She wrote:
First: gather what can be proved.
Second: learn road traffic.
Third: find lawful witness or channel.
Fourth: do not tell Thomas until stopping me is impractical.
She looked at that last line. It was an excellent line. It was also the sort of line that would make Thomas put his hand through a wall.
A small laugh escaped her, breathless and not entirely sane.
Alyson glanced over from the hearth. “Mistress Amelia?”
Amelia folded her hand over the scrap. “Nothing. A very dull linen matter.”
Alyson looked suspicious. “Does linen make you laugh?”
“Only when it’s badly managed.”
Alyson accepted this, perhaps because grown people were often disappointing, and returned to whatever argument she was having with her brother over the ownership of a burnt crust.
Edith, unfortunately, did not return to anything.
She looked at the scrap beneath Amelia’s hand. Then at Amelia. Then toward Thomas.
“No,” Amelia said quietly.
“I did not speak.”
“You were about to.”
“I am always about to,” Edith said. “You knew that when you sat beside me.”
Amelia lowered her voice. “I need more before I tell him.”
“More what?”
“More than a thought. More than a suspicion. He’ll try to protect me from the idea before the idea has boots on.”
Edith considered this. “Likely.”
“That was quick agreement.”
“I know Thomas.”
“So do I.”
The words came out before Amelia could stop them.
Edith’s face softened in a way that made Amelia want to flee to the pantry and inventory turnips until her feelings behaved.
“Aye,” Edith said. “You do.”
Amelia looked down at the parchment again. The plan was not a plan yet. It was bones. Less than bones. A handful of scattered pieces on a table. But bones could be built around.
She knew how to do that, how to take a mess of ridiculous requirements and make the first list, then the second, then the hidden third list no one saw because it contained all the truly dangerous things. Amelia knew how to work backward from a needed outcome, how to smile at men who underestimated her while writing down every useful thing they said.