Miles and Flora by Hilary Bailey

Author:Hilary Bailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448209491
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

Thirty

Marguerite Selsden and Mrs Constantine were sitting in the parlour in Mermaid Street, each lost in thought, each occasionally glancing at each other. The sound of heavy rain came into the room. Once a horse clopped past, taking a rider home. From time to time there would be footsteps in the street outside. When they heard sounds both women looked up, wondering if they meant Elaine’s return. They had already discussed where she might have gone when she left the house, and had come to no conclusion. They had decided that the wisest course, if she did not return by midnight, was to go out searching for her, agreeing, reluctantly that if they were to do this they must ask the police to assist them. For the time being, then, nothing more could be done.

Not long after ten o’clock came the sound of running footsteps in the street. They halted. Then a key was clumsily applied to the front door lock. Marguerite jumped up and ran to it, flinging it open. Elaine stood outside with the key in her hand, shaking and very pale.

Marguerite cried ‘Elaine!’ and seized her, drawing her into the parlour. She put her in a chair while Mrs Constantine went to the sideboard and poured a small measure of brandy from a decanter. She presented it to the shivering Elaine, who shook her head. Mrs Constantine forced the glass into her hand.

‘Where have you been, Elaine? What’s happened?’ asked Marguerite.

‘I went to the ramparts, the castle ramparts,’ she said, with difficulty. ‘For air. But a man came up to me—’

‘Elaine!’

‘I ran away.’

‘Oh, my goodness!’ gasped Marguerite.

‘What can have possessed you to go there at this time of night?’ exclaimed Mrs Constantine.

Elaine shook her dropped head. ‘It was foolish.’

‘Well, mercifully you’re back. No great harm done, and a lesson learned,’ she said.

‘He did not … offend you too much?’ Marguerite asked.

‘It was the shock. I was shocked,’ Elaine said. ‘Please ask me no more. I think I will go to bed now.’

‘I will come up with you,’ Marguerite offered. But Elaine said she would go alone. They heard her feet slowly ascending the stairs.

In the silent room the two women stared at each other. Marguerite exclaimed, ‘How vile! How awful! And Elaine is not well.’

‘She was foolish,’ remarked Mrs Constantine. ‘A female who wanders about unaccompanied at night is always running a risk.’

‘Yes. That’s true,’ agreed Marguerite, a little surprised by Mrs Constantine’s lack of sympathy with her sister. ‘Even so, the guilt is on the man.’

‘Perhaps,’ Mrs Constantine said. ‘Still, her action was foolish. And what is the point of all your care of her, if she throws all the benefit away so lightly? I don’t presume to tell you what you ought to do but I am older than you and I tell you, I think you should speak seriously to her.’

‘When she is rested.’

‘Soon,’ insisted Mrs Constantine.

After Marguerite had bid her goodnight and gone to bed Mrs Constantine sat on, thinking. Elaine had been gone an hour.

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