Alice felt a gentle nudge against her right arm and turned to see an older woman looking at her solemnly, a white handkerchief scrunched in her outstretched hand. “Father Mitchell often moves me to tears too,” the woman said, and smiled. “May the Lord be with you.”

“Thank you, and with you,” Alice forced herself to say before turning away. She hadn’t even known she was crying.

As the chanting steadily rose, her heart began to race—but not in excitement, in panic. How would she ever find her daughter?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son.”

Is that why Ruth could bear to sacrifice her only granddaughter?

“To you all my blessing. May the Lord be with you.”

Where can I go now? Who else is there to turn to? I’ve run out of options.

The greeting reverberated through the congregation; she was drowning in the sea of voices, swamped by their prayers. Time was slipping away, as if she was standing on a peninsula watching water rise over the isthmus, cutting off the only escape.

Think, Alice, think. Think about the secrets people keep and the lies they tell. Who can be trusted?

Not Theo, unfortunately. She’d had no idea until Ursula told her that he’d returned to New York because of his sick father—and his fiancée, Walter’s daughter. There had to be a reason he’d kept it hidden, and Alice could only assume he wasn’t the man she’d thought him to be. The knowledge had thrust her into even more of a depression, a spiral of regret for the trust she’d placed in him and all that they had shared.

But she wouldn’t allow herself to dwell on Theo Bloom, another man who’d deceived her; she needed to focus on who told the truth. Penny hadn’t lied to her. Neither had Olive—the journalist was doing all that was possible to help her . . . or was she?

“No, it’s out of the question,” Elizabeth said, adamant.

“It’s my last chance. I wouldn’t ask if there was any other way.”

Alice had gone straight to the Daily Mail offices when they had opened the following day, and now she stood, hands braced against the counter, pleading with the librarian.

“Absolutely not. You don’t know what you’re asking, Alice. I could lose my job, not to mention getting Olive in trouble. She’d lose all credibility and trust.”

“But my cousin could lose her baby. Forever.”

Elizabeth dropped her head into her hands.

“Your paper ran the advert that led to her being taken, you know—”