A Million Pages

Drip.
A tear smudged the letter. The letter that said it all.
Sniff.
A girl in a brown dress wiped her nose. The room smelt like lemon rind, the smell that made her want to breathe in it forever. But not anymore.
She was trapped.
Giselle slumped in her purple armchair.
"Madame Gisella, your lunch, if I may," said Gordon, her butler. With the ease of a professional, a tray of roast landed swiftly on the table in front of her. Gordon slid the glass of Earl Grey onto a brass holder without spilling a single drop.
"Thank you," replied Giselle, her face buried in the silk pillow on her lap.
Gordon swept out of the room and shut the door with a swift click.
She couldn't believe it.
Emily. Where was she?
They'd made it to the city together. Then, that morning.
Giselle had awoken to find Emily's bed empty, the sheets curled and thrust aside, like she'd gone in a hurry.
And the letter under the pillow, like the coins Mama used to promise her if she had a tooth pulled.
"Emily...." whispered Giselle. "Where are you...?"
************************
The girl with blonde curls stumbled to the station, her small bony hands peppered with bruises, her foot black with dust.
Her green eyes skimmed the row of trains. "Number 21, number 21....." she mumbled, clenching a filthy ticket in her wrist.
Finally a mossy blue train pulled up in front of her. It stank of bad breath and tears, and had a faint sickening aroma of wee.
Emily took a deep breath and stepped in.
She would find him, soon.
"I'm sorry, Giselle," she whispered. "I'll see you soon..."

In a stinking house on the other side of town, an old man waited at the front of his house, grinning. "I didn't know how easy it was to trick a girl."