CHAPTER TWELVE
Lottie truly didn’t believe Mia had the courage to do it.
Mia wasn’t so sure either.
However, when it came right down to it, all things considered and all responsibilities weighed, they’d lost their hearts to Sadie so the next steps had to be taken.
The child had brought them more joy than they could ever have imagined a few short weeks ago, had opened up all kinds of possibilities that Lottie had hardly even dared consider before, and had given Mia in particular a sense of purpose that she hadn’t even realized had been missing until now.
They’d also been trusted with her safekeeping until her mother could return.
Presuming it was her mother who’d left her.
If not, it was surely someone who cared for her considering what had been in the envelope that had arrived a few days ago.
At first it had shocked and even scared them. They simply hadn’t been able to work out what it meant. Why would someone hand-deliver a set of photographs featuring a young man and a young woman with a little girl who was clearly Sadie?
‘It must be her parents,’ Mia had whispered as they’d stared down at the clear, colourful images that must have been taken fairly recently given Sadie’s age.
The first was of Sadie and the young woman lying on some grass, holding hands and gazing up at the sky.
Then there was Sadie and the young woman making funny faces at the camera.
One of Sadie asleep in a man’s arms. Another of her hoisted onto the young man’s shoulders looking on top of the world.
His face was shadowed by a hat, but it was clear he was laughing and so was she.
‘She looks happy,’ Lottie murmured, worried and jealous and glad to think their sweet little girl hadn’t been badly treated before coming here. At least not during these moments anyway.
‘I don’t understand what’s happening,’ Mia said wretchedly. ‘What are we supposed to do with them?’
Lottie had no idea. There was no note to explain them, nothing to tell them anything at all. Their names weren’t even on the front of the envelope, although they could hardly have been for anyone else given they’d come through their door.
Should they show them to Sadie? How upsetting was it going to be for her to see her parents – presuming it was her parents – after being apart from them for over three weeks?
She’d want to see them, naturally. And what were they going to say then?
They had no idea who these people were, much less where they could be found.
And Sadie was settling in so well; she seemed to be flourishing at the centre of their world.
All these photographs would do was confuse and distress her.
‘What if they’re some sort of message?’ Lottie said quietly.
Mia’s eyes showed confusion as she turned to her sister. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
Lottie didn’t know exactly, not yet, anyway.
Steeling herself for an answer she didn’t want, Mia said, ‘Do you think we should go to the authorities?’
‘You mean, for her to be taken into care?’ Lottie snapped. ‘Because that’s what will happen if we do, and I say she’s happier and safer with us.’
Mia nodded, then nodded again. ‘The note she came with asked us to take care of her, so that’s what we’re doing,’ she said, as if repeating it gave even more weight to the note and thereby justified their actions.
Then bracing herself again, ‘Does she need protection because she’s in some sort of danger?
And if she is, does that mean we are now, too? ’
Lottie went to sit on a bottom stair, photos still in hand.
‘I think,’ she said carefully, ‘that this could be the beginning of a very clever blackmail attempt. In fact, I’m sure it is, and we have played straight into their hands by keeping the child and telling no one.
So, before anyone starts making demands, I say we protect ourselves and Sadie from all nefarious intentions by making plans to leave. ’
‘To go where?’
‘We’ll work it out. For now, we need to hide these photographs, along with the note we found in her pocket, and you have to prepare yourself to deal with Edwin.
He’ll be here in a couple of hours, if he bothers to turn up.
Let’s hope he doesn’t and you can just instruct our solicitor to send him a letter citing his adultery as grounds for divorce. ’
Mia looked as though she’d been struck. This was moving too fast, she was struggling to follow Lottie’s thinking, only knew she’d just been thrown into a whole other sort of chaos.
‘Pull yourself together,’ Lottie hissed impatiently. ‘You’re getting precisely nothing out of your marriage, apart from a whole lot of humiliation and grief.’
‘That’s easy for you to say …’
‘For God’s sake, the man’s not even smart enough to treat you well so you’ll carry on letting him live the life that should never have been his in the first place. You need to get him out of our London house …’
‘Are you planning to take Sadie there?’
‘I’m not sure yet, but it can’t be an option with him in it, so he needs to go.’
‘But where?’
‘What the hell do I care, and you shouldn’t either.
Sadie has to be our priority. If he sees her he’ll start asking awkward questions and the next thing we know he’ll have blabbed about her all over the place and she’ll end up being taken from us, whether we like it or not.
