She walked into her dressing room. The piles of sweaters and the coats she had left when she had first felt the effects of the poison were still sitting on the bed with her two valises standing by. Nothing had been touched since then. She called her bodyguard and asked the movers to bring her wardrobe boxes, which they did a few minutes later and set them up for her. Her bodyguard helped her unload her closets into them. She had fifteen years of country clothes there, and she was going to give some of it away. This was where she kept old, comfortable things to wear on their weekends in the country, a few summer dresses, and bathing suits. She had a stack of summer hats, most of them fairly tired and nothing fashionable. It took eight wardrobe boxes, half a dozen suitcases, and a big box of rough boots, to empty her closets.

It actually took her less time than expected. The bodyguard emptied the contents of her bathroom cupboards into boxes, and then did the same in Matthieu’s bathroom. She stopped when she walked into his closet. Everything was there as though he was coming home to dress or was about to arrive from the city any minute. She could still smell the faint pungent smell of the cologne he wore, which brought tears to her eyes. She wondered if he had worn it with the Russian girl too. But it didn’t matter now. She was dead, and so was he. She knew he had loved her in his own way, even if fidelity wasn’t his strong suit. She was his wife and the mother of his only child, which was a revered position to him, and he treated her accordingly, and had always been very kind and generous with her.

Martine, her assistant, had already removed Theo’s jewelry from the safe a year before. She had nothing of value there, just memories, the important paintings, and the château itself. Matthieu would have been pleased by how much the man from Houston had paid for it, since he was a businessman above all else, but family was important to him too.

Theo had the bodyguard empty Matthieu’s closets into the wardrobe boxes, so she didn’t have to do it herself. She took a handful of boxes and walked upstairs to the top floor, to the servants’ rooms, and where Axel’s nursery had been when he was a baby, when she didn’t keep him in her room with her, while she was nursing him. Two of the rooms were still occupied, and the new owner was taking over their staff, and bringing some of his own. It took an army to run the château efficiently.