The Impossible Poisoning.

Chapter 9

Three days later, I was very near recovered. Hanson's real identity had been exposed and she had been taken away, I didn't know where. It seemed she was wanted for the deaths of several children a long time ago.

I was sitting in the lounge alone, finishing the book Hettie had loaned me. I was smiling to myself as I read the final chapter, as for the first time, the ending was pretty much identical to my own suspicions.

I was interrupted by Hettie, letting herself in quietly so as not to disturb me. I looked up.

"Sorry" she said awkwardly.

"You didn't disrupt" I smiled. "I'm pretty much finished."

After the revelations of the past few days, all of my friends had tried to keep their distance from me. They all felt terribly guilty that they hadn't believed me when I said I was being poisoned, and it had taken a lot of patience and a lot of tears from Isabel and Hettie before we were back on good terms. But after looking over the dramas, there was one thing-well, a couple of things, actually, that didn't make sense. And most of them, sadly, circled around one person and one person alone.

"Hettie?" I asked innocently.

"Mm?" Hettie replied, looking up with a smile.

"What aren't you telling me?"

Her smile vanished sharply. She didn't speak.

"Hettie" I warned, sitting up straight and setting the book aside. "What's going on?"

"Nothing's going on, Allie" Hettie said levelly.

"Liar." I didn't want to have to call her that, but I needed her to talk. Truthfully. If my suspicions were correct, then she was in more danger right now than I was.

"Allie! I don't know what you mean!" my best friend gasped, sounding shocked, but her whole manner was wrong. We both knew it was wrong.

"Hettie!" I sighed, grabbing her hand as she stood up to leave. "Hettie, please. I'll understand. Let me help."

"There's nothing you can help me with" Hettie replied fixedly. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'd never keep anything from you."

"Everyone has demons in their closets, Hettie" I said sadly, taking both of her hands and squeezing them tight. "Fisher does. I've seen them. Isabel does, but I've sworn never to tell anyone about hers. I'm not sure about Newham. I don't know anything about his past before the Army. But I've got demons. Huge ones. They haven't been there for long, and neither have yours. Yours have only been there for days."

I saw Hettie masking her discomfort as best she could.

"We all have secrets we'd never tell a soul" I carried on. "And sometimes we can survive them on our own. But yours..."

"Allie!" Hettie sighed, pulling away and sitting me back down on the sofa. "I don't know what you're saying. I'm fine. Now rest some more. You're still ill."

I looked sadly at her as she gave me my book back.

"You'll tell me, though?" I asked, after a minute of silence. "You'd tell me if there's anything you need help with?"

"Course" Hettie muttered distractedly, before seeming to shrug the conversation off and sighing.

"Frightfully bad luck for Felicity, though, isn't it?"

Despite all my worries, I cracked a smile. Hettie seemed pleased she'd taken me off topic, and carried on.

"Although I hate to say it, I did see it coming."

I laughed. Yesterday, when I had made my way downstairs for the first time, we had received a call from the infamous Ethall Debunbuns, and Felicity had been all of a flutter. Apparently some of her friends had seen Mr. Debunbuns in town coming out of a jeweller's shop, so she had taken it as a sign. Sadly, when the poor man actually arrived, it had been to propose to Rebecca, not Felicity, and the awkwardness had been palpable from my chair in the next room. Isabel and Fisher actually had to take a walk in the gardens they were laughing so hard.

"She'll get over him" I assured Hettie. "Still, I'm sure Rebecca will put some of the Debunbuns fortune towards patching up this place. It could be gorgeous."

"Becca loves this house" Hettie agreed. "I'm sure she will."

"Rebecca Debunbuns is quite the mouthful, though" I commented randomly, and the two of us then spent the next ten minutes trying to say Rebecca Debunbuns as fast as humanly possible.

We were dying with guilty laughter as Newham suddenly hurried in, newspaper in hand and tailed by Isabel, Fisher and Broker.

"Allie!" he exclaimed worriedly, holding out the paper. "Look at this!"

I snatched the paper from his hands and read the headline. My stomach dropped.

"Oh God!" Hettie gasped, reading over my shoulder.

"Explosion in Harley Street" I read numbly. "Late on Monday night, unknown offenders broke into a private practice on Harley Street, and after destroying the property from the inside, planted a bomb to destroy the...flat above."

"The owner, one A. Scott, was injured in the blast, and was admitted to St. Bart's Hospital early on Tuesday morning" Hettie added, her voice thick.

I shut my eyes and sagged into the sofa as everyone looked at each other with the same horrified expression.

"We have to go back" I murmured.

"Are you mad?" Newham snapped, looking alarmed at the prospect.

"We have to!" I argued. "Dr. Scott's the only one Stephenson can still reach. If we're all together we'll all be safer. And I'm not leaving him on his own."

"He's safe in the hospital, Alianna..." Broker began.

"But he's not!" I shouted suddenly. "None of us are! None of us are safe anywhere until we see this through! Can't you understand that?"

"Until we see this through?" Isabel repeated, with a little quiver in her voice. "Allie...what do you mean?"

I stood up suddenly, folding the newspaper and throwing it away.

"Pack, all of you. We're returning to London in the morning. Dr. Scott needs us. No arguments."

They looked at me, and I could see how scared they were.

"We need to take the fight to him" I reasoned. "Robert, you were right before. We can't hide forever" I told them confidently. "We'll tell Felicity and Rebecca we're leaving in the morning."

I picked up my book and strode out.