She rose, gathering up the banknotes. Without a word of farewell she took her room key and stalked off toward the stairs.
I don’t know what I’d expected. Maybe for her to tell me more about Lille and the Great War. Why her hands were . . . I don’t know. I sat at the little table like a helpless fool, feeling abandoned, wishing I hadn’t thrown my arm around her waist in the china shop and let her lean on me. Because even after she deduced the Little Problem’s presence and was tactless enough to say so, some part of me still wanted her respect. She wasn’t like any woman I’d ever met; she talked to me as though I were a grown woman rather than a child—yet just now, she’d flicked me aside like a cigarette stub. See if I care, I’d said. Well, I did.
You don’t need her, I scolded myself. You don’t need anyone.
Finn came up, toting my traveling case over one shoulder. “Where’s Gardiner?”
I rose. “She says we’re done.”
His smile disappeared. “You’re off, then?”
“I’ve already paid for the rooms, so you and Eve may as well stay tonight. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she wants to bolt back to London tomorrow.”
“Where are you going?”
“Limoges. My cousin might be there. Or someone who knew her.” I aimed a bright, nonspecific smile at Finn, ducking his gaze.
“Now?”
“Tomorrow.” I felt too drained to go anywhere this afternoon, and I’d paid for my room as well as theirs.
“Well, then.” He brushed the hair out of his eyes, handing over my traveling case. I wondered if he was sorry or relieved to see me go. Probably relieved. I’m sorry, I wanted to say. Sorry I made you think I was a tramp. Sorry I didn’t sleep with you. So I really am a tramp. Sorry about that. But instead I blurted out the only other thing I could think of that wasn’t about me climbing into his lap and gluing my lips to his.
“How did you end up in prison?”
“Took the Mona Lisa right off the wall of the British Museum,” he replied, straight-faced.
“The Mona Lisa isn’t even hanging in the British Museum,” I objected.
“Not anymore it’s not.”
I couldn’t help laughing. Even managed to meet his eyes for a split second. “Good luck, Mr. Kilgore.”
“Good luck, miss.” And my heart expanded a little, hearing the miss.
But after Finn left, I couldn’t bring myself to go up to my room yet. Another wave of utter exhaustion hit me, and besides, sitting alone in a hotel room seemed sadder than sitting in a busy hotel court. I ordered another coffee and sat staring at it.
It’ll be easier on your own, I told myself. No more crazy old bat pointing a pistol at you. No more insults, no more getting slowed down by Eve’s hangovers and the fact that she can’t travel except in a beat-up tin can of a car. No more Scottish convicts making me act like the kind of girl who gets herself into the kind of pickle I’m already in. No more being called Yank. You can go look for Rose all by yourself, free and clear.
All by myself. It shouldn’t have felt so strange—I was used to being alone. I’d been alone since I’d parted from Rose before the war, really. Alone in the middle of a bustling family who hardly knew I was there; alone in the middle of a giggling dorm with sorority sisters who didn’t know I was there either.
Buck up, I told myself fiercely as a bellboy brushed past. Just buck up. Don’t be sorry for yourself, Charlie St. Clair, because that is just so goddamn boring.
Eve had rubbed off on me. I was swearing all the time now, just like her. Even if just in my head.
You’re a bad influence on me, the Little Problem said.
Be quiet, I told my own stomach. You’re not real. I’m not hearing you.
Says who?
Wonderful. The Little Problem was now talking. First hallucinations, and now voices.
Then I heard an enchantingly modulated shriek behind me. “Charlotte! Oh, ma p’tite, how could you—” And I turned, sweat cold on my forehead, to see that my mother had found me.
CHAPTER 12
EVE
July 1915
It was a very organized, very tidy robbery. They arrived at noon: the German officer, a folder under his arm, two soldiers flanking him. The knock sounded, both brutal and officious, and so was the officer’s tone as he snapped, “Copper inspection!” It was all