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His cheeks turned red. “That’s my doing, I’m afraid. In situations like this, I’m just not sure who to trust.”
“Then let’s take the mystery out of the equation. Isn’t it tiring guarding secrets of someone who’s been gone this long?”
He stared determinedly at the floor. “It was just one of those things. When I was growing up, everyone knew, but no one talked about it. I don’t even remember when I first heard the story.”
Briar was all but ready to burst next to me.
“Do you mind just telling us what this big secret is? I researched everything from witches to vampires. I looked up newspaper articles. I tried to look up vital records, but everything for the Smith family is missing at the local library.”
He nodded. “Those records have been gone for a long time. I believe it was my father who had them removed from the library’s collection. It was during the town’s bicentennial, and people were digging into the history of the place. He worried someone would dig further into the mystery than we were comfortable with.”
We both nodded, still waiting for him to get to the damned point.
He cleared his throat.“There’s nothing as exciting as witches or vampires involved here. It just comes back to very old values and how important reputation is in a town this small.”
“What does that mean?” Briar asked.
“The woman buried in the grave, Honor, became pregnant out of wedlock.”
He shifted and the chair squeaked in protest.
“The story lacks some detail. We don’t know if the man responsible was deemed unworthy to marry her or if she never revealed who he was. Either way, the family didn’t have the money to send her away and didn’t have the heart to cast her aside. Her father had already lost his wife and one daughter, so they decided to hide Honor’s condition.”
“So how did she end up dead?”
“The story passed down to me was that when Honor went into labor, it didn’t go smoothly. Her mother and one sister had died from one illness or another and her other sister didn’t know enough to help. Her father had to decide whether to watch his daughter and grandchild die or ask for help.”
“He asked for help?”
Mr. Smith nodded. “Sent his other daughter to fetch the neighbor’s wife who had many children of her own.”
He shook his head. “Neither Honor, nor her child survived the birth.”
“That’s awful,” Briar said. I reached out and took her hand.
“The cemetery was mostly family at the time. When her father had the gravestone made it was marked with both Honor’s name and the child’s. Honor lived long enough to know she’d had a girl and had wanted to name her Emma after her late mother.”
“Why was the name erased?”
“Word got around, I don’t know all the details. In a small town though, people rely on each other to survive. The story had the power to ostracize the family. So, Charles did what he had to in order to provide for his last daughter. He said he had no knowledge of Honor’s condition and condemned her actions. As proof of this, he chipped her and the child’s names from the stone.”
“That’s bullshit,” Briar said from beside me, shaking her head.
Mr. Smith nodded. “It is, but they made a decision to save themselves, and my family has protected that decision ever since.”
Chapter Fifteen
Briar
Isat there staring at the slight man in the chair across from me. I’d gone down rabbit holes about witches and vampires and stolen records, and at the end of the day, it came down to this. A simple family secret. A secret that, because it was kept, the gaps were filled in by others.
“Will you let me tell her story on my channel?” I asked.
He blinked at me a few times. “It’s past time.” He got up and left the room, returning a few moments later with a box. It was a nondescript bankers box, with the word RECORDS marked on the top in thick black letters. “Please handle her story with care.”
I took the box from his hands and opened the lid. Inside was a thick stack of papers, some yellowed with age, others clearly photocopies. The library reel was tucked to the side. “I promise, I’ll be respectful to her and your family.”
He nodded and showed us to the door.
