The River of No Return

house. Bella protested—it wasn’t fair that she should be shut away from friendships because of inane social conventions, she didn’t mind that Miss Blomgren was Nick’s mistress, in fact, Alva could marry Nick, and become respectable!
    Miss Blomgren became quite short with Bella then, and scolded her. “You are hurting Julia’s feelings, Lady Arabella. You have said that she is in love with your brother. Not only that, but you are being rude to me.”
    “Rude? How?” Bella protested as she and Julia and Solvig were propelled up the basement stairs.
    “I have made it clear that I cannot be your friend, my lady, and you persist in pursuing an unwanted connection.” Miss Blomgren got them down the hallway and out of the front door. “Go and do not come back.” She stood with her hands on her hips.
    Bella lifted a tragic face to her idol. “I am sorry,” she said. “I enjoyed talking to you so much that day when we met. You told me you believed in education and equality. And I wanted . . .” She stopped, unable to continue.
    At that Miss Blomgren’s face softened. “I know, my dear,” she said gently. “But dreams and reality are at odds in this case. You are a lady and I am the opposite. It is the way of the Natural world. I wish you all the very best, and I hope that you find what you crave. Now good-bye.” She turned and disappeared inside her house, the door snapping shut behind her.
    Bella turned to Julia, her face red. “I am mortified,” she said. “I had no idea. And I liked her so much. It is unfair!”
    Julia put her arm around her shoulder. “Hush,” she said. “She was right, you know, to turn us out. But I am glad you brought me to meet her.”
    “Even though she is Nick’s mistress? You seemed horrified.”
    “It is the way of the Natural world.” Julia smiled at her friend.
    “You would just accept that? A man with a mistress?”
    “That is not what I said.” Julia squeezed Bella’s shoulders and grieved for the look of confusion in her friend’s eyes. The gulf between them was widening. Poor, hungry Bella had been entirely unaware of the feast that Julia had just attended; Julia had learned more from Alva and Peter in fifteen minutes than she had in an entire lifetime. And Bella, who craved nothing more than knowledge and freedom, had been frozen stiff.
    Naturals, Guild, Ofans. It was beginning to make a crazy sort of sense. Ofans could travel in time. Members of the Guild probably could, too. Julia felt the thrill down her limbs, the rushing in her head; so could she. She knew it. She could feel that she could, if only she knew how.
    As for Nick, what was he? He was partly Guild, for he was bound in some relationship to Lebedev. But Alva was Ofan, and she knew Nick. She was his lover, by her own admission. Perhaps Nick was Ofan, as well. Or perhaps he was a spy. But for which side?
    Julia frowned.
    She turned to Bella. “I am going home,” she said. “Alone. You go along to Hatchards and collect Clare without me.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
    J ulia handed her cloak to the butler. “Is my Lord Blackdown in, Smedley?”
    Smedley flared his nostrils. The Falcotts’ London butler was famously priggish. “He is,” he said repressively.
    “Please ask him to attend me in the drawing room at his earliest convenience.”
    “The other ladies are out, Miss Percy.”
    “I am not inquiring about the other ladies. I am asking about his lordship.”
    “You wish to see him alone.” It wasn’t a question, it was an accusation.
    “Yes. I wish to see him alone.” Julia met the butler’s gaze squarely.
    Just under his left eye, his cheek was twitching. But after the hall clock had ticked past an echoing seven seconds, he broke and bowed. “As you wish, Miss Percy.” He walked slowly away toward the study door.
    Julia took off her bonnet and set it on the footman’s chair. She checked her hair in the hall mirror. It was still brown, as were her eyes. She wasn’t very tall, and her face was not a perfect oval. She didn’t have any experience. She had no possessions of her own, and she was reliant for her lodging, her clothing, and her very life upon the dubious kindness of friends and relations.
    But that was no reason for her not to have self-possession. Miss Blomgren had it. So could she. Julia pinched her cheeks, hoping for a little color, then went into the drawing room to await Blackdown.
    He was with her quickly. “Hello.” He smiled, closed the door behind him,