Perhaps this trip would do them some good after all. Even though he had no intention of sticking around to marry Cora, he still was curious enough to want to figure out what she’d meant by her whole situation with the seamstress shop, the way she’d lied to him, and the way that she kept avoiding him with no real answers about anything.

  “Come, let’s eat dinner.” Mrs. Carpenter pointed to the dinner table, which was laden with food. Despite her clear invitation and request, Cora took a step back.

  “I … um, am not feeling well; could I retire to my room?”

  “Of course, dear.” Mrs. Carpenter came over to her, pressing her hand against Cora’s forehead. “You do feel a bit warm. I’ll be up after dinner to check in on you.” From the tone of her voice, Henry could tell Mrs. Carpenter was not happy with Cora’s decision to excuse herself from dinner and he wondered what her consequence would be for disobeying.

  Chapter 12

  Alice stopped short as she stepped into her room. It wasn’t empty the way she was used to it being, even after a few short days with the Carpenters. The servants were in her room, packing up dresses, underclothes, and other things, such as a riding dress and extra boots.

  Her heart leaped in her chest. Had they looked under the bed? Had they seen the diary she’d kept hidden up until now?

  She drew in a rapid breath.

  “Can I have some privacy? I’m not feeling well,” she said to the nearest young woman who had two pairs of shoes in her hands.

  The woman looked at her, considering it as if she were weighing her options of obeying or not.

  “Of course. Let us know when we can come back and pack.” The young woman motioned to the others, and they quickly left the room, leaving her alone. First, she knelt beside the bed, checking for the diary. It was there, in its hiding spot. She let out a long sigh of relief. At least she had that much. She sat down on the edge of the bed and buried her face in her hands.

  What was she going to do?

  She needed to talk to Cora. The real Cora. She´d know what to do. Having a new resolve, Alice stood and pulled on a shawl. The Carpenters were still downstairs. Maybe she could sneak away while her parents were occupied. This could be a good time for the real Cora to come back and claim her life.

  She could be honest with her parents about marrying her true love, and Alice could go home to her father and be honest with Henry. The idea did wonders for the weight already pushing down on Alice’s shoulders.

  She almost smiled as she hurried down the steps and headed through the back entrance toward the main road. She’d seen the servants take that entrance and had used it herself a couple of times since she’d started living in the Carpenter household.

  The closer she got to the outer gate, the more hope rose in her chest. She was going to make it. Then she’d just have to find Cora and talk her into coming back.

  As she turned the corner, strong hands reached out and grabbed her arms, pulling her back. She nearly yelped before she turned to see it was the family butler.

  “Miss Carpenter, where are you going?” Miles, she was pretty sure his name was, stared at her, the judgment rolling off of him.

  “I’m … going for a walk.” Of course, he wasn’t going to believe that.

  “Your parents warned me you might try something like this. You had to know they’d have me looking out for you. Oliver is going to have to wait for another night.”

  Alice’s cheeks heated until she could feel them practically burning. He thought she was sneaking away to see Oliver. She did want to get away, but not to speak to Oliver, but her sister, who had put her in this position that now seemed like a prison.

  “Come on, your mother is most likely looking for you.”

  “Can you not tell them that you found me out here? I promise I will go right back to my room.”

  “I’m afraid they would be upset if I lied to them.” Miles looked bored as if this event didn’t bother him one bit. She suspected it didn’t. It seemed her parents paid him to spy on her. She groaned inwardly as he led her back toward the house. After saying she felt ill in order to be on her own, she had a feeling that her mother was not going to be happy to see her now.

  They rounded the last bend toward the house, and Alice’s heart sunk to her stomach. This was it; she was going to have to tell everyone the truth. If they started accusing her in front of Henry and his family, she was certain she couldn’t take it.

  “Cora?” A deep voice said from up ahead. She looked up to find Henry there, looking a bit confused. Thankfully, he was on his own. Miles stopped, a surprised look on his face as well.

  “Yes, I, um …”

  “Was trying to leave after dark, which is very inappropriate for a young lady to do.” Miles shook his head as he looked at her with what seemed to be either disappointment or resignation.

  “Actually, we were out here walking and got separated. I can take things from here.” Henry stepped forward, a tight smile on his face.

  “But …”

  “It will be perfectly all right. I’ll make sure that she is escorted back to her room as soon as we say goodnight.” Henry’s tone was forceful as he stepped closer to her, taking her arm and leading her back toward the house. Miles was left spluttering in the drive, looking a bit bemused.

  She smiled to herself as Henry stopped once they were out of earshot and eyesight.

  “I thought you felt ill?” he asked, an eyebrow rising. “Where were you going?”

  “To take a walk.” She repeated the same lame excuse that had failed to work on Miles.

  “A walk?” Clearly Henry didn’t believe her either. “Where would you be walking at such a time of night.”

  “Just about to get some air.”

  “I see.” Henry gave her a skeptical look, something she was getting used to. It seemed he was less and less trusting of her, not that she blamed him.

  “The news of the trip took me off guard. I never expected …” She shook her head. How was she supposed to explain what a shock it was? From his perspective, she would probably want to go on such a venture with him and his parents.

  “Well, that is one thing we can both agree on. I’ll have you know I had nothing to do with the plans for the trip and was completely excluded in the decision.”

  “Oh?” for some reason, she’d concocted that it might have been his idea to go on the dreaded excursion. To hear it had taken him equally by surprise was a comfort in a way.

  “Yes, it seems my parents have taken to planning my life without any input from me.”

  “I … I just overreacted I suppose.” Alice tried to suppress her panic. Would being out on Henry’s estate for an entire week with him and his family really be the worst thing that could happen? Perhaps they could come to sort of a truce and pretend they were friends just to get through the misery.

  “It’s fine. Do you want to go in on your own from here?”

  “I was actually hoping to go around back.” She looked up at him sheepishly. Both surprisingly and to her relief, he didn’t seem upset about it at all. In fact, he seemed amused by her efforts.

  She fought back a smile. There was very little amusing about this situation.

  ‘Good night, Henry. Thank you for your help.”

  “Any time.”

  She hurried through the growing darkness and around the house, through the back door, and went up the stairs as her parents were walking with Henry’s to the front of the house. When she got back to her room, she focused on getting ready for bed because she had a feeling Mrs. Carpenter was going to be in to make sure she was sick.

  She managed to slip under her quilt just as the door opened. She wasn’t sure how a person looked when they were too ill to eat dinner, but she did her best to emulate it. She wanted it to be believable because she was certain that she’d done at least a few things that were uncharacteristic of Cora since she’d started living in her sister’s life and didn’t want to bring more attention to the switch.

  “Cora, darling? Are you already asleep?” Mrs. Carpenter did sound concerned, and maybe that was what made Alice’s heart stir with a remnant of warmth.

  “I’m here, almost asleep.” Did she sound sleepy enough? She wasn’t about to ask Mrs. Carpenter if she did. Mrs. Carpenter came closer until she sat on the edge of her bed and laid a hand against her forehead.

  “You do feel a bit warm. Oh well, it was a shame you missed dinner, but I suppose it will only do you favors to lose a meal.” She sounded almost happy at the idea. “You’re going to have a lot of fun on this trip. You’ll be able to get to know Henry out there and get plenty of exercise on long walks and perhaps a horse ride or two.”

  “I …”

  “Don’t say it, Cora. I know you are still sad about that boy; what was his name?”

  “Oliver,” Alice grumpily supplied the name, thinking it would be strange if she didn’t.

  “Ah, yes, Oliver the cook. I still can’t believe you thought the likes of him were worthy of your company.”

  Alice struggled not to cringe at the way Mrs. Carpenter said it. She was certain her facial expressions were very readable by the lamp light twinkling from the side of her bed.

  “I love him, Mama.” She didn’t, and she had no idea who this Oliver was or if he was a good person. However, she wanted to see if what Cora said was true. Was it possible this woman didn’t care the slightest bit about who her daughter truly loved?

  For a moment, a little wisp of regret seemed to float across Mrs. Carpenter’s face.

  “I know it seems like that now. I loved someone once.”

  “You did?” She’d never fathomed that Mrs. Carpenter knew anything but arranged marriages with the way she seemed to push for them so adamantly.

  “I did. I thought he would save me from everything, take me far away from my life, and we’d start a life together. Then I found out he never intended to do that and had already married. It broke me in two.”

  The pain was still audible in Mrs. Carpenter’s voice. Alice reached out and took her mother’s hand. A look of startled surprise crossed the older woman’s face; then she smiled softly.

