Chapter 9: The Morning After
He drove back to the estate as the sky was turning gray.
Rachel was still there.
She had put Emma to bed in one of the guest rooms and was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of tea she hadn't touched.
She stood up when Adrian walked in.
"I should have told you sooner," she said.
"What Emma had seen.
I knew she'd been going up there at night — I thought she was sleepwalking at first.
Then she described the blue lady and I—" She stopped.
"I was afraid.
Madison was going to be the lady of this house.
I have a daughter.
I didn't know what to do."
"You let Emma speak tonight," Adrian said.
"When it mattered."
Rachel's eyes filled.
"She's four years old and she was braver than I was."
"She was brave because you told her to tell the truth." Adrian sat down across from her.
"That was you, Rachel.
That was you in that room."
Rachel pressed her hand over her mouth.
They sat in the kitchen while the light outside shifted from gray to pale gold.
Adrian made fresh tea because Rachel's had gone cold.
She wrapped both hands around the new cup and didn't say anything and that was all right.
After a while Emma appeared in the doorway in her nightgown, the stuffed rabbit under her arm, her hair flattened on one side from sleep.
She looked at Adrian.
"Did you find the red box?" she asked.
"I did," Adrian said.
Emma nodded, satisfied.
"Mrs.
Westwood has pretty things."
Adrian looked at the little girl for a moment.
"She did," he said.
"She really did."
Emma climbed into the chair beside her mother and leaned against Rachel's arm and closed her eyes again.
Natalie arrived at seven.
She had gone home briefly and come back.
She sat down without a word and Adrian poured her tea and she drank it and looked out the window at the garden.
"I keep thinking about that phone call she made to me," Natalie said finally.
"The last one.
She said, *I'm going to fix it, Nat.
I promise.* And I said, *I know you will.* Because she always did." She turned her cup in her hands.
"I should have asked her more questions."
"She didn't want you to worry," Adrian said.
"I know.
That was very Claire." Natalie's voice was soft.
"She protected everyone right up until she couldn't anymore."
They were quiet.
Outside, a bird landed on the garden wall and then flew away.
"What happens to the house?" Natalie asked.
"Nothing changes," Adrian said.
"Not yet.
Maybe not for a while."
Natalie nodded.
"She loved this house," she said.
"She used to say it was too big and too cold and she loved it anyway."
"She made it warmer," Adrian said.
Natalie looked at him.
May you like
"Yes," she said.
"She did."
