The Boss Said My Father Drowned His Brother, So He Took Me to Stand in the Water novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: At the Head of the Table
Elin's POV
"What do you want?" Stellan asked.
He asked it with his head still against my knee, in a scraped, rough voice, and I said, "Drive."
He drove.
We went up the bluff road through the black birches to the gray house, and the drive was empty.
Every car had gone.
The long table stood where we had left it, with forty plates stacked and cleared and a single lamp lit in the hall.
Nobody was home.
Pirjo's chair stood empty at the head of the room.
The church women had washed every dish before they left, and put them away, and smoothed the cloth.
"Joel took her to Two Harbors," Stellan said at the door. "The housekeeper's at her sister's. They'll not be back before Friday."
"Good."
I took his hand and pulled him inside.
I led him down the hall to the dining room and stopped at the head of the table, in front of the tall oak chair with the carved arms.
It was a big, dark, ugly chair.
I put my hand on its back.
"Sit," I said.
He looked at the chair.
He knew whose it had been.
"It's hers," he said.
"It's yours. It's been yours since your father died, and you've let her keep it warm. Sit down."
He sat.
He lowered himself into the head chair in his black jacket with the snow still wet on the shoulders and put his scarred hands on the carved arms.
He looked up at me.
I had never seen a man want so badly to be told what to do.
"I'm going to take everything off you," I said. "Slowly. You keep your hands where they are."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Boss Said My Father Drowned His Brother, So He Took Me to Stand in the Water are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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