Arranged to the Don, Freed from the Lie novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Cedar Chest

Helena's POV

The east attic of Harrow House smelled of dust and camphor, and nobody had opened its door in years.

I went up at five to two, in a coat over my nightgown, with a flashlight from the kitchen drawer.

There were old dress forms along one wall, headless and draped in sheets.

I walked past four of them and moved the fifth.

Under it, on the floorboards, sat a cedar chest the size of a small coffin.

The brass key turned on the first try.

Inside, on top, was a sheet of paper in my aunt's careful hand.

It was never a tradition. Ask who gets paid.

Under it lay a thick bundle of envelopes tied with string.

Every envelope was addressed in the same hand.

To Helena and Phoebe Crowninshield, Harrow House.

There were twenty-two of them, one for each year.

None of them had a stamp.

I sat down on the floor with the flashlight in my teeth and did not open them.

I could not yet.

Below the letters was a red leather book, cracked at the spine.

It was the Council minute book, dated twenty-two years ago.

I turned it to the page she had marked with a ribbon.

The handwriting was Edmund's.

The Council meets in special session. The family's losses on the Crowninshield Maritime fleet stand at nine million dollars.

Mr. Edmund Crowninshield moves that the daughters of the house be settled in marriage at the age of thirty, at the Council's choosing, in the family's interest.

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