Chapter 9: The Ledger

Lorcan found me in the library after the kids were asleep.

I had put them down in a nest of quilts in the room next door.

The double doors stood propped open, so I could see all three small shapes from the desk.

The library was warm and smelled of old paper and woodsmoke.

I was reading the pack's account books because I couldn't sleep.

"You shouldn't be in those," Lorcan said from the doorway.

"I'm allowed. Your father said I was welcome."

"My father says many things."

He crossed the room and pulled out the chair across from mine.

He laid a heavy green ledger on the desk and opened it to a page marked with a ribbon.

"I've been reading these for five years," he said. "Look at the third column."

It was a list of monthly entries in Hugh's neat hand.

Beside each date was one line.

Moon room, one draw. L., E.

"What is the Moon room?"

"A cellar under the old wing. I can't get into it. Father has the only key."

He turned the page. "And E.L. is your mother."

My hands went cold, and then warm again.

"Every month for twenty years," Lorcan said. "He takes something from her."

"What?"

"I don't know yet." He looked at me. "I'm going to find out."

"Why are you showing me?"

"Because you're the only one here who has a reason to hate him as much as I do."

I closed the book.

"No," I said. "I have a better reason to hate you."

He went still.

"I walked into that hall and I trusted you," I said.

"You walked me home from the library for years. You were the one I thought would stand up."

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