Chapter 5: The Cabinet

"Tonight," Daniel said in the car. "I'll tell you all of it tonight. You have my word."

"You said that about the card, and the card was easier."

"Then give me a worse deadline."

I looked out the window at the bare trees along the Wexford road and did not answer him.

At two o'clock I pulled into the driveway of the house I had bought six years ago.

There were four cars parked on the grass.

Esther was hosting tea.

Of course she was.

Two movers in gray coveralls got out of the truck behind me, and Daniel stayed in the passenger seat with the engine running.

"I'll be out here," he said. "If you need me, honk."

"I won't need to."

"I know," he said. "Honk anyway."

I used my own key, and it still worked.

The front hall smelled of lemon polish and burned sugar.

In the dining room, nine women sat around the long table with the bone china in front of them and silver spoons going round in the cups.

Esther sat at the head.

She saw me in the doorway, and her teacup stopped halfway to her mouth.

"Susannah. You have no business here."

"I'm collecting my things," I said. "The movers are very quick."

One of the movers cleared his throat behind me, and I stepped aside to let him in.

"The china first," I said.

The women stared at him as he crossed the room to the glass cabinet.

"That is my mother-in-law's china," said a woman in a peach cardigan, in a thin outraged voice.

"I bought it," I said. "The receipt is in my bag, dated 2019. Sixty-two pieces, including the gravy boat."

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