Chapter 5: The Friend They Did Not Order

Hallie handed me the bag my mother had packed at home.

"She said you'd forgotten your decent socks," she explained.

Caroline heard the word mother and looked toward her own shoes.

"You could have borrowed things here," she told me.

Hallie looked down at my muddy boots.

"They're quite particular about their socks," she said.

She had known my family since we were children.

She knew my mother would worry about my feet before my social position.

I opened the bag and found clean clothes and a packet of biscuits.

A small note said: Call when you feel like it.

I put it in my pocket instead of showing it around.

"Would you stay for tea?" I asked Hallie.

"I'd like that," she answered.

Audrey came toward us carrying her croquet mallet.

"This is my sister," I told Hallie.

The word came out before I had tested how it felt.

Audrey looked at me, then put the mallet down.

"I'm Audrey," she said.

Hallie shook her hand without inspecting her clothes.

"I've heard good things," she told her.

"Already?" Audrey asked.

"May's messages were mostly about your mother," Hallie answered.

Caroline smiled because she didn't know what the messages had said.

"Then come inside," she told us.

We followed her to the club's small tea room.

Victor chose a table near the window where other members could see us.

Edith sat with her back to the room.

She preferred looking at the garden.

Hallie took the chair beside Audrey without waiting for a place card.

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