“Is she alive?”
“Yes.”
Caleb felt relief and dread at once.
“And the baby?”
“Also alive.”
“Why was it taken to Hawthorne?”
Mercy looked at Lottie before answering.
“The colonel’s solicitor has found a clause in an old family settlement.”
“What settlement?”
“The next lawful heir must be presented before the trustees at the winter meeting.”
“Eleanor announced she was pregnant.”
“She did.”
“Are you telling me she isn’t?”
“I’m telling you my aunt knows the difference between a birth and a performance.”
They reached a deserted tobacco barn, where Lottie closed the door behind them.
Mercy sat on a crate and removed a small notebook from her bag.
“There are two babies involved,” she said.
Caleb stared at her.
“Two?”
“One is Miriam’s daughter.”
“And the other?”
“My aunt believes Eleanor gave birth in secret three days ago.”
Caleb’s mouth went dry.
Mercy continued carefully.
“She had been concealing her condition from the household because the colonel had begun questioning the dates.”
“Then whose baby entered through the kitchen?”
“Miriam’s daughter.”
“Why?”
“Eleanor wants a witness to sign a statement about which child was born to her.”
“Me?”
Mercy nodded.
“She wants you to say you were present when her child was delivered.”
“I wasn’t.”
“That’s why she needs to make you say it.”
Caleb felt an old fear rise beneath a new one.
“Why would the colonel believe me?”
“He might not.”
“But the trustees would have a statement made under threat and presented as proof.”
“And if the child is not hers?”
Mercy folded the notebook.
“There is another reason the locket matters.”
“What reason?”
“The portrait is of Eleanor’s sister, Clara.”
Caleb remembered the dark-haired woman in the tiny frame.
Mercy’s voice fell.
“Clara died after bearing a child that the Whitmore family refused to acknowledge.”
“What happened to the child?”
“That,” Mercy said, “is the question the locket may answer.”
Chapter Nine: The Child No One Counted
Caleb did not sleep that night.
He sat beside the barn door listening to the wind push through the gaps in the boards and tried to arrange Mercy’s words into a story he could understand.
Eleanor had announced a pregnancy, yet she had kept the household uncertain about its dates.
Miriam had borne a daughter, who was carried into the manor after dark.
Another child had reportedly been delivered there while doors were locked and witnesses excluded.
The solicitor wanted testimony, and Eleanor wanted Caleb’s name attached to it.
