Andy's Story

Chapter Six - Warnings and Advice

The next morning a letter was awaiting Andrea at the breakfast table. It was simply addressed to 'Lady Winters' in bold handwriting. She poured herself a cup of chocolate and slit open the seal to read the few words within:

Run!

Leave London.

You don't want to get caught

In your brothers troubles.

It was simply signed 'A Friend.'

Andrea stared at the bold handwriting, trying to think of who would be warning her to leave London. She looked at the letter and turning the paper over in her hand trying to locate anything that would tell her who had sent the letter. 

Nothing. There was nothing, no water marks, nothing on the seal - it was just a wax blob, no impressions marked it - and the message was written on a cheap piece of paper. But the penmanship was remarkable, the spelling was perfect which meant that it must have been written by someone with an education.

"Burgess." She called.

Burgess poked his head around the door frame, "Yes, my lady?"

"Do you know who sent this letter?" She asked waving the page in the air.

"It was delivered by a street lad late last night - after the household had retired for the night."

"Did the lad say anything?"

Burgess looked behind him back into the foyer and then stepped into the parlour, closing the door firmly behind him. "He said not to tell his lordship about it."

Andrea blinked at the butler, "don't tell George?"

"That's what he said my lady."

"Very well then, who else knows of the letter?"

"Nobody milady."

"Let's keep it that way for now, okay? Thank you Burgess."

"Very good milady." Burgess bowed and left the room, relieved to have a bit more authority then the word of a street boy not to tell his master.

Andrea stared down at the letter again.

Run, it said.

Leave London, it advised.

Where could she go? She wondered. Did this have something to do with George and the reasons he wanted her in London? What trouble was her brother in, that made someone advise her to leave London?

Folding the letter, she slipped it into the pocket of her gown.

Questions whirled in her head as she finished her breakfast, and pondered what her move would be. She didn't want to stay, she knew that. The feeling of being watched was becoming hard to endure.

She didn't want to involve her friends, this whole thing seemed bigger somehow and she didn't want anyone getting hurt. But she did have to see them before she just disappeared for an unknown amount of time. And she was going to take Lord Foyley up on his offer.

Leaving the breakfast parlour Andrea informed Burgess to have Richards ready and waiting for her in the foyer within fifteen minutes, then made her way up the stairs to her bed chamber where she rang the bell and waited for her maid to appear.