When the Colonel Came to the Estate

The room went still again, but differently this time.

Margaret’s expression changed so quickly I almost missed it.

Not guilt.

Surprise.

“What are you talking about?” she demanded.

Hale swallowed.

“I set it in your dressing room with the note.”

“What note?” Charles asked.

Margaret’s eyes flicked toward the hall.

She knew of a note.

I saw it.

Wesley saw it too.

“Mom,” he said slowly. “What note?”

Margaret’s voice thinned.

“It was nothing.”

My father stepped forward, not aggressively, but with the quiet inevitability of weather.

“Mrs. Pembroke, where is it?”

“I threw it away.”

“When?”

She did not answer.

Charles turned to Mr. Hale.

“Do you remember what it said?”

The butler looked miserable.

“Only a little, sir. It was typed. It said something like, ‘Start with the child, and she will remember who opened the door.’”

A coldness spread through me that had nothing to do with humiliation.