A Bitter Truth Read Online Free PDF Page B

much thought until then.” She grimaced. “I just knew that it hurt—my face and all that side of my head.”
    I pressed my fingers carefully on either side of the wound, but as far as I could tell there was no indication that the skull had been fractured. Still . . . “You ought to see a doctor,” I began, but she cut me short.
    “Oh, no, I couldn’t. I don’t like Dr. Tilton. He gossips, and he’ll want to know how I got this bruise.”
    “It isn’t the bruise that worries me. There are doctors here in London.”
    She wouldn’t hear of it. But I thought, remembering her dizzy spells, and now the headache, that she must have a concussion. “Have you felt sick? Nauseated?”
    “Only when I ate too much at the restaurant,” she replied wryly. “I hadn’t realized just how hungry I was.”
    I made her a compress for her face, then said, “Will you go with me to Somerset for a few days, Lydia? I think it would do you good to rest before you go home.” And she could see our doctor.
    She refused outright. “If I go anywhere, it will be to Vixen Hill,” she told me. “I’ll leave tomorrow.”
    I wasn’t sure I believed her. And the thought of her wandering about London, alone and with a concussion, was worrying.
    “Why won’t you let Simon drive us to Vixen Hill?”
    “I don’t believe it would make it easier for me to face Roger,” she said earnestly.
    “Lydia. Is that your real name?”
    She flushed. “I’m so sorry. Actually it is. And it was also my mother’s name.”
    “If I agree to go home with you—tomorrow, let us say, or the day after—and deliver you safely to your family, will you promise to see a doctor? Just as a precaution.”
    “You must stay the night,” she told me, trying to keep her hope from showing in her face. “There’s only the one train a day, coming north, and by the time we reach Vixen Hill, you’ll have missed it.”
    “Yes, all right. One night. As long as you agree to see that doctor.”
    “Bess, you won’t regret it. I promise you. And the sooner the better. I shan’t be able to sleep now, thinking about tomorrow. Are you quite sure?”
    It was the only solution that I could see to the problem of what to do about Lydia. It set me free to go on to Somerset, and I could leave her in Sussex, secure in the knowledge that she had returned safely to her family. I was sure Simon wouldn’t approve, but tomorrow morning I could explain to him why I’d made this decision, and arrange to have him meet me in London on my return. After all, Lydia had told him who her husband was, and where she lived. It wasn’t as if I were going off with a complete stranger to an unknown destination.
    And if I had any reason to believe that Lydia had made the wrong choice, if her husband refused to take her back, then she could come with me to Somerset until she could decide what she ought to do next.
    Her happiness at having the decision to return to Vixen Hill taken out of her hands was obvious. For her sake, I hoped that her faith in Roger Ellis was justified.
    I said, “There’s one thing I’d like to ask you, if you don’t mind. Who is Juliana?”
    At first I didn’t think she was going to tell me. And then she said, “Juliana? She’s Roger’s sister.”

Chapter Two
    T he next morning, I looked for Simon to return, but as the time sped on, I realized that it was likely I’d miss him. But where was he? What had held him up?
    I wrote a hasty note and left it with Mrs. Hennessey, and then there was nothing for it but to find a cab to take us to the railway station. I even looked over my shoulder before we turned the corner, to see if Simon’s motorcar was in sight.
    The train was crowded, as usual, and Lydia and I had difficulty finding two seats together. She was embarrassed that I had to pay for her ticket, but she promised to see that I was recompensed as soon as she reached Vixen Hill.
    I said as we pulled out of the station into the misting rain, “Won’t it be