The Twin They Erased novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Loft

"Willa Astley," I said. "Odile Astley's niece, and your board's ward."

The old trustee took his glasses off and looked at me for a long moment.

"The Astley girl died," he said. "I sent flowers."

"Then someone should tell the flowers."

Nobody laughed, but a few of the girls along the wall made small sounds.

He put his glasses back on.

"This board meets again in ten days," he said. "Until then the tower is empty, the girls' money is returned, and Miss Astley sleeps in the dormitory where I can see her."

Ansel said nothing.

She sat with her hands in her lap and no keys at her belt.

I had never seen her without them.

At one in the morning the dormitory slept.

I lay in a real bed for the first time in three years and could not close my eyes.

The window over my pillow looked down on the road.

A truck sat at the bottom of the hill with its engine off.

I put on my coat, took the keys that were mine now, and walked out through the front door of Marrow Hill.

Nobody stopped me.

Eamon was leaning on the hood.

"I wasn't sure you'd come down," he said.

"You gave away forty thousand dollars."

"I gave away a piece of paper."

"You gave it to me."

"It was the only thing I had that you wanted."

"That's not true," I said.

He went still.

I crossed the gravel and stood in front of him close enough to feel the heat of the engine through his flannel.

"Take me to the barn," I said.

"Willa."

"Rule two says nobody touches a fighter outside the ring." I put my palm flat on his chest. "I'm not fighting tonight."

The loft was above the card room, up a second ladder, and it was warmer than I'd expected.

There was a bed made up with a grey wool blanket, a lamp, a shelf of books and a window that looked over the hayfield.

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