Chapter 1
“She gave the carpenter your measurements.”
I stopped moving.
Around us, the rehearsal dinner had gone completely silent.
Vesper’s smile disappeared so quickly it almost impressed me.
I looked at Emmeline.
“My measurements.”
She nodded.
“Shoulders. Height. Everything.”
Vesper laughed once.
Too light.
“Alistair, it’s ceremonial.”
I turned toward her.
“What ceremony requires my exact shoulder width?”
No answer.
Good.
I looked back at Emmeline.
“Who sent you below the chapel?”
“Miss Ainsworth.”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“To do what?”
“Clean the room.”
Vesper interrupted.
“It was dusty.”
I ignored her.
Emmeline’s fingers were still trembling.
She had dirt beneath her nails and pale dust across the front of her apron.
Not ballroom dust.
Stone.
Basement.
“What happened after you saw it?”
Emmeline swallowed.
“I asked what it was.”
“And?”
“She told me to stop asking.”
Her eyes moved toward Vesper.
“Then she said if I told anyone, I could go inside next.”
The room changed.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
Guests who had been enjoying scandal suddenly remembered this was my house.
I held out my hand toward the chapel doors.
“Show me.”
Vesper stepped between us.
“You are not turning our rehearsal dinner into theater because a maid frightened herself.”
I looked at her.
“Move.”
Low voice.
No threat.
She moved.
We crossed the pavilion with thirty guests watching.
Emmeline led.
At the chapel entrance, she opened a narrow service door hidden beside the vestry.
Stone stairs descended beneath us.
The air became cooler.
At the bottom waited one iron door.
Unlocked now.
Emmeline pushed it open.
The room beyond was bare except for three lanterns, a folded velvet cloth—
and a black coffin.
New wood.
Polished.
No name.
No flowers.
No religious mark.
I walked toward it.
Lifted the lid.
Soft interior.
Ventilation holes hidden beneath the trim.
No interior handle.
That mattered.
Then I noticed something lying inside.
My wedding jacket.
Not the real one.
A tailor’s fitting shell.
Marked along the shoulders and waist with chalk.
I looked at Vesper.
She had followed us down.
Her face had gone white.
I touched the chalk line.
May you like
Then asked:
“How long were you planning to keep me inside?”
