Chapter 20: Chapter Nine

Lydia's POV

Kendrick knocked on the boathouse door at six in the morning, in daylight, as he'd promised.

He stood on the step with his hat in his hand and said it all in one breath.

"The whole valley's closed to me. Your mother made calls."

"I know she did."

"A hotel in Newport wants a head steward on the first."

"When did they call?"

"Yesterday. I didn't tell you yesterday, and I'm sorry."

"You're telling me now."

"I'm telling you now, with the door open, so you can answer."

I looked at him standing there in his good suit.

It was a small thing, one door and one answer, and it undid something in my chest.

"I'll tell you my answer tonight," I said. "I'm not deciding it before coffee."

"That's fair."

"And Kendrick."

"Yes?"

"Thank you for saying it in daylight."

He nodded once, and his mouth moved.

"Gwen's on the lawn," he said. "She wants all of us in the foyer."

"Why?"

"She has a question for me, and she wants you and her mother to hear the answer."

Gwen stood in the middle of the foyer marble in her grey coat, with her arms folded across her chest.

Maud sat on the second stair with her hands in her lap.

The portrait of my father looked down at the four of us.

"Tell me," Gwen said to Kendrick. "All of it. Don't be kind."

Kendrick stood very straight and told it the way he'd tell a delivery.

"It was a Thursday, nine days before the funeral."

"I came down at six to open the house. The study light was on."

"Mr. Henry was in his chair, by the window, facing the gatehouse."

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