They stared down at the woman, who breathed heavily, but didn’t stir.
“These people…God, Adele, they’re…the lengths they’ll go to…”
Adele looked into his troubled eyes and nodded. “Neither of us really understood until today.” She looked down at the girl. “Whoever she is, she is terrified of the others, whoever they are. She would have preferred to drown, I think, than face them.”
They stayed silent, for a moment, considering that.
“Melville will come back for us,” Daniel said as he lowered himself to properly sit upon the grass. “We’ll slide the girl out of sight somewhere.”
Adele sat, too, with Winnifred between them. “Daniel… About us…”
Daniel’s gaze was steady.
Adele plucked at the damp layers over her knees. “I don’t think either of us will be able to conduct anything like a normal friendship. I think we must make up new rules as we go along.”
Daniel considered. “Perhaps we might have to fit our personal affairs in around the edges of this new work we’re doing.”
Adele nodded. “Something like that. We can’t put this work aside, Daniel. Not anymore. Not after today. I think we’ve both realized that now.”
Daniel studied her.
“You disagree…” she said, her heart sinking.
Daniel stirred. “Not at all. In fact, I was…” He shifted uncomfortably. “I was admiring your gown. It clings to you when it is wet and I believe I can see…well, you.”
Adele looked down at herself. “Myself covered in three layers of petticoat, corset and mud-stained muslin.”
His tone sincere, Daniel replied, “You’ve never looked lovelier.”
MELVILLE SLIPPED INTO ADELE’S HOTEL room very late that night, long after she had bathed and dressed, then met Daniel in the hotel dining room for dinner.
Daniel arrived right behind Melville, and Adele raised her brow at his appearance.
“M tapped on my door on the way up,” Daniel explained, pulling his dressing gown firmly around himself.
Adele realized that Melville had learned both their hotel room numbers since they had registered, as well as the hotel itself. It was a middle-class hotel, undistinguished, and the first they had come across after leaving the rowing club. Perhaps that was how he had found them. Next time, she would not take the first, most obvious lodgings.
Melville moved over to the bureau, where the small basket of fruit Adele had requested sat where she had placed it after it had been delivered to her room.
He plucked the apple out and rubbed it on his jacket sleeve, polishing the skin. “We have detained the chaperone, and the woman posing as Lady Winnifred is recovering from both near drowning and Lady Adelaide’s punch.” He glanced at Adele. “That right hook is jolly useful, my Lady.”
“My husband taught me. You should call me Adele.”
Melville bit into the apple, while studying her. He chewed steadily.
“Did you suspect the women, Melville?” Daniel asked. “Or were you running on a gut feeling?”
Melville swallowed hastily. “You thought I was lying? To you?” He swung to face Adele.
She smiled tightly. “I thought you might be…getting even.”
Melville shook his head. “I wouldn’t waste your worth, Lady Adele. You are too valuable. Both of you.” He glanced at Daniel. “And I don’t have time for pettiness, myself.”
“Why on earth did you think someone as pretty and as…as pink as Lady Winnifred might be…” Adele threw up her hands. “I still can’t believe she was a German agent!”
“They come in all shapes and sizes,” Melville intoned.
Daniel leaned against the wall with one shoulder and crossed his arms. “Still, you must have had some reason to think a sweet young debutante was worth investigating.”
Melville bit, chewed and swallowed.
“Do you ever eat a regular meal?” Adele asked him.
“To answer the important question,” Melville said, “Five weeks ago, a body was plucked out of the ocean off Cornwall. The girl had drowned, but she had river water in her lungs, so she had been killed somewhere inland and been left to drift out to sea. Someone had carved off her face, making it impossible to identify her.”
Adele shuddered. “The real Winnifred?”
“A boffin attached to Whitehall traced back the tidal estuaries and figured out the woman must have emerged into the sea from the River Exe and…well, Chapmore is along the Exe.”
“A rather long way north of Exmouth,” Daniel pointed out.
“I had a chat with the boffin, and he thought it would be possible for a body to make it all the way out to sea. Only take a couple of days, with all the rain we’ve had.” He bit into the apple with relish. While still chewing, he added, “The body matched Lady Winnifred’s height and girth, but when I stopped by the Chapmore town house in London, there she was, living the high life, a celebrated debutante.”
“And no one noticed that a whole different woman had taken her place?” Adele breathed.
Melville shook his head. “She’s…she was an orphan.”
“A rich orphan,” Daniel pointed out. “With a staff and a governess.”
“Who were dismissed without notice,” Melville added. “The new chaperone took her place and all the staff who watched Winnifred grow up were left behind in Chapmore. Who else was there to notice?” He considered. “They chose their victim well.” He shrugged. “I couldn’t get anyone in Whitehall to take me seriously. I had no proof, and no one was going to confront a young girl in her first Season in London and demand she prove who she was. One lord told me I was being preposterous to even consider the idea, just before he had the butler march me out of his club.”
“That was your problem, right there,” Daniel murmured. “You tackled the man on private ground.”
“If you say so,” Melville said. “Next time, I’ll send you in.” He looked around for a rubbish bin, then shrugged and shoved the apple core into his pocket. “So I had to think of another way
