Lory flinched at Rose’s words.

“You know Elijah will just let him out again as soon as eyes are off the both of them.”

She smiled, strained, putting her hands at Alice and Anne’s arms to try and urge them forward.

“Thank you so much, Miss. You’ve been nothing but kind and gracious.”

At the door of the cab, she bit her lip and threw her chin up. She couldn’t hide the fear in her eyes.

“I should get back to work, girls,” she said, as though she were the matron there and these her wayward ducklings.

“Merde,” Mehmet grunted. “Can’t I just, uh, pop it back into-” he started trying to move it, made a face, and seemed to think better of it despite finishing, “-… place?”

“I can,” Anita grunted, but made no move to do so.

Oh! What a nice breeze over her sweaty face.

Zechariah frowned with a genuinely confused look when Tobias fussed him away, but he lifted his arms in some semblance of baffled surrender. Wife-beater? Lawyer un-beater? Life was complicated.

Tobias didn't pay attention to Mr. Meijer's reaction. All of a sudden, the girls were brought to a cab by what he thought to be the matron of whatever whorehouse Ben had referred to, but then understood to be a bookshop owner. Dirty literature?

"Alice! Stay there, I'll come to yer sister's later."

She didn't even think to bring her child...

He turned to Jimmy and Jenny, and the wetnurse holding Emma, and told them to go back to the inn.

Anne gave Tobias a teary-yet-angry look, but then turned to Miss Pennyfeather. "Thank ye so much, Miss." She wanted to tell Lory to come. She didn't want her to go back to that place. But she was too overwhelmed, and so she got into the cab, dragging Alice along with her.

Alice too turned her eyes on Tobias. At last her cold decorum cracked a little, and her eyes turned red. But she clenched her teeth, lifted her chin, turned to Mr. Meijer and gave him a nod. She turned to Lory. "'E'll try 'ome first. There's some time." She looked at Christine. "Thank you, Miss. I enjoyed the race." Then she gave into Anne and got into the carriage. God, the smell.

Rose ushered Bram in and thanks Miss Pennyfeather for her kindness. Then she turned to Lory. "He wouldn't turn on you, Lory..." The fact that she had to say this was disturbing. So was the doubt in her mind.

Oh God, Tristan felt like he would rather deal with the aggressive man who had just been carried away than with this. He looked at the injured man. "One second," he promised. Then he turned to the crowd. "Can anyone help this lady home?"

Truly remarkable, how quickly that crowd dispersed.

Zechariah, too, dispersed.