Chapter 2
I moved Lisette out of the ballroom first.
Not because she was fragile.
Because seventy guests had already watched enough of her humiliation.
She sat in the morning room with water and a clean cloth against her cheek.
I stayed standing.
“Do you want to go home?”
She shook her head.
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because she’ll change the story.”
Smart.
Fear and intelligence can coexist.
“What did you see near the chapel?”
Lisette closed her eyes and reconstructed it.
Octavia came from the family passage shortly after three.
Another woman walked beside her.
Older.
Dark green coat.
Gloves.
She carried a narrow metal tool case.
Octavia held the velvet jewelry box.
There was pale dust along the hem of her dress.
Stone dust.
Our family mausoleum stood beyond the private chapel.
The passage connected both.
“What did Octavia say when she noticed you?”
Lisette looked embarrassed.
“She asked whether I liked working here.”
Of course.
Threat disguised as conversation.
Then she asked if Lisette’s younger brother still depended on her wages.
Interesting.
Octavia had done homework.
“She said mistakes make good jobs disappear.”
I felt something cold settle inside me.
“Then?”
“She told me to forget the hallway.”
Lisette tried.
Until tonight.
When Octavia called her over beside the console.
Opened the case.
Snapped the bracelet around her wrist.
Then told her:
If you remove it, I say I caught you inside Helena’s rooms.
Lisette knew nobody would believe a maid over the future Mrs. Winslowe.
That calculation was probably correct.
Until I saw the bracelet.
“Did you recognize it?”
“Yes.”
That surprised me.
“How?”
“My mother did.”
I stared.
Lisette’s mother, Marianne Marlowe, had worked at Winslowe House before Lisette was born.
I remembered the name.
My mother’s personal dresser.
Twenty-four years ago.
Lisette whispered:
“She told me Mrs. Winslowe was buried with the green bracelet.”
The room changed again.
Octavia had not accidentally selected the wrong maid.
May you like
She selected the daughter of the one servant who might understand immediately where the bracelet came from.
That meant framing Lisette had started before tonight.
