Chapter 9
A Second Meeting
… she said all that was reasonable and proper on the business …
Jane Austen, Persuasion
“Thank you so much for coming, Miss Smith.” Alice ushered the woman calling herself Miss Sophia Smith into the parlor.
Tea was waiting, along with a plate of Alice’s favorite muffins, and dishes of fresh butter and jam.
“I am Alice Littlefield, Miss Thorne’s private secretary.
Won’t you sit down?” She gestured to the chair she had positioned across the tea table from the sofa.
“Thank you.”
Alice poured out a fresh cup of tea, surreptitiously eyeing her guest as she did.
Miss Smith was much as Rosalind had described her—a mature woman dressed to make herself appear younger.
She wore a simple white dress with a modest, square neckline and trimmed with pink ribbons.
Her dark hair had been braided and coiled into a simple knot at the back of her head.
She kept her eyes downcast and her hands neatly folded.
Really, it’s an excellent performance.
“How do you take your tea?” Alice asked.
“Just milk, if you please,” replied Miss Smith. “Will Miss Thorne will be us soon?”
“I’m so sorry.” Alice passed the cup. “Miss Thorne is not free at present. Lady Jersey had requested a confidential meeting, which is something she simply could not ignore. I’m sure you understand.” Alice held out the plate of muffins.
“Oh, yes, of course.” Miss Smith selected a muffin and set it on her plate. “Only … I thought, well, with the advertisement in the paper …”
Rosalind had left her sister Charlotte and Alice with the responsibility of making sure it looked like Rosalind was still at home in Orchard Street.
But she’d also left them the job of finding this young woman who had made such a deliberate scene, then vanished, and gave every sign of not wishing to be found again.
Alice and Charlotte had talked the matter over and both agreed this was one time when the direct approach was probably best.
“It will also have the advantage of making it look like no one here suspects there is any deception at work,” Charlotte had said, and Alice agreed.
So, Alice had sent her brother, George, who wrote for the London Chronicle, out to place personal notices in several of the most widely read newspapers. The notice read:
Will Miss S. Smith please return for tea this Tuesday? She will then hear something to her advantage regarding her personal business.
After that, there had been nothing to do but wait, and hope Miss Sophia Smith read the correct papers.
“I’m sorry if you feel you were invited under any false pretenses,” Alice told Miss Smith.
Although, of course, that was exactly what happened.
However, since Miss Smith’s arrival was also under false pretenses, Alice didn’t feel the least bit guilty.
“You may be sure, however, that I am acting in accordance with Miss Thorne’s instructions. ” This much was perfectly true.
“Oh. Yes. I didn’t mean to imply … And Mr. Harkness? Will he be here?”
Alice smiled sympathetically. “Miss Smith, your visit the other day caused some small upset, and if what you have already said is true, there must be some changes in what had previously been settled plans.”
Miss Smith’s chin quivered and her eyes widened. “You don’t … you don’t believe me?”
Oh, bravo! Alice put her cup down and reached out to take Miss Smith’s hand.
“Oh, Miss Smith, please, please forgive me!” Alice cried.
“But you must understand, I find myself in a delicate position.” Alice drew back, and dropped her gaze for good measure.
“You see, as part of my work for Miss Thorne, I am responsible for making sure that her affairs remain in good order. As her reputation has increased, some ladies, and not a few gentlemen, have begun seeking her out under genuinely false pretenses”—If I ever used such a phrase in a manuscript, Mr. Colburn would stab his quill right through the paper!
—“and when they do, they tend to present rather remarkable stories. You understand, I’m sure? ”
Miss Smith’s gaze didn’t waver. “Oh, yes. People can be so deceitful.”
Alice smiled, as if grateful to be understood. “So, it is my responsibility to make sure those who arrive without appointments, but with stories, are, in fact, who they say they are.”
“Oh, yes, of course!” said Miss Smith earnestly. “I do see that.”
“I’m glad. Because you’ll understand then that since you ended your visit so suddenly when you were last here—without even leaving a card!—we were entirely perplexed as to how we would find you. The advertisement was the only way we could think of.”
“I’m sorry to have put you through the trouble.
I should have thought.” Miss Smith blinked rapidly, as if holding back tears of self-recrimination.
Alice mentally saluted her. She really was very good at this.
“But I was so worried about Mama, and then about being found out. They’re very strict at my school, you see. ”
“And perhaps you did not think Miss Thorne would want to speak with you again?” suggested Alice. It was as close as she planned to get to a real question, but she also very much wanted to see what Miss Smith would say.
“Oh, no,” said Miss Smith breathlessly. “I felt sure she would. I had in fact, planned to come back.” That’s a nice touch, thought Alice.
“I ask you to understand, Miss Littlefield, when you have been forced to keep so much of yourself secret, it becomes very difficult to be fully honest, even when one knows one should.”
