Her 20-Year Silence Ended When Her Daughter Came Back for Revenge novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Under the Towels

"I haven't touched your medal, Mrs. Mercer," I said.

Nobody in the hall breathed or moved.

"Nobody has accused you yet, dear," Lavinia said gently. "We only want to look in your room. If it isn't there, I will apologize to you in front of everyone."

"Then look."

I said it quickly, before my knees could decide for me.

The cook and the two senior maids went up the back stairs with Lavinia behind them.

The rest of us stood in the east hall in our nightclothes.

I felt every eye on my back.

The housekeeper stood at the end of the line with her hands folded, staring at the floor.

Rhys leaned on the wall by the memorial door with his arms crossed.

He had not looked at me once since I had come in.

It took four minutes.

The cook came back down with a bundle of folded white towels, and set them on the hall table.

She unrolled them one at a time.

At the fourth, the Founders' Medal slid out on its ribbon and struck the wood.

The maids gasped.

Lavinia came down the stairs slowly, pressing her gloved fingers to her mouth.

"Oh, Nesta," she said.

"I didn't put that there."

"I wanted so badly not to find it."

She was crying.

I could not believe how well she did it.

"A girl from Dock Street, three days in my house." She shook her head. "I should have known when Gareth took so to you. You saw how he looked at you. Is that what you wanted? A rich man's pity and a medal to sell?"

"I wanted nothing from you."

"Then why is it in your bed?"

"Because you put it there."

The hall went still.

Lavinia's face did not change at all, which was how I knew I was right.

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