“Why are we running, Miss Davis?

Because the past is chasing us!”

“Pack your things!” Emily ordered Eva, right after she entered the house, in such a hurry and so nervous, that Eva thought that something bad happened and she started to shudder.

“Why? Did something happen to…” but Eva stopped halfway through the question. “Miss Davis doesn’t know about Brian,” thought Eva. “It means something else happens and this is something bad.”

She just exited her room, after 5 days of being closed there, and she wanted to go for a walk, but Miss Davis’command definitely preoccupied her, because it was something that Eva had never expected and definitely, she didn’t know what to do.

“Don’t stay like a dumb, in the middle of the living room,” yelled Emily at the girl and she started to climb the stairs. “Follow me and pack your things! We leave in an hour!”

Eva practically ran up the stairs, following Miss Davis, but both stopped half away from the stairs and Emily looked at the girl. “Never run up or down the stairs! Did you hear me, Eva? This is dangerous and… try not to be alone until I’m not next to you. Did you listen to me?”

The girl just nodded, but it was obvious she didn’t understand what Emily was talking about, but she didn’t dare to ask more about it. “Where is Anna?” Emily asked this time.

“Miss Bircham sent her to buy something. She will be back in an hour or two, I think. We should…”

“We have no time for this,” answered Miss Davis, climbing the stairs again. “It’s better that she’s not home. She could make some problems for us if she was home. Just hurry up and take only the necessary,” commanded Emily and she entered her room, slamming the door.

Confused, Eva entered her room and took the bag from under the bed and she started to throw inside the bag part of her stuff.

“What’s wrong with Miss Davis today?” wondered the girl. “Did she and Miss Christine have an argument or something and because of this, we are leaving? But where are we going and… Gosh, she didn't have enough time to send a message to Brian. He will be preoccupied if he didn’t find her here, but Eva was also wondering if he still remembers that she exists in this world.

But it was enough that Eva remembers him and she is missing him so much. It had been a month and a half already since they didn’t meet each other and three weeks since she saw Brian with Ms. Evans in the street, but Eva felt that it had passed years since they broke up.

“I’ll leave him a note,” decided the girl and she sat at the table and taking a sheet of paper from the drawer, she started to write.

“Dear, Mister Beneath,

I wondered a lot if I should write this letter to you or not, because of the pain I felt in my chest with your betrayal, but finally, I decided that it will be a shame…”

Oh, Gosh! What is she writing about? Shame? The one who should feel ashamed is him because he preferred another woman instead of her, but …

“Are you ready?” Emily’s voice was heard behind Eva and the girl suddenly hid the letter behind her.

Emily entered the room and, approaching the drawer, she took a matchbox and ignited a match: “Burn that letter, Eva,” she told the girl while keeping the lit match between her fingers. “You shouldn’t leave anything that can be used against you behind especially if that something is related to a lover”.

The light of the match faded off and because of this Emily took another one, but she stopped and gave the matchbox to Eva. “Do it by yourself!”

Eva took the matchbox and with shaking hands, she burned the letter. While both were looking at the burning paper, in a tray, the girl asked: “Did you know about me and mister Beneath?”

“Yes! I knew about it since it just started and I think everybody in town knows about it. But this isn’t something that you should be worried about, Eva. You aren’t alone. Not anymore” Emily said loudly, then she continued the phrase, in her head “... because I won’t allow another woman to suffer what I suffered twenty years ago and you will be the one who will help me to get revenge for what happened then.”

Anna’s voice was heard downstairs, calling Eva for lunch, but the girl didn’t say anything, catching Miss Davis’s sign, to keep silent.

“Hide somewhere,” Emily ordered in a whisper and the girl entered the closet. Two minutes later, Anna knocked on the door twice and then entered the room and she was so surprised to see Emily sitting at Eva’s desk and writing a letter, but what caught her attention were the paper ashes from the tray.

“Something happens, Anna?” Emily asked the young servant, who definitely hated her because Anna was listening to Christine’s orders only and she was seeing in Emily’s person a kind of rival because she was so close to Christine, while she, a simple servant, couldn’t take more than one step from next to the door and this only because she had to close the door somehow.

“No. Nothing happens,” mumbled the girl, looking at the floor. “It’s just the time for lunch and Miss Eva hasn't eaten anything since yesterday and…”

“We had a snack,” lied Emily to her. “Right before she left.”

“Miss Eva left somewhere?” stuttered the girl. “Where?” but Emily read in her eyes “without me?! Miss Christine will kill me for sure for leaving her alone” and Emily smiled at that thought because for the first time she saw how Christine’s plans were crumbling.

“She will be back home soon,” said Emily this time, and putting the letter inside of an envelope, she gave it to Anna. “Can you do me a favor, Anna?” Emily asked the girl with a soft voice. “Can you carry this letter to mister Beneath’s house?”

Suddenly the servant’s eyes started to blink and she became kind. “Of course!” answered the girl and she stretched the hand to take the letter, but Emily decided to tease her a little bit and standing up, she took two steps toward the girl, forcing her to crawl back and when she was about to stumble, Emily grabbed her arm and put the letter in her hand. “Be careful,” Emily said to the girl. “You don’t know when behind you can be a stair,” and these words echoed like a threat in Anna’s head.

