Rosa and the Package part 4

This is part three of Rosa and the Package for part one click here  part two click here and part three here.

Rosa followed the stranger out of the building and into the wet streets, the melting snow and constant drizzle meant the pavement was strewn with puddles; obstacles the stranger navigated with ease. Rosa breathed in the fresh air and heard the mixture of traffic and birdsong. It was like her senses had come alive again as she felt safer than she had done all week. Rosa was already a little bit in love with this woman who seemed so confident, so sure, so safe. They walked in silence, together yet apart, hurrying through the crowds, heading god knows where.

After 20 minutes of people dodging and puddle hopping they finally reached their destination; a small, brick apartment block on the edge of town. The stranger let herself into the building and beckoned Rosa to follow her. Three flights of stairs, another jangle of keys and they were inside an overheated flat that looked like it belonged to an elderly lady. 

‘Tea?’ it was the first time the stranger had spoken since leaving Rosa's home.
Rosa nodded dumbly, suddenly shy in front of the woman with no name. ‘Sit down, make yourself comfortable.’ the woman nodded at the sofa. Rosa did as she was told.
The stranger busied herself in the kitchen while Rosa sat nervously on the edge of the sofa taking in her surroundings but not wanting to touch anything.
The tea was accompanied by a shot of something that fired Rosa’s belly, she really was beginning to fall for this woman. 

‘You'll be safe here.... For now.’ the woman said.  The for now carried a sense of foreboding.  ‘Igor has compromised the movement,’ the woman continued, ‘we don't know how much they know yet but they obviously know about you.’ 
Rosa nodded again, the cat still in possession of her tongue. She watched the woman’s careworn face, she looked a little older than first glance but there was a beauty about her, something special.

‘We’re trying to find out from our sources how much he’s told them…’ she looked at Rosa’s concerned face. ‘Don’t worry we’ll sort something out.’  

‘What about the package?’ Rosa asked, finally finding her voice.
The woman shifted uncomfortably.

‘What?’ said Rosa.
The woman cleared her throat.

‘We don’t need to worry about the package, it was a fake, full of false information. We had our suspicions about Igor and we wanted to see what he would do with it; see how far the false information would travel.’
Rosa felt sick, she’d put her life on the line for nothing, she’d become an open enemy of the state, lost her flat, lost everything and for what?

‘You helped us’ said the woman, reading Rosa’s mind, ‘think of the damage Igor could have done to the movement without your brave actions.’ 
There was truth in her words but that didn’t help Rosa’s tumult. ‘How dare they use her like that?’ 

‘I have to go out, you stay here and try to relax, Granny will be home soon and she'll cook you something warm.’ The woman touched Rosa gently on the shoulder as she left causing a small tremor down an angry spine. Rosa didn’t want to wait for Granny, she wanted to run, but where could she go?