Yesterday's Promise by Linda Lee Chaikin

no law that can stop them. In many ways, Mr. Rhodes and the Company are the law.”
    Rogan thought of John Sheehan. His hand was still on the doorknob, gripping it hard.
    â€œJulien will get Henry’s map over my dead body.”
    Parnell went white around the mouth. “Don’t even joke like that.”
    His brother’s response did more to shake Rogan than anything he’d heard. A moment of silence passed between them, like a ripple of wind passing through an open window. Rogan deliberately smiled to ease the tension.
    His mind went back aboard ship to the pages from Henry’s diary: “When it comes to diamonds and gold, I’d trust him no more than a banded cobra.”
    They looked at each other soberly, then Rogan threw the door open and walked out.
    He was sure now that his brother would not tell Julien that he’d found the map. Ambitious, Parnell was; Darinda, he wanted. But it was now clear that Parnell feared Julien in a far more serious way than Arcilla feared him. Arcilla was apprehensive over Julien’s interference in her frivolous social life. But Parnell feared him because he was convinced Julien could commit murder if anyone got in his way.

C HAPTER S IX

    Grimston Way, England
Rookswood
    A week later, Sir Lyle Chantry and his maiden sister, Lady Elosia, conducted a meeting in the Rookswood parlor with Dr. and Mrs. Tisdale, and Vicar Osgood and his wife, Martha. Mrs. Croft was there as well, sitting in a corner wringing her hands. She knew her eyes were red-rimmed from crying as she twisted her damp handkerchief, now and then blotting her pointed nose.
    When Evy had not shown up for Allhallows Eve Supper at the parish hall, she had grown worried and sent Wally to the cottage.
    â€œIn the rain, Mrs. Croft?”
    â€œIn the rain, Wally. Now, scat with you. She should’ve been here by now.”
    â€œAye, then you be saving me some of that pumpkin pie, else it’ll soon be gone.”
    â€œRun along. I’ll save you a piece.”
    He had come running back dripping wet, eyes wide, yelling that Miss Evy was dead. It had taken some minutes to quiet everyone down to discover that Wally wasn’t sure that Evy was dead, but to him she sure looked it. He said he found her lying in an awful state at the bottom of the attic steps, and he didn’t think she was breathing.
    Dr. Tisdale and Sir Lyle had rushed to the cottage with a few of theleading citizens of Grimston Way. Mrs. Croft had followed, arriving some twenty minutes later, huffing and puffing her way along the edge of the muddy road through wind and rain, all the time her heart in her throat and a prayer for the mercies of God upon her trembling lips. By the time she entered the bungalow, she was in such a state of exhaustion and emotional distress that Dr. Tisdale had Mrs. Tisdale treat her with a mild sleeping powder while he gave his full attention to Evy. Mrs. Croft lay down on the divan and remembered nothing until her niece Lizzie shook her awake an hour later.
    She awakened to a cup of strong tea and Lizzie hovering about her like a nervous swallow. Lizzie had come down from Rookswood with the latest news and to bring Mrs. Croft up to Rookswood. Dear Evy was not dead, although she was gravely injured.
    â€œThe poor darlin’ lost her footing, she did. It were dreadful, Aunt Edna, just dreadful. I was there when they carried her up the stairs and put her in her old room near the nursery.”
    Lizzie told her how the squire and Lady Elosia had insisted Evy be brought immediately to Rookswood. They had put her in the very bedroom she had used as a girl when Mrs. Grace Havering lived with her at Rookswood as Miss Arcilla’s governess.
    Lady Elosia wanted Mrs. Croft to pack some of Evy’s things and come and stay with her in the alcove beside Evy’s chamber. Although Mrs. Croft wouldn’t come out and say so, she had long considered Evy like a granddaughter. She had loved her