When The Rain Falls

Chapter Thirty

I managed to keep up a decent pretence for the remainder of the picnic. With my face bruised and the tennis games no longer holding their appeal, I spent the rest of the afternoon sitting under the canopy making small talk with Clara. She carried most of the conversation whilst I took George's advice from the evening of the supper and tried to keep enough food in my mouth so I wouldn't have to answer her questions.

Clara didn't appear to mind all that much and was able to speak for both of us as I tried to understand just what unnerved me about her. My conversation with George had given us a small piece of new information, but it didn't explain why Rebecca was so scared upon hearing their names. If they were innocent, she wouldn't have reacted in such a way.

There had to have been more to it, small pieces of information that we weren't aware of. I was determined to find out the truth, but time had started to slip through my fingers at an even faster rate than before. We only had a few days until Father's deadline ran out.

The next morning, I awoke with a newfound determination to find out the truth about Rebecca. I was still waiting for Joseph's letter about Abacus, but that didn't mean I couldn't try to find something out. With what George had discovered, I figured it would do no harm in talking to Rebecca directly. After all, we had come this far, and I had to hope she would be willing to elaborate.

I dressed carefully that morning, pulling my shirt over my head and trying not to touch the bruises on my face. Although I hadn't looked in the glass, I knew it was bad. The bridge of my nose and the area around my eyes hurt to touch, but it was a problem I would just have to deal with. There were more important things at hand than the state I was in.

Once dressed, I left my room, keeping my head down to avoid making eye contact with the servants. I crept down the hall to Rebecca's door and knocked lightly.

"Come in," came a small voice from within.

I pushed open the door and stepped inside. "Good morning, Miss Edwards."

Rebecca sat against the pillows of her bed, still dressed in her nightgown, with Sooty curled up on her lap. Her eyes widened at the sight of the bruises.

"Do they look that bad?" I asked, grinning sheepishly.

"What happened?"

"An unfortunate incident with a tennis ball yesterday. I have officially relinquished my tennis title to Andrew Seabrook, which he is rather excited about. He is never going to stop talking about it."

"They're not so bad," she said. "They could be worse."

She glances down at her fingers, the ones still left slightly deformed from a previous break that had failed to heal. I swallow the guilt, knowing that the pain I faced the day before was nothing compared to what she had gone through. It just strengthened my conviction in finding out the truth.

I stepped into the room, leaving the door partially open. Rebecca watched me as she scratched Sooty behind the ears, waking him up. He stretched, unfolding himself from the ball he slept in. I took a seat on the edge of the bed and watched Soot approach me so that I could offer him ear scratches, too. It seemed he had grown a little too comfortable with all the attention he received from Rebecca.

"I was wondering if we could talk," I said, readjusting my position a little and trying to push Sooty away."

"That was what we were doing, wasn't it?"

"How dare you steal my line." I laughed. "I just wanted to ask you a few questions. It won't take long."

"What sort of questions?"

"George and I have been doing some investigating, and there are just a few things that need explanations. You don't have to answer them. I won't force you."