Page 49

Grace bit her lower lip. “I’m scared.”

“I know.” I stared into her eyes and into that of her sister’s. “I won’t leave you. I’ll be here the entire time you are, but I can’t be with you in the kitchens. I will come visit, though, and we’ll see each other every day.” I glanced up at Mrs. Beauchamp, relief filling me when she gave a tense nod. “Do as you’re told and we’ll be able to see each other every day. Can you do that for me?”

They nodded.

“Okay, now, girls,” Mrs. Beauchamp said, clapping her hands. “That’s enough for today. You can return to your room now. Tomorrow we shall start anew.”

The girls were looking at me, so I tried to smile. I could fall apart later, but for now I needed to be strong. “I’ll be here.”

This time when Mrs. Beauchamp left, she grabbed their hands as she led them from the room. My heart twisted when they looked at me over their shoulders until they were in the hallway.

I hadn’t even seen the burly footman who’d been stationed there, but he leered at me before closing the door. The sound of the door locking sounded loud in my ears, signaling my doom.

I dropped into the chair and forced myself not to give in to the tears that were threatening. The safety of those two little girls depended on me being able to keep my wits about me.

For now I could only stare at the door and worry about who was going to come through it next. Would the footman be returning to have his way with me first, or would someone else get that honor? My only hope lay in it being a gentleman who could be convinced to help me.

I shot to my feet again and began to pace. I glanced at the bed and back at the door, wishing now that I had a key on this side so that I could lock myself safely in. Anyone could come in at any time, and when they did, I wouldn’t be asleep in that bed. I would spend the entire night seated in that chair if I had to.

Chapter 36

GREYSON

I found the address tucked into a bound ledger on the headmistress’s desk. There were only a handful of notations in the volume. Clarence scanned the pages and made his pronouncement.

“She sold the girls,” he said, frowning. “For someone willing to do something so heinous, she was incredibly careless to just leave this on her desk.”

I turned to storm from the room, determined to go after Claire and the girls without delay, but Rexford moved to block the door.

“We need to know what we’re going to be walking into. It could be a couple desperate to have children who wouldn’t normally be able to adopt, a workhouse, or…”

He didn’t have to continue. My mind was already filling in a number of nightmare scenarios. I wouldn’t be able to help if I barged into a situation from which I couldn’t extricate myself. I needed to be more strategic.

“Do you know where she keeps the accounts?” Clarence asked. “I’ve found that in situations like this, the most expeditious way of uncovering what is happening beyond what people want you to know is to examine the accounts.”

I pointed to the bookshelves on the left. “She keeps them inside the locked cabinet on the bottom shelf.”

Rexford raised a brow. “Why would one need to lock up the account books for a charity school?”

It hadn’t even occurred to me that would be suspicious, but now I realized I’d been far too trusting.

“She keeps the keys with her. I’ll fetch them.”

“No need,” Rexford said, reaching into an inner pocket of his coat.

I knew that Rexford could pick locks, but I hadn’t realized he always kept his tools with him. He crouched before the small locked cabinet and within moments had the lock opened.

He tsked. “If she was hiding something, she should have had better security than this.”

“Thankfully, she didn’t,” I muttered as Rexford reached into the cabinet to retrieve the account books.

“I assume these are the ledgers she would have shown you.”

I nodded.

He reached into the cabinet again. “Then these must be the second set of ledgers that you haven’t seen.”

My eyes narrowed on the nearly identical volumes. “She was keeping two sets of accounts?”