She wore a plain blue shawl and held a candlestick below her face.
“Come inside,” she told Caleb.
“The road has too many ears.”
In the kitchen, Caleb saw a repaired clock, stacked bread tins, and a slate covered with figures.
Lottie gave him tea and waited until he had taken several sips.
“Amos trusts you,” she said.
“He shouldn’t have to.”
“Trust isn’t the same as being certain.”
Caleb told her about Hawthorne, Eleanor’s midnight summons, his transfer, and the sudden order to return.
He did not describe the violations in detail, and Lottie did not ask him to.
When he mentioned the locket, she stopped turning the spoon in her cup.
“Silver, with a dent by the hinge?”
He looked at her.
“Have you seen it?”
“Not the locket,” she said.
“I’ve heard about one.”
Lottie opened a drawer and took out a folded scrap of paper that smelled faintly of soap.
A woman called Hester Wynn had sent the note from Hawthorne two days earlier.
Hester worked as Eleanor’s personal maid and had been with her since before the marriage.
The note consisted of only seven words.
“The little portrait is not her mother.”
Caleb read the sentence twice.
“Who is it, then?”
“Hester wants us to ask why Eleanor brought that locket with her when she married.”
“And why she needs it now?”
Lottie regarded him carefully.
“Because the inscription might tell us whose child Eleanor is claiming.”
Caleb set his cup down.
“She’s expecting a child.”
“That’s what she announced.”
“I saw her.”
“You saw her say it,” Lottie replied.
“I’m not saying she lied, Caleb.”
“I’m saying people with power sometimes make several truths serve one lie.”
He did not like the uncertainty.
A clear answer might have been terrible, but uncertainty had been punishing him for months.
Lottie pushed a small piece of paper across the table.
On it she had drawn a rough map of Hawthorne’s service yards and the road to Ruth’s kitchen entrance.
“I can send a warning,” she said.
“I cannot promise how quickly it will reach your sister.”
Caleb touched the penciled line that represented the back stairs.
“I don’t want Ruth punished for what Eleanor did.”
“Then we give Ruth a choice before Eleanor makes another one for her.”
Outside, the river moved beneath the dark trees.
For the first time since the summons began, Caleb could imagine a decision made without Eleanor standing over him.
