Isaiah returned to the mansion after dark with a plan that depended on the household’s routines.
Ruth would keep the kitchen occupied by preparing food for the unexpected guest.
Esther would leave a finished coat outside the sewing room where Curtis could see it.
Gideon would make sure Pritchard remained in the workshop with a difficult repair.
Isaiah’s task was simpler and more dangerous.
He had to make Lenora speak while someone else could hear her.
He approached the upstairs hall carrying a bucket of coal.
The bedroom door stood open.
Lenora sat beside the fireplace with the brass weight in her lap.
She looked exhausted.
“Come inside.”
Isaiah stayed in the doorway.
“Why is the door open?”
“Because you have made me afraid of a closed one.”
“You have reason to be afraid.”
She set the weight aside.
“Curtis knows you went to the kiln.”
Isaiah felt a cold pressure beneath his ribs.
“How?”
“He found a footprint near the back wall.”
“There are many footprints near that building.”
“He found a mark on the gate where you climbed it.”
Isaiah said nothing.
Lenora stood.
“He will search your quarters before morning.”
“For what?”
“For anything he can call stolen.”
Isaiah looked at the brass weight.
“You gave him something.”
Lenora’s face hardened.
“I told him you might have taken it.”
“You put it in your room.”
“I needed him to believe I was afraid of you.”
“Why?”
“Because he is afraid of what you know.”
Isaiah stepped into the room but remained near the door.
“Then tell me why you helped him.”
Lenora looked toward the hall.
“Silas believes the machine will save the estate.”
“From what?”
“Debt.”
Isaiah stared at her.
The Whitcombs owned land and people, yet Silas had borrowed heavily to purchase new equipment and expand the tobacco fields.
A poor harvest had left him unable to meet payments.
Thomas’s invention promised a fortune if sold to the right buyer.
“Your husband stole it,” Isaiah said.
“Curtis took it.”
“Your husband knew.”
“He knows now.”
“And Ada Fenwick?”
Lenora’s lips trembled.
“Curtis brought her here because Thomas would not cooperate.”
“Where is Thomas?”
Lenora pressed her hands together.
“He escaped when they moved him from the workshop.”
Isaiah took a step forward.
“You told me you did not know.”
“I did not know where he went.”
“Does Ada know?”
“She believes he is dead.”
Isaiah felt anger rise so sharply that he had to unclench his fists.
“Then why keep her alive?”
“Because she knows how to assemble the machine.”
A board creaked in the hallway.
Lenora turned.
Isaiah saw the shadow of a man beneath the door.
Curtis had arrived without announcing himself.
