The Liberation of Alice Love - Abby McDonald [71]
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It rained, of course, clouding over and drenching the city with cold sheets of water almost as soon as she reached the bottom of the hill. By the time Alice had dashed from the Tube to the office, her thin ballet flats were wet through and unpleasant rivulets of water had begun a slow trickle down her neck. She flung open the door and hurried into the foyer, shivering.
“Can you not stand there?” Saskia beamed insincerely at Alice over the reception desk. “I only just tidied, and you’re dripping all over the floor.”
Alice narrowed her eyes.
“You should probably go clean up before anyone arrives,” Saskia added sweetly, from her warm, dry vantage point. “We can’t have clients seeing the place like this!”
Ignoring the request, Alice pulled a stack of damp contracts from her bag and set them down on the desk with a thwack. “These need to be faxed right away,” she said, matching Saskia’s beam with one of equal insincerity. “Cover letters and details are stapled to the front of every file.”
Saskia picked one up between thumb and forefinger with a grimace. “I’ll see when I can get to it.”
“Right away,” Alice repeated, her friendly tone slipping. “Before eleven.”
Saskia glared. Alice glared back.
“Fine.” Eventually, Saskia admitted defeat. “I’ll do it now.”
“And then the hand towels in the bathroom will need replacing. Since I need to stop dripping on your floors,” Alice added, turning on her heel and stalking up the stairs.
She did what she could with the aid of paper towels and a flannel, but Alice was still decidedly damp and bedraggled when, at last, she settled at her desk and surveyed the thick stack of bills she’d had to collect from her old flat. The landlord had let them mount for weeks before remembering to call, and now she faced bold printed warnings on every envelope for her “immediate attention.” Bracing herself, Alice tore open the first. Six hundred pounds still owing on a store card, legal action, immediate steps. It didn’t say what the money had been used for, but Alice already knew: something unexpected, something fun. She tossed it aside and reached for another. More monies owning, even less time to pay. Another. Another. She made her way through the stack, the catalog of a life Ella had been living without blame or consequence. And Alice was left to tidy up after, as usual. As always.
The floor was littered with torn envelopes by the time Alice was almost through. She’d have to sort them all, of course: make copies and forward them to the solicitor and file them away neatly along with the rest. She sighed, listlessly flicking through the final stack of hateful slim letters, with their clear windows and typed addresses. Then she paused.
A postcard.
It was tucked between two plain brown envelopes, a small burst of color with blue skies and some bustling town square scene. Alice pulled it out, flipping to see the back, and the handwritten message scribbled at an enthusiastic slant: “I love Italy! The men are divine, and oh, the gelato—it’s even better! See you soon. xx Ella.”
Alice stopped, her heart suddenly racing. Ella was contacting her now, after everything? She reread the few short lines with disbelief. What could Ella possibly be thinking, giving police a trail to follow like this? Or was it a game, to gloat over her victory?
Quickly, Alice checked the date. Over two months ago.
Her excitement dropped as quickly as it had risen. That was when Ella was supposedly at that conference in Rome, the exhibition of beauty firms and PR agencies that she had sighed over, as if she really had been facing three days in an airless exhibition centre, plying the latest skin-care technology. It was nothing new, after all. She must have just sent it to maintain the façade, to fool Alice a little longer while she made her escape.
Alice turned the card over in her hands, feeling a strange sense of disappointment. It would have been nice to know Ella was doing well, somewhere, and that she had thought of Alice—enough to risk detection. She often wondered where the other woman was now, and if she considered