“It was so hard convincing Anna to allow me to leave this letter at the designated place,” Lydia said as the two of them headed to Crownsfield Park.
Fortunately, it was a chilly evening, so the scarf that she wrapped around her neck and lifted all the way to her lips made sense. She hoped no one would think it was a concealment trick but rather something a lady did to keep herself from getting chilly on such an evening out. Because it was evening. It was also an important evening during which she and Edwin hoped to get at least one step closer to solving the mystery of what happened to his sister.
“Did you tell her that I was accompanying you?” he asked.
“No,” Lydia assured him as they rushed towards the bench which was to hide the letter until the man arrived. “I told her I would drop it off because I was worried about his intentions. Technically, I didn’t lie to her. I merely… was silent regarding the whole truth.”
“Do you feel bad about lying to your sister?” he asked, turning to her without slowing down his pace. They were both in a rush. There was not a single moment to lose.
His question caught her off guard. It was direct. It was succinct. He knew exactly what she was worried about, and he wasn’t afraid to ask exactly that question. People usually tended to steer clear of such questions that might get others to open up too much. They considered them too inappropriate. With Edwin, no question seemed to be inappropriate. They flowed out of curiosity, out of concern, out of… love?
The thought surprised her. She quickly tried to banish it from her mind.
“I do,” she admitted. “Although I know we are doing the right thing, I just wish I could have told her about this man.”
“It is best that she doesn’t know yet,” he reminded her. “That might change the way she writes to him. A man like this might notice any change in her behavior towards him, and it might frighten him away before we can find out who he is.”
“You are right,” she nodded.
He smiled reassuringly then he stopped. He looked knowingly at a bench. There was the fountain as well. This was it.
Lydia looked around worriedly. She half expected to see someone watching them, just like they were planning on doing to whoever would come for the letter.
“Where shall we hide?” she asked, her voice down to a whisper.
He mirrored her action, his eyes surveying the grounds around them. There were lots of trees around and lots of shrubbery they could crouch behind. However, Lydia knew that they were taking a tremendous risk just by being here together, after dark. Fortunately for them, there was no one around. Crownsfield Park was much smaller, especially in comparison to Hyde Park, and people steered clear of it after dark, mostly because of its poor illuminations and lots of dark corners where Lydia did not even want to think what might happen. Despite that fear, she knew that this was where she needed to be. Here, by Edwin’s side.
“Over there,” he finally pointed at a statue that seemed to arise out of the bushes. It was Venus pleading with passersby. To Lydia, the goddess looked sadder than anything she had ever seen before. It reminded her of the sadness of the girls who had disappeared and their hopes of being found again. She could not imagine how that must feel.
He walked over to the bench and hid the letter in the grass underneath it. It was completely concealed from the naked eye. One could only find it if one knew it was there. So, whoever, came and lowered himself to it would be their man.
“Now?” Lydia asked, feeling her heart beating in her very throat. She had never been this much involved in a mystery. It had become of the utmost importance to her that Rachel was found. There was no other acceptable outcome.
“Now we wait,” he told her with a shrug.
He sounded calm, composed. He wondered how he managed to do that. She envied his character, the way he always kept himself under control no matter what. Suddenly, he pulled her by the hand, and led her behind the statue. They had a perfect view of the bench from there, but they were hidden from plain sight by the thick shrubbery and the statue itself. It was the perfect hiding spot.
The way he grabbed her by the hand seemed to stir her from this silent moodiness. It alerted her to the fact that they were together, to the fact that his touch felt so warm against her skin. But there was one downside to this. The touch was too short. He let go of her immediately upon hiding, and now, he was focused on the bench.
“How long do you think we’ll have to stay here?” she pondered.
He shrugged. “It might be five minutes, but it might be five hours as well.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. What they were doing was risky. They could be seen by someone. Truth be told, the odds of someone walking through Crownsfield Park at this time of the evening were rather slim. In addition to that, whoever might be walking around would be equally reluctant not to make his or her presence known. So, Lydia believed they were safe. Well… as safe as they could be under the circumstances.
“Have you thought about what you will do when we catch him?” she asked.
Upon hearing her question, his body tensed. Despite what she thought, the question obviously caught him off guard. If he was thinking about this, which she was certain he was, he didn’t seem too eager to share his thoughts regarding the matter.
“I’m afraid,” he admitted with a low tone of voice. He didn’t dare look at her.
She tried hard to fight this desire, but eventually, she yielded to it. She placed her hand softly on his shoulder. She expected him to twitch, to show some sort of displeasure at her touching him, but he showed no such thing. It was actually the opposite, his body seemed to relax.
“What are you afraid of?” she whispered her question. She was afraid that their conversation might stir the darkness and silence around them.
“I am afraid that my rage will take over me,” he finally confessed what his greatest fear would be. “I am afraid that it will be too late for Rachel…”
“It won’t,” she assured him. “I don’t want you to think like that, not even for a single moment.”