Page 108 of Save Us
“That only worked because your mother’s input carried more weight than your father’s. She could control what he did because he was—strictly speaking—her employee.” He coughs. “I think your mother realized that something like this might happen if anything…were to happen to her.”
“Percy,” I say slowly. “What are you telling me?”
Percy just looks at me for a long moment, then sighs. He reaches inside his shirt collar and pulls out a thin silver chain with a pendant. Carefully, he pulls it over his head and holds it up so that I can get a closer look. The thing dangling from the chain isn’t a pendant—it’s a little key.
“A few years ago, your mother gave me this key. She told meto guard it with my life.” He stares at its little teeth and runs his finger over the tarnished metal. He seems almost in a trance. Then he shakes his head, as if to snap himself out of it, and takes the key off the chain. He pushes it over the table toward me, then slips the chain back over his head and tucks it under his shirt again.
I pick up the key and twist and turn it a few times. “Why did she entrust this to you?” I ask, my voice raw.
Percy swallows hard. “We were something like friends.”
That sets my mind whirling again, but I try to suppress the thoughts. All that matters now is that Mum had a secret. A secret that she wouldn’t trust Dad with, or even Lydia or me or Ophelia. And I’m holding the key to that secret in my hand.
“She never told me what it opens,” Percy says thoughtfully. “But I think you should have it.”
I look up and study Percy, suddenly realizing how sad he looks. I remember something Ruby once told me. That none of this could be easy for Percy—Mum dying, and then Lydia and me moving out. He’s staff, but he’s also one of the family. And he clearly meant enough to Mum that she trusted him unconditionally.
“You think this key is linked to Dad’s weird phone call?” I ask in the end.
He shrugs. “I don’t know. But what I do know is that your father has something to hide.”
I turn the key in my fingers. Then I pull out my wallet, open it, and slip it in, right behind Ruby’s list. Then I look Percy right in the eyes. “I’m going to find out what this is.”
“I was hoping you’d say that, Mr. Beaufort.”
28
Ruby
I’m sitting on the cold steps outside the Beauforts’ house, looking at my watch. James texted me over an hour ago that he was on his way home and asked if I’d like to come over. I didn’t hesitate a second.
I meant what I told him at lunchtime. I want to be there for him, to have his back, and if he’s got through a hideous meeting at Beaufort’s, I want at least to have a nice evening with him before the whole thing loops back round to the beginning.
I don’t have to wait long before I spot the Rolls-Royce on the drive. I stand up and wipe the dust off my skirt. Percy parks right by the front door, and almost at once, James gets out. I know he feels anything but comfortable in the gray-checked Beaufort’s suit he put on for the meeting, but there’s no denying how good it looks on him. You can tell it was made specifically for him, and I gulp as I glance up again and spot the suggestive smile on James’s lips.
The next moment, he comes over and hugs me tight.
“Hey,” he murmurs into my ear, pressing a kiss on the top of my head.
I hold him for a moment, then lean back to take a look at his face.
“How was it?” I ask carefully, stroking my hand over the nape of his neck.
“Come on,” James says, nodding toward the front door. “I’ll tell you everything indoors.”
He glances at Percy, who gets out of the car and disappears with a nod, then James takes my hand and leads me up the steps to the house. He unlocks the door, but before we’ve even stepped inside, Mary appears with an inquiring look on her face.
“Ruby and I could do with a bit of space this evening, Mary,” James says. “It would be good if nobody came upstairs.”
I feel the heat flooding my cheeks—and the housekeeper is blushing slightly too. James’s words have completely thrown me, and I feel in a daze as he leads me up the stairs and left, toward his bedroom. He glances over his shoulder again once we get there, then shuts his door behind us.
I’m expecting James to pin me against the wall and kiss me senseless, but instead he reaches into his trouser pocket and pulls out his wallet.
“I have to show you something,” he says, repeating the words in his earlier text.
I look at him in confusion. “What’s going on?”
“After the meeting, Percy picked me up to bring me home—but we stopped by a pub along the way. And then he told me something about my father. Something that could change everything.”
