Ruling with a New Frame novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Gone in the Night

I did not decide to run.

My legs did it, down the back stairs and across the cold tiles of the hall.

I ran in my nightgown, with the ring knocking against my ankle bone.

The front door stood open.

Night air poured in.

My father was already on the porch in his shirtsleeves, with his hair on end.

"Mother, what is this?"

Marguerite stood at the top of the steps.

She was dressed for travel, in a long dark coat, with her gloves on.

She had clearly not slept at all.

"Your father requires rest," she said. "His nerves have been disturbed."

"I am moving him to the lake house, where a nurse can attend him."

"At three in the morning?"

"It is the quietest hour."

"I called a physician for him," said my father. "She comes at ten."

"She will find the room empty."

One of the men by the van, a thick-necked man in a dark jacket, shut the rear door with a clunk.

"You cannot do this, Mother."

"I hold his medical proxy, Edmund. It was signed two years ago, when he was no longer himself."

She drew a folded paper from her coat.

"You are welcome to read it."

My father took it.

His eyes ran down it in the porch light.

I watched him reach the signature at the bottom, and I watched his shoulders drop.

It was valid.

She had built her fortress years ago, and she had built it out of paper.

"Marguerite," I said.

My grandmother's gaze swung to me.

I stepped out onto the porch in my bare feet.

I did not raise my voice.

I looked past her to the men by the van.

"Sirs. You are nurses?"

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