The carriage ride back to Willow Creek Manor was a blur of green countryside that Anne did not see. She was trapped in the prison of her own thoughts, the confusing and hostile encounter with Delia playing over and over in her mind. Delia's words, her calm certainty, her talk of lies and fakes—it had all left Anne feeling exposed and profoundly unsettled. And beneath it all, Fredrick Garrison's strange, unsettling hints about her parentage coiled like a serpent in the pit of her stomach. She needed her mother. She needed her to sweep away all these confusing, terrible thoughts and tell her what to do next.
As the carriage clattered to a stop on the gravel drive, Anne didn't wait for the footman to open the door for her. She pushed it open herself and quickly went down the steps, her movements hurried and graceless. She climbed the grand stone stairs in a haste, her one and only goal to find Augusta.
