She had been involved all along.
‘I told Mrs Dent too,’ Tom continued miserably. ‘Nobody believed me. They said I dreamt it. But I did not.’
A sharp pang of sympathy struck Charlotte.
The poor child had been dismissed entirely.
She stroked his hair gently.
‘I am sorry no one believed you.’
Her voice caught slightly at the thought of how lonely he must have felt.
Tom lifted his chin stubbornly.
‘So I found the hole myself and decided to search for her.’
‘That is what you were doing all this time,’ Charlotte realised. ‘And those mazes you kept drawing... they were maps of the tunnels.’
She looked genuinely impressed.
‘Very clever, Tom. Though exceedingly dangerous. Why did you never tell me?’
‘Because you would have stopped me searching for her. Just like Mother.’
Charlotte felt another wave of emotion threaten to overwhelm her. Silently, she admitted he was right. She would have stopped him.
Then Lord Stanley stepped beside them and, lifting Tom effortlessly into the air, spun him around once, causing the boy to burst into delighted laughter.
‘Tom was extremely brave,’ Lord Stanley said warmly. ‘And possesses a surprisingly good sense of direction. We would never have found you in time had he not guided us through the tunnels and warned us which passages led to dead ends.’
Charlotte smiled, her chest tightening with gratitude—for the boy who had known how to find her, and the man who had listened to him.
‘Tell me,’ she said cautiously, ‘does Mrs Wilberforce know you took Tom and a search party into the tunnels in the middle of the night?’
He shook his head.
‘No. I thought it best to let her sleep. I did not wish to waste a single moment, so I hoped we might return before she discovered our absence.’
Charlotte released a quiet breath of relief.
Nearby, the Bow Street Runners were escorting Lucy and the rescued girls back towards the mansion kitchens so they might receive food and warmth.
Tom and Sarah were being sent upstairs to wash and rest.
But Charlotte did not possess that luxury.
She turned slowly towards Lord Stanley.
There was no gentle way to say it.
‘What shall we do about Mrs Wilberforce?’ she asked quietly.
He looked at her in confusion.
‘What about her?’
Charlotte met his gaze steadily.
