Elijah braced the frame while she squeezed through.

The sill scraped her sleeve, but she reached the ground without falling.

Then Elijah pushed the drainpipe against the open window to make it look as though he needed the space for a repair.

Crowe returned with a second guard before Elijah could climb out.

“You were making enough noise to wake the dead,” he said.

Elijah stepped aside to show the pipe’s split seam.

The guard looked toward the coal sacks, and Elijah felt a pulse of fear.

A small scrap of Lydia’s sleeve had caught on a nail.

He moved his hand casually across the frame and pulled it free before the guard saw it.

Crowe demanded to know why the window stood open.

Elijah pointed to water pooling at the base of the wall.

“The room needs air before I can seal the timber,” he said.

Crowe struck the wall with his boot, found it solid, and told him to finish the job.

Outside Mercy led Lydia and Thomas through the hedge into the old orchard.

Caleb waited with a wagon carrying empty baskets and a tarpaulin smelling of apples.

Lydia paused when she heard Catherine’s voice through an upstairs window.

For a moment the two sisters were separated by only a few yards of wall and fourteen years of manufactured grief.

Mercy touched Lydia’s elbow.

“Your sister cannot help you if you’re captured in the garden.” Lydia nodded and climbed beneath the tarp with Thomas.

Caleb drove slowly away, choosing the lane used for orchard supplies so the wheels would not suggest an unusual errand.

Elijah closed the cellar window and finished the pipe.

He returned the tools to their bag while Crowe watched him.

The overseer said the colonel wanted all work completed before morning.

Elijah answered that the drain would hold through the next rain.

His voice remained steady, though he could feel his hands shaking inside the bag.

At the top of the stairs Richard asked whether the coal platform had been disturbed.

Elijah looked at him without challenging his gaze.

“I repaired the latch and drain, sir.” Richard demanded a clearer answer.

“The stone still stands,” Elijah said.

The words were true.

The compartment was empty, but its walls remained intact.

Catherine stood on the landing when Elijah emerged.

Richard looked from one to the other, searching for some sign of conspiracy.

Catherine asked whether Elijah had completed the repair.

He said yes.

She thanked him in a tone so ordinary that Richard’s attention shifted back to his guests.