“Are you all right?” was the first thing she said.
“I think I’m supposed to ask you that,” Evie said, trying for a smile of her own.
She must have failed abysmally because Mags frowned. “Tell me.”
“Talking wears Miss Carmichael out,” Mrs. Radcliffe, the nurse, had cautioned before she’d left to fetch more water from the pump. Evie needed to come to the point and not make poor Mags fish for information.
She took her friend’s hand and squeezed it gently. “I’ve had a bit of a falling out with Captain,” she said with deliberate understatement. “I need to leave.”
Mags seemed to understand instinctively that Evie didn’t mean for a short while. Her eyes filled with tears but she didn’t seem shocked or even surprised. “Where will you go?”
“France at first because it’s close, but I won’t linger long. After that, wherever I can find a home, I suppose. Captain is very angry. He’ll say I owe him money on his investment, probably come here looking for me. I don’t know when or if I’ll be coming back or even if I’ll be able to write.”
“Is it…” Mags swallowed painfully. “Is it something to do with the duke?”
“It’s complicated.” In a way, everything came back to Alex. If it wasn’t for Captain’s obsession, he’d never have rescued Evie from Miss Rose’s. She’d be a completely different person now. Their destinies had been entwined long before they’d ever met. “I’m worried about Jack. He worships Captain and sooner or later…” Sooner or later he would be hurt. Perhaps badly. “Watch out for him. If he comes to you, help him if you can.”
“You don’t need to ask. I’ll find him something at the theater. He can carry scenery or run errands.”
“You won’t be there for long. Not if you marry Mr. Chase.”
Mags smiled again, and for a moment, she looked almost like her old self. “I’m not going to marry him. His father paid me a visit. Offered to buy me off.”
Evie experienced a moment’s outrage on her friend’s behalf before relief flooded in. This was good news. The best news she’d heard in a long time. “I hope you got a good price.”
“I got the best price.” Mags struggled into a sitting position. “Evie, he bought me a share of the Dovecote. I’m a partner now.”
“Oh!” Evie threw her arms around Mags. “Oh, Mags, I’m so happy for you.” This would mean financial security and her pick of roles.
“You must thank the duke for me.”
Evie stilled. “Harcastle? What does he have to do with this?”
Mags shrugged. “You’ll have to ask him that.”
It was time to say goodbye but tears built in Evie’s chest until she couldn’t speak. She’d never had to leave someone she cared about before and it was harder than she’d imagined.
Mags seemed to understand. “Love you,” she whispered.
Evie kissed her hand. “You too.”
…
By the time Evie descended the stairs, she’d managed to subdue any sign of threatening tears. She took several deep breaths before opening the door onto the street where Alex waited in his carriage.
“All right?” He said the words carelessly, without even looking at her, but she knew him well enough now to detect the compassion beneath the nonchalance. She loved that he wasn’t always demonstrative in his sympathy. He never swamped her with unwanted sentiment, always allowing her to be herself even if that self was contained to the point of coldness.
“Of course,” she said, equally careless.
They sat in silence for several minutes as the carriage rumbled through Soho. The traffic was dreadful as always and it would only get worse. Mist, damp and oppressive, hung in the air, the beginnings of what promised to be a truly dreadful fog.
“Harcastle?”
His brows rose and when he said, “Yes, Miss Jones,” she knew he was amused by her sudden return to formality.
“It would seem Mr. Chase’s father has bought Mags off with half a theat. Are you in any way responsible for her sudden good fortune?”
He sighed. “All I did was commiserate with him about his son’s foolishness and suggest that Miss Carmichael, as a woman of sense, might be persuaded to accept an interest in the theater in lieu of a betrothal ring.”
“Is that all? Well, then I will only thank you the little you deserve for saving a woman from an unwanted marriage and changing her life immeasurably for the better.”
He frowned, his irritation plain to see. “I do indeed deserve all the accolades for saving Miss Carmichael from a life of ease as a rich fool’s wife.” He looked directly at her for the first time since she’d entered the carriage. “I admit they’d have been social pariahs, but don’t you think she might have grown fond of him?”
“Perhaps.” It was an oddly romantic notion coming from Alex, and Evie felt a pang at the thought that he might grow fond of his heiress. She wanted that for him, or at least her better self did. “But Mags isn’t… She doesn’t actually like men. Not in a romantic way.”
He took several moments to process this. “Do you mean that she prefers women?”
She didn’t answer unless her amused stare counted.
“But didn’t you and she…share a bed?”
“Yes.” She couldn’t decipher his expression. “I said she prefers women, Harcastle. That doesn’t mean she’s indiscriminate. I assure you, she behaved like a perfect lady the entire time. We both did. We’re more like sisters, really.”
His face didn’t change but somehow she knew she’d shocked him.
“What does that look mean?” she asked, unable to keep the laughter out of her voice. “Are you relieved or disappointed to hear that I did not engage in a torrid affair with another woman?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I’m striving not to have an emotion either way.”
That sounded about right. “Is that something you do often? Strive not to have feelings, I mean.” Although perhaps that was a bit rich coming from her.
Before he could answer, she caught sight of something through the window. A streak of red and gray. “Stop the carriage!” she shrieked.
The carriage shuddered to a halt and she slipped out before Alex could stop her. She hurried forward, pushing past pedestrians until she got to the corner where she’d seen that familiar flash. Yes, there he was, a little way down the street.