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When I get back to the room, I expect to find Ellis there since she didn’t come back to the party, but she’s not. The bed is just as it was earlier and all her things are right where she left them.
She hasn’t come back. So where did she go? Where is she?
I decide to go look for her, worried that she might be in trouble. What if Suzannah hurt her or locked her up in a room? Or what if she got lost on her way back here? What if one of the men who’d been eyeing her all night cornered her?
I clench my jaw at the thought and walk faster. Adrenaline pumps through my veins.
Where are you, Ellis?
I open every unlocked door and search every room I enter. I go to the kitchen. I look for her in the library. I even look inside broom closets. There’s no sign of her.
Just when I’m about to lose my wits, I find her inside what looks like a study, staring at the portrait on the wall behind a mahogany desk. I let out a breath of relief.
“Ellis, I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” I say as I enter the room and close the door behind me. “What are you doing here?”
“I was just looking around,” Ellis says. “Then I saw this.”
I look at the portrait. It’s of a woman I recognize to be Samuel Northup’s wife, Abigail, and three children. One of them looks like Vivian. The other must be Gabe. I’ve never seen the third.
Suddenly, I remember Ellis’s earlier question about the Northups.
“What’s up with you, hmm?” I ask her. “Do you actually know something about the Northups that I don’t?”
She turns to face me. “N-no.”
“Ellis, enough with the lies.” I look into her eyes as I pin her body between mine and the edge of the desk. “Tell me what’s going on. Why are you here? Why are we here?”
“I… I…”
She tries to look away, but I grasp her chin and force her to meet my gaze. “Ellis.”
“I… just wanted to know about… Samantha Northup.”
Samantha Northup?
“I’ve never heard of her. Who is she supposed to be?”
Ellis shrugs. “I was hoping I’d find out.”
I glance at the portrait in front of me. “You think that’s her?”
Ellis gives another shrug.
I sigh. “Well, that’s old and Samantha Northup isn’t in the portrait downstairs, so maybe she died a long time ago. Why are you so interested in her anyway?”
“No reason,” Ellis says.
I narrow my gaze. “Ellis.”
She draws a deep breath. “It’s just… She gave my mother something a long time ago and my mother wanted to know what happened to her.”
I see. So when Ellis went home, she found out that her mother knew Samantha Northup.
“What was it?” I ask. “The present Samantha gave your mother?”
“That necklace.”
I look at the portrait again and see the necklace the youngest woman in the picture is wearing – a silver necklace with a butterfly pendant made of diamonds and a sapphire.
I give Ellis a questioning look. “Your mother has that necklace?”
She nods. “But please don’t tell anyone. Don’t – ”
“I won’t tell,” I promise her. “If your mother got that necklace as a gift, she deserves to keep it. The Northups have enough jewelry.”
Ellis still looks worried, though. I can tell she’s still hiding something.
“Wait. You don’t think your mother stole it, do you?”
“Of course not,” Ellis protests.
But I’ve already formed a theory in my head. Ellis found the necklace when she went back home and she thinks her mother stole it because really, why would anyone just give someone such an expensive necklace? That’s why Ellis looked distraught and disoriented when she came back to the hospital. Anyone would be if they thought their mother committed a crime. And that would explain why Ellis wanted to come here to Northup Manor. She wanted to find out for sure if her mother stole it. She wanted to know the whole story from Samantha Northup, except Samantha Northup is dead.
“It’s alright,” I tell her. “Maybe you can still find out, but you can’t just go snooping around.”
“I wasn’t – ”
She stops talking as we hear footsteps coming down the hall. Shit.
We’re guests, so we’re allowed in this house, but that doesn’t mean we have a right to go wherever we want, and this room, this study, suddenly looks very private.
Shit.
“Not a word,” I whisper to Ellis.
She nods.
I don’t say another word either, nor do I move a muscle. I just stand still and hold my breath as the footsteps come closer, hoping that they won’t enter the room.
Suddenly, the footsteps stop. Right outside the door. Whoever it is must have noticed that the light is on.
We’re screwed. I can tell from the expression on Ellis’s face that she thinks the same.
Shit.
As the door behind me opens, I do the first thing that comes to my mind – I kiss Ellis.
