Behind me, Alice gasped softly whilst I tried not to show any emotion on my face, but the shaking in my hands became a little more prominent. After almost two weeks of no one coming forward about Rebecca, I had given up on the idea of it ever happening. Yet Mrs Ramone was a real person, but I had my doubts about her knowing anything.

Why did it take so long for her to present herself to Father? George had gone to every house in the village and beyond, but not one person had claimed to know Rebecca or where she had come from. If Mrs Ramone really knew her, why hadn't she come forward immediately? There were just too many questions that didn't have answers.

I stepped into the room and took a seat in one of the armchairs with Alice copying my actions. After the heated discussion upstairs, I couldn't even bring myself to look at her, and I was certain she felt the same way. With the bruises on my face, I kept my eyes downcast to my lap rather than make eye contact with Father or Mrs Ramone.

"If you would like to start your story again, Mrs Ramone," Father said. "It shall be better for Nathaniel to hear if it comes straight from the horse's mouth. He has become rather attached, for lack of a better word, to Miss Edwards."

"We had Miss Edwards in our employment for a year or so before she disappeared. Our housekeeper, Mrs Warrick, sent her out on what should have been a simple errand, but she failed to reappear for several hours. She had always been a flighty little thing with her head in the clouds, so we assumed that she was just taking her time, as was common.

"When she did not return before sunset, we grew worried and sent one of the stable hands out on the path she might have taken, but there was no sign of her. This was six months ago. We heard hide nor hair of her until our stable hand heard a conversation in the village about a strange girl appearing in the woods. I had hoped it would be her, and it seems I was correct."

"The general assumption is that Miss Edwards was taken on her way either to the village or back to Mrs Ramone's property. Whoever took her is likely the person responsible for the injuries she sustained," Father said.

"Why come forward now?" I looked up from my trembling hands, running them across my thighs in an attempt to quell the shaking. "George spoke to everyone in the surrounding area and was certain the messages were sent to those in the nearby houses"

"We wanted to be certain and not cause any unnecessary stress to the girl if she were not Miss Edwards. That, and we live a little way away from the village and it takes a little while for messages to reach us."

"Everything has its explanation, Nathaniel."

"Sometimes, the explanation might not be believable."

"I apologise for my son, Mrs Ramone," Father said, glaring at me. "As I said, he has grown rather attached to Miss Edwards."

"That is perfectly, alright Mr Thorpe. I understand where he is coming from and it certainly does seem a little far-fetched. Your son has every right to have his doubts. I would be surprised if he was so willing to accept my story."

I frowned, a stab of pain travelling across my forehead from the bruises. Although there were elements of Mrs Ramone's story that might have been considered believable, some of it didn't feel right to me. My conversation with Rebecca had all but confirmed she worked for several households after leaving the Marlows, but I just couldn't wrap my head around how they found out she was with us.

It had been almost two weeks since George first started to look into Rebecca's appearance and the story would have reached everyone within a week. We had shared her name from the beginning. Regardless of whether she thought she was looking out for Rebecca, leaving her with strangers hardly seemed like the right thing to do.

Not only that but why would she have come all the way to us for help? She had been in the village, that much had been clear from the very beginning before I had even found her in her hiding spot. She could have returned to the Ramone household if she were only in the village, yet she came to use. Why?

It didn't make sense.

"So what happens next?" I asked.

"We shall have Doctor Merrick come by and give Miss Edwards the once over and if he deems her well enough, she may return to Mrs Ramone's care," Father said.

"Just like that?"

He nodded. "That's the way this was always going to go. I told you that, Nathaniel. I gave you two weeks to find out where Miss Edwards came from. We have done just that. There is nothing else to it."

"But—"

"—No, Nathaniel. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. You agreed to my terms, and that agreement has now come to an end, whether you want it to or not. That's the end of it." He turned away from me and towards Mrs Ramone. "We shall ask for Doctor Merrick to come by in two days' time. If you can make it, you may take Miss Edwards with you once he has given her the all-clear. As long as that suits you, of course."

"Most definitely. We shall be grateful to have Miss Edwards back in our care where we might keep an eye on her. Perhaps we can find out who took her in the first place."

"Hm, whoever put her in that condition deserves to meet the hangman's noose," Mother said, speaking for the first time.

"Well, I shall take my leave. I have taken up enough of your time." Mrs Ramone stood up, nodding her head towards me and Alice. "I shall see you in two days."

"Allow me to see you out, Mrs Ramone."

Father gestured to the door and shot me a sharp glare as he followed Mrs Ramone from the room and into the hallway. The moment I saw them both crossing the gravel drive to the carriage, I stood up from the armchair and bolted from the room. No one tried to stop me and not even Alice made an attempt to follow me, although I was sure she still had a select few comments to make.

I threw myself up the stairs and flung open my bedroom door, which George must have closed after he left. I collapsed backwards against my bed, running my shaking hands over my face.

Everything just seemed too simple to be believable. Mrs Ramone hadn't come forward at any point and yet she appeared the day after Clara Marlow had witnessed Rebecca standing in front of a window. It was all too strange for it not to be a coincidence. Why would Mrs Ramone come forward now? Why did we hear nothing of a missing servant six months before? If it were unlike Rebecca to wander off, they would have checked all the houses nearby for a sign of her.

No one did.

