There was no chaise out of Ambry before eight the next morning, which Nell established from Perrin, in the yard, in the rain, at half past four, with her case already packed and standing at the foot of her bed like a reproach.
She came back through the kitchen passage and found Héloïse waiting at the top of it.
“Perrin will have told you there is nothing until the morning.”
“He has.”
“Then I am going to ask you something, and I should like you to notice the shape of it.” Héloïse had her hands at her sides. “You have no engagement in this house. You are not working here and you are not owed anything here, and there is a stamped paper on my blotter that says you will not take sixpence off me for the fortnight. Which means tonight is the first night since the twentieth of October…
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