When the Colonel Came to the Estate

But I had never heard the name Eleanor Pembroke.

Wesley looked equally stunned.

“You had a sister?” he said.

Charles closed his eyes briefly.

“Yes.”

Margaret stood abruptly.

“This is not the place.”

Charles looked at her.

“It became the place the moment that note entered this house.”

Margaret’s jaw tightened, but she did not argue.

Sophie, still near the windows, folded her arms around herself. Her earlier courage seemed to tremble in the air. Several relatives exchanged glances, and I realized with a quiet chill that some of the older ones knew the name. Not all of them. But enough.

My father noticed too.

“When?” he asked.

Charles turned toward him.

“When what?”

“When did Eleanor disappear from the family record?”

Charles swallowed.

“Nineteen eighty-four.”

The year landed with the weight of a locked drawer opening.

Wesley shook his head slowly.

“I was born in eighty-seven.”

“I know,” Charles said.