Chapter 3
I went to the mausoleum before midnight.
No crowd.
No Octavia.
Just me, Elias, and the caretaker who had served my family longer than I had been head of it.
Helena’s stone panel looked normal from ten feet away.
From two?
No.
Fresh abrasion near the lower hinge.
A trace of pale dust beneath the base.
The seal had been disturbed and carefully replaced.
Nothing grotesque.
Nothing chaotic.
Whoever entered knew how to work stone without making the violation obvious.
I hated that competence.
The caretaker looked ill.
“I didn’t authorize this.”
“I know.”
His key ledger showed one chapel maintenance entry that afternoon.
Requested by:
Octavia Winslowe-to-be.
Reason:
Engagement flowers.
Of course.
No one questioned it.
She was marrying me.
Future family.
Access began arriving before vows.
That was my mistake too.
We inspected only enough to confirm the obvious.
The bracelet was gone.
Nothing else appeared disturbed.
No valuables missing.
No damage beyond the access itself.
So whoever entered had come specifically for one object.
Mother’s emeralds.
Why?
I remembered Helena’s final request differently now.
Not sentimental.
Urgent.
Leave the emeralds with me.
At the time I thought she simply wanted to be buried wearing something my father gave her.
Maybe not.
Back inside the chapel, Elias noticed a strip of faded green silk caught behind a carved panel near the family pew.
I knew it.
Every portrait of my grandmother showed that same shade tied beneath the emerald bracelet.
Old family custom.
I had ignored it.
I called the only person still alive who would know.
My aunt Augusta.
My mother’s younger sister.
She answered at 12:17.
“Godric?”
“I need to ask about Mother’s bracelet.”
Silence.
Long enough.
Then:
“Why?”
“It’s no longer in her grave.”
My aunt did not gasp.
She whispered one sentence.
“Then someone is trying to make a new mistress of Winslowe House.”
I looked toward the mausoleum.
May you like
The bracelet was not merely jewelry.
My mother had buried a title with herself.
