Written to Die for the Angel, So I Exposed Her First novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Strongbox

The footman came back with a small iron box and the Dowager's key on a ribbon.

He put both on the auctioneer's table with a clatter.

Nobody in the hall spoke.

"Open it," Lucan said.

"This is my private account."

"It is the Fund's account. Open it, or I'll have the lock cut in front of everyone."

The Dowager's hands were shaking so badly that it took her three tries to turn the key.

The lid came up.

Inside were four small cloth bags, a roll of paper, and a handful of pawn tickets with a goldsmith's stamp.

Lucan tipped the bags onto the table.

Silver and copper rolled out, a hundred crowns at most.

He read the roll of paper standing up, in his flat clipped voice, line by line, and no one in the hall made a sound.

"Bread, three hundred crowns. Cloth, a hundred. Coal, fifty. Received from patrons this year, one thousand and four hundred."

He set the paper down.

"There's a hundred in the box."

"The rest has been spent," the Dowager said. "On the orphans."

"On what?"

"On, on their keep."

"The matron says gruel, my lady," said the little girl at Perrine's side, and a woman near the front gave a sob.

"Pawn tickets," said the merchant who had spoken before.

He had come up to the table and was holding one to the candle.

"Goldsmith's on Tanner Row. Pearls, three ropes, redeemed spring last."

His eyes went to the Dowager's neck.

Everyone's did.

"My own pearls," the Dowager said. "I pawned them in a lean year and bought them back. A private matter."

"With the Fund's money?" Lucan said.

"With, with my money."

"Three ropes of Orsanne pearls come through my customs house at the spring fair," said the Lord Warden. "I read the entries myself, Lady Quillon. The importer on the register is the Orphans of the Tide."

He did not raise his voice at all.

The silence was so complete that Perrine could hear the candles.

"Take them off," Lucan said.

"I will not be..."

"Take them off, and the Fund will sell them here tonight, and every crown will go to the Tide house, and you will repay the rest from your own estate by midsummer or I will put the whole thing before the King."

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