The doctor complained about a woman who would not accept the papers prepared for her.
“She’s still asking after the boy,” Whitcomb said.
Richard frowned.
“Then she must be moved before the season changes.”
Catherine’s spoon struck her plate.
Everyone looked at her.
She forced a smile and blamed the loose handle.
Daniel did not look up, but he saw her fingers tremble.
Later he found a folded sheet beneath the dining room table.
The doctor had dropped it while reaching for his coat.
It contained a list of patients identified by numbers instead of names.
Each entry included a location and a fee.
One location was the western house.
Another was the mill.
At the bottom appeared the phrase temporary quieting.
Daniel felt cold despite the warmth of the room.
He could not know precisely what treatment the doctor meant.
He knew the document was not an ordinary record of care.
He copied its details onto the blank back of a discarded bill and returned the original where a servant might discover it without being accused of theft.
He found Catherine near the staircase and told her quietly that the doctor had lied.
She looked at him as though the house itself had begun to tilt.
“I know,” she said.
“Then we need to know where Margaret is.”
Catherine shook her head.
“We need to know whether she’s alive.”
For the first time, their purposes converged on a single question.
Neither of them yet knew how close the answer lay.
Chapter 11: The Mill Cellar
Thursday came with a steady wind that smelled of rain.
Daniel finished the crates shortly after noon and placed them beneath a tarpaulin outside the shed.
Silas inspected the seams with the end of his walking stick.
“You’re quick when you choose to be.”
Daniel said nothing.
The overseer lifted one lid and examined the ventilation openings.
“Good.”
His satisfaction made Daniel’s stomach turn.
By dusk the crates had been loaded onto a wagon, and Silas had ordered Daniel to accompany them in case the hinges loosened.
Isaiah watched from the forge.
The two men exchanged no visible sign.
They had already agreed what a broken wheel pin would mean.
The wagon reached the mill after dark.
Silas stopped beneath the old loading platform and ordered Daniel to help carry the crates inside.
The building looked empty in the lantern light.
Then a low cough sounded below the floor.
Daniel recognized the voice of someone struggling to keep quiet.
