Chapter 7 - The Ledger Under the Floor.
The key stopped halfway through the lock.
Someone upstairs shouted Silas's name.
The key turned back.
Footsteps rushed away.
Clara waited five seconds before moving.
Then ten.
Ruth relit the lantern.
Jonah's face was gray with exhaustion.
"We need another way out."
He pointed toward the back wall.
Behind a stack of broken trunks was a low opening leading into the old coal passage.
They crawled through one at a time.
The passage ended near the kitchen cellar.
By the time they reached Elias's room, the twenty minutes had become thirty-eight.
Elias was sitting upright with a pistol across his lap.
Clara stopped in the doorway.
"Where did you get that?"
"My father believed in preparing for unwelcome relatives."
Jonah managed a weak laugh.
"Put it away before you frighten the decent ones."
Elias stared at him.
"You are alive."
"Disappointing several people tonight."
Ruth locked the door.
Clara helped Jonah into a chair.
"Tell us everything."
Jonah looked at Elias.
"The wheel pin was filed."
"We know."
"I found the tool marks after the wreck."
Jonah rubbed his wrists.
"I also found a strip of leather caught beneath the carriage body."
"What kind?"
"Medical bag leather."
Clara looked toward Elias.
Jonah continued.
"I went to Ashbury because Pike's bags are made by a saddler there."
"And?"
"The saddler repaired one for him two weeks before the accident."
Jonah reached into his boot and removed a folded receipt.
"Same leather."
Elias examined it.
"That places his bag near the carriage."
"It places leather from his bag there."
Jonah nodded.
"I wanted more."
"So you came back."
"And Pike was waiting in the stable."
Clara's skin prickled.
"He attacked you?"
Jonah's face hardened.
"He had help."
"Silas?"
"No."
"Who?"
Jonah shook his head.
"I never saw the man's face."
Elias held up the receipt.
"Did he wear a ring?"
Jonah looked at him.
"Right hand."
Silence followed.
Clara thought of the portrait.
"Miles."
Elias said nothing.
Jonah looked confused.
"Your brother is dead."
"No one ever proved that."
A knock sounded at the door.
Everyone froze.
Silas spoke from the corridor.
"Elias, open this door."
Elias slid the pistol beneath the blanket.
Clara opened the door a narrow distance.
Silas stood alone.
His face was pale and furious.
"You entered the west wing."
"Yes."
"Do you understand what you have done?"
"Freed a man your doctor imprisoned."
Silas's expression changed.
"Jonah is alive?"
The surprise looked genuine.
Clara watched him carefully.
"You did not know?"
Silas stepped forward.
"Let me see him."
Elias called from the bed.
"Come in."
Silas entered and stopped when he saw Jonah.
"Good God."
Jonah stared at him.
"You sound disappointed."
Silas ignored the insult.
"Who took you?"
"Pike."
Silas sat down slowly.
For the first time since the accident, he seemed genuinely shaken.
"That is not possible."
Clara crossed her arms.
"People say that often in this house."
Silas looked at Elias.
"Listen to me."
His voice had lost its usual arrogance.
"Pike must not know you found anything in the west wing."
Elias stared at him.
"Why?"
Silas looked toward Ruth.
"Because Gideon kept a ledger there."
Ruth's eyes narrowed.
"What ledger?"
"Private payments."
Silas stood.
"If Pike finds it first, we lose the only proof that might explain the last twelve years."
Clara felt anger rise.
"You knew there was proof and said nothing."
Silas met her eyes.
"I knew there was a ledger."
"And you wanted the wing opened."
"To get it before Pike."
"Why should we believe you?"
Silas's answer was immediate.
"You should not."
That silenced the room.
"But you should believe I am afraid of the same man you are."
Elias's voice was cold.
"You paid him."
Silas flinched.
"You found the entries."
"Yes."
"Then you found only half the truth."
Silas left before they could stop him.
Jonah looked toward the door.
"He is either terrified or the finest actor in Virginia."
Clara turned to Ruth.
"Where would Gideon hide a ledger?"
Ruth thought for a moment.
"Mrs. Mercer hated loose floorboards."
"What?"
"She complained about one in the west nursery every winter."
They returned before dawn.
This time Elias remained behind with Jonah.
Clara and Ruth found the nursery under a sheet of dust.
The floorboard beside the old cradle lifted with a knife.
Beneath it was a wrapped book.
Clara opened the first page.
Names and payments filled the paper.
Pike appeared again and again.
Silas appeared too.
Then Clara found an entry that made her knees weaken.
D. VALE - ACCOUNT CLOSED - BY ORDER OF G.M.
Below it, in another hand, was a later note.
VALE STILL LIVES.
Clara read it twice.
Her father had been declared dead nineteen years earlier.
The ledger said otherwise.
May you like
Then Ruth pointed to the line beneath it.
A date had been added only six months ago.
