But she had not taken everything. She had left my clothes and the rest of my things, and two items on the washstand: her rouge and face-paint pots. Mibbie it was an oversight. Mibbie it was her horrible way of trying to make up for what she had done.

Chapter Eleven

I panicked all over the inn, going into all the downstairs rooms to see if there was any trace of Mrs Rose. I found the innkeeper’s wife and her cook taking the morning rolls out of the oven and, when I told them what had happened, the innkeeper’s wife sent the cook out to tell my driver what had occurred, then sat me down at the kitchen table and poured me a strong coffee.

‘Mrs Rose,’ she said, ‘I have always been wary of her, but she is well connected in Kelso.’ Her hands worried from her hips to her chin to her apron and she shook her head all the while. ‘What a bad business. A terrible to-do.’

‘She has left me with only pennies.’ The coffee was too hot and too thick and too sour, but I sipped it anyway, trying to get my head straight.

‘She consorts with the widower Dr McTavish and I have never liked him, but he will be furious she is gone,’ Mrs Baxter said. ‘He’s quite an influential man, Mistress Dickson. I hope he does not blame us for her disappearance. Mibbie she’ll see sense and come back.’

‘She’ll not be back,’ I replied bitterly. ‘She has my life savings.’

‘Oh, hen,’ sympathized the woman. ‘Shall we fetch the constable?’

I thought hard about that and nearly said yes, but what if they said I ought to return to my own home? And where had the money come from in the first place, for had I not stolen it from Spencer, who had obtained it from smuggled goods?

I shook my head. ‘It is gone now,’ I said.

There was a knock on the kitchen door and my coach driver stood, looking awkward, folding and unfolding his hat.

‘I’ve heard you’ve been robbed, Mistress Dickson,’ he said. ‘Seems Mrs Rose has taken one of the horses too – a decent one at that. Myself and the ostler shall take a couple of horses ourselves and see if she’s in the vicinity, and find out if the night watchman saw anything. We can delay our journey by an hour or so, but no more.’

Off he went, and I felt grateful that someone was looking out for me and hoped hard that Mrs Rose had not got very far at all. The cook returned and gave me a morning roll, but it soon became too crowded for the three of us in there, so I went back upstairs to sort out the mess of the room and have a think about what on God’s earth I was going to do.