“There is the largest of the parlors, which has ample furniture. Perhaps in there?” Tilly said as a knock sounded on the door behind them.
“We shall inspect it while you answer that,” Violet said.
She found a young woman at the door. Her dark gray dress and worn shawl didn’t suggest she was from Tilly’s world—not that, strictly speaking, Tilly was from this world—but no one knew that.
“Hello, may I help you?” she enquired.
She was pale, and her blue eyes looked large in her narrow face, like many Tilly saw on the streets of London every day. Perhaps she was looking for work.
“Are you the lady who has started this club… The Iris Club?”
Tilly nodded. “I am.”
“Then I would like to ask if you have seen my sister, please.” The words came out in a rush. The woman’s bonnet ribbons fluttered as the wind picked up, swirling around her.
“Come inside out of the cold, and you can tell me who your sister is.” Tilly opened the door wider and waved the woman inside.
She didn’t move. “I can’t come in there.”
“Why?”
“It’s not for the likes of me,” she said, glancing left, and then right. “I just want to find my sister, and this is the last place she was seen before she disappeared.”
“My name is Miss Matilda Wilson. What is yours?”
“Miss Ruby Little.” The woman dropped into a curtsy.
“Ruby—I hope you don’t mind if I call you that?”
She shook her head.
“I’ve had an exceptionally trying day,” Tilly continued, “and I was just about to take tea. Would you join me?”
She shook her head again.
“Well, perhaps if not tea, we could just stand inside the entranceway where it is a great deal warmer than out here? It takes a devilishly long time to heat the rooms, and leaving the door open for long periods will not help with that.”
“Very well.” Ruby stepped inside, and Tilly closed the door.
“Through there is a small office. If you will allow it, we could talk in there. If we stand here, people arriving will interrupt us.”
She was nervous and didn’t want to go into the office. Tilly walked into the room and hoped she followed rather than fleeing because she looked in need of help. She was just taking a seat behind the desk when Ruby appeared.
“Sit. I will not bite, I assure you.”
She did—on the edge of the chair on the other side of the desk.
“Now ask me your questions, Ruby.”
“My sister, Fern—Miss Fern Little—she worked here. One day she didn’t come home.”
“She worked here when it was a lodging house for gentlemen?” Tilly asked.
Ruby nodded.
“That was two years ago. Has your sister been missing since then?”
“Yes. Her duties included cleaning rooms and washing clothes. One day, like I said, she did not return home.”
