But the front door stood firmly closed, not at all as she had seen it in her mind’s eye.
“Please go, Oldroyd! Don’t wait for me.”
In spite of the closed door, something deep inside Elissa knew that she must stay here.
“Very well, miss. But you should keep my coat – and, miss, if ’is Lordship be on the warpath, I shall tell ’im the ’orses were fidgetin’ and I took ’em for a trot round the block.”
“Thank you so much, Oldroyd!”
She then reached out to clasp the coachman’s rough hand and then he was gone.
Elissa pulled up the collar of Oldroyd’s coat and waited in the rain as the rumble of the coach wheels faded.
Just as silence had returned to the street, the front door of the house opened.
Exactly as she had seen in her vision, a long ray of golden light spilled out down the garden p
