He shrugged. “It’s London. No one will care. That’s the least of our worries, anyway. We have to find Emma, that’s most important right now.”
“Can you call her on your device?”
He looked at her dully for a moment, wondering why he hadn’t thought of that before. Was he afraid she would no longer be his first contact? He tried to hide his fear and clicked on his phone. He breathed a massive sigh to see she was still there, her smiling face filling his screen as he pressed the call button.
It went to a generic voicemail box. He never left her a voicemail because she hated them, but he was almost certain she had changed it to a personalized message when she got her new phone that past Christmas. Shaking, he ended the call and sent her a text message telling her to call him right away. She would. If she got the message. If she knew who he was.
“Let’s just go meet her, then.” Ariana took his hand and even though he was the one who knew the way, it felt like she was leading him.
She smiled at him encouragingly and in that moment he stopped feeling any bitterness toward her. She was Tilly’s daughter after all, as headstrong and curious as Tilly, but with a whole different set of baggage from her upbringing. He couldn’t blame her for this any more than he could blame Tilly for starting the whole of it all those years ago.
They stopped at the Tube entrance and stood by a light post. He fumbled with his phone for the schedule and saw that it should arrive in four minutes. Ariana kept a tight grip on his hand as he waited breathlessly. His mind couldn’t settle on any one thought. He could only abstractly pray that she would recognize him when she came out. If she came out. If she didn’t work at Belmary House anymore, there would be no reason for her to take this train. After an eternity, people started spilling from the stairway onto the sidewalk. Soon the crowd petered out and all was quiet again. No Emma.
“Four more minutes,” he said through gritted teeth.
She stared blankly at the stairs, probably too full of her own fear to ask about the workings of the Underground. Her lips moved slightly and he wondered if she was counting to herself.
“There.” Ariana pointed after four more interminable minutes passed. “Emma,” she called, pulling her hand out of Dexter’s and hurrying through the crowd of harried morning commuters.
To his surprise, she flung herself into Emma’s arms. Emma patted her back warily, searching over the heads of strangers. When she settled her eyes on him and he saw the spark of recognition, the slightly confused but happy smile, he found tears leaking out of his eyes. The relief was like a hot shower at the end of an icy, winter slog to the store and back. He realized he’d been holding his breath and his nose and fingers tingled after the deep, gusty breath he took.
“What’s this welcoming committee for?” Emma asked as Ariana dragged her to him. He’d been frozen to the spot until he heard her voice. He pulled her close and wrapped her in a suffocating hug, trying not to sob like a baby.
“I love you,” he gasped. “I love you so much. God, I’m so glad you know me.”
She pulled away, starting to look alarmed. “Well, I’m glad I know you, too.”
“We thought everything changed,” Ariana said. “But you’re still the same, so maybe…” Now that the grownups were sorted, he could tell she was about to slip back into her earlier hysteria.
“What are you on about? What’s changed?” Emma looked to him and slowly reached to wipe away a lone tear that had escaped onto his cheek. “Dear God, what’s going on?”
“Come with us.” He took one of her hands in his and Ariana grabbed his free hand. The poor girl seemed to think he might disappear at any moment. Which, now that he could think more clearly, didn’t seem such an outlandish fear. “You won’t believe it unless you see it.”
They hurried along until they came to the parking lot, which had a few more cars in it, probably mall workers. It was still too early for the shops to open and for some reason he was glad. It would have made him sick to see the place crawling with shoppers. He pointed wordlessly at what should have been Ariana’s childhood home. Emma blinked rapidly and turned in a circle. She started to ask questions several times but clamped her mouth closed around them. Finally she scrubbed at her face with the backs of her hands.
“This is what changed.” She pressed her knuckles into her eyes. “They finally managed to turn it into a shopping center. But why? And how?”
“What do you mean, finally?” Ariana demanded.
“Developers have been trying to get their mitts on Belmary House for years. It’s a prime spot. And it never gained that much popularity as a museum.”
Dexter knew her academic way of speaking was her way of coping with the sudden trauma of seeing her livelihood ripped out from under her. While she held no particular love of the house, she loved her job and took pride in helping to keep history alive.
“But how did it become a museum?” Ariana was back to sounding small and distant. “What happened to my family?”
“Oh, goodness.” Emma shook herself out of her shock and hugged Ariana tight. “The last member of your family to hold the Earl of Ashford title and actually live there was back in the 1980s. He was… rather a scoundrel. Er, art forgery was one of his more genteel hobbies, but he did commit some actual heinous crimes. He hied off to Amsterdam where he… met an unfortunate end before he could be prosecuted. The house was taken over by the government to pay off
