Around noontime, Uncle Alfred entered the room. “Well, hello Lottie.” But she couldn’t return his easy smile and he noticed her stricken expression. “What’s wrong? Are you ill?”

Lottie shook her head. “No, I––have you heard from Alec?”

Uncle Alfred gave her a confused look. “Why, yes. We were in my study talking just now.”

Lottie stood so abruptly that the book she hadn’t been reading fell to the floor with a heavy thud. “Oh! I was so worried I—”

Uncle Alfred held up a hand. “My dear, he’s already left. He almost missed his train back to Edinburgh.”

She sat back down. Her head felt fuzzy all of a sudden. Lottie couldn’t make herself understand what he was saying, and yet the words seemed to steal the very air from her. “Left? Did he say anything?”

Uncle Alfred raised an eyebrow. “About you? No. We only talked about him, I’m afraid. Alec’s decided to do his duty to the Crown.”

Uncle Alfred continued talking, but Lottie’s ears began to ring. She knew a little about her uncle’s activities on behalf of Her Majesty’s government, but not once had she ever thought Alec wished to be involved. The work could be dangerous, and he could be gone for months traveling to the farthest corners of the empire. How…how would they be together?

“I don’t understand. Alec doesn’t want to work for the Crown,” she insisted. “He’s interested in the Etruscans.”

Uncle Alfred gave her a long look. “We’ve been discussing it for nearly a year.”

Lottie tried to inhale, but it was as if the wind had been knocked from her lungs. This whole time, all those letters, he had kept this from her?

“There are some loose ends to tie up in Edinburgh, but he should be going abroad in a few weeks,” Uncle Alfred continued. “Egypt. Possibly Turkey. The more adventurous, the better, I gather.” He smiled proudly. “It was nice, wasn’t it? Seeing your old chum once again?”

It was such a trivial description of who Alec was and what he had come to mean to her that Lottie didn’t know where to begin to correct him. All she could focus on was the most immediate hurt.

“But…he didn’t want to say goodbye?” Her voice broke on the last word. She hated how pathetic she sounded. Uncle Alfred’s eyes softened, like they used to when she was a little girl. He walked over to the sofa and sat down beside her. “I was afraid of this, you know…” His voice trailed off and he shook his head. “I thought it would be better if he left. And Alec agreed.”

“You told him not to—to speak with me?”