Chapter 6: The Seating Chart

I got to the dining room an hour early, because I wanted to see the table before my sister did.

Mrs. Trowbridge had set it for sixteen, with white roses, the good silver and a handwritten card at every place.

I walked the length of it once.

Mine was at the foot, beside an empty chair, and the card in the empty chair said Dr. Alden Wheelock.

That was fine.

It was the head of the table that bothered me.

Daphne's card sat at Mr. Trowbridge's right hand.

The Wheelocks were still down at the foot with me, far from where the board chair and the three biggest donors would sit.

Kellan's name was at the other end of the table, beside mine.

I turned over Daphne's card.

The handwriting on the back was Mrs. Trowbridge's.

On the front, it was not.

Somebody had gone through the cards with a careful pen and copied the lettering well.

"She's already been here," said Felix.

He stood in the doorway with his tape measure and both watches, and for once he was not looking at the walls.

"Before breakfast," he said. "She asked Mother to show her the room. She was here nine minutes."

"How do you know?"

"I timed it by the hall clock."

He came in and ran a thumb along the edge of the table.

"She only touched the cards. Nobody touches the cards unless they want something moved."

I could have switched the cards back myself, but Daphne would only switch them again, and she would do it with more witnesses.

I needed something she could not argue with.

"Felix," I said. "How long would it take you to ruin the seating chart?"

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