Sabrina looked over the galleys for the upcoming edition of the Evening News with a pleased hum. The cover story about the continuing cleanup efforts downtown marked the first time her photos would be on the front page. She'd have to send her father a copy.
Dez appeared beside her and nudged her elbow. "Well done you, Vicki Vale," he teased. "Ya comin' round for a pint later?"
Sabrina smiled thoughtfully. "No, thank you, Dez," she answered, nudging him back. "I promised my aunt I'd call her tonight. Now that we've finished this story, I feel all at loose ends. I think I need to get out of town for a few days."
"Fair enough," he said. "We'll be at it a while. If you finish your call and fancy a sip, give us a shout."
Her flat and her post office lay in opposite directions from work. Nonetheless, Sabrina set out on foot to check her PO Box before heading home. The summery evening air was too perfect not to enjoy a nice stroll. The afterglow from the sunset made even Manchester's hard edges look like a dream.
As she'd hoped, there was a package from her lawyer. This should contain the paperwork that would finally make the Alice Egerton Memorial Endowment a reality, enabling Crisis to rent three more homes per month to serve as supplemental shelters. The use of her mother's maiden name for the trust served a twofold purpose: a tribute to her and a publicity shield for Sabrina. Her father couldn't have been prouder.
Amid the usual advertisements and bills was a dainty cream-colored envelope that bore her name in flawless calligraphy. Wondering who was getting married, Sabrina tucked her other mail under her arm and opened it on the sidewalk in front of the post office.
Her foolish heart leaped into her throat. It was from Linus, inviting her to dinner at a restaurant in Paris in two days. There was no way to RSVP with her acceptance or her regrets. It just asked her to come.
No ticket this time either, Sabrina thought wryly. It didn't seem entirely chivalrous of him to expect the lady to make her own way, but he surely remembered how well his previous attempt to give her a ticket to Paris had gone. If she understood him correctly now, he was giving her an option he'd tried to withhold last time: the freedom to refuse.
"Will you go, then?" asked Aunt Margaret when Sabrina called her from her flat that night.
"I don't know," Sabrina confessed. "I'm scared to choose either way."
"What frightens you, love?"
"Besides the fact that he tried to seduce me just to get me out of the way of a business deal?"
"That's why you're frightened to go," Margaret agreed. "Why are you frightened not to?"
Sabrina fiddled with the phone cord as she searched for the right words.
"Ever since I left home, I've felt like a puzzle piece that didn't quite fit. I certainly didn't fit in Paris at all when I arrived," she laughed. "I felt like I'd fit there all my life by the time I left, but … now that I've been away for so long, it's different again. When I got back to New York, I realized I didn't fit at home anymore either. Living with you was lovely, but it wasn't permanent. Living here has been eye-opening, in so many ways … but it's still not home." She bit her lip. "I suppose I'm afraid that when I find where I do fit, it'll have nothing to do with Linus."
"Would that be so bad?" Margaret asked gently.
Sabrina's eyes began to moisten. "Yes."
"Well then. You've got to go and get it over."
