Bury the Ex, Wed the Heir novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Gala

Madam Ravenscroft held the memorial gala nine days later, in the great ballroom, under four chandeliers.

"Let them see the widow," she had said. "Let them see she is not hiding."

Three hundred guests came in black and silver.

They drank the Ravenscroft wine and whispered about the girl who had married a photograph.

Linnet stood at the top of the stairs in a gray silk dress and her gold ring.

Edith stood beside her in her best coat, with her hands clasped tight.

"I don't like this," her mother whispered. "Too many people."

"That's the point, Mother."

"Linnet."

"Trust me for one night. Please."

Edith pressed her lips together and nodded.

Linnet's eyes swept the room.

She found Philippa near the pillars in a green dress, with her father beside her and Anselm on her other arm.

Anselm saw Linnet looking and lifted his glass to her.

He had been quiet for nine days.

He had not come to the gate again after the night he shouted at it, and he had not called.

Linnet knew what quiet meant with him.

It meant he was building something.

At nine o'clock the string quartet stopped.

Madam Ravenscroft stood at the microphone with her rosary wrapped around one hand.

"Thank you for coming," she said. "I will say two sentences. My grandson was a good man, and his widow is his family. That is all."

There was polite applause.

Then Anselm stepped forward with a paper in his hand.

"Madam Ravenscroft," he said, in his warm, clear voice. "If I may."

Madam looked at him for a long moment.

"You may not," she said.

"It concerns the widow." He held up the page and turned to the crowd. "I found this in my father's office. It is a letter, signed by Linnet's mother, handing the whole of Orsey Looms to Dray Bank in return for the loan the Ravenscrofts paid."

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