Paula had yet to remove her hat and gloves, and there were three large carpetbags in addition to the smaller one Leo had seen her carrying outside on the street. It was into this smaller bag that Paula stashed the thick pile of bank notes. They were leaving London, and very soon, it appeared.
On the sofa, George shifted forward, elbows coming to rest upon his knees. “Is that a gun?”
Esther lowered the weapon to her side, hiding it behind her skirt. She was holding it with her left hand. The masked leader of the robbers had been left-handed as well.
“Felix is left-handed too,” Leo said, recalling his shooting hand from the benefit dinner. She met Esther’s eyes. “Is that the weapon your son used to kill your sister?”
The older woman’s hateful stare scalded Leo. She started to raise the revolver, no doubt to aim it at her. After flicking her gleaming eyes toward George on the sofa, however, Esther tucked it back behind her again. Her hesitation spurred on Leo. It wouldn’t do to back down now. The few times Leo had been in treacherous situations, she’d had to be bold. She’d had to take chances. This time would be no different, even without Jasper close at hand.
“You don’t know what you are talking about,” Esther said tersely.
“I believe I know quite well.” Leo looked toward Paula. She stood protectively next to the sofa, where George still sat, his interest in the situation visibly battling the administered laudanum dose.
“Mrs. Blickson, when did you learn that your mother had sold Edward to Stanley Hayes? I’m guessing it was shortly after you met George at the dinner Stanley and his wife hosted for your husband and you.”
Paula’s mouth opened, then closed again. Her stunned reaction quickly melted into tight-lipped fury.
“You went to see Martha,” Leo went on. “And she what? Confessed?”
“Stop speaking this instant, Miss Spencer!” Esther ordered, but Leo had no intention of obeying. This woman planned to kill her. Being accommodating would get her nowhere. Besides, George’s presence was a layer of protection. Esther did not want him to view her as a killer. She wanted him to like her. Trust her.
Leo believed she knew why.
“She laughed.” Paula’s voice trembled. “My mother laughed and said I was overreacting. She insisted that I’d known about the adoption all along, and if I hadn’t, then I was stupid.”
“You did suspect he was taken, though,” Leo said.
“How do you know this?”
“Your brother, Gavin. I spoke to him.”
Paula fluttered her lashes shut and shook her head. “Yes, I suspected it, but what could I do? Edward was gone. There was no proof of what had happened to him. But she had no right to give him away!”
“No, she didn’t have the right, did she?” Leo said. “Because Edward wasn’t her son to give away. He was yours.”
Tears rushed to Paula’s eyes, and her lips quivered.
Martha had not possessed a mole on her face like the one Paula and George shared, and siblings generally did not share matching birthmarks. That left only one possibility.
“Edward.” George blinked slowly. “That was me. I was stolen.”
These weren’t questions, but rather they were statements. The boy knew the truth. Had he come here with them willingly, then?
“You were adopted, yes,” Leo said. “And I am working with your father to find you and bring you home.”
“That man is not his father!” Esther snapped, her teeth practically bared in a snarl. “Paula, take Edward into the alley. Wait for me there. I won’t be long.”
Indecisiveness swept the tearful anger from Paula’s face. She didn’t move to follow her aunt’s order.
“Nurse Radcliff arranged for the adoption of Edward by the Hayeses,” Leo continued, needing to keep Paula here. “Edward was only a few months old. You were still nursing him at the orphanage, I suspect, so the nurse knew the truth. And she andyour mother decided that your baby would be better off with another family.”
At just fourteen years old, Paula had certainly not been prepared to mother a child. But the cruelty of having her son taken away, of being told that he had died, must have been crippling, even for a girl of her young age.
“She didn’t want him,” Paula cried, her voice strident as she battled a sob. “She didn’t even want me and Gavin. When she put us in that place, she promised I’d be able to take Edward with me when I left. I had two years. Just two years, and then, I could be his mum.”
On the sofa, George buried his forehead in his hands as though wanting to rub away an ache. They must have given him just enough laudanum to keep him compliant while they traveled from London to Scotland.
“When I discovered the truth and went to her, do you know what that hideous woman told me?” Paula demanded, voice trembling. “She said she’d done me a favor, and now that I’d married rich, I shouldpay her back.”
