“I thought you must have fallen out with your mother, Alice—she really was most unhelpful when I said I wanted to find you,” Ursula said, which caught Theo’s attention because it sounded so strange.

“It’s a long story,” said Alice. “I can’t really go into it now, but I’m sorry that she wasn’t very welcoming.”

“Oh, well, we know your mother is a drain and not a radiator!” Ursula said, but Alice didn’t smile. “Well, will you at least tell me why you’re here and why you haven’t been in touch?”

“Penny’s an old friend,” Alice said, lowering her voice. “And I needed somewhere to stay.”

“Why? What’s happened?”

Alice glanced again at Theo. “I’d rather not talk about it now.” She looked very uncomfortable, and for a moment he felt they’d been wrong to chase her down. Sounding apprehensive, she asked, “Why exactly are you here?”

“Theo wants to talk to you about your book, Alice.”

Alice turned to him, eyes searching.

“Theo?” Ursula prompted.

“I understand that you had reasons for leaving Partridge . . . family commitments,” he said, and cleared his throat. “If you’ve carried them out, then we’d like you to come back. I’ve seen the mock-ups of Women and Children First. It has a lot of promise, Alice. We’ve allocated the paper and the print run; the schedule works. It’s all possible. All we need is for you to help find the stories and edit the book. Ursula says you can do it.”

Ursula smiled at her encouragingly.

“That’s very kind of you,” said Alice, “but I don’t know if I can. My cousin still needs me . . . and, well, I don’t want to let her down.”

“Oh dear, poor thing.” Ursula sounded disappointed. “I thought it was only meant to be for a little while?”

“It was . . . I mean, is—”

“Well, I’m sure it’s easier to replace a babysitter than a book editor,” Theo said with a small laugh. He couldn’t believe she would pass up this opportunity; from what Ursula had told him, it was all she’d ever wanted.

Alice frowned, her gaze settling on the tabletop. “Look, I’m really flattered, and in one way I’d love to come back, but I think it’s too late.”

Theo glanced across at Ursula, meeting her puzzled eyes with his own. Then she shrugged at him and turned to Alice. “Partridge wants to go ahead with your book, Alice. Don’t you remember the ideas we talked about? Everyone can see how emotive it could be, how successful. And we’ve all missed you.”

Alice smiled softly.

“We did some testing with the mock-ups,” Ursula told her. “The readers loved them. George has agreed to dedicate more of the paper ration for it.”

“Really?” Alice said, brightening further.

Ursula nodded. “Even Emily was enthusiastic—imagine that!”