Chương 3
Lucinda moved after him.
“Andrew.”
“Stay there.”
She stopped.
It was not the volume of his voice that did it.
Andrew had spoken to employees, lawyers, contractors, and board members with that same controlled flatness when he was past the point of negotiating.
Elizabeth had never heard him use it with his mother.
Andrew examined the stitching along the rabbit’s back.
The seam near the shoulder had been sewn by hand, unlike the tight factory stitches farther down.
He pressed the fabric apart with his thumbs.
“Do you have a seam ripper?” he asked.
Elizabeth shook her head.
Lucinda gave a brittle laugh.
“You are holding an entire household hostage over a child’s toy.”
Andrew looked at the scissors in her hand.
“I believe you brought the appropriate equipment.”
For an instant, Lucinda seemed not to understand.
Then she looked down.
The scissors suddenly appeared ridiculous in her grip, too large for the small ribbon she had cut and too sharp for the explanations she was offering.
She laid them on the console with deliberate care.
Andrew picked them up.
Alex whimpered.
His father immediately lowered the blades.
“It’s okay.”
Alex stared at the scissors anyway.
Andrew set them farther away, then used his fingers instead, digging a thumbnail beneath one loose stitch.
The thread resisted.
He pulled harder.
It snapped.
Lucinda inhaled.
Andrew paused.
Elizabeth heard the refrigerator compressor start in the distant kitchen.
The ordinary sound seemed obscene in the silence.
He worked another stitch loose.
Then another.
Alex watched from beneath Elizabeth’s arm.
When the opening was wide enough, Andrew pushed two fingers into the stuffing.
He felt around slowly.
Something clicked against his wedding ring.
His hand stopped.
Lucinda took one step backward.
Andrew looked at her.
She folded her arms.
“Whatever Caroline put in there, if she put anything in there, I had nothing to do with it.”
Andrew drew out a small black rectangle wrapped in cloudy plastic.
Elizabeth recognized an old memory card case.
Andrew did too.
His breath changed.
“Where did this come from?”
Alex lifted one trembling hand toward the rabbit.
“Mommy.”
Lucinda closed her eyes for half a second.
Andrew saw it.
“When?”
Alex’s lips moved, but the answer would not come.
Andrew immediately regretted pressing.
He slid the object into his palm.
The plastic wrapping had yellowed at the folds, suggesting it had been there longer than the new stitching.
A strip of clear tape circled it twice.
Someone had taken care to protect it.
Lucinda looked toward the hallway.
Andrew followed her eyes.
The motion was tiny.
It still mattered.
“Elizabeth,” he said.
“Yes?”
“Lock the front doors.”
Lucinda stared at him.
“You cannot be serious.”
“Then you won’t mind.”
“This is my son’s house.”
Andrew’s expression barely shifted.
“It is my house.”
The correction landed between them.
Lucinda stepped closer.
“Listen to yourself.”
Andrew handed the rabbit to Alex.
The boy accepted it with both arms, clutching the bare neck against his chest.
Lucinda watched that exchange with a look Elizabeth could not read.
Not hatred.
Something more complicated moved beneath her face and vanished before it settled.
“Andrew,” she said, softer now, “Caroline was not well.”
He looked at her.
Elizabeth stopped on her way toward the front hall.
Lucinda glanced at her.
“This is a family matter.”
Elizabeth did not move.
Andrew said, “Go lock the doors.”
She obeyed.
The mansion’s front entrance had two deadbolts controlled manually despite the expensive security panel beside it.
Andrew had insisted on that after a software failure during a storm the previous winter.
Elizabeth turned both.
Her hands shook enough that the second key scraped against the plate.
When she returned, Andrew had not moved.
Lucinda had.
She now stood several feet closer to the private office doorway.
Andrew noticed.
“Mother.”
“What?”
“Come back.”
Her eyes sharpened.
“You are not detaining me.”
“I’m asking you to stay in this room while I figure out what my son just handed me.”
“You have no idea what is on that thing.”
“No.”
“Neither does he.”
Andrew looked at Alex.
“No.”
Lucinda swallowed.
“So perhaps everyone might behave rationally.”
Elizabeth nearly laughed.
The impulse startled her.
She pressed her lips together instead.
Lucinda caught it.
“You find this amusing?”
“No.”
“You always did have difficulty hiding contempt.”
Elizabeth’s face warmed.
Andrew turned toward her, surprised.
Lucinda continued before she could answer.
“You think because Caroline liked you, you belonged here.”
Elizabeth stared at her.
“I never thought that.”
“You were twenty when she hired you.”
“Twenty-one.”
The correction escaped before Elizabeth could stop it.
Andrew glanced between them.
Lucinda’s mouth twitched.
“There, you see?”
Elizabeth looked away.
The stupid detail made her feel suddenly young again, standing in Caroline’s kitchen during her first week while Lucinda inspected silverware as if the spoons had personally disappointed her.
“Enough,” Andrew said.
But Elizabeth was looking at Lucinda now.
“You told Mrs. Whitmore to fire me.”
Andrew turned.
Lucinda’s eyes did not leave Elizabeth.
“That has nothing to do with tonight.”
“When?”
Andrew asked it.
Elizabeth wished immediately that she had kept quiet.
“Years ago.”
“When?”
“After Alex was born.”
Lucinda gave an impatient wave.
“She was too attached to staff.”
Andrew’s face changed slightly.
“Caroline never told me.”
“Because your wife enjoyed opposing me.”
“No.”
Elizabeth’s voice came before she could stop it.
Lucinda looked at her.
“No what?”
“She didn’t keep me because it annoyed you.”
“You are extraordinarily confident about a dead woman’s motives.”
Elizabeth swallowed.
“She kept me because she was afraid to be alone.”
That silenced the room.
Andrew’s eyes settled on her.
“What did you say?”
Elizabeth wished there were a way to pull the sentence back.
There was not.
Alex had gone still against her.
Lucinda’s face remained controlled, but the pulse at the side of her neck had begun beating visibly.
“Elizabeth.”
Andrew spoke more gently now.
“What was Caroline afraid of?”
Elizabeth looked at Alex.
May you like
She had promised Caroline nothing exactly.
That was the problem.
