A Traitor At Tower Bridge by Lynda Wilcox

Author:Lynda Wilcox [Wilcox, Lynda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: female sleuth, British mystery, Lady Eleanor, london
Publisher: Lynda Wilcox
Published: 2020-04-09T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Eleanor found a taxi to take her to Bellevue Mansions. Unlike the driver who had taken her to the hospital, this driver had no qualms about getting her across town in the shortest possible time in exchange for a big tip. Once home, she gave Tilly the shocking news, collapsed into her arms, and let the maid take care of her. Then she went to her room.

Sleep, however, was out of the question.

Sleep would have implied all the wrong things; that she could forget the events of the night, that Peter Armitage meant nothing to her, that she hadn’t cared for him — and that she never had done and never would. Ever since they had met up again just a few short months ago, Eleanor had suspected the opposite to be true, though she would never have admitted it, not to Tilly, not to Ann, not even to herself.

No, sleep was impossible, and the only reason for being there, lying on top of her eiderdown in the bedroom, was to allow Tilly to rest.

With every passing hour, the void inside her widened. Tears might have brought their own relief, but she refused to allow them to flow. She simply lay there, huddled in her emptiness, scared to face a future that did not contain him.

Feeling the loss of him, yet still too stunned to take it in, she whispered his name in the darkness.

She got up at dawn to find Tilly had set water to boil and was busy laying a fire in the drawing room grate.

“Good morning, Tilly. I’ll make the tea.”

“There’s coffee if you’d prefer it, my lady. I’ll see to it when I’ve finished here.”

“No, that’s all right. I need something to keep me occupied.”

She gave a wintry smile that barely reached her eyes — eyes with dark circles underneath them, standing out like bruises in the stark white face.

Tilly shook her head in concern, but when she opened her mouth to protest, Eleanor turned and went into the kitchen.

Making a pot of tea kept the hands busy, but Eleanor’s mind was still free to wander, and linger on things she would far rather forget. Leaving the tea to brew, she fetched a pad and pen from the small room she used as a study, then returned to pour out two cups, one of which she left for Tilly in the kitchen, and the other she carried through to her seat by the fireside.

The maid had got a good blaze going and Eleanor stared at the flickering flames for a long time, sipping her tea, nibbling at the slice of toast that Tilly forced upon her, and doodling on the pad. She had intended making notes of the previous evening, but her brain had gone absent without leave and she was unable to focus.

She was still there, an hour or so later, when Tilly announced the arrival of Chief Inspector Blount from Scotland Yard. About to say that she wasn’t at home to callers, Tilly forestalled her.

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