Chapter 15: Page Three

Amos went into surgery at seven on Thursday morning, and he came out at one with a new hip and a joke about it.

Poppy stayed by the bed, and Amos had given the bracelet back to her before they wheeled him down, so it sat in her pocket.

Conroy took a call in the hall about the Drummond loan and told me to go home and sleep, and he would follow.

I did not sleep.

I stood in the east wing with my hand on the bedroom door and thought about his hand in my hair.

Then I went looking for the one thing he had promised me.

"The next page costs more," he had said in the van.

I wanted to know whether it was the page about the complaint, and whether he already knew what Amos had told us.

His study was at the end of the main hall, and the door was open.

The file was on the desk under a brass lamp, a brown folder with a rubber band around it.

I had no right to touch it.

I took the band off.

Page one was the one I knew.

Page two was a lease with Howard's signature at the bottom.

Page three was a typed memo, dated five months ago, from the private investigator to Conroy.

It said: Subject has asked for a meeting with Howard Drummond to propose a family alliance by marriage.

Under that: Subject states purpose is access to the Drummond residence, the study, the private accounts, and Howard's table.

Under that: Subject states he has no interest in the daughter and requires only that she be a Drummond.

At the bottom, in blue pen, in the hand I knew from the check he had signed at the hospital, was a line that said: Any Drummond will do.

I read it again.

I thought about the old Eden, who had walked into a ballroom on Howard's arm and looked at the ceiling.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Return of the Reborn Princess from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.