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Mari staggered. “Edgar. I was going to tell them the news of my birth in my own way.”
“Miss Perkins? What’s this?” asked Mrs. Fairfield. “You’re an heiress?”
“I’ll tell you the whole story later, after we find the children,” she said.
“They’re not in the park,” said Edgar. “Nor any of the nearby parks. I even went to the church of St. Mary-le-Bow, because Sophie had written a poem about it. No one has seen them.” His eyes glittered with tears. “Where are they? Mari, we have to find them.”
She nodded reassuringly. “We’ll find them. Don’t worry. Have you searched the nursery?”
“Of course, dear,” said Mrs. Fairfield. “That’s the first place we looked.”
“Not for the twins,” Mari explained. “I mean for a note. I don’t think they would just leave without telling anyone. Not anymore.” She trusted them not to do that. Even if they were hurt by her news.
“You’re right,” said Edgar.
They climbed the stairs together.
“I should have let you tell them, only it was weighing on me so, and I thought...” Edgar cast his gaze away from her. “I thought if I told them early, they might persuade you to stay, for a time.”
“I never told you I was going anywhere, did I?”
He looked taken aback. “But... you have a new family now. You don’t need us.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Mari.
“You said you’d found your family. That you didn’t want a husband.”
There he went again, making her heart skip a beat. “I said I didn’t want arespectablehusband, if you’ll recall. Now stop talking foolishness. We have to find the children.”
They searched the nursery, turning over toys, and thumbing through books.
“Edgar.” She pointed at the blackboard. “Look. Hidden in plain sight.”
The message was scrawled across the blackboard in Adele’s girlish handwriting.
We’re going to Lumley’s Toy Shop. We need Miss Perkins more than he needs her.Signed,Adele and Michel Rochester.
“I need you, too,” she whispered. The twins loved her and she loved them. She had so much love to give. And now she realized that she deserved affection in return. “Right, then,” she said, sniffing back her tears. “Best foot forward. No time to waste. Back to my father’s shop.”
“But didn’t you just leave there?” asked Edgar.
“We dined in a restaurant several streets away from the shop. We must have missed the children’s arrival.”
In the carriage, Edgar slipped his arm around her and Mari rested her head on his shoulder.
It was enough right now to be back in his arms.
To know that the children loved her. Whatever happened, she wanted to be in their lives in some way.
The ride was brief to High Holborn Street, but the carriage rolled to a halt before they reached the shop.
Edgar alighted. “What’s happening?” Mari heard him ask the coachman.
“Blockade,” the coachman replied.
Mari stepped down from the carriage. The air was crisp and cold and there was a smell of smoke on the air.
“What’s the matter?” she asked Edgar.
