Chapter 11: Stay Until I Wake

The vault on sub-basement three had a steel door as wide as a car.

Rowan held the flashlight while I tried the keys one by one.

The fourth turned, and the lock gave with a sound I felt in my teeth.

Inside there was a single shelf and a gray metal case.

I opened it on the floor.

On top lay a deed on heavy cream paper, folded in thirds.

It was dated 1906, and the signature at the bottom was mine, with the pen lifted nowhere in the M.

Under it lay a book bound in cracked brown leather.

I knew it before I touched it.

Edmund's first ledger, in his own cramped hand.

The first line read: Received of the Lady, twelve silver pennies, to be repaid.

I read it twice.

Rowan crouched next to me and said nothing.

When I closed the book, my hands were not quite steady.

"I'll carry it," he said.

"I can."

"I know you can. Let me."

He tucked the ledger inside his jacket and the deed in his back pocket.

We went up in the freight elevator without speaking.

On the roof, behind the orchid bay, there was a potting loft with a narrow bed Rowan used when the weather turned.

He had hung a string of small lights along the beam.

I stood in the doorway.

"I should not be here," I said.

"Why?"

"Because tomorrow I may lose everything."

"You won't."

"And because I've done this before."

He turned to look at me.

"I told myself I would stop," I said. "Each time I bury one of them, I say it will be the last."

"Then don't think about burying anyone." His voice was low. "Think about tonight."