I had to leave this place.

But how? If I left now, could I make it off the property before Laura noticed? If I took the journal, that might be enough evidence. Apparently Lily had hidden it so well that Laura never found it. I was the only person who knew what Laura had done.

I slid the journal back into my waistband, but the cover, weakened with age, came partway off and the first page tore. I felt a great ball of emotion rising up inside me, and it took all my self-control to slow down, take a breath, and try again.

If this was true, Laura was a murderer.

“Margot?” Laura’s voice came from behind me, as deadly calm as the glassy surface of a lake. “You look upset. Is something wrong?”

I turned and looked at her in horror.

“Why don’t you and I go for a little walk?”

I licked my lips. I didn’t know what to say.

“I think I know what’s happening,” she said. “I’ll try to explain. Does that sound all right?”

I nodded numbly, and she beckoned me to follow her. We walked through the garden.

“Last night’s little disturbance was very hard for you,” she said. “Am I right?”

I hesitated, then nodded again. Did she not know I had the journal?

“You must trust that I know what’s best for Agatha,” she said. “It’s wonderful that you care so deeply for her. And hope so deeply. But I’ve nursed her for nearly a year.”

We came to the Adam and Eve gate, and Laura removed the key chain from her pocket and unlocked it, then gestured for me to go in.

“I also nursed my sister,” she said. “I was very young—only fifteen when she first fell ill—and my father put the responsibility on me. When she died, I think he blamed me. And of course I blamed myself.”

Which would be natural, if you murdered her.

“You know that Lily was the eldest daughter,” she said. “And the heir, as tradition dictated. But she had this idea, during her junior year of high school. She decided that instead of taking over the household, she was going to go to Europe and ‘find herself,’ whatever that means.” Laura sighed. “I don’t know why people these days are so obsessed with finding themselves, although, of course, that’s not a crime, if one has nothing better to do. But when my father suggested she stay here and spend a year working, earning money to pay for this extravagant vacation, she acted like he was asking her to put her own eye out.”

She told the story methodically, calmly, not at all sounding like a person who had poisoned her own sister.