Chapter 4: A Seat at the Table

Lydia had slept badly, with the cold cocoa still on the nightstand.

Three years on her side of the bed, and Hayden had never said a word.

She had not asked him at breakfast, and he had not offered.

Now the VanAlen family dinner was held every Saturday in the long dining room, with the board members seated beside the relatives.

Lydia had not sat at that table in three years.

Cissy had written the place cards herself, in her neat round hand.

Hayden's name stood at the head, and Cissy's was set at his right, where Lydia used to sit.

Lydia's card had been put at the far end, beside a pillar and a potted fern.

"I wasn't sure how you'd feel about sitting close," Cissy whispered, pressing her arm. "I didn't want you to be stared at."

"This is fine," Lydia said.

It was not fine.

She sat down under twenty pairs of eyes and unfolded her napkin.

The soup came.

Nobody spoke to her.

Hayden's aunt, a stout woman in a blue silk jacket, set down her spoon at the other end of the table.

"I see the runaway has joined us," she said.

The whole table went quiet.

"Aunt," Hayden said.

"I'm only asking what everyone is thinking."

The aunt looked down the table at Lydia.

"Three years, not a letter, not a call. Did the men in Port Alder run out?"

A board member coughed into his napkin.

Another smiled into his wine.

Lydia put her spoon down.

"I came to see Henrietta," she said. "I'll leave when she's well."

"And in the meantime we pretend you never left a sick woman and a heartbroken husband?" the aunt said.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Man Who Can't Let Her Go from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.