Song: “If You Can’t Love This All Goes Away” by Flo Morrissey

Lucille stared at the thin layer of dust on the piano lid and decided to fire her maid.

“Enter,” she called when the anticipated knock finally came. A woman in a ratty gray frock dragged a mop and bucket into the music room, and Lucille decided the termination could wait till tomorrow.

She hated cleaning blood—so tedious with all the smearing and endless streaks on her beautiful hardwood floor. Jonathan had suggested laying down a tarp beforehand, but there never seemed to be time.

Without looking at Mathilde or speaking a word, Lucille pointed at the body in the corner of the room, where it lay half under Lucille’s floor-length velvet curtains. She hadn’t covered it—why would she?—but he’d been standing by the window when he’d said it: “We need to talk.”

Everything had kind of just happened after that, but Mathilde’s mop and a call to the undertaker would set everything right. Lucille would start fresh tonight, and maybe the next one would love her.

She met Jonathan in the hallway and suppressed a smile when he took several steps back from her. She’d always wondered whether she had him to thank for her inheritance, whether he’d begged their parents to leave everything to her. It was the only way he could live, after all.

“How many are coming tonight?” she asked as she turned to head toward the library.

He fell into step just behind her, like a reluctant hunting dog dragged into the forest by its master’s bloodlust. “Thirteen.”

“Hm.” She pursed her lips. “That doesn’t give me many to pick from, Jonathan. Did you extend the invitation to the neighboring villages like I asked?”

“Yes.”

“Did you tell them about all I have to offer—112 acres, paintings from all the greats—the gardens! Certainly you’ve told them of the gardens.”

Jonathan nodded. “I did. But I think word had gotten around about the last nine.”

“I’ll have to have a word with the undertaker, then,” Lucille said, frowning. “But first, let’s widen the net. Tell Gerard to prepare the car. We’ll make a day trip to Chargryn.”

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