Part 6
Claire remained standing.
Her dress occupied more room than she did. The train spread behind her, catching against the leg of the glass table. Daniel freed it without comment.
Marian closed the door and stayed near it.
“We need a phone number for Nora,” Daniel said.
Paula took out her phone.
“I’ve called six times.”
“Give me the number.”
She read it aloud. Daniel entered it into his own phone and called.
Everyone listened.
The ring was faint but audible. Once. Twice. Four times. Then voicemail.
Daniel did not leave a message.
“Again,” Claire said.
He called again.
Voicemail.
Richard sat heavily in an armchair. Ruth remained near the window.
“What address do you have?” Claire asked.
Paula gave it.
Daniel entered that too.
Claire watched him.
“You’re very calm.”
He lifted his eyes.
“Would you prefer I wasn’t?”
“No.”
But she had wanted something from him. Shock, perhaps. Anger on her behalf. A visible fracture matching her own.
Instead he was being useful.
Useful people were difficult to read.
Lily slid one satin shoe off and tucked her foot beneath the other leg. The movement was ordinary and childlike, which made Claire ashamed of how completely she had allowed the locket to replace the person who wore it.
“Did your mother say where she was going?” Claire asked more gently.
“No.”
“Did she say she would come back?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“After.”
“After the ceremony?”
Lily nodded.
“Does she usually leave you with people she doesn’t know?”
Paula shifted.
Lily looked down at the handkerchief.
“She knows Ms. Paula.”
Paula’s eyes closed briefly.
Claire turned toward her.
“How?”
“We worked together years ago.”
“You said she was an independent contractor.”
“She is.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Paula rubbed the floral tape until it loosened.
“We worked at a shop in Glenhaven. Before I started my company.”
“How many years ago?”
“Eight.”
Lily was seven.
Claire felt Daniel notice the same thing.
“What kind of shop?” he asked.
“Flowers. Events. Gifts.”
“Did Nora make silver flowers then?”
“No. She did bookkeeping.”
Ruth spoke from the window.
“This has nothing to do with Evelyn.”
Paula looked at her.
“I didn’t say it did.”
“But you know who Evelyn is,” Claire said.
The florist’s face changed.
Ruth stepped away from the window.
“Paula, be very careful.”
Daniel’s voice cooled.
“That sounds like a threat.”
“It is advice.”
“No,” Paula said. “It’s what she always does.”
Silence followed.
Ruth’s expression became unreadable.
Claire sat at last, though the gown resisted folding. Daniel moved the glass table a few inches to give her room.
“How do you know my aunt?” Claire asked.
Paula looked at Lily, then at the closed door.
“Nora did work for her.”
Ruth said, “Once.”
“More than once.”
“Administrative work.”
“Sorting your sister-in-law’s things.”
Richard lifted his head.
Claire stared at Paula.
“When?”
“After Mrs. Mercer died.”
The room seemed to tilt without moving.
Richard stood.
“You hired someone to sort Evelyn’s belongings?”
Ruth’s chin lifted.
“You were barely functioning. Claire had gone back to her apartment. The house needed to be prepared for sale.”
“We didn’t sell it.”
“We planned to.”
“You told me you did it yourself.”
“I supervised.”
Claire’s voice came from somewhere deeper and steadier than before.
“Nora found the locket.”
No one answered.
Lily began picking loose threads from the handkerchief.
Paula looked at Ruth.
Ruth said, “This is speculation.”
“Nora found it,” Claire repeated.
Paula exhaled.
“Yes.”
Richard crossed the room in two steps.
“What did you do?”
Ruth did not retreat.
“What I believed Evelyn wanted.”
“You don’t get to say that.”
“She left instructions.”
Claire stood so quickly that the locket chain swung from her hand.
“What instructions?”
Ruth’s gaze moved to Lily.
“Not in front of the child.”
Lily’s face tightened.
Claire almost said she had already been placed in the middle of it. The words reached her mouth and stopped. Lily did not need another adult describing her as part of a problem.
Daniel understood before Claire spoke.
“Marian, could you take Lily to the adjoining room? Keep the door open.”
Lily seized the bouquet.
“No.”
Daniel crouched again, though tension made the movement less fluid than before.
“You’ll be able to see us.”
“My mom said not to let anyone take the necklace.”
Claire looked at the locket in her own hand.
Lily’s eyes filled.
“I didn’t let you.”
The accusation was quiet.
Claire’s chest tightened.
“No,” she said. “You didn’t.”
“I tried.”
“I know.”
It was the closest she could come to an apology while anger, fear, and humiliation remained knotted together inside her.
Lily stood.
“I want it back.”
Ruth made a small sound of disbelief.
Daniel looked at Claire.
The locket had been Evelyn’s. Claire knew it with the certainty of touch and grief. Yet Lily had been given one instruction and had failed because an adult in a wedding dress frightened her.
Claire walked toward the child.
Lily held her ground, though her lower lip trembled.
“I can’t give it back yet,” Claire said. “But I won’t let anyone take it away from this room.”
“That’s taking it.”
“Yes.”
Claire accepted the judgment.
“I’m going to keep it where you can see it.”
She placed the locket on the glass table.
The chain settled in a loose gold curve.
Lily watched carefully.
Daniel opened the adjoining door. It led to a smaller reading room with two chairs and shelves of decorative books. Marian moved one chair so Lily could sit in the doorway.
The child carried her bouquet into the room. She remained visible, no more than ten feet from the locket.
Paula followed but stayed just inside the doorway.
Claire turned to Ruth.
“What instructions?”
Ruth sat on the sofa as though choosing comfort might make the conversation civilized.
“Evelyn wrote a letter shortly before she died.”
“To whom?”
“To me.”
“Where is it?”
“I destroyed it.”
Richard swore under his breath.
Claire felt strangely unsurprised.
May you like
“What did it say?”
“That certain personal items were not to be given to you.”