I couldn't be the only one who saw the coincidence of it all, although I wasn't sure anyone else had even noticed Clara looking up at the window during the picnic. Still, it all seemed too sudden to be real. There had to be more to it then Mrs Ramone would have us believe.

Someone knocked lightly at my door and I listened to the squeal of the hinges as the door opened. "Nate?"

I sat up, looking at Alice. "Please tell me you thought that to be as strange as I did."

"Not really. It all appeared to be perfectly reasonable."

"Perfectly reasonable? What was reasonable about it? She turns up here after almost two weeks and claims that they didn't want to bring any more distress to Miss Edwards. Surely the distress would be leaving her with strangers rather than taking her back to a place she knows. Also, if Miss Edwards had escaped these people who had supposedly taken her, why not present herself to the Ramone household rather than hide in the woods?"

"You sound insane." She shook her head.

"The appearance of Mrs Ramone does not explain Miss Edwards' strange reaction to the Marlows, nor the fact that Clara Marlow saw her yesterday. Do you not find it odd that Miss Edwards seems terrified of them? Miss Marlow sees her in the window during the picnic, and the next thing we know Mrs Ramone is here?"

"I think you are seeing things that aren't really there. Perhaps your brain was rattled when you got hit with that tennis ball."

"There is nothing wrong with me."

"Are you sure?" She raised an eyebrow. "You are seeing things that aren't really there and trying to put one and one together but coming up with four thousand. This isn't part of some big conspiracy, Nate. It's a reasonable explanation about what happened to Miss Edwards and you should be happy that we have found where she has come from."

"Far from it."

I pushed myself up from the bed and crossed the room, opening the window to allow a cooling breeze into the room. Outside, dark clouds rolled overhead and the Ramone's carriage had disappeared from the driveway. I took a few deep breaths, feeling the cold wind run over my bare forearms. My heart thumped away in my chest and I could feel my anger rising, along with the sensation from a few days before.

How could Alice not see it? It wasn't as though I was making it all up. All the pieces of the puzzle were there. I just couldn't see how they fit together. Mrs Ramone's appearance did not explain Rebecca's reaction to the mention of the Marlow's name. That was a key piece that everyone just wanted to ignore.

"I think I know what this is about."

"Oh, really?" I turned as Alice took a step into the room, her arms folded across her chest as though she were about to tell me off for something I hadn't done. "Please enlighten me, because you seem to know far more about my state of mind than I do."

"This is about you not being the hero of the hour. You have always tried to save people or animals, and when you are not the one coming up trumps, you start making unfounded claims and stories. You're not always going to be able to help people and sometimes it is the actions of others that will come through. In this instance, it was George's actions. You are jealous."

"Jealous?" I almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. "Are you sure you're not the one who got hit in the head?"

"I'm serious, Nate. All of these baffling theories you're proposing are because you didn't get your own way. You didn't get to swoop in and play the hero like one of your novels, so you're coming up with the most ludicrous ideas possible in the hopes that one might be right. None of them are right. Miss Edwards was taken from Mrs Ramone's household six months ago and that is all there is to it."

"That's not what's happening."

"Are you sure? It's time you realised that you are not going to be able to save everyone and be the hero. You need to grow up, Nate. Is it any wonder Father treats you the way he does when you refuse to see reason and live with your heads beyond the clouds?"

Anger surged through me. My heart beat faster and I curled my hands into a fist, digging my nails into the palms of my hands. I glared at Alice. "Get out."

"Nate I—"

"—I said get out!"

Alice's eyes widened in shock as my voice echoed around the room and no doubt startled some poor servant down the hall, but I didn't care. Without another word, Alice slipped from the room, but she had left the door open. I marched across the room and slammed the door shut behind her, listening to the echo it made.

I pressed my forehead against the cooling wood of the door, listening to the sound of the blood roaring in my ears and my heart thumping in my chest. The bruises across my face ached, but I ignored them. I took a shaky breath, but it became stuck in my throat and I felt my chest squeeze as if someone had tied a curtain cord around my lungs.

My breathing laboured, my hands shook, and the room swam under my feet. I turned, pressing my back against the door and slowly sliding down to sit on the floor, hoping to stop the room from spinning. It didn't work. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead as I fought to catch my breath, my breathing growing faster with each passing second.

I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think straight or see straight. The walls looked as though they were closing in around me, getting closer with every failed breath until the entire room was too small.

There was no George to help me through it this time. I squeezed my eyes shut, ignoring the pain from the bruises, and focused on the sounds I could hear around me; the birds in the trees, the servants moving around outside. I scratched my nails along the wood of the floor, feeling the cold sensation against my fingertips. My mouth tasted of blood; I didn't even remember biting my cheek.

Slowly, everything returned to some semblance of normal and the rope around my chest lightened, but it didn't lift off completely. The pressure remained nearby.

Alice had always been on my side with Father. She had always stood by me when he attacked me, but this time, she had turned against me. She didn't believe me about Miss Edwards. George thought my accusations about the Marlows were a way for me to weasel my way out of a potential betrothal. Father would never have listened to me.

No one believed me. No one would listen, no matter what I said to them.

When I needed them the most, no one cared.

~~~

A/N - We are back with chapter Thirty-One! Not many more to go until the end and its safe to say that Nate is not in a good place...

Questions!

Do you think Nate is right to not trust Mrs Ramone? Did Alice go too far? 

Comment below!

First Published - May 9th, 2023