Watching Emily, Anna could see in her eyes a spark of hatred. “She knows that I’m spying on Eva. She’s capable of everything to protect her, but… why?”

“Will you stay there all day?” asked Emily, forcing the girl to bend a little and to hurry up out of the room. Then, Emily approached the window and looked outside.

Eva approached her and also looked toward their garden. “She will open that letter,” Eva told to Emily and she was sad and preoccupied because there her secrets could be written and Eva was so afraid that others will find out about it, but Emily just smiled at her, saying with a soft and cunning voice: “she can open it if she wants. There’s nothing, anyway. Let’s hurry up, till she doesn't come back” and Emily left the room.

***

The carriage is advancing in a hurry on London's streets. Alfred received a command from Emily and like a faithful dog, he hurried up to fulfill it.

“We leave London immediately,” Emily told him when they left Luis’office. “And we must take Eva with us,” she also said and they returned to Christine’s house, looking for an opportunity to run away, but that day definitely had been Emily’s lucky day, because she didn’t see Christine’s carriage and it meant only one thing: she left to meet Luis.

“Stupid idiots,” thought Emily, while walking toward the entrance door. “They think that by buying me a house they will manage to convince me to help them again, but they are so wrong. I’ll defeat them, no matter what”.

“Where are we going?” Eva asked after about three hours of being silent.

“I don’t know yet,” answered Emily. “I just know that we should leave London and we should leave it immediately”.

“But why?” insisted the girl find out the reason for their leaving, but Emily looked outside and the girl left her alone.

Emily was so afraid that their plan would fail because Christine and Luis wouldn’t give up so easy and if Christine finds out about Eva’s pregnancy, it will be worse, but what was Emily most afraid of, was that Eva could live her past and if she loses the baby she is waiting, than she can lose everything. And Emily regrets that she took such a dumb decision last night and that she told Sophie about Brian’s baby. That hyena for sure won’t accept a foreign baby in her house and being Marianne’s friend, Emily was sure that Sophie is also capable of everything to get rid of a rival.

Emily still remembers the day when she came back to London, after a year spent in Paris, because returning home, she first met Marianne, waiting for her at the entrance to Christine’s property.

“Are you back, Miss Davis?” Marianne said then, in mockery, and getting out of her carriage, she approached Emily’s one and, standing in front of the door, she didn’t move away until Emily didn’t get out and the two-faced each other.

“How's the weather in Vienna?” Emily asked her rival, convinced that Marianne had been in England all this time and that her travel to Austria had been only an alibi.

“It was fine. Austria is wonderful this time of the year,” simply answered Ms. Chesterman, taking off her gloves and revealing a huge ring on her finger, a sign that Luis paid for “his betrayal” with Emily.

“He bought you,” Emily laughed, watching the jewelry, but deep inside she wanted to yell because she knew that she would never receive anything like this from the one who she loves.

“Buy, is a word that has so many meanings, Miss Davis,” Marianne addressed to her and she took a few steps in front, watching at the carriage. “Your gift is much bigger than mine, for sure”.

“But you are still his wife,” said Emily, and passing Marianne, she approached a dried blade of grass, which she later had broken in her hand. “Even if he never spends his nights in your bed, you still are his wife, and if he looks for another woman to calm his “heat” it means that he never receives home what he needs and his wife has a lot of "lacks".

The two women continued to move until they didn’t face the other, and when they stopped, both stared into the other’s eyes. “That “heat” is just something that will pass soon, Miss,” tried Marianne to tease Emily, but in response, he saw a smile on Emily’s face. “Even if his “heat” will pass, it won’t bring him back to you, Miss Chesterman, for the simple reason that an ice cube will never be a flame and men love flames more than ice,” and saying this, Emily got into her carriage, but she couldn’t close the door, because Marianne grabbed the doorknob.

“Stay away from my family,” whistled Marianne through her teeth, obviously furious that she couldn’t defeat her rival. “If not, you can lose more than a child and the chance to be a mother,” and then Marianne walked away, but Emily didn’t follow her carriage and she just ordered Alfred to go for a walk, because she needed to think about what just happened.

“Never leave your rival to kneel you, Eva,” Emily told the girl after many hours of silence. “Neither with words nor with actions. If you want something, just stub your claws on it and never let it go because nobody deserves that thing more than you”.

But Eva didn’t know how to do this. She wanted Brian, but she had no idea how to make him only hers, but for the first time she saw a light of hope for her and for her lover because she understood that this old Miss, that is staying next to her, while both decided to run, will help her to reach that aim she has now in her mind. And Eva finally smiled.

The carriage is still hurrying up in the streets, even if it’s dusk and even if they are already outside London, but none of them had the intention to stop for a while and think about what will happen. They just had in mind only one thing: first escape, then decide and if necessary, leave dead bodies behind them, but never allow themselves to be the ones killed.