Forty-One

I was able to bring Alden back with me when I returned to Hyde Park, finally fulfilling the expectations of my family. I insisted on going to the police station myself to get him released. Fitz accompanied me, despite his wound and my protestations, going so far as to offer his motorcar to take us home after the driver dropped him at his town house.

“Thank you, Fitz. Are you sure you’ll be all right?” I asked when we reached his door.

Alden helped him out of the car. His arm was in a sling. “You’re very welcome. I’ll be fine. Mrs. Murphy, my housekeeper, will rejoice in an excuse to fuss over me, believe me. I’m glad it’s all worked out. You tell your husband I said we’ll all be very happy when you’re safely out of town. There’s been quite enough excitement.” He glanced up at the door of his house where an older lady in an apron was waiting. Then he bent to speak to me inside the motorcar. “Take care, Emily, and take care of that family of yours. We’ll be wanting to see all of you when you’re back in the fall.” He straightened up. “When we’ve all had a chance to recover.”

Wordlessly, he and Alden shook hands. Then he sighed and trudged to his door where the housekeeper immediately began clucking over him.

As we pulled away, Alden settled into the seat beside me. The atmosphere was strained. During the car ride from the station, Fitz and I had explained how Babe Greer’s guilt was discovered. Alden had hardly spoken during our tale. Even now, he seemed tense, as if he either didn’t want to speak at all or had a dammed-up lake full of explanations he was waiting to pour out. I wasn’t sure when I’d have another opportunity to talk to him alone, so I felt compelled to speak.

“Alden, we’re all so relieved. Everyone was so worried about you.” I looked out the window. “It’ll be so good for everything to get back to normal.” Everything had been so disrupted. We’d had to put off so many plans and it had been such a strain. I felt suddenly so much lighter. Spring blossoms left on the trees we passed looked lovely again, even more so than before. It was such a relief to have the worry lifted, like a dark veil that had been dropped over everything and was finally being raised.

Alden shifted in his seat. “Thank you for your help, Emily. I am grateful. Whitbread told me how you were locked in with the leopards. Babe Greer must be quite mad to do what she’s done. But I must tell you there is no normal for me to go back to.” After all of this, he was going to be difficult again.

“I don’t know what you mean,” I lied. I was ready to sulk.

“I’m not going back to newspapers. I’m going to California.”

“Alden, after all you’ve put Clara through, you’re still going to leave her?”

He was very pale. He must have been thinking about all this while he was alone in jail. “Emily, I know what I’ve done to Clara, but it’s for her own good, and for the children, too. There’s nothing for me here, don’t you see that? I have a chance to do something, to be something, to do real work, even if you don’t think it’s real. Yes, it’s a risk. I’m taking a chance by following Selig out to California but…can’t you see? I’m dying here. I’m smothered. I can’t live like this. I’m a failure.”

I shrank back from the anger he was radiating. At least he was talking about following Col. Selig, not Kathlyn Williams. “What about Kathlyn Williams?” I asked. It slipped out. I didn’t want to ask but I did.

He turned to stare at me with his big icy-blue eyes. “Emily, I told you. It’s not Kathlyn Williams, it’s The Adventures of Kathlyn I care about. Clara’s the only woman I’ve ever loved but I’ve failed her. Don’t you see? I can’t bear to face her like this. I can’t go on this way.”

The motorcar reached Alden and Clara’s house, and I could feel Alden’s emotion as he looked up at his shiny black front door. I put a hand on his arm. “You have to talk to Clara,” I said. “She loves you, Alden. You know that.”

He nodded and climbed out of the car. I looked back as we drove away, unsure of what would happen to their family.