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"Hello, Nell," I say. The room is quiet. "Perhaps if you left us," I say to Tom.
"What? Oh, right." Tom leaves.
I take Nell's hands in mine. They are so very small and cold.
"I am sorry, Nell," I say, the apology coming out like a sob."I am sorry."
Nell's hands suddenly grip mine. She is fighting against something with every bit of strength she has left. We are joined, and in my head, I can hear her speaking.
"She . . . cannot. . . bind it,"comes her whisper. "There ... ."s still. . . hope,"
Her muscles relax. Her hands slip from mine. "Gemma?" Tom asks as I bolt from Nell's room and head straight for the carriage. "Gemma! Gemma, where are you going?"
It is fifteen past five o'clock when I secure a cab. With luck, I shall make it to Victoria Station before Felicity and Ann can board the five forty-five train to Spence. But luck is not on my side. The streets are congested with people and vehicles of all sorts. It is the wrong time of day for hurrying.
Big Ben chimes the half hour. I poke my head out the side of the cab. Stretched ahead of us is a sea of horses, wagons, cabs, carriages, and omnibuses. We're perhaps a quarter mile from the station and hopelessly stuck.
I call out to the driver. "If you please, I should like to get out here."
Darting between snorting horses, I step quickly across the street to the sidewalk. The walk to Victoria is short, but I find I am weak from my days in bed. By the time I reach the station, I have to lean against the wall to keep from fainting.
Forty minutes past five o'clock. There is no time to rest. The platform is awash in people. I shall never find them in this chaos. I spy an empty newspaper crate and stand upon it, searching the crowd, not caring about the scowls I receive from passersby who find my outrageous behavior insulting to ladies everywhere. At last I spy them. They're standing on the platform with Franny. The Worthingtons haven't even bothered to come see their daughter off with a kiss and a tear or two.
"Ann! Felicity!" I shout. More black marks against my character. I hobble over to them.
"Gemma, what are you doing here? I thought you weren't to leave for Spence for days," Felicity says. She's wearing a smart traveling suit in a flattering mauve.
"The magic isn't hers," I explain breathlessly. "She hasn't been able to bind it."
"How do you know?" Felicity asks.
"Nell told me. She must not have enough power on her own. She needs me to do it." "What should we do?" Ann asks.
A whistle blows. The train to Spence sits on the track in a haze of smoke. It is ready. The conductor stands on the platform calling passengers to board.
"We're going in after them." I say.
I see Jackson and Fowlson have arrived. They see us too. They're coming straight toward us.
"We've company," I say.
Felicity spies the men."Them?"
"Rakshana," I say."They'll try to stop us, control it all."
"Then let's give them the slip," Felicity says, boarding the train.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
"THEY'RE BOARDING THE TRAIN TOO!" ANN says, panicked.
"Then we shall have to get off," I say. We're almost to the doors when the train lurches into motion. The platform disappears behind us, the well-wishers waving through first one window, then the next and the next, until they cannot be seen at all.
"What do we do now?" Felicity says. "They'll surely discover us."
"Find a compartment," I say.
We search left and right until we find an unoccupied cabin and pull the door shut. "We shall have to work quickly," I say. "Take my hands."
