Every part of it was either false or impossible for Caleb to know.
“He will sign,” Eleanor said.
“And if he doesn’t?” Nathaniel asked.
“He understands what can happen to his sister.”
The colonel turned sharply.
“You used his sister as leverage?”
Eleanor gave him a cold look.
“You’ve used every person on this estate as leverage when it suited you.”
Nathaniel stepped closer.
“This is about the inheritance.”
“This is about whether you intend to discard me once you have what you want.”
The colonel pointed toward the document.
“You still haven’t told me why you sent the carpenter away.”
Eleanor’s face changed.
“You know why.”
“I know you told me he was dishonest.”
“Then why ask again?”
Nathaniel lowered his voice.
“Because Voss says the child may not be mine.”
For a moment the room held only the sound of the clock.
Eleanor glanced at Avery, who kept his eyes on his medical case.
“Voss has no right to speak about my child,” she said.
“He has a right to ask whether I intend to pay him,” Nathaniel answered.
“And he is asking with the confidence of a man holding a letter I thought had burned.”
Eleanor gripped the statement.
“Which letter?”
“The one Clara wrote before she died.”
Avery raised his head.
“Colonel, this is not a subject for household discussion.”
Nathaniel turned on him.
“Then perhaps you should not have brought the past into my nursery.”
Eleanor set the document on the desk.
She understood now that Nathaniel and Voss were each keeping something from her, and that Caleb’s testimony might be the only tool left to prevent them from taking the child.
But her fear had not made her capable of asking Caleb for help.
She could imagine only commanding him.
The colonel moved toward the door.
“If Mercer returns, I will question him myself.”
Eleanor heard the threat in his voice.
“Alive,” she said quickly.
Nathaniel looked back.
“What?”
“Bring him alive.”
“I need a witness, not a corpse.”
The colonel studied her expression.
“So do I,” he answered.
Chapter Twenty: The Letter Clara Wrote
Voss’s letter did not remain hidden for long.
A clerk named Philip Marsh had copied its outer description during a meeting between the colonel and Elias Voss, and the copy reached Sarah Mott through a minister who had once helped Philip’s family.
The description listed a folded sheet, a pressed white flower, and a small ribbon cut from a child’s blanket.
