Malcolm smiled without warmth.
He visited Henry in the schoolroom. The boy immediately reached for the slate. Clara moved between them.
"Master Henry is working."
"I came to see my nephew."
"Then you may sit quietly and do so."
Malcolm looked amused. "Adrian has employed a governess with opinions."
"Adrian has employed one who reads contracts."
His smile disappeared.
That afternoon, Adrian told Clara about the trust. Henry would inherit the title and the entailed estate, but his mother had also established a separate settlement for his personal income and education. If trustees declared him incapable of managing his affairs, they could control the money until he reached an age they considered suitable.
The wording was vague. Vague wording was often where powerful men hid sharp objects.
"Malcolm wants control of the settlement," Clara said.
"He says he wants Henry protected."
"People often place their hands over a child's mouth while calling it protection."
Adrian did not answer.
"Dr. Morley will come next month," he said.
"For what purpose?"
"To assess Henry."
"Without Henry's consent?"
"He is nine."
"He is still the person being assessed."
Adrian looked at her. "The trustees may send him to St. Cuthbert's House if he cannot demonstrate improvement by his 10th birthday."
"St. Cuthbert's is a boarding school?"
"A private institution for children considered difficult."
"That is a very elegant phrase for a place where adults send children they do not understand."
Adrian's face hardened. "I will not allow them to take him."
"Then do not allow them to call his fear evidence of incapacity."
"I have tried."
"No, you have delayed them."
The words landed harder than she intended. Adrian turned away. Clara softened, but she did not withdraw them.
"A man can protect a child from the world only for so long. Eventually, he must protect the child from the protection itself."
Adrian said nothing.
That night, Henry drew a picture. It showed a carriage lying on its side beneath a black sky. A small boy stood beside it. Behind the carriage was a man with one hand raised. Above the picture, Henry had drawn a bell. Two lines crossed its surface.
Clara placed the paper on the table. "Who is this?"
Henry pointed to the man.
"Malcolm?"
He nodded.
"Did he break the carriage?"
Henry's hand began to shake. Clara immediately shook her head. "No more questions."
Henry pointed to the bell.
"Was the bell ringing?"
He nodded. Then he wrote one word:
Quiet.
Clara looked toward the chapel tower. The family bells rang every evening at 8:00. Henry always became ill before the eighth stroke.
Clara went to the library and found Adrian studying estate accounts.
"The bell is not a curse," she said.
He looked up. "I did not ask whether it was."
"Henry reacts to it as though it is connected to the accident."
Adrian's expression changed. "What did he draw?"
She placed the paper before him. Adrian looked at the carriage, the figure behind it, and the bell. His face lost color.
"I have seen this before," he said.
"Where?"
"In his mother's room."
He crossed to a cabinet and removed a small music box. The lid was decorated with painted blue flowers. Inside was a hidden compartment. Adrian lifted out a folded letter. The handwriting belonged to Rosamund. He read it once, then handed it to Clara.
She read slowly:
Adrian, I have found withdrawals from Henry's settlement that I did not authorize. Malcolm says they are loans, but the figures do not match his explanation. I intend to speak to Mr. Fenwick tomorrow. If anything happens to me, do not let anyone call our son cursed. He saw Malcolm in the carriage shed tonight. The boy tried to tell me something, but Miss Sedgwick stopped him and told him that speaking of family matters would bring death upon the house. Do not trust silence simply because it is convenient. Rosamund.
Clara lowered the letter. "Why did you never show this to the trustees?"
"I found it after the funeral."
"Why did you hide it?"
Adrian looked toward the cold fireplace. "Because it suggested Malcolm had a motive."
"And because it suggested Henry had seen something."
"Yes."
"You knew he was not cursed."
"I knew I had no proof."
"You had a letter from his mother."
"I had a letter written before her death. Nothing more."
"You had a child who said Malcolm's name, then stopped speaking."
His voice became quiet. "I thought he meant me."
Clara stared at him. "Why?"
"Because I was the man who failed to save her."
For the first time, Adrian looked less like an earl than a tired man who had been carrying the same night for 5 years.
"I thought Henry blamed me," he continued. "I thought every time he looked at me, he remembered that I had sent them out in the rain."
"Did you ask him?"
"No, of course not." His eyes lifted. "I was afraid of the answer."
"That is what fear does. It makes silence look like certainty."
Adrian turned the letter over in his hands. "If Malcolm learns about this, he will say Rosamund was emotional and Henry was confused."
"Then we find evidence he cannot dismiss."
For the next 3 weeks, Clara and Adrian searched the household records. Mr. Fenwick, the family solicitor, found irregular withdrawals from Henry's settlement; the money had passed through two accounts connected to Malcolm. Mr. Gresham located the carriage repair log: the left wheel had been inspected that morning and recorded as sound, but after the accident, the wheel pin was missing.
The stable groom who had checked the carriage was dead. The only person who had seen Malcolm near the carriage shed was Miss Sedgwick, the former governess. She had left Blackmere within a month of Rosamund's death.
Mr. Gresham found her living in a village 12 miles away. She refused to come. Then Adrian sent word that the earl himself wished to speak with her.
She arrived the following evening. Miss Sedgwick was a thin woman with tired eyes. She carried a worn black handbag and kept both hands folded over it. When she saw Henry, she began to tremble. The boy moved behind Clara.
Miss Sedgwick looked at him. "I am sorry," she whispered.
Henry did not answer. Clara stood beside him.
"What did you tell him on the night Lady Rosamund died?"
Miss Sedgwick closed her eyes. "I told him to be quiet."
"Why?"
"Because Lord Malcolm said the child had seen too much."
Adrian stepped forward. "What did Henry see?"