He Dropped Three Women in One Night, Then We Took His Estate novel · Chapter 13 of 32
Chapter 13: Elowen Has Copies
Elowen Tarn made her first decision alone on a Tuesday, at four in the morning, in the dark.
She had not told anyone.
She had lain awake since midnight, listening to the house breathe, and thinking of her cabinet.
It was a small walnut cabinet with twelve drawers, a present from the miniature painter.
She had kept every paper she was ever made to sign in it, in order, with the dates, since she was fifteen.
It was in her old room in Voltraine Hall.
The satchel held only the newest things, the papers she had snatched on her way over the wall.
The rest of her life was still up the hill, in a house that wanted her married.
She got up, and put on the man's overcoat, and wrote a note on the back of a receipt.
I have gone for my cabinet.
I will be back by breakfast.
Do not come after me.
This is mine to do.
She left it on the stove door under the chalk.
The east drive was a mile of white, with no moon.
She walked it with her hands in her sleeves and her breath going up in clouds.
She was frightened the whole way, and she kept walking.
That surprised her.
She had always thought fear and doing were the same thing, and that anyone afraid had to stop.
At the Hall she did not go to the front.
She went round to the scullery, where the pale maid with the red hands sometimes left a window on the latch for the kitchen cat.
The latch was lifted.
Inside, she stood in the dark kitchen with her heart in her mouth.
"Miss Elowen," a whisper said.
The maid stood by the dresser in her nightcap.
"I heard the gate," the girl said. "I didn't tell anyone. I took the Swan's paper down to Miss Dunmere on the Dowager's say, and I've been sick about it since."
"You didn't know what it was."
"I knew it was something." The maid wrung her hands. "Your room is not locked. The cabinet's where you left it. She's gone to bed, and the Marquis has gone to town."
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