CHAPTER FIVE: THE WOMAN WHO COULD NOT LEAVE

Elias entered the upstairs passage through the service stair.
He found Adelaide seated outside her own bedroom.
Her hair had come loose, and her face was gray with exhaustion.
The door stood open behind her.
“Ralston has the key,” she said when she saw him.
“Which key?” Elias asked.
“The one that opens the north cottage.”
He crouched at a careful distance.
“Who is inside?”
Adelaide looked toward the landing.
“My daughter,” she said.
Elias waited.
“She is nine years old,” Adelaide continued.
“Her name is Beatrice.”
“Thomas believes she died?”
“Thomas has never known she exists.

”
Elias felt a sudden flash of anger.
“You have kept a child locked in a ruined cottage?”
“No,” Adelaide said sharply.
“She has lived with Martha’s sister in another county for seven years.”
“Then why does Ralston have the cottage key?”
“Because the cottage is where Samuel hid the children before they were moved.”
Adelaide pressed a hand against the wall to steady herself.
“Ralston found the old room beneath the floor last week,” she said.
“He believes the people who escaped left something there that will tell him where they went.”
“Did they?”
“No,” she answered.
“Samuel destroyed every route after the last family reached safety.

”
Elias looked at her closely.
“Then what is he looking for?”
“A reason to accuse me of helping them.”
“You did help them.”
“I did not know until afterward,” Adelaide said.
“When I discovered what Samuel had done, he was already dead.”
“And you chose to hide it.”
She closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“You chose to threaten me because you were frightened of being found out.”
“Yes.”
Elias rose to his feet.
Her admissions changed nothing about the nights he had been forced into the room.
They did, however, remove the last excuse she had offered him.
“You cannot command me to save your daughter,

” he said.
“I know,” Adelaide replied.
“You cannot promise me safety in return.”
“I know that too.”
Elias took the child’s shoe from beneath his shirt.
“Hannah is alive,” he said.
Adelaide stared at the shoe, and tears gathered in her eyes.
“Then Samuel’s work was not entirely lost,” she whispered.
“It was not his work alone,” Elias said.
“The families carried their children, found food, and risked their lives.”
Adelaide lowered her head.
“You are right.”
From downstairs came the sound of a door slamming.
A servant shouted that Ralston had taken the north road.
Elias turned toward the stairs.


“Tell Thomas the truth before someone else is hurt,” he said.
“He will have me sent away.”
“You have spent months telling me that fear is a reason to obey,” Elias answered.
“Tonight you will learn what it means to act while you are afraid.”