it was Clara he was fighting for.
The carriage slowed as it approached the station.
Justin gave Neville a bracing look. “I admire you. I was too much a coward to go after Helena. In the end, it was she who had to come after me.”
“Jenny came for me, too,” Tom said. “Not but that I wouldn’t have returned to her given another day or two to work up my courage.”
“What about you?” Justin asked Alex. “I suppose you did something daring?”
“To win Laura?” Alex’s gray eyes flickered with humor. “That was fate. Pure and simple.”
Tom laughed. “In other words—”
“In other words,” Alex said, “she was obliged to marry me or face social ruin.”
“It’s as I suspected.” Justin smiled warmly at Neville. “You’ve always been the best of us.”
“You still are,” Tom said.
“Quite,” Alex agreed.
The carriage rolled to a halt. Outside the window, the railway station came into view. The train waited on the tracks, a gleaming black behemoth belching clouds of smoke and steam. Passengers were disembarking onto the platform, and others were beginning to board. All manner of people. Fine ladies, well-heeled gentlemen, and children bundled up in their winter coats.
Neville’s stomach clenched.
“We can wait with you,” Justin said.
“No.” Neville shook his head. This was something he had to do on his own. It was frightening, yes. Enough to make him feel rather ill. But this was his battle, not theirs.
The carriage shook as his trunk was removed from the roof. Danvers’s voice echoed, shouting to a porter to retrieve it. “First class passenger here!”
Neville looked first at Justin, and then at Tom, and Alex. He vaguely registered that his hands were shaking.
“Safe journey,” Tom said. “And good luck.”
“Good luck,” Alex echoed.
Justin gave Neville a solemn nod. It conveyed more that words ever could. You’re strong enough. Capable enough. You have nothing to fear.
Danvers opened the door. A gust of cold air blew into the carriage. “Train’s leaving,” he said. “Best hurry if you want to make it, guv.”
Neville climbed out. He only turned back once to raise a hand to his friends in a brief farewell. It wasn’t goodbye. But he was on his own now.
The layout of the railway station was somewhat familiar from when they’d all gone to fetch Alex last month. Neville easily found his way to the booking office. There, he purchased his ticket.
“Anything else, sir?” the clerk asked.
Neville shook his head. He didn’t intend to talk any more than necessary. Nods and head shakes weren’t ideal, but they were far better than losing his words. And he would lose them. The stress of the situation practically guaranteed it.
Crossing the platform, he made his way to the first-class railway carriage. It was a wood-paneled compartment with carpeted floors and upholstered seats. He sat down in one near the window.
Another gentleman boarded shortly thereafter, taking the window seat opposite. A well-to-do businessman by the look of him. He was carrying an attaché case not dissimilar to the one Tom carried.
He gave Neville a measuring look. “Afternoon, sir.”
“Afternoon.”
“Going to London?”
“To…to Cambridge.”
It seemed as though the gentleman wanted to continue the conversation, but before he could ask anything more, another gentleman boarded. He was an elderly fellow, with a middle-aged lady on his arm who might have been either his wife or his daughter.
“Beg pardon,” he said to Neville. “Mind if we change seats? The wife and I prefer sitting together.”
“Of c-course.” Neville stood, moving to an empty seat on the other side of the carriage.
It wasn’t a window seat.
Neville’s jaw tightened. There would be nothing to distract him now. Nothing to keep his attention and prevent him from drifting off in his head.
He cursed himself for not remembering to bring a book. He had done, but the two volumes Lady Helena had given him were out of reach, packed away inside of his trunk.
“Obliged to you,