November 21st, 1891 - Bartonburg [near the Potts home]

This was, more than anything, a sign that his life was beginning to spin out of control.

By now, Daff had to be home, and hopefully she was resting. He couldn't go to see her, though, because — well, how would he even begin to explain that to her family, or to his, or to anyone? They hadn't caught the man who attacked the Florist Potts. (Just like they hadn't caught Verity's kidnapper, just like they hadn't caught Noble or Henrietta, just like —)

But even knowing that he couldn't go inside to visit her, even knowing that letters could not begin to patch anything up, Noble was unable to prevent himself from walking by the Potts house. It wasn't like he could learn anything from the house, so he would just walk by it and it would be fine, except then instead of walking by it he found himself standing across the street.

He couldn't stop himself, it was like his feet were rooted to the spot as he tried to prevent himself from looking at the house. But he wanted to look, didn't he? He wanted to look, because really he wanted to go inside, but he couldn't do that.

Noble had been standing and looking at his watch for over a minute when he heard footsteps, and startled.

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   Elsie Kirke