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I’m more concerned with her face. Her expression is neutral. Perfectly neutral. Not the way someone should look when they stumble upon two people dragging a locked chest out of a house at sunset.

Hazel stiffens but she doesn’t retreat.

“This doesn’t concern you,” Nathaniel says.

She gazes at the chest. “It looks like it might.”

“It doesn’t.”

“Then what’s in there?”

My heart pounds so hard I feel it in my teeth. “Linens,” I say too quickly.

Hazel looks at me.

I force myself to keep talking. “Old linens. From the old guest rooms. There was damage. Mold.”

Hazel doesn’t blink. “You’re taking moldy linens out at sunset?”

“The smell,” I say. “We didn’t want it spreading.”

Hazel’s lips part slightly.

Nathaniel rescues me before Hazel speaks. “The chest contains items from Audrey’s rooms,” he says smoothly. “She’s leaving Vexley House. Ella thought she was helping by lying to you, but the staff will find out soon enough. Certain belongings are being removed before the staff starts gossiping.”

Hazel looks between us. “Audrey is leaving?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“Tonight.”

“Without saying goodbye to anyone?”

Nathaniel’s face hardens. “Audrey has never been sentimental.”

“That’s true.” Hazel looks at the chest again. “What’s in the chest?”

“We just told you,” Nathaniel says. “Not that it’s any business of yours anyway. Now get back inside.”

“No.”

Nathaniel glares at her. “I won’t ask again.”

Hazel raises her chin, still keeping her expression neutral. “Is there a body in the chest?”

My hands go numb. A roar fills my ears.

Hazel knows.

She knows.

Or she thinks she knows.

Nathaniel laughs. “Have you lost your mind?” He takes a step toward her. “You hear an instruction you dislike, find us moving a chest, and your conclusion is murder?”

“I didn’t say murder.”