I managed to keep up a decent pretence for the remainder of the picnic. With my face bruised and the tennis games no longer holding their appeal, I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting under the canopy making small talk with Clara. She carried most of the conversation whilst I took George's advice from the evening of the supper and tried to keep enough food in my mouth so I wouldn't have to answer her questions.

Clara didn't appear to mind all that much and was able to speak for both of us as I tried to understand just what unnerved me about her. My conversation with George had given us a small piece of new information, but it didn't explain why Rebecca was so scared upon hearing their names. If they were innocent, she wouldn't have reacted in such a way.

There had to have been more to it, small pieces of information that we weren't aware of. I was determined to find out the truth, but time had started to slip through my fingers at an even faster rate than before. We only had a few days until Father's deadline ran out.

The next morning, I awoke with a newfound determination to find out the truth about Rebecca. I was still waiting for Joseph's letter about Abacus, but that didn't mean I couldn't try to find something out. With what George had discovered, I figured it would do no harm in talking to Rebecca directly. After all, we had come this far, and I had to hope she would be willing to elaborate.

I dressed carefully that morning, pulling my shirt over my head and trying not to touch the bruises on my face. Although I hadn't looked in the glass, I knew it was bad. The bridge of my nose and the area around my eyes hurt to touch, but it was a problem I would just have to deal with. There were more important things at hand than the state I was in.

Once dressed, I left my room, keeping my head down to avoid making eye contact with the servants. I crept down the hall to Rebecca's door and knocked lightly.

"Come in," came a small voice from within.

I pushed open the door and stepped inside. "Good morning, Miss Edwards."

Rebecca sat against the pillows of her bed, still dressed in her nightgown, with Sooty curled up on her lap. Her eyes widened at the sight of the bruises.

"Do they look that bad?" I asked, grinning sheepishly.

"What happened?"

"An unfortunate incident with a tennis ball yesterday. I have officially relinquished my tennis title to Andrew Seabrook, which he is rather excited about. He is never going to stop talking about it."

"They're not so bad," she said. "They could be worse."

She glances down at her fingers, the ones still left slightly deformed from a previous break that had failed to heal. I swallow the guilt, knowing that the pain I faced the day before was nothing compared to what she had gone through. It just strengthened my conviction in finding out the truth.

I stepped into the room, leaving the door partially open. Rebecca watched me as she scratched Sooty behind the ears, waking him up. He stretched, unfolding himself from the ball he slept in. I took a seat on the edge of the bed and watched Soot approach me so that I could offer him ear scratches, too. It seemed he had grown a little too comfortable with all the attention he received from Rebecca.

"I was wondering if we could talk," I said, readjusting my position a little and trying to push Sooty away."

"That was what we were doing, wasn't it?"

"How dare you steal my line." I laughed. "I just wanted to ask you a few questions. It won't take long."

"What sort of questions?"

"George and I have been doing some investigating, and there are just a few things that need explanations. You don't have to answer them. I won't force you."

Rebecca looked down at her hands, an action she often did when she was unsure about something. Sooty slinked over to her and collapsed down on her lap, demanding that she scratch him, something Rebecca did, but her heart wasn't in it the way it had been when I first entered the room. The cat didn't notice. He was just enjoying himself.

I knew approaching Rebecca in such a direct way came with its risks. She had clammed up multiple times in the past when I had become a little too persistent in my questions, but this was a risk I was willing to take. Time was running out. I didn't want to turn Rebecca against me, it had taken so long to earn just a slither of trust that I didn't want to ruin it. But what choice did I have?

Father had always been true to his word, and that wasn't going to charge unless we had all the information necessary. He had never offered an actual solution as to what would happen to Rebecca if we found where she came from, but I wouldn't have her institutionalised. It wouldn't help her and Rebecca needed help, not locking up.

"If you do not feel comfortable answering any questions, that is perfectly alright," I said. "There are just some gaps we need to fill in, that's all. I'm sure we can manage."

She looked up. "No. I want to answer them. You have done so much for me; it's the least I can do."

"Very well." I paused, running the palms of my hands over my trousers and trying to think of the best way to approach the topic. "George has been asking around about you, just to see if anyone recognises your name. He ended up speaking to a Mr Eli Burch. Do you know Eli?"

"A little." She shrugged. "When I was about ten. We worked together."

"Where did you go after that?" I didn't mention the Marlow's name, not yet.

"Several places. I never stayed in anyone's employment for too long."

"Why is that?"

"I don't know. No one wanted me to stay long-term, I suppose."

"And you were a servant?"

She nods.

I shifted my weight, knowing that my next question would most likely bring an end to whatever other questions I might want to ask. "What does Mrs Marlow have to do with this? We know you worked for them, Eli Burch said as much, but when I mentioned their name the other day, you withdrew. Did they do something to you?"

Rebecca looked at me, wide-eyed. She stopped stroking Sooty, which she had been doing continuously since I started asking her questions. Her fingers started to tremble and her face blanched once again. I had expected her to fall silent and not answer my question. I had even expected her face to turn the same colour as the blanket covering her lap, but I did not expect the terror etched onto her face.

The door to Rebecca's room opened, and I turned to see Alice standing in the doorway. "There you are. George is looking for you." She frowned, glancing at me and Rebecca. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, I was just asking Miss Edwards some questions."

"Well, George is in your bedroom. He says it's important."

"Very well." I stood up, looking at Rebecca, who couldn't stand to look me in the eye. "Thank you for answering my questions."

She didn't reply.

I shuffled from the room, receiving a sharp glare for Alice as I stepped past her and into the hallway. Before I could say anything, Alice partially closed the door behind me and I could hear her footsteps on the floor as she approached Rebecca. Just by her reaction, I knew she was mad at me.

