Chapter 4 - the letters that never reached Julian
Mary Jane wrote her first letter to Julian the next morning.
She did not trust herself to speak while Victoria was nearby, so she used three sheets of stationery from the desk in her room.
I heard Victoria and Mr. Mercer talking behind the wall. They said my mother had evidence. They said there is a paper you will sign that gives me to someone else. Victoria knows about my mother’s accident.
Mary Jane folded the pages and placed them inside an envelope.
At breakfast, Julian announced that he was leaving for New York to negotiate the sale of an Ashford hotel.
“I will be gone for four days,” he told her. “Mrs. Dallow will look after you.”
Mary Jane held the envelope beneath the table.
Victoria sat beside him.
“Mary Jane and I will have time to become better acquainted.”
Mary Jane did not give Julian the letter.
Instead, she waited until his car left and slipped it beneath the door of his private office, believing he would find it upon his return.
An hour later, the envelope lay on Victoria’s dressing table.
Victoria read it twice before placing it inside the fireplace.
Elias Mercer stood near the window.
“You promised the child would not become a problem.”
“She is more observant than her mother.”
“That is exactly why we should postpone.”
“We cannot postpone. Julian’s audit committee has begun questioning the missing distributions.”
“You told me those accounts were buried.”
“They were until Thomas died and Julian inherited voting control.”
Victoria watched the final corner of Mary Jane’s letter blacken in the fire.
“The gala gives us access to his signature, the trustees, the board members, and every witness needed to make the transfer appear legitimate.”
“And the child?”
“Once the guardianship clause activates, she will be moved to the Vale residence.”
Elias looked uneasy.
“Adrian cannot be allowed near her.”
Victoria turned.
“You did not object when Adrian solved the Eleanor problem.”
“I was not told what he intended.”
“You were paid not to ask.”
A floorboard creaked outside.
Victoria opened the door.
The corridor was empty.
Farther down the hall, Mrs. Dallow entered the linen closet and closed the door behind her.
She had heard enough.
That afternoon, the housekeeper searched Julian’s study. The hidden panel behind the tapestry had been sealed with a removable section of matching wood. Inside the passage, she found a small pearl button.
It belonged to Victoria’s coat.
Mrs. Dallow placed it in her pocket.
Then she found scratches on the stone wall forming three words.
BLUE CHAPEL LEDGER.
The handwriting belonged to Eleanor Reed.
Mrs. Dallow went directly to Mary Jane’s room.
“Did your mother ever speak of a chapel?”
“She took me to one before she died.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know. It had blue windows and an angel with one broken hand.”
Mrs. Dallow sat beside her.
“Mary Jane, you must listen carefully. I believe your mother hid something in this house.”
“The ledger?”
The housekeeper’s eyes widened.
Mary Jane told her everything she had heard.
Mrs. Dallow removed the pearl button from her pocket.
“This proves Victoria was in the passage.”
“Will Julian believe us?”
“He will if we show him more than a frightened child’s word.”
They searched the east wing together.
Behind an old wardrobe, they found a ventilation shaft that carried sound from Julian’s office to several upstairs rooms. Eleanor had likely used it to overhear meetings while cataloging documents.
Inside the shaft was a small metal hook.
Something had once hung from it.
A recorder, perhaps.
That evening, Mrs. Dallow wrote Julian a detailed email and attached photographs of the hidden panel and Victoria’s button.
The message never left the mansion’s network.
Daniel Crowe, the security chief, received an automated warning that an unauthorized attachment was being sent from a staff account.
Before he could investigate, someone remotely erased the message.
The following morning, Victoria announced that Mrs. Dallow had suffered a medical emergency and would be taking immediate leave.
Mary Jane ran to the housekeeper’s room.
It was empty.
The bed had been stripped.
Her clothes were gone.
On the nightstand stood a teacup that was still warm.
Mary Jane found a second letter beneath the saucer.
May you like
Do not let them make you doubt what you heard.
It was the last message Mrs. Dallow left behind.
