Chapter 1
“Who’s waiting for her?”
Nell swallowed.
Her palm remained pressed over the service bell.
Rosalind’s fingers tightened against the tablecloth.
That movement answered part of the question before Nell did.
I stepped closer.
“Nell.”
She looked directly at me.
“Mr. Pierce.”
My voice went flat.
“Which Pierce?”
“Everett.”
Rosalind’s older brother.
The man who was supposedly in Boston negotiating a hotel purchase.
I turned toward my fiancée.
She said nothing.
Good.
I looked back at Nell.
“Where?”
“The old greenhouse behind the west garden.”
“What happens there?”
Tears collected in her eyes.
“They talk to Miss Clara.”
My daughter.
Four years old.
Sleeping upstairs, I had believed.
“What do they talk about?”
Nell hesitated.
Rosalind suddenly rose.
“This is ridiculous.”
I did not look at her.
“Nell.”
She finally whispered:
“They make her practice answers.”
My chest tightened.
“What answers?”
Nell’s voice became barely audible.
“Who she wants to live with after the wedding.”
The room went silent in a new way.
Not social discomfort.
Fear.
I turned toward Rosalind.
She stared back at me.
Then Nell continued.
“They ask who makes her feel safe. Who should look after her when you’re away. Who her new mother is.”
My jaw locked.
“How many times?”
“Six dinners.”
Six.
Six evenings I had rung that bell.
Six times dessert arrived while my daughter disappeared through the rear garden.
And I had never noticed because the entire room had been trained to look toward the cake.
I glanced at the bell beneath Nell’s hand.
Tiny.
Silver.
Ordinary.
Then from somewhere beyond the ballroom doors came a faint cry.
A child.
My child.
Nell’s face drained.
“They took her early.”
I moved before anyone else did.
Rosalind caught my sleeve.
“Adrian, don’t.”
I looked at her hand.
She released me.
Then she whispered the sentence that changed everything.
“If Everett sees you before Clara finishes, he’ll know she told someone.”
I went still.
Not if Nell told someone.
May you like
If Clara did.
Which meant my daughter already knew she was supposed to keep the greenhouse secret.
