About this story
In eight minutes behind a screen, Florentine Vivier admits she killed the aristocrat who fathered and denied you, and insists that Amanda Pynsent, who raised you on nothing, deserves gratitude rather than blame for keeping the truth from you. The chapter ends at the gate, Amanda promising to finish what Florentine started, the hardest part of it still unsaid.
How it opens
Paper patterns and cloth scraps covered Miss Pynsent's parlor before the visitor arrived.
Mrs BowerbankThe prisoner's dying wish is to see the child you have raised.
Amanda Pynsent looked toward the street where you usually read romances through a shop window.
Mrs BowerbankShe may live a week, perhaps two; the law promises nothing beyond today.
If the lady came for me, I should hear why before tea.
Choose
Is someone there claiming to be my relation?
Have I done something the police mean to punish?
Why are you both afraid of the answer?