A woman whispered a single name: “Catherine.” He nearly dropped the hammer.

The voice was strained but unmistakably human, and it carried the careful pronunciation of someone who had once been educated among the household’s guests.

Elijah moved his lips without making sound.

“Lydia?” The woman did not answer directly.

“Tell her the dead are named to hide the living.” Crowe called from the stairs, and Elijah stepped away.

He could not stay without exposing the hidden room.

He replaced the latch, gathered his tools, and climbed out under the overseer’s watch.

Outside, he looked up toward Catherine’s bedroom window.

Its shutters stood partly open despite the cold.

Somewhere beyond the wall was a woman whose name had been used to close a history that had never ended.

Elijah resolved that the next time he entered, he would not come only for documents.

Chapter 16: Lydia’s Voice

Elijah did not tell Catherine immediately that he had heard her sister behind the cellar wall.

The truth was too dangerous to reveal in a room where Richard’s servants could be ordered to listen at the door.

Instead he waited for Mrs.

Fenwick to summon him to repair a broken picture frame.

He removed the painting from its hook and spoke quietly while examining the warped backing.

“There is someone behind the coal platform,” he said.

Catherine’s hand closed around the arm of her chair.

“Who?” “A woman who knew your name.” Catherine stared past him at the closed door.

“Did she say Lydia?” Elijah answered, “She spoke as someone who expected you to understand a message about the dead and the living.” Catherine pressed her lips together, refusing to cry until she knew what tears would mean.

Elijah explained the concealed compartment, the fresh scratch marks, and the guards.

Catherine asked why Richard would keep Lydia so close to her after fourteen years.

He reminded her that the woman behind the wall might have arrived recently.

“I believe she has been searching for proof,” he said.

“If your sister is alive, she may be in danger because she found it.” Catherine asked whether he could open the wall.

“I can,” Elijah said.

“But I cannot get her out while Crowe watches the stairs.” Catherine looked toward her injured ankle.

“My husband thinks I cannot move.” Elijah understood her meaning but warned her not to underestimate Richard.

“He has already aimed a pistol at me,” he said.

“He knows the danger of silence and uses it.”

Catherine wanted to confront Richard immediately.