Alice returned her most benevolent smile. “I do understand, and I know that we can quickly clear everything up. Then, Miss Thorne will be able to assure Miss Kinsdale that all is right. That, in turn, will allow Mrs. Lynn to tell the family everything they need to know in her own time.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am. I’ve known Miss Thorne for a long time, and I promise you, she always does her best to help those ladies who are navigating thorny personal issues.” Now was not the time to go into the fact that the one thing that Rosalind abhorred above secrets was being lied to.
And this particular lie, as embodied by Miss Smith, was becoming more elaborate by the minute.
“Now,” said Alice briskly. “Do you have a card?”
“Oh, no,” said Miss Smith. “They don’t let us have our own at school.”
“Well, that’s understandable. Which school is it?” Alice reached for her pencil and notebook.
“Lady Norfolk’s Select Finishing Academy for Young Ladies,” replied Miss Smith. “In Bolton Street.”
Alice wrote this down. “Excellent. Now all that’s needed is for me to call on the headmistress and confirm your enrollment. Once that’s done, I will be able to assure Miss Thorne as to the veracity of your story, and she will know how best to act.”
She fully expected Miss Smith to beg her not to go anywhere near the school in Bolton Street (if there was one). But the young woman surprised her.
“I do see that you would have to call at the school. All I ask is that you not say who you are. I don’t … I’d never ask anyone to lie, but if the headmistress knew that I’d slipped out, and to where, I’d be in terrible trouble! I might even be expelled!”
“I do understand,” Alice assured her. “I shall say only that I am looking into schools for my niece and that your mother recommended Lady Norfolk’s. Would that do?”
“Ye … es,” said Miss Smith slowly. “That should do very well. Thank you for understanding, Miss Littlefield. And … and please let Miss Thorne know I’m sorry to have caused any trouble.”
“That’s quite all right, my dear.” Alice patted Miss Smith’s hand again. “It’s perfectly natural, considering the circumstances. Now.” She glanced at the clock. “I have another appointment and I’m sure you must be getting back to your school. Shall I have Mortimer arrange for a cab?”
“That would be very kind. Thank you.”
“Not at all.” Alice beamed. “You’ve been through so much. I know Miss Thorne will want to help you and your mother however she can.”
Miss Smith’s smile was filled with relief and gratitude, and was, Alice felt sure, just as false as her own.
A few short minutes later, Alice stood on the front step as Mortimer helped Miss Smith into the cab he’d fetched for her. She watched with a glow of contentment as the young lady was driven away.
That contentment turned just a little bit fierce as, less than a minute later, a second cab drove up the street. When this new vehicle passed the house, its curtains opened to reveal an (to Alice’s eyes) adorable ginger-haired woman, who waved enthusiastically.
Alice blew her a kiss and grinned. She grinned again as the cab passed, and she was treated to the most unusual sight of a long-legged man in a worn coat and trousers perched on the cab’s luggage rack.
This unusual choice of seat meant that he would be next to invisible to anyone looking at the cab from the front.
He would also be able to slip off, unseen, as soon as the cab stopped.
The man, who happened to be Alice’s brother George, touched his hat brim to Alice. Alice curtsied briefly in response.
Mortimer observed all this with a level of stoicism that verged on boredom. “Anything else, miss?”
“Not at present, thank you,” replied Alice.
Alice took herself back inside the house and into the parlor.
“That sounded like it went well.”
Mrs. Charlotte Black, Rosalind’s older sister, was seated at the tea table, spreading a muffin with butter and jam.
“I hope so.” Alice poured herself out some fresh tea. “But Miss Smith was far too prepared for my liking.”
“Yes, she’s definitely a canny one.” Charlotte took a healthy bite of muffin. She was with child again, she’d informed Alice, and the result was a greatly increased appetite. “I admit, I’m surprised she didn’t balk when you said you’d call on the headmistress of that school.”
“So am I, a little.”
“You don’t think she’s actually enrolled?”
“Good lord, no. I think somebody’s bribed the headmistress.”
“Yes, I would tend to agree.” Before her marriage, Charlotte had had what could charitably be described as a colorful career.
It included some years as a successful courtesan, and some others as a courier and spy for the crown.
These experiences gave her an astonishing breadth of insight.
“I also expect she’ll stop her cab at some random point, and insist to the driver she can’t risk being seen arriving at the school in such a fashion. ”
“We can trust Amelia and George to be ready for that.”
“I have every confidence.” Charlotte finished her muffin and wiped her fingers delicately. “What will you do now?”
“Write to Rosalind,” said Alice promptly. “She’ll want to know we’ve unearthed the mysterious Miss Smith and shall soon take full possession every one of her secrets.”
Charlotte’s brow furrowed. “Let us just hope that in the process she doesn’t take full possession of ours.”