Page 101 of The Unknown Birds

She stood to go to him, too late. Her train was moving once again, whisking her on to Blackfriars, towards Whitechapel, and yet somehow away from home.

Ash stayed standing for the short trip to the next stop and found herself stepping off the train there, which was ludicrous. What exactly was her plan? Cross over to the other platform and take the next train back to Temple to try and track him down?

Already a sore ache was settling into her muscles making it difficult to move, let alone decide the next right thing to do.

Commuters rushed around her, going and coming, and she let herself be dragged in their impatient wake until she found a bench along the wall and took a seat.

Her train left and the tunnel cleared and still she sat there on her own. Would she always be alone? She’d waited years for Rook’s resurrection, and then she had him, and then she ran—afraid of what having him at last might actually mean. Afraid of the next inevitable parting.

The platform filled up and another train arrived, and still she sat, frozen, staring at the ground. The crowd thinned out once more with the rhythm of the Tube, nothing but the sound of footsteps and a solitary tapping cane.

Ash looked up to find one lonely figure walking towards her, a sad smile upon his beautiful face.

“It’s you,” he said.

“It’s you,” she replied, surprised and yet somehow not at all surprised.

“Have you been running?” he asked, taking in the state of her, from her damp, disheveled hair down to her rubber-soled canvas shoes.

She nodded, scooting over so he could join her on the bench.

“How was it? Did it help?” he asked, settling in beside her.

“It was wonderful. And terrible.” She sighed. “I may have overdone it. My legs feel like jelly, and everything started to hurt the moment the adrenaline died down.”

“All or nothing, eh? You’re not eighteen anymore, Little Bird,” he teased.

“I told you it’s not the done thing.”

“I suspect you’ll pull through.”

“Not sure I’ll be able to move for a week. Where were you going?”

“I’d been to see you.”

Her heart warmed and fell all at the same time. “I’m sorry I’ve been distant.”

“Real life gets in the way,” he said, peering at her like he’d never seen a prettier sight, despite her draggle-tail state.

She nodded. “I’ve been going to the school every day.”

“What, in summer?”

“The garden needs tending, and they want to do it.” She shrugged. “I decided today I might as well teach them something useful. Skills they may need when they’re sent away.”

“Like what?”

“How to put on those ghastly masks for a start.”

Rook stroked his chin. “Suppose I’ll have to get fastidious about shaving again.”

“You’d better. You promised I wouldn’t have to go through it all alone.”

He smiled. “Every day then.”

“Twice on Sundays.”

“Twice on Sundays?” he exclaimed, imitating her students. “For you, I will.”