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“You have not, my lady. I was employed two days ago by Lord Simon to be housemaid.”
“What is your name?”
“Mabel, my lady.”
“Welcome to Lindley, Mabel. I hope you will be very happy here.”
The young woman nodded, bobbing before the door.
“Do you know where I might find Lord Simon?” Alice asked.
“I last saw him in the south drawing room, my lady. Not half an hour gone.”
Alice thanked Mabel and hurried across Lindley’s hall, past the staircase, and along a passageway. A turn at the end took her to the south aspect of the house and the second door along was the south drawing room. She went in without knocking and found Simon at his ease behind a newspaper, in an armchair.
“Sister. Did you have a nice day trip?” Simon asked, folding down the top of his newspaper to look at her.
Alice sat, folding her hands on her knee and then fixing Simon with a direct stare.
“Is there something wrong?” Simon asked.
“I went to see Charlie Hitch, in Ardle Heath,” Alice said.
Was there a freezing of Simon’s features at that name? A slight trembling at his eyelid? Alice could not be sure. It could have been her imagination.
“It’s his day off. What on earth would take you all the way into town looking for him? He will be here at this house tomorrow.”
Simon’s confusion sounded genuine. Alice’s stare did not leave his face, searching for any hint of a lie.
“I went to talk to him about a journey he undertook once. For our family.”
Simon raised an eyebrow as Alice paused.
“Alice, dear. You are being quite cryptic. Do just say what you have to say.”
“To Wales. A place on the coast with Mama and Teddy. A place where Teddy was left behind, after Charlie had been asked to witness the signing of some papers.”
Simon lowered the newspaper and folded it, putting it aside. His face creased in an expression of utter mystery.
“Wales? Teddy never went to Wales in his life. Nor did Mama. Of that I am certain.”
“Teddy was very sick, Charlie remembers having to help him. And at their destination in Wales, two men carried Teddy inside. You knew none of this?” Alice demanded.
“I did not. But you clearly believe that I did. What are you suggesting?” Simon said, sitting forward.
“Is Teddy really dead?” Alice said.
Simon shot to his feet.
“What?” he said incredulously. “Have you taken leave of your senses, woman?”
Alice remained seated and calm. “I do not know. At this precise moment, I do not know what to believe or what is real. I believed in Harold’s feelings for me. I believed that Eloise killed herself and Teddy died suddenly of an illness afterward. That his illness was brought on by her death, leading to a weakness of spirit.”
“Harold? What does he have to do with any of this? He is gone. He does not even take the trouble to write to you.”
“Only that he seems to be yet another person who is not whom I believed him to be,” Alice said, tears stinging at her eyes again.
Simon shook his head and knelt beside the chair in which his sister sat. He took her hand and the look on his face was earnest.