My question with Rebecca had given me none of the answers I had wanted, but they had offered me a new insight into her feelings towards the Marlows. The genuine fear on her face wasn't so much from my questioning. She had been fine until that point, but from the mere mention of the Marlow's name. George might have thought that she was upset at them placing her with the people who hurt her, but I knew it was more than that.

With that thought in mind, and knowing George was waiting for me, I walked down the hall and into my bedroom. George stood in the centre of the room, staring at the door with a slight raise of his eyebrow. Upon seeing me, he turned his head a little and I could see the slight shake of his body as he fought back a laugh.

"Don't you start laughing. I know I must look a fright," I said.

"You could say that." He turned back to face me, his cheeks tinged red. "I'm sorry, Master Nate. I was just a little surprised. Have you looked in the glass today?"

"No. I'm not sure that I want to see."

"Perhaps that is for the best. Might I also recommend that you don't leave the house for a few days? You might scare the village folk."

I rolled my eyes. "You're hilarious."

"So I've been told." He laughed to himself. "Let me take a look at you. I just want to confirm that there are no serious injuries. Your mother still wants to send for Doctor Merrick, so I said I would give you the once over."

"Go right ahead. I have something to tell you."

"Intriguing. Do go on."

George stepped towards me and began to lightly poke around the bruised areas of my face as I filled him in on the brief conversation I had had with Rebecca. He didn't say anything as I spoke, but there were moments where he prodded the bruises on my face a little harsher than he perhaps intended to. I tried not to react when he did it and just continued to speak.

When I finished talking, George took a step back with his examination of my bruised face coming to an end. He looked at me without saying anything. I stared at him, hoping he would speak before things became a little too uncomfortable. There had always been something unnerving about silence after someone had finished speaking, and this was no different.

"The good news is that there is no serious damage to your face, as I said yesterday. The bruising will go down in a few days and you'll be back to your handsome self," George said.

"You are setting it up as though there is bad news as well."

"The bad news is that I'm disappointed in how you conducted yourself around Miss Edwards. The way I see it, this whole idea about the Marlows seems to be you not wanting to court Clara." I went to protest, but he held up a hand to stop me. "Regardless of whether you thought you were helping, you may have made the situation a lot worse for yourself, with only a few days before your father's deadline."

"That was not my intention, I just wanted to–"

"–I know what you wanted to do and I know that it was probably not your intention to say anything upsetting towards Miss Edwards. The fact is that she most likely doesn't want to talk about it and you cannot force her. You also cannot take her reaction and make a deduction from it without any concrete evidence. This isn't one of your novels, Master Nate. Someone's genuine feelings are involved here."

"Here, here."

I turned towards the door where Alice stood. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she looked at me with a slight arch of her eyebrow. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, a sure sign that she was mad at me. She stepped into the room, leaving the door wide open for any one of the servants to look into.

"You have distressed Miss Edwards to the point of her not wanting to say a word. She was just starting to open up to us, Nate, and you might have just ruined it all by forcing her to answer questions."

"I didn't force her to do anything," I said, my voice louder than usual. "When we started, I gave her the option of answering the questions and she agreed. I wasn't going to ask her anything else after I saw her reaction to the Marlows being mentioned."

"So that was what you asked her."

"What did you think I said?"

"At this point, Nate, I don't know." She shook her head. "George is right. This isn't a novel, and the likelihood is that we will never figure out the truth about Miss Edwards' appearance or condition. You cannot force her to discuss things she doesn't want to discuss."

"Asking questions isn't a crime, and I didn't force her to do anything, as I already said!"

"Calm yourself, Master Nate. No one is saying you did that."

George placed a hand on my shoulder, but I shrugged it off, crossing the room and standing in front of the window. I looked out across the fields, frowning at a black carriage that had stopped on our driveway with no one other than the driver nearby. No one said anything about visitors.

I took a deep, shaky breath, feeling the anger swell up within me. Without looking, I could feel a slight tremble returning to the tips of my fingers and a slight squeezing sensation forming in my chest. With a deep breath, I pushed the feeling down, swallowing it deep and burning it out of the way. I didn't need Alice seeing me like that.

I turned with the intention of asking them both to leave, but before I could get the words out, Lucy appeared in the doorway.

"What is it, Lucy?" I asked, causing Alice to spin around in surprise.

"Mr Thorpe has requested your presence in the parlour, and yours, Miss Thorpe."

"Thank you."

Without so much as looking at either Alice or George, I marched across the room, past Lucy, and down the hall. The last thing I wanted was another confrontation with Father, but he had summoned us both and I was hardly in a position to turn him down after once again ruining his plans the previous day. I couldn't even look at George as I left the room. It felt as though he had betrayed me.

For days, he had been saying he was on my side and yet refused to see what was staring him in the face. If Rebecca had simply worked for the Marlows, she would not have been so scared to hear their names. She would not have shut down the way she had. I was right about them having some sort of involvement. I had to be.

In the parlour, Father stood by the mantlepiece, his fingers resting on the wood as he stared at the door. He stared at me as I entered, most likely wanting to comment on the state of my face, but he refrained, which I thought was odd until I spotted the woman sitting on the settee with Mother.

The woman looked no older than Mother, with dark brown hair twisted into a severe-looking knot on the back of her neck. She appeared startled by my appearance and no doubt wanted to comment as well. Perhaps hiding in my room wasn't such a bad idea.

"Thank you both for joining us," Father said as Alice appeared beside me. "I would like to introduce you to Mrs Ramone. She has come about Miss Edwards."

~~~

A/N - Here we go, the final count down! This is where the chaos really hits the fan so buckle up for quite the ride!

Questions! 

Do you think Nate pushed things too far with Rebecca? How do you feel about Mrs Ramone?

Comment below!

First Published - May 2nd, 2023