The Frenchwoman gave me a nod, then took Ellie’s arm. “Come inside now. You will catch a nasty chill in this cold air without your shawl around you.”

Ellie looked back in my direction as she was led away. “I hope to see you again soon,” she said and I realized I hadn’t given her my name. As I went to find the nearest door to the second-class portion of the ship I heard the chaperone say, “You must learn not to talk to strange women, Eleanor. She had a most wild appearance and she was Irish too. What’s more I do not believe I saw her in the first-class dining room.”

I decided that I was heartily glad that Ellie was going to have those few days of freedom in Paris.

Chapter 10

Ten

Of course I had to relate my findings to the ladies at the dinner table, but I gave just the bare bones of the story—that Angela in the painting was really called Adelaide and was the girl’s aunt. Also that Ellie had denied her aunt was mentally defective, merely anxious and timid and did not like to leave the house. I refrained from mentioning that Ellie had planned to spend a week alone in Paris or that she hated her stepfather. The women were impressed with my sleuthing and, having found out the truth, turned their gossip to other passengers, especially a couple whom they suspected of not really being husband and wife.

The dressing gowns on the cabin door swung a little more that night and I awoke in the morning to a gloomy gray day with rain peppering the windows. The promenade deck was deserted, apart from a sailor who was swabbing it down, looking very miserable in the process. There was no question of going outside. I sat reading in the lounge. Liam played, crawling over to other passengers and being fussed over everywhere. There was a concert in the afternoon and a whist drive in which I didn’t participate but which was won by our two widows, much to their satisfaction. I could feel myself slipping into a pleasant slow routine in a safe cocoon with the real world and its problems slipping farther and farther away. I had to remind myself from time to time that I had left a husband alone and in danger in New York.