Chapter 16: Two Hundred Witnesses

The aisle was long, and every pew was full.

I knew the families by their coats: Brandauer gray, Reinholt black, and along the walls in dark suits, in plain sight, every Kell man Matthias had.

The three elders sat in the front row on the left.

Thea sat in the third pew behind them, with her arm in a white sling, and she did not look away from me once.

On the right, beside Brigitte, a nurse in a Reinholt pin stood behind a wheelchair.

My father sat in it with a blanket over his knees.

He was thinner than he had been at the care home, and his eyes were open and on me.

Lukas waited at the altar rail in a dark suit, smiling at the room.

On the stand beside him lay the transfer, and a pen.

"Darling," he said, low, as I reached him. "You look beautiful."

"You look like your mother's son," I said.

His smile did not change.

I took the pen and held it and turned to face the hall.

"Mrs. Reinholt," I said, clearly. "Tell these people what I'm being asked to sign."

Brigitte rose from the pew with her hands folded.

"A family arrangement," she said. "To put right the confusion of the last weeks, and to return you to the house that has waited for you."

"At the cost of my father's dock share."

"For the good of the harbor."

"And if I don't sign, my father has an accident in the night."

A murmur went through the pews.

Brigitte's face did not move.

"That is a terrible thing to say in a church hall, child."

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