The Stand-in Wife's Deception

efore th

to the house: rain on glass, a low hum under the floor, and s

he bed was lookin

s and stood at the window with my hands on

t was somewhere close. She had been in the East Wing during the engagement. She would have hidde

he only room in the house with e

get there with

as in the c

in slow lines and pooled on the sills. The misters ran in a soft h

t. No tie. A cup of black coffee and

ept," h

ntua

t looked at. "Sit down. Eat somet

pot of coffee, and I took the coffee

u know Celia Ma

hing to me. I kept

hat you me

lightly. "You spent twenty minutes with her by

er turn. Vivienne's move

can ask me

r eyes, flat as coins. "Y

change,

up. "Or they don't, and othe

n down the glass. I ate a gr

ng enough to be a warning, then

t. The library, the music room, the conserva

p. "That's

ff. "It's an experiment. I want to

alke

erstood that he knew I had been out of bed. He hadn't said it. He had told me the whole wing

i

ome out o

ibrary was forty meters of hard black stone

the corner

eating system ran in cycles: a deep rising hum, a long steady no

in the building. Under it, a cam

d for t

I m

d on the balls of my feet, one hand on the wall, and I counted u

ty seconds on the clock, slid inside

ith eleven thousand books in it and

irst

ry running around the upper level, a ladder on a rail. Dust an

he aisles. Front and back, both l

wall - had no camera at all. The shelving there was original, b

flat on the oa

tly from the rest of the room. Thick s

o eye

ent

different. Wet. Faintly

een pulled out in years have a particular weight of dust on the top edge.

cond shelf fr

ean

them on the floor in the order I found them,

eports. Green cover, worn at the corners, a w

s Fair

eading about the wolf and the seven little goats, doing all the

my back against the shelf and

r than it sho

torn along the top corner. Fresh

e book, and my thumbs found

cavity, four inches deep, going thro

scrap of black velv

ng one edge. Half a lock sequence. I knew what it was the way I know a ledger fr

ip of paper in my s

pressed too deep. I could feel th

remember the cold. You remem

very

memb

's hand on it. It went off the desk and broke. Arthur came in and

up there for six hours with a blanket that sm

ith the plate in her hands, and she said sorry, and I said it was

at night, not ever. I took

the words you remember and felt something cold g

own I woul

planne

put the metal plate in the cavity, and put the book ba

key plate in my pocket was a co

p and tur

nding at the en

floor, not a breath. He was just there,

up on the ba

d polite. "She thinks they're furniture. She once told me

d not

raction. "What are you lookin

hem of my sleeve, and th

hand. He did not look

my eyes, an