ted peace to c

t brought

ty archive, a letter arrived at the foundation's newly appointed address. Its seal

ully, eyes scanning

ped aside, but Velbridge remembers debts. Some stories were b

re. No ret

t lingered. She had known, even when she first uncovered Tomas's notes, that some things woul

ars had begun to request access to the cellar records, and local teachers were in

etly. "The old families they don't want

"Let them be

nto the Thornwicks two generations ago is already questioning the ownership transf

hey don't want the estate turned into

delay. Soften the langu

't dress up ash in velvet

ataloging late into the evening, long after the others left. The quiet su

the far corridor toward a door that had remained shut since the early da

months before the fire. There was no documentation as to why. No ma

ath, then turn

with a s

lding its breath for too long. Dust coated the furniture two ch

the wall. Half torn, stained, its canvas s

of a

ked exactly

closer, hear

er, the face a little softer.

eneath the p

47–1882. Keeper o

mouth w

had never been a portrait. Her mother h

was i

ad it bee

ething wedged between canvas and wall a sl

, she thought. Anothe

xt morning, Mira had been

otes warnings. She called them 'the Quiet Rooms.' Places in the house meant

"That's...

sent away. And every time, Elias and his father moved mon

"If we pu

have

means someone out ther

"They already are. You saw th

er from her desk an

ng. "Do you think it's from

e who still profits from

gaze. "Then

. The tensi

. One morning, Mira found a red handprint smeared across the manor gates. Another day,

fts. Archiving by day, gua

el. Tomas. Clara. Even letters from staff, hidden betwee

d tried to b

s unearth

, a knock came at the

oman in her early fifties, soaked an

Mira Ellison," she

later, startled by the

"I was Elias Thornwick's accountant. I help

ent dry. "Why

ts," she said, voice cracking. "And I

ts on the table. Contracts. Hidden accounts.

"Money laundered through charities and trusts. But what broke

o more than thirtee

was Elsie. She disappeared after re

her knee

ow her?" sh

I saw her ghost for years. In

he table and placed h

the only o

Thornwick with Clara's journal on her l

rattled doors. Some waited qui

done bein

e. And the house wo