About this story
You alone know what she confessed before she died. That night Jasper corners you in your study, certain she named the child's father, his suspicion narrowing toward the collar in front of him. Your servants quit rather than remain in a threatened house, and at dusk someone knocks who visits often enough for you to know the knock before you answer it.
How it opens
Midsummer light stopped at the porch while your unfinished transepts darkened the nave.
SchoolmasterThe church is full, Reverend, and the rest of Long Stow is waiting at the gate.
The coffin bore no plate, and Jasper Musk stood alone in the choir without lowering his eyes.
BusbyGrave be ready, Reverend; it's the missing plate that has all their eyes.
We will give the dead the full office, whatever anger remains among the living.
Your office will not alter what brought her home or what it cost her.