What will we tell her parents then, if they come back?
More than that, what do you think will happen to us? We’ll be seen as child abductors …’
‘All right, all right,’ Mia cried, hands clasped to her cheeks. ‘I hear what you’re saying and I know you’re right. Sadie has to come first – but someone could be on their way to get her right now …’
‘Then what are the photographs about? I tell you, no one’s coming for her until they’ve managed to squeeze us dry, and do we really want to give her up to someone who’d use her like that?’
‘No, of course not. I just … Edwin is …’
‘Let him go!’ Lottie growled. ‘Do it today, for your own sake as much as Sadie’s.’
Mia was nodding in spite of the ache in her heart.
He really hadn’t ever loved her, and in truth she’d never been sure about her feelings for him.
She’d just wanted to be the married sister, the one who had that sort of respectability and status, the one who’d been chosen, and he’d been so charming and funny and attentive to her rather than to Lottie …
‘Let’s hope he doesn’t come today,’ she said hoarsely.
‘It’ll be easier to do by letter. But if he does come, what are we going to tell him about Sadie? ’
‘We’ll get Gita to take her onto the moor to see the ponies. She keeps saying she’d like to do that …’
‘And if someone recognizes her?’
Lottie threw out her hands in despair. ‘I don’t know, Mia! I don’t have all the answers. I wish I did. I just have a very strong feeling that we need to leave here sooner, rather than later, and we can’t go back to London if Edwin’s still in the house.’
‘I don’t see how we can go back anyway. Everyone knows we don’t have a niece …’
‘We can say she’s the daughter of a cousin and calling her a niece is simpler. For heaven’s sake, use your imagination, or at least try to be helpful. You want to keep her, don’t you?’
Mia stared at her, wide-eyed. They both knew it was what Mia wanted, she just didn’t have the courage to say it out loud.
It was what Lottie wanted too, maybe for different reasons, but God knew she’d come to love that girl every bit as much as Mia did.
‘OK,’ Lottie said, ‘let’s focus on how we can go forward in a way that will make sure Sadie is safe and that doesn’t end up costing us half – even all – our fortune.’
There were no more arguments. Lottie knew Mia couldn’t fight back when her heart wasn’t even trying to hold onto Edwin, was only recognizing the need to protect Sadie and if they could keep her, make her theirs …
Lottie had a way of making things happen, and Mia had learned over the years that it was usually better to go along with her sister rather than to try to stand up against her.
And, when it came to something as important as this, why would she even want to?
*
Edwin arrived earlier than expected. Gita hadn’t turned up yet and Sadie was in the kitchen when the odious little man drove up to the house, tooting his car horn like Mr Toad and clearly expecting his adoring wife to rush out and greet him.
Lottie could see that part of Mia wanted to, but she blocked the way. ‘Get rid of him,’ she said through her teeth.
‘But where do I tell him to go?’
‘To hell would be a start.’
Mia glared at her.
‘Get him to take you for a drive so you can talk.’
‘He’s just come from London …’
‘For God’s sake, stop finding excuses. Come up with solutions. We can’t let him see Sadie when we haven’t worked out …’
Mia swung round as Edwin pushed open the door and waltzed into the hall as if he came every day and was welcome. ‘Hey! Hey! Hey!’ he sang out as he spotted them. ‘And here I find my two favourite ladies all in rush to see me. How blessed I am.’
‘Jesus, Edwin,’ Lottie snorted, ‘try reading the room for once.’
His laugh was more of a bray, at least to Lottie’s ears.
‘Mia, my angel, I’ve missed you terribly and you’ve hardly been returning my calls.
It’s why I had to come. Slumming it for the summer was already a step too far for me, but now I’m worried you’re keeping a secret love from me. Please say it’s not true.’
‘Excuse me while I go and throw up,’ Lottie sneered, and turning away she almost collided with Sadie coming out of the kitchen.
‘Well, well, well,’ Edwin drawled in amazement, ‘and who do we have here?’
Mia and Lottie exchanged frantic glances.
‘You’re a pretty little thing, aren’t you?’ he said to Sadie. ‘Where did you come from, eh?’
Sadie regarded him with wide, wary eyes, thumb in mouth, teddy under arm.
‘Will you tell me your name?’ he asked gently.
She hung back, pressing herself into Lottie’s legs.