Bury the Ex, Wed the Heir novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: My Marriage, My Choice
Linnet wakes reborn on the day she was meant to marry a dead man, runs to the Ravenscroft estate and tells her ex in front of everyone that her marriage is her own. She signs, and the old woman gives her one rule: never open the door at the end of the east wing.
Linnet Orsey woke in a hotel bed on the morning she was supposed to marry a dead man.
Her head pounded and her mouth was dry.
The last thing she remembered was a glass of wine, handed to her by Anselm Dray at his dinner.
After the glass, nothing.
A tall man stood at the window with his back to the gray light, buttoning a clean shirt.
His coat lay over the chair beside him, and a small silver oak leaf was pinned to the lapel.
"Who are you?" Linnet said. It came out as a rasp.
She tried to sit up, and the room tipped.
The man turned and crossed to the bed.
His face was in shadow, and his eyes were dark and very steady.
He set a glass of water on the nightstand.
"Drink," he said. "Slowly."
Her eyelids dropped. She meant to ask again, and she was gone.
When she opened her eyes the room was empty and the water glass was empty too.
Then the rest of it came back, and it had nothing to do with the man.
She remembered dying.
She had died in a hospital bed at twenty-nine, with a scarred face and no mother left to hold her hand.
Anselm had taken the most from her.
Linnet snatched the phone off the nightstand.
It was the old model she had thrown away four years ago.
On the black screen she saw her own face, smooth and whole, without a single scar.
She dug her nails into her forearm and the pain was real.
She had been sent back to the exact day she was meant to marry Silvan Ravenscroft.
Silvan had died in a car accident a month ago, and his grandmother had still picked Linnet as his bride.
Last time she had refused, and the Ravenscrofts had crushed her family for the curse Anselm threw at their gate.
She grabbed her purse and ran out of the room in yesterday's dress.
Not this time.
She took a taxi to the Ravenscroft estate and paid the driver twice the fare to go faster.
The great oak on the front lawn stood over a crowd of guests in black.
They had come for a wedding and a funeral at once, and every one of them was watching the old woman by the steps.
Madam Ravenscroft stood very straight with her rosary wound around her knuckles.
A small silver oak leaf was pinned to her black lapel.
In front of her, Anselm Dray was shouting.
"Madam, I am so sorry for your loss," he said, with his hands open and his voice shaking. "But your grandson is gone."
"Linnet is my oldest friend. Please don't bury a living girl beside him."
A muscle jumped in Madam's cheek, and the beads clicked once.
Linnet's hands closed into fists.
She walked across the grass, through the guests, and stopped between them.
"Whether I marry him is my business," she said, loud enough for every black coat on the lawn.
"Who gave you the right to decide my life, Anselm?"
Anselm turned, and his face softened at once into the one she used to trust.
"Linnet, you came," he said. "Don't be afraid. I've got you."
He reached out to ruffle her hair, as he had since she was nine.
She stepped back, and his hand closed on air.
"Don't touch me," she said.
He frowned, and then his eyes went to Madam, and he decided he understood.
"She threatened you," he said. "Didn't she? That wicked old woman did this to you."
He raised his voice for the guests.
"No wonder she buried a son and a grandson. The Ravenscrofts are down to one old woman, and it serves them right."
"Shut up," Linnet said.
She knew the pain of losing everyone and being left alone in a house.
Even she could not stand hearing it said out loud like that.
"You are my neighbor, Anselm," she said. "That is all you are."
"I don't know why you came here to say this, but my marriage is not yours to decide."
"Now get off this lawn."
Anselm stared at her with his mouth slightly open.
Then his smile came back, thin and cold.
"I did all this for you," he said. "Fine. Go marry your dead man."
He walked off the lawn without looking back, sure that she would come crying after him by nightfall.
Linnet did not watch him go.
She turned to the old woman and said, "Madam Ravenscroft, I am willing to marry your grandson."
Madam's fingers stopped on the beads.
"Think carefully, child," she said. "Nobody forces you here. In two years you may walk away free."
"I have thought, Madam," Linnet said. "I am willing."
Inside the house, under a crystal chandelier, the marriage agreement lay on a marble table.
Linnet picked up the pen and signed her name without letting her hand shake.
Madam Ravenscroft read the signature twice and nodded.
"Good," she said. "Your room is in the east wing, Mrs. Ravenscroft."
She paused at the door.
"One rule. Never open the door at the end of the hall."
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