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