Chapter 2
Nora Blyth’s funeral took place in a small stone church twenty minutes from the hotel.
No photographers.
No powerful families.
No dramatic procession.
Just forty people who had actually known her.
Exactly right.
I sat in the back.
Elowen sat in front with her aunt and her six-year-old niece.
I did not approach them.
This was not my grief to occupy.
Halfway through the service, my bodyguard leaned down.
“Gareth Sedgewick is outside.”
Of course.
“Doing what?”
“Asking the funeral director whether Mrs. Blyth left a personal box for her daughter.”
There it was.
I remained seated until the service ended.
Nora deserved one hour where Maura’s family did not control the room.
Afterward, Elowen walked toward me.
Her eyes were red.
“Thank you.”
“You don’t owe me that.”
The funeral director approached her carrying a small dark wooden box.
“Your mother asked me to give this only to you after the service.”
Elowen stared.
Then at me.
“She never told me.”
Good.
Whatever Nora intended, she had trusted timing.
The director added:
“She said if anyone named Sedgewick asked for it, I should pretend I had no idea what they meant.”
I almost smiled.
Nora remained difficult from the grave.
Elowen opened the box.
Inside lay a black velvet pouch and a small voice recorder.
She pulled the pouch open.
A metal token dropped into her palm.
Round.
Heavy.
Black enamel around the edge.
Silver raven in the center.
I had not seen one in fifteen years.
My father called them courtesy coins.
The rest of the family called them black favors.
An old Ravenshaw custom.
A guest presented one during a major family ceremony.
If the head accepted it publicly, he acknowledged a future favor.
Not unlimited.
Not ownership.
But access.
A meeting.
A hearing.
A request that could not simply be ignored.
I abolished the practice after my father died.
Too many men treated tradition like debt.
Elowen looked at me.
“What is it?”
Before I answered, Gareth entered the church vestibule.
He saw the coin.
Stopped.
There.
That was why Maura needed Elowen at the hotel.
May you like
Nora had died holding proof that someone had quietly revived a custom I had buried years ago.
And Gareth Sedgewick had arrived at her funeral to retrieve it before I could see.
