Chapter 4
Sebastian was seventeen when he learned.
That was what he finally admitted.
Not everything.
Just enough.
“My mother told me Mariana came from a dangerous family.”
I almost laughed.
“You’re marrying into that dangerous family tomorrow.”
His jaw tightened.
“She didn’t say Vance.”
“Then what did she say?”
He looked at Beatrice.
I waited.
“She said Mariana’s mother caused trouble for powerful people and we were protecting her.”
Mariana stared at him.
“You knew my mother didn’t abandon me?”
Sebastian shook his head quickly.
“I didn’t know that.”
“But you knew I wasn’t just an orphan.”
Silence.
Beatrice cut in.
“We took her in. Fed her. Educated her. There are worse lives.”
Mariana looked at her.
“You made me serve your parties.”
“You lived in my house.”
“You made me call you Mrs. Sterling in front of guests.”
“You were ungrateful when allowed familiarity.”
I saw Mariana’s hands close around the shawl.
Twenty-five years of cruelty compressed into sentences Beatrice considered reasonable.
Rafe returned from the adjoining service hall.
“I found someone who worked here when Mariana arrived.”
Richard’s expression changed.
“Who?”
“Evelyn Shaw.”
Beatrice stood so abruptly her chair scraped the marble.
“She was fired twenty years ago.”
Rafe looked at her.
“She says you fired her because she wouldn’t stop asking about Camille Vance.”
Nobody moved.
I knew the name.
Evelyn had once worked temporary service at one of my father’s winter dinners. Quiet woman. Sharp memory.
“Where is she?”
“On her way.”
Beatrice laughed nervously.
“A seventy-year-old servant is your witness now?”
I stared.
“You really do hate people you can’t control.”
She smiled coldly.
“I understand hierarchy.”
“No.”
I looked at Mariana.
“You understand humiliation.”
That silenced her for a moment.
Renata stepped away from Sebastian and removed her engagement ring.
He noticed immediately.
“Renata.”
She placed it on the wedding table.
“I’m listening.”
His face tightened.
“To what?”
“To whether my fiancé knew a woman in his own house was being punished for a family secret.”
“This has nothing to do with us.”
Renata’s expression hardened.
“It has everything to do with us.”
Good.
My daughter had inherited one useful instinct from me.
Once betrayal entered the room, she stopped pretending furniture could hide it.
Then Rafe returned carrying a small wooden box.
Evelyn had given him instructions over the phone.
The box had been hidden beneath the oldest drawer of the Sterling silver room.
Beatrice went completely still.
May you like
On the lid was a carved sapphire-blue crescent.
Camille’s mark.
