Alice laughed and gave Lill an impulsive hug. “What would I do without you?”
Lill considered this for a moment as she hung Alice’s cloak up. “Well, you’d have starved before you were eight, that’s for starters, and been either transported or hanged more times than I can count.”
“I cannot deny that either,” Alice replied ruefully, peeling off her gloves and tossing them over the banister. “Well, nevermind. Put the kettle on, Lill, we’ll have a nice cup of tea, and I’ll read you the next chapters of Sense and Sensibility.”
Lill clapped her hands together with delight. She had tumbled madly in love with Captain Brandon and thought Marianne a complete idiot, which was rich considering some of the useless oafs Lill had fallen for over the years. “Teaandcake! I made a lovely fruit cake whilst you were out,” she said over her shoulder as she bustled off.
Alice picked up the lamp illuminating the hallway and followed. The tantalising smell enveloped her as she reached the kitchen, easing some of her anxiety. Shecoulddeal with Aubrey Seymour. At least she had settled her friend’s nerves. She would not have Lill worrying, not about her, certainly not about leaving Little Valentine. As strange as it was, this place had become their home. They’d even made friends here, and carved a life forthemselves, as precarious as it sometimes seemed, and Alice was not about to let that go, not for anything, or anyone.
Chapter 2
Absent Jewel, Present Trouble
Ocean View Villa, Little Valentine, 28thDecember 1815
Alice groaned, tired of repeating herself as Lill looked increasingly alarmed. She’d tried to get out of the house without Lill noticing, but the wretched woman seemed to have eyes in the back of her head.
“Lill, it’s been a lovely Christmas. The best we’ve ever had, but it’s over now and you cannot force me to stay inside by distracting me with games or treats. You’ve stuffed me so full of food I have nothing but sympathy for that turkey you cooked, delicious though it was. Truly, I cannot stay in this house a moment longer,” Alice protested, doing up the buttons on her redingote as she strode to the door. “I’ll go mad, and if I go mad, I’ll do something reckless and stupid.”
“Thisisreckless and stupid!” Lill countered, trying to get ahead of Alice along the narrow corridor so she could bar the door. “We agreed you’d keep your head down until the fellow had gone back to town.”
Alice sighed and turned around, leaning against the front door and doing her best to sound reasonable, something she did not excel at.
“And then Miss Honeywell called upon us and informed us that Mr Aubrey Seymour and Miss Vinnie Seymour were remaining at Hatherley Hall for an extended visit. If you thinkI’m going to be trapped in this house until the wretched fellow decides to go back to playing the idle aristocrat, you’ve another think coming. If you won’t let me go to London to sell the blasted brooch—”
“Because Silas Mourney has put a price on your head, you wretched creature, as you well know. Jasper King himself came to warn you to keep out of town and out of trouble, though he might as well have saved his breath for all the good it will do,” Lill added crossly, pulling Alice away from the door and throwing herself against it, arm and legs akimbo.
Alice’s lips quirked despite her friend’s obvious agitation. “Lill, you’re being silly. It’s Little Valentine, not the Seven Dials. I’m in no danger. Lord, the fellow wouldn’t even speak to me if we’d not been introduced, he’s that well-mannered, brooch or no brooch, and I’ll just persuade him he was mistaken. It’s a cheap trinket, a fake, all paste, and I lost it on the way home. He might not like it, but he can’t prove otherwise. He’ll have no choice but to let it go. I hardly think he’s going to wring my neck in public. Now get out of the way, there’s a dear.”
Lill groaned but knew when she was beaten.
“I hate you,” she grumbled, flouncing out of the way with a toss of her blonde curls.
“I know, love. You’re my favourite person too,” Alice said fondly, before closing the door and sucking in a deep breath.
Freedom. At last.
