Chapter Eleven
I woke up when I heard voices, and found I was alone. I got out of bed, wrapped the silk robe around myself, and stepped outside of my bedroom.
All the lights in the hallway were on, and my eyes adjusted to the brightness as I made my way downstairs. The front door was wide open, and I could hear people moving around.
A body lay at the bottom of the steps, covered with a white cloth, and a man in a wrinkled suit with rolled up sleeves crouched beside the sprawled figure.
The man saw me on the stairs and stood up.
“I’m sorry ma’am, and you are?” he said, motioning for me to come down the steps.
“Nadia,”
I knew that the silk robe was short, and that he could see more of my legs than I would have liked. Besides that, the thinness of the fabric and the coolness of the air made me keenly aware of my protruding nipples. I crossed one arm over my chest.
“Why don’t you go into the kitchen with the others. I’ll just be a moment here,” he said kindly.
I nodded silently and walked past him.
Was it Margaret? She had been so distraught, so spooked by my sudden, violent response to her outburst.
I had bathed in her blood, and now she might be dead at the bottom of the steps.
In the kitchen, I saw Vic and Matthew seated opposite one another at the table. My breath caught in my throat and, when Vic saw me, he immediately stood up.
Matthew glanced briefly in my direction, before returning to his study of the cup of tea between his hands on the table.
Vic pulled me into a tight embrace.
“Are you okay?” he breathed against my cheek. “I was hoping they’d let you sleep.”
“I heard the voices downstairs,” I said, still half beneath the influence of my interrupted slumber. “What happened?”
“She must have gotten up in the middle of the night and become disoriented. I didn’t think she had the strength to leave her bedroom, otherwise I would have locked the door,” he said.
I pulled back a little. “Who is it?”
Vic tilted his head and a look of confusion played across his features. “My mother.”
I gasped, drawing my arms around him. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize.”
He nodded, apparently grasping where my mind had first travelled. “Margaret left sometime in the night. When Matthew came and told me about the fall, I went to get her. I found her bedroom was empty, and she’d left a note explaining everything. I passed that on to a police officer, in case he wants to get in touch.”
“I’m so sorry,” I repeated.
“It was bound to happen sooner or later,” he said, resting his chin on the top of my head. “This just makes me more grateful for all of the things I do have. I love you, and I want you to know how much you mean to me. I can’t imagine living my life without you now.”
I buried my forehead against his chest, feeling the shelter of his strength around me.
“I love you too,” I said.
He pulled back, a strange gleam in his bright blue eyes. “Will you marry me?”
I took a deep breath, fighting back the flutter of joy biting at my chest.
“Don’t ask me that now,” I said. “You need time, and I don’t want to be the mistake you’ll regret for years to come.”
“You couldn’t be,” he said, taking my chin in his hand and tilting my face upward.
“Please, wait just a little while,” I said quietly.
“For you, I’ll wait an eternity,” he said, stooping to place a rough kiss on my lips.
I melted into his embrace, aware that Matthew was looking on with disdain at the display of affection taking place only feet from where Edith lay dead beneath a sheet. If I had thought about it more, if I had analyzed the juxtaposition of the death to the proposal, I would have convinced myself that this was natural, that Vic was experiencing a trauma, and seeking some stability, grasping desperately at straws.
That would have been incorrect, but it hardly mattered. When it came to Vic, I never thought that hard.
A knock came on the open doorway to the kitchen, and the coroner cleared his throat.
“We’ll be leaving now. The preliminary autopsy findings should be available for release tomorrow,” he said, giving a slight look of disapproval to Vic.
I wondered how long he’d been standing there.
“Thank you,” Vic answered, his voice velvet smooth. “Let me show you out.”
I was left standing in the kitchen in front of Matthew, who was back to staring at his tea.
“I’m sorry. I know losing a patient must be hard for you,” I said, approaching the table with reluctant steps.
Matthew shrugged, before flitting his eyes up to me. “At least she didn’t suffer much. Based on what I saw before the coroner arrived, her death was quick and painless.”
“Small mercies,” I said.
Matthew nodded.
I left the kitchen, stepping lightly over the place where Edith’s body had just been lying. I didn’t wait for Vic to return from speaking with the coroner.
When I was upstairs, instead of going to my own room, I stepped into Margaret’s bedroom. Sure enough, everything was gone. The bed had been neatly remade, and the trash in the bathroom was empty. It seemed that either she had been neurotically thorough in her departure, or someone else had cleaned the room.
My tiredness making a triumphant return, I went back to bed. I pulled myself under the covers and enjoyed the gentle warmth encasing me. I didn’t go back to sleep that night, as my mind was completely preoccupied with Vic’s sudden proposal.