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He narrowed his eyes, his face turning angry red. He might have the strength of three men, but he was still just a headstrong little boy, and I could hardly be bothered with reading stories now. I caught up with Montgomery in the foyer as he was breaking open the manor’s rifle cabinet.
Elizabeth heard the noise and ran in, with Balthazar and Lucy just behind her.
“Balthazar,” Montgomery said. “Hurry out to the barn. Tell me if any of the carriages are gone.”
“Are you mad?” Elizabeth said, watching Balthazar leave. “Don’t you think that’s the first thing we checked, when she went missing? And what on earth do you need a gun for?”
“We broke into Valentina’s room,” I explained. “We found evidence that she’s planning on turning us in to the police at Scotland Yard.”
Elizabeth’s face went slack. “Valentina? I’d never have imagined her capable of this.”
I held out the notebook. “Her journal. I made a rubbing of some pages she’d ripped out. From what I can tell, she didn’t trust me to run Ballentyne and thought turning me into Scotland Yard would get me out of the way.”
Elizabeth let out a curse as she unfolded the poster I’d tucked into the journal. The front door slammed as Balthazar lumbered back inside.
“The big hackney coach is missing,” he said. “Someone had covered blocks of hay with a tarpaulin to disguise the theft. The horses are out to pasture, but I didn’t see the big bay mare anywhere. It’s the only one big enough to pull the coach.”
Montgomery scoffed. “The hackney coach? She can’t go more than a few miles an hour in that thing, especially with just the mare. Why would she risk it?”
“It’s the easiest to drive,” Elizabeth said. “And Valentina wasn’t good with the horses.”
“Well, that’s fortunate for us,” Montgomery said. “We’ll take the pony trap. It’s twice as fast, especially with the dapple stallion. She has a day on us, but she’s going slow.”
He started for the coatrack by the door, pulling on his oilskin jacket. I took a rifle out of the cabinet. He gave me a sharp look, and I gave him one right back.
“I’m coming with you. Don’t try to talk me out of it. I don’t weigh enough to slow down the pony trap and I’m a good shot.”
He sighed. “As if there was any use in trying to stop you. Come on, then.”
We raced out into the night, rifles jangling. The others followed. Even Lucy threw on a coat and came out.
“You should stay here, Lucy,” Montgomery said. “Someone has to watch over Edward.”
Her eyes met mine and I remembered how we last left things: her storming out of my room, furious that I was going to let Edward suffer. I hadn’t dared to tell her about my late-night lessons with Elizabeth and that I was actually considering her plan. I wasn’t ready to give her that much hope, not yet.
“Lucy, come here a moment.” I signaled for her to follow me into the tack room. I dropped my voice. “I know you’re still angry with me.”
She wrung her hands. “Yes, I am. But I love you, too, angry or not. I’m afraid of what will happen if you find Valentina.”
“She’s no match for us,” I reassured her. “It’s important that you stay here and watch over Edward. Keep him chained tight, and a close eye on him. We’ll talk more about our previous conversation when I return.”
She was so distraught I wasn’t even sure she heard what I said. I squeezed her arm. “I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
Her eyes were watery, but she nodded. When we returned to the barn, Balthazar was already hitching the dapple stallion to the pony trap. Elizabeth threw several thick tartan blankets into the back. “It’ll dip below freezing tonight. Stay under those blankets and take sips of this to keep yourself warm.” She pressed a flask into my hand.
McKenna came forward, wringing her hands. “Such a lonely girl, she was. I know it’s terrible that she plans on turning you in, but I’d hate to see harm come to her, just the same.”
“We won’t hurt her,” I said. “We just have to stop her from going to the police.”
“It’s time, Juliet.” Montgomery reached down a hand to pull me into the back of the pony trap. It was a tight fit between the three of us. Balthazar wrapped an arm around my back to hold me close.
“Lean toward me, Miss. I’ll keep you warm.”
Montgomery snapped the reins, and the stallion took off. Lucy ran out of the barn, her fair skin flashing in the moonlight.
“Be careful!” she called.
“You, too!” I called back. For a second, I wondered if I was making a terrible mistake by leaving. Lucy had had such a wild look in her eye when she’d devised that plan to murder Edward and reanimate him. Which was the greater danger, I wondered—Valentina going to the police, or leaving Lucy alone with Edward?
Montgomery cracked the reins again, and the pony trap leaped into the night. In the lighter carriage, with only three of us, we tore down the path to Quick at twice the speed as our ride in.
“We’ll have to ride all day to catch up to her,” Montgomery said, “but with the hackney coach, she’ll be forced to stay on the main roads. Try to rest, while you still can.”
WE RODE INTO THE dawn and out of it again. The morning and early afternoon passed amid endless roads that all looked identical, with the frost-coated heather reaching out of the land like crystal skeletons. McKenna had packed us a small bag of scones and apples, which we ate on the way so we wouldn’t have to stop more than necessary. Montgomery had immediately identified the hackney coach’s tracks in the muddy roads.
“Her horse is getting tired,” he said, examining the tracks. “Another hour or two and we might catch sight of her. If anyone’s going to prison it’s her, for stealing Elizabeth’s property. Not you.”
My stomach tightened. Prison. I thought again of those socks my mother had knit for the prisoners in winter so they wouldn’t get frostbitten. Would Mother have chased down a girl who just wanted the best for the manor? Balthazar’s head turned, blinking in the cold. Frost had formed on his long eyelashes.
“What’s that, Miss?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said, not realizing I had spoken aloud. “I was just thinking of my mother. I wish you’d had a chance to know her, Balthazar. She was a kind woman.”
