“Persis!” she said, starting forward. “Oh my God.”

“Stay back!” Finn said sharply. “It’s too late—”

But then there were running steps on the path behind and Lucy swung around, realizing that Finn hadn’t been speaking to her. Persis herself shot past her, a blur of movement, pushing Lucy aside, ignoring Johnny too when he reached out to catch her arm, going down on her knees in the water beside the body, sobbing.

“Aunt Marilynne!” She reached out to touch the still figure, but Finn caught her, pulling her to her feet. Immediately Persis wrenched herself from his grasp, repudiating