by Edwards, Eve
‘Make sure this young person leaves the area at once.’
‘You won’t let me see him?’ Helen glanced back to the ballroom then out at the darkness.
‘Over my dead body,’ vowed Lady Gertrude.
Masters increased his grip and ushered Helen out of the hall through a door to the servants’ quarters. The noise and heat were shocking after the cool marble of the foyer. The driver sat at the kitchen table. ‘Innsworth, Lady Gertrude wishes you to take this young person to the village.’
‘The station, please,’ Helen whispered. Everything had fallen apart. She had been waiting for someone to confirm she wasn’t worthy of Sebastian; those who knew him well had done so.
Innsworth sighed philosophically and pushed away the late supper he was enjoying at the scrubbed kitchen table. The other staff ignored Helen, too busy keeping the buffet in the ballroom supplied, a domestic ballet with no time for non-dancers.
‘Come along then, miss.’ Innsworth buttoned his coat. ‘Last train up the line goes in half an hour. We’d better hurry.’
Helen tried to assess her chances of dodging the barrage of the butler, the footmen, the ladies, and throwing herself at Sebastian’s feet to beg his protection. Sensing her muscles straining in his grasp, Masters cleared his throat.
‘Do not consider it, miss. I have my orders. I have sons at the front and I can tell you it would be a pleasure to enforce them.’
Helen had to accept defeat. Her desperate advance had failed under the counter-attack of Sebastian’s family. Perhaps leaving was the only way she could prove her love to Sebastian; he would undoubtedly be better off without her.
‘Did you find her?’ Sebastian asked Jilly when she returned to the ballroom with a strange expression on her face.
‘Yes. Lady Gertrude talked to her, but she didn’t want to stay.’
‘Rubbish. Whatever’s happened, I want her here. Please, go fetch her.’ Sebastian got to his feet, determined to hobble in pursuit if no one else was going to catch Helen for him.
Jilly tugged his sleeve. ‘But Sebastian, I told you, she’s already gone. Innsworth hurried out to meet the last train up the line. You won’t be able to catch up with them and, by the time another carriage is harnessed, she’ll be halfway to London.’
Collapsing back in his chair, Sebastian hung his head. She was, unfortunately, right. He hit his leg with his fist, close to exploding with frustration. ‘I want to see Helen!’ His loud voice snagged the attention of those nearest to him, causing them to turn and frown. Gentlemen did not lose their temper in a ballroom.
Jilly knelt by the chair. ‘Hush, please. Sebastian, think this through: she chose to leave. It is the first decent thing she’s done.’
The very core of his body was shaking. Sebastian took a couple of calming breaths. ‘Don’t say that, Jilly. She’s the most decent person I’ve met and she is innocent, I know that. She probably panicked. Poor Helen. First Tolly, then Aunt Gertrude – that’d be too much for any girl.’
‘Exactly.’ Jilly pursed her lips, clamping down on her urge to say more.
‘Sorry, Jilly.’ Sebastian wished he could control his swings of mood and come up with a sound plan. Be a man, for God’s sake. ‘I’m ashamed to say I lost it for a moment.’
They sat in silence. Sebastian watched the dancers, feeling as if he were looking at a show staged for his benefit rather than participating in the spectacle. Something was very wrong. He could understand that Helen might creep away and find a less public moment to approach him, but she had fled like … well, like Cinderella on the stroke of midnight, not even leaving a glass slipper behind for him to trace her.
Dear Helen, what is the matter? he wondered. I thought we had an understanding, us against this mad, sad world.
He couldn’t imagine what the charges at the hospital had done to her – she would be crushed. He scrunched up the newspaper article, reminding himself that this was not about how he felt, but what Helen was enduring. She must have thought he would not believe her.
Sebastian’s resolve hardened. ‘Jilly, would you tell Innsworth when he returns to be ready to take me to the station for the first train?’
‘You’re following her?’ Jilly’s mouth curled in disgust.
‘Of course.’
‘But she’s a thief.’
‘She is not a thief.’ He felt very close to hating Jilly just then.
Jilly wrung her hands. ‘But you can’t deny that she’s German. Can’t you see that she wouldn’t be loyal to our country?’
He didn’t bother to give that question a reply. It was so preposterous.
‘Do you even know where to find her?’
‘No, but I know where to start.’
‘But why? Why is she worth it? You’ll share in her disgrace.’
‘One doesn’t let half one’s soul go just because she’s afraid.’
Jilly stood up with a huff of exasperation. ‘All right, I’ll tell him, but you are making a mistake.’
‘Thank you.’ He dismissed her with a curt nod.
When Jilly had gone, Sebastian tucked the crumpled article out of sight. He had no desire to discuss the news with his family. Like Jilly, they would want to protect him from the scandal. That made no difference, just complicated what he intended to do.
A large grey moth, attracted in by the lights, battered frantically against the glass doors to the terrace. Taking pity, Sebastian used his stick to push them ajar to let it escape back into the night. He stepped outside to take a breath of air, letting the darkness cool and harden his resolution into its new shape.
Helen might have fled, but he loved her far too much to let her go. He was following.
THE BEGINNING
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PENGUIN BOOKS
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Published 2013
Copyright © Eve Edwards, 2013
Top Image © Stephen Mulcahey, Arcangel Images
Bottom Image © Mark Owen, Trevillion Images
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted
Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Ltd, Falkirk, Stirlingshire
ISBN: 978-0-141-96903-9
1916 and the darkest days of war are upon us, Can l
ove survive?
by
Eve Edwards
Coming summer 2014