Chapter 29
They travelled at night. Catherine did not tell Beaseley where she had gone, and left word with her household that she was visiting a desperately ill friend in the country. She and Lydia hired a conveyance at an inn just beyond the edge of town and, upon their arrival in London, went directly to a modest boarding house known to Lydia. No one there would recognise Catherine or ask questions; indeed, most of the other patrons were engaged in shady business of their own, and were as disinclined to notice their fellow travellers as they were willing to be noticed themselves.
Catherine was exhausted by the time they arrived. Without the comfort of her own well-sprung carriage and perfectly matched team of horses, she had been jolted and jostled and was nauseated and nearly deliriou
