“I am a friend, not foe. And you are Beth to me, as that is what your cousin has always called you in my company.”
She shook her head. “Please just leave this alone, and go at once.”
He touched her chin, placing a finger beneath it, tilting it upward.
“Perhaps I could help in some way?”
She shook her head but said nothing further as the door opened once more. Beth looked at the young girl entering; her right eye was bruised, body hunched in on itself. Her eyes went to Leo’s back and widened.
“Leo, please move away,” Beth whispered. “Go behind a cabinet or to the corner, and stay there until I come for you.”
He hesitated.
“Please.” She wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “I need you to do this for me.”
He nodded, and thankfully said nothing further. She waited until he had retreated, and she could see only his shoulders and the back of his head as he inspected a shelf. Beth then approached the girl, who still stood in the doorway.
“Good morning, how are you this fine day?”
“G-good morning.”
She was slender and pale. There was beauty in the lines of her face, and Beth realized that she was very young, perhaps no older than sixteen.
“My name is Beth.” She held out a hand and waited. The young girl looked at it, and then Beth, before holding out hers.
“Jessica.”
“That’s a lovely name. Do you live near here, Jessica?”
She nodded. “I am a maid.”
Beth kept the smile on her face, although it was becoming more strained by the second. She knew the look of a woman who was being abused. Had seen it more times than she cared to.
“Would you take tea with me, Jessica?”
“I cannot. I need gloves, and then I must return.”
“Of course. Which gloves are you interested in?”
Heather had arrived at the counter once more when she turned, and their eyes met, and the woman gave a slight nod, confirming to Beth that this was the woman who had been in here before, the one that had them worried.