  “When my parents introduced me to your father, I was furious. I thought I’d never marry him. I told them that I hated the idea, that we’d make a horrible fit. None of that was true, though. Week by week, month by month, I learned what true love was. It wasn’t the butterfly feelings when we saw each other or the daydreaming.

  It was being there for each other, no matter what happened, in whatever situation that came at us. Your father has stood by me all these years, and I by him. We love each other now, dear, no matter what you think.”

  Alice nodded. She’d seen that the Carpenters did love each other. It wasn’t in the way her parents did but in a different, more distant way. She wasn’t about to tell Mrs. Carpenter that, though, because it seemed she grasped onto her idea of love with an iron fist. It didn’t seem right to ruin that for her.

  Mrs. Carpenter patted Alice’s hand.

  “You’ll learn to love Henry. He’s a good young man. I’ve never heard a bad thing about him. He’s skilled, a hard worker, and kind. Kind is important.”

  Alice nodded, considering her mother’s words. If this was her real life, would she accept those reasons alone to marry Henry?

  “I’ll let you rest. Goodnight.”

  Alice watched her go. As she did, visions of her own parents jumped into her head. She remembered her father dancing with her mother late at night when they thought she was asleep. Sometimes, she’d sneak back to the kitchen for a sip of water. There, she would see them dancing in front of the fireplace, laughing and holding in the sounds of their joy to let her sleep.

  She remembered the countless mornings when her father would come home with a little bouquet of wildflowers, and Luisa’s face would light up with happiness as she buried her nose in them to take a deep sniff.

  She’d longed for that sort of love and devotion, to have those happy moments throughout her life as an adult, to raise children with a man she could say she would rather die without.

  If marriage was a simple transaction, a business deal for both parties, they could treat it that way forever, and she was terrified of that. She shook her head. She wanted love, true love, and if she couldn’t find it, she would not marry anyone.

  This was not her life, though, and she would not be forced into a marriage. She would play along for now because she had no choice due to not being able to contact Cora, but as soon as they were back from the dreadful trip in the country, she would find Cora, and everyone would get back in the life they belonged to.

  She imagined Cora in this same bed, crying herself to sleep because she couldn’t be with the man who made her happy and made her laugh and feel safe and loved. She had a way out of this commitment, while Cora hadn’t until she came along. She sighed.

  She was glad she’d been able to help Cora but unhappy with the people she was discovering Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter to be. When she’d read her mother’s letter, she’d hoped to find a loving and caring family who would provide for her emotionally in a way her mother no longer could.

  She was starting to doubt that would ever be possible. She was certain that if the woman she knew to be Mrs. Carpenter found out who she was, she would send the sheriff of San Francisco as well as anyone else who would listen to fetch her father and throw him in a cell for the rest of his life for his part in her childhood, even though he had little to no fault in it.

  She shuddered at the idea. Her father didn’t belong in jail. He was a loving and supportive man who would lay down his life for her. She was going to make sure that if she didn’t see some sign of them being understanding, they’d never know about who she was or who the people who raised her were. Otherwise, she could lose the last person in her life who honestly cared for her, and that was something she couldn’t bear.

  Chapter 13

  Henry settled into the carriage he’d be riding in. His parents had insisted they’d take two carriages. He’d already guessed that they’d be having Cora ride with him out of pure convenience. He nearly rolled his eyes. He’d brought a satchel full of books to keep him occupied. It was a habit that most would consider unusual for a man, but he enjoyed a book as much as the next person, especially a good work of fiction.

  The carriage door opened, and a rather unhappy-looking Cora stepped inside. She did not look any happier than he felt about being trapped together in a carriage for the next day or so.

  He kept his nose tucked in the book and continued reading, though every once in a while, he glanced at her as she situated herself, tucking a dark blue skirt around her legs and making herself comfortable in the seat opposite to him.

  “How has your morning been, Miss Carpenter?” he asked once he couldn’t take the silence any longer.

  “Fine enough.” She surveyed him curiously. “Whose idea was it to have us ride alone in a carriage for the next day’s journey?”

  “That would be my father. He has a sense of humor, don’t you think?” Henry grinned, stretching his legs out a bit as he turned the page. Cora turned her face toward the window, a curious glint in her eyes.

  She turned toward him a moment later.

  “Do you enjoy going to the estate in the country?” She bit her lower lip between her teeth as if considering what he might say before he spoke.

  “I suppose I do enjoy the country more than the city.”

 

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