“Dot, to whom are you waving? And who was that man?” She peered more closely at Dot. “And did you sleep at all?” Her voice had gone up a half octave. Oh, God. DidDothave a secret life after dark? Anything seemed possible after the week they’d had.
“Mrs. Hardy, please don’t be angry, but Mrs. Gallagher needed to leave straightaway and so I helped her to pack and I stayed awake until she could get a hack.” She clasped her hands beseechingly.
Delilah froze. “She... you... what? Atdawn? Why? What happened? Where is she going?” She heard her voice steadily climbing the scale and she took a breath.
“She didn’t say, but oh, Mrs. Hardy... she seemed very sad and upset and frightened. And she said that it was urgent and shehadto leave right away. She seemed a bit how she was when she first arrived, but now more so. And she reminded me much of how it was for us when the Earl of Derring died... and you were so frightened, and I was so frightened... I just had to help her. Please don’t be angry. I’m sorry. I’m just worried about her.”
Tears were filling Dot’s big blue eyes.
Delilah sped down the rest of the stairs and produced a handkerchief and slung an arm about Dot’s shoulders. “Oh, Dot! I’m not angry. I was just very surprised. We’ve had so many surprises lately. You did a very kind thing because you’re a good person, and it’s why we appreciate you so very much.”
“You do?”
“Of course we do!”
Angelique had appeared on the stairs just then, and was on her way down. She paused, and looked a question down at Delilah, and Delilah cast an eloquent, silent look up at her over Dot’s shoulders.
It was beginning to feel like the events of this week might take years off their lives.
“I’m just worried for her, too,” Delilah said. “As we naturally worry for people we like and care about.”
Mrs. Gallagher was a woman full of secrets, if she’d ever seen one, and the secrets all had jagged edges, she would warrant.
“Everything turned out wonderfully forus, didn’t it?” Dot brightened. It was difficult to sink her for long. “Do you think she’ll be all right?”
Delilah wished she could be certain. There was a nascent indomitable quality about Mrs. Gallagher. Most women come by their strength the hard way, and she was concerned that Mrs. Gallagher was just at the beginning of that particular journey. She could only fervently wish her well.
Angelique joined them.
“I’m afraid Mrs. Gallagher just left without saying goodbye,” Delilah told her. “Urgently. And that’s all we know about it.”
“Oh, dear.” Angelique bit her lip. “I wish... I wish she’d...”
Delilah knew what she meant. They both wishedshe had confided in them. Or that they had asked more questions. They’d been so careful of her. Too careful, perhaps.
But she and Delilah realized their instincts had been good about Mrs. Gallagher from the beginning: something was troubling her.
They all jerked, startled, when a swift and aggressive rapping sounded at the door.
“And to think we once yearned for knocks on the door,” Angelique murmured to Delilah.
Enlivened by the possibility of yet another surprise on the other side, Dot brightened at once and glided across the foyer to open the peep hatch.
“I need Hawkes!” a man hissed through the opening.
“Sir...!”Dot was indignant when people weren’t polite.
“Name’s Berwick! Tell ’im my name and ’e’ll come runnin’. It’s urgent. You go and tell ’im now.Please, ma’am.”
The man sounded frantic.
Dot stared worriedly at him.
Then she turned to Delilah and Angelique, and mouthed, “He’s not a gentleman.”
And Dot certainly knew her gentlemen from her not-gentlemen.
The look on her face suggested he occupied the extreme end of the “not-gentleman” category.