“You stole from her,” Gray said, sighing.
“Hand one of those over to me at once,” Ellen said. “I am not as righteous as my husband.”
Gray leaned over her shoulder as she opened it. Mungo did the same with the second book. There was silence in the carriage while they read.
“Mine is a list of names. My guess is, they are the women who have signed with the agency,” Mungo said. “Pages and pages of them, all numbered.”
They were in alphabetical order. He flipped to the D’s, ran a finger down, and found Eliza. It bothered him that there was an S next to her name but not the others on that page. He flipped through until the names ended and found a few more S’s. One of those was Polly Watts. Then he came to a page titledProblem Girls.He ran down the list, reading a few of the names and what they’d done wrong in the eyes of the judgmental Mrs. Holton.
And then he saw her name.
Eliza Downing—needs to be dealt with for the trouble she caused Mr. Parson.
Polly Watts requested by B-Boy to be marked a special. Previous connections.
Christ.
The last page contained the names of locations.
“This is protected by some kind of code,” Gray whispered. “Sets of three numbers, but what do they correspond to?”
They swapped books, and he looked at the columns.
“We need to get back to Miss Downing,” Ellen said. “She is marked as a special girl, and while I don’t know what that means, I feel it’s not good.”
“Especially as Polly Watts has an S next to her name too,” Mungo said, the fear inside him rising.
“Do you remember what those women in that tea shop said about the special girls?” Ellen said. “That they went to Europe.”
“We need to go back to the Holton Agency and confront that woman,” Gray said, still reading one of the journals.
Mungo had his eyes on Ellen, so he saw the moment her face paled. Her eyes were suddenly empty of expression as she swayed. Gray grabbed her, pulling her to his side. When she came back to them, her words were whispered.
“Hurry. Eliza is in danger. I saw her gagged, and bound, and lying in the back of a cart.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
She managed to calm down enough after Mungo’s rude behavior to teach Fred that cussing in a social setting was unacceptable and Matilda that she could not take a book and sit in the corner at a ball. She then ran through several scenarios of what was acceptable behavior and conversational openings. Then the dance tutor arrived, so they all trooped to the largest room in the house and practiced.
Theo was elegant and light on his feet. Matilda and Anna were the same. Fred tended to stomp loudly and scowl a great deal. Eliza would need to spend some time alone with her to help her with the coming transition. It was never easy to make changes to one’s life, and as the eldest of the three girls, it was harder for her.
After two hours of dance practice and etiquette lessons, the girls were more than ready to take a break for a meal, and as it was Eliza’s afternoon off, she decided to take a walk and see Sylvie.
She missed her friend dreadfully and wanted to talk withher about everything that had happened since she’d arrived here.
“What are you doing with your afternoon off, Miss Downing? You’ve not left this place or Crabbett Close since you arrived, unless it is with a member of this family,” Ivy Nightingale said when she reached the entranceway.
“A walk, I think, and I’m hoping to see my friend. We lived together before coming here. She is a seamstress.”
“How lovely. You enjoy your time with her, then.”
She liked this woman. Kind and sweet but also had a backbone when required, and no doubt that was needed with this family. Eliza admired what she and her husband had done. They’d given up everything for their nieces and nephews. It took strong people to do that. Good people who cared.
“And if you ever wish to have a visitor here, Miss Downing, then please do. We do not stand on ceremony and would love to meet your friend.”
She didn’t know what to say to that because she was sure there weren’t many who would be so generous.
“Now, off you go. No point in standing about here when it is your afternoon off. Where does your friend work?”
