Chapter 1
“Cancel the wedding. Keep the guests.”
Maura stopped breathing.
Around us, champagne glasses remained suspended halfway to mouths.
Elowen stood beside me in the coat I had just placed around her shoulders, staring down at what remained of her bouquet on the marble floor.
My boutonniere rested on the silver tray.
A wedding reduced to one white flower and silence.
Maura finally found her voice.
“You cannot be serious.”
I looked at Elowen.
“What time is the service?”
Her lips trembled.
“Four.”
My watch read three twenty-two.
“Car is downstairs.”
Maura stepped forward.
“Orson.”
I turned.
“Why did you need her here?”
“She works for us.”
“No.”
My voice remained low.
“She works in my house. That does not make her grief mine to schedule.”
Maura’s jaw tightened.
Guests were listening.
Good.
Then Elowen whispered:
“She kept asking what my mother left me.”
My attention shifted.
“What?”
Elowen looked confused herself.
“She came to my room this morning. She asked whether my mother gave me anything before she died.”
Maura’s face changed.
Tiny.
Enough.
I looked at her.
“What was Nora Blyth supposed to leave?”
“Nothing.”
Too quick.
Nora.
I had known Elowen’s mother for nearly thirty years.
She began in my father’s household before I was old enough to understand what a household actually was. She became senior event steward later—quiet, exact, impossible to bribe with flattery.
She retired six months earlier when cancer made standing through dinners difficult.
I had sent flowers when she died.
I should have done more.
Now Maura had tried to prevent Nora’s daughter from attending the funeral.
Not because she needed another pair of hands carrying champagne.
I looked toward my security chief.
“Take Elowen to the service.”
Elowen looked at me.
“Sir, you don’t have to—”
“I know.”
Then I removed my jacket.
Maura’s eyes widened.
“What are you doing?”
“Going with her.”
The ballroom murmured.
I ignored it.
Maura moved closer.
“You’re abandoning our wedding for a maid’s funeral.”
I met her eyes.
“No.”
I glanced at the crushed flowers.
“You abandoned our wedding when you decided that sentence made sense.”
Then her phone vibrated.
She looked down involuntarily.
A message preview lit the screen.
GARETH: HAS SHE LEFT YET?
I knew Gareth Sedgewick.
May you like
Maura’s brother.
And apparently he had been waiting for Elowen too.
