Chapter 24: The Head Seat

We came across the lawn at twenty past eight, with Anders carrying one shoe.

He had put them on in the wrong order. I was wearing his jacket, inside out.

The garden table had been laid under strings of lanterns, and thirty people stood behind their chairs, waiting.

Nobody said a word about the shoe.

"Late," said Helen, with great satisfaction. "How wonderful. Sit, sit."

Then she did something that I should have seen coming.

She had written the place cards herself. I could tell by the loops.

They lay in a long line down the white cloth, and the first one, at the head of the table, said Leonie.

I stopped walking.

The head chair was tall and carved and empty, with a lantern hanging above it.

On its right, the second card said Anders. On its left, there was an empty chair with no card at all.

"I can sit there," I said, and pointed to the middle of the table, where a chair was open between my mother and a cousin. "That one's nice."

"That one is the cousin's," said Helen.

"I'll take the cousin's."

"Dear," said Helen. "Sit at the head of your table."

My legs did not move.

It was the very tall staircase from the night I took his hand, and this time there was only one way down.

"I'll go second," I said, very low, to Anders. "It's where I'm good."

"You said that in the hotel," said Anders.

"I meant it in the hotel."

"I know." His voice was gentle. "You went first anyway."

From the end of the table, Tobin got up from his chair.

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