Stay Dead This Time Chapter 05
Moonlight washed the flagstones of the Montclair estate in pale, cold light.
By the time I arrived at the chapel with my people, Vivienne was already there, directing two servants to pry open the coffin. Dr. Pemberton stood off to the side with his medical case. He was silver-haired and ruddy-cheeked, looking as though none of this had anything to do with him.
“Faster! Hurry up!” Vivienne hissed, keeping her voice low but unable to mask the desperation in it, “Any longer and that vile woman is going to get my son killed!”
I did not reveal myself right away. I stood in the shadows beneath the corridor eaves and watched the whole farce play out.
The moment the coffin lid came loose, a thick medicinal smell filled the air. Stellan lay inside, his face white as paper, his chest perfectly still, but his skin had not yet stiffened. The potion had not worn off. He was simply locked in a state of deep, false death.
“Doctor, please! Check on my son!”
Dr. Pemberton stepped forward, pressed two fingers to Stellan’s wrist, lifted one eyelid, then spoke in a low voice. “No need to panic, my lady. The potion is still in effect. He’ll wake on his own within seven days. However…”
“However what?”
“The coffin has been sealed. The medicinal vapors have built up with no way to dissipate. If you want to wake him early, I would need to use acupuncture on the vital points, supported by an aged restorative tonic to stabilize his breathing. It’s a dangerous process, but I’d put the odds at roughly seven in ten.”
Vivienne gritted her teeth. “That’s good enough. It’s better than letting that woman kill him.”
“So, this is what you truly think of me, Mother.”
Her words were still hanging in the air when I stepped from the shadows. “Mother, it’s cold out at night. Why aren’t you resting in your chambers?”
My voice was not loud, but it landed on Vivienne like a bucket of ice water. She whipped around, her face turning white. “You… What are you doing here?”
I glanced at the pried open coffin, then at the acupuncture needles in Dr. Pemberton’s hand, and finally let my gaze settle on the face inside the coffin. It was the face I had spent two lifetimes hating.
“If I hadn’t come, how would I have known my mother in law missed her late son so dearly that she would open his coffin in the dead of night for one last look?”
The phrase ‘late son’ landed like a slap. Vivienne’s face went from white to a mottled, furious green “Elara Renworth! Drop the act! You think I don’t know what you’re scheming?”
“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow. “Then by all means, tell me what I’m scheming,”
“You…” Vivienne’s fingers tightened around the prayer beads in her hand until her knuckles went white
“You want my son dead so your boy can inherit the title. That’s all this is! He’s not dead, you venomous woman! He’s not dead! Just wait until the seven days are up and he wakes. He’ll throw you out on the street, see if he doesn’t!”
I watched her spiral into hysteria, and I laughed. “Mother, have you forgotten something?
I beckoned behind me. A maid stepped forward carrying a decree on golden silk.
“This is the royal decree His Majesty personally issued two days ago.”
I unrolled it slowly, and by the light of the lanterns, I read every word aloud.
“Daphne Langford, whose devotion and virtue are beyond reproach, has offered her life to follow General Stellan Montclair in death. She is hereby granted the title of Lady of Fidelity, and shall be interred alongside the general in the Montclair family crypt, that her righteousness may be honored for all time.”
When the last word left my lips, I looked at Vivienne and smiled.
“Mother, the king has spoken. The whole world knows. If Stellan comes back to life now… what do you think His Majesty will make of that?”
Vivienne’s face shifted in an instant. “You… You…”
She pointed a trembling finger at me, her lips quivering, but not a single word came out. She knew what it meant
Faking his death was treason against the crown. Deceiving the king into granting a title was treason against the crown, and making His Majesty personally declare a living woman a martyr of devotion was the gravest treason of all.
Every single one of those charges was enough to bring the entire family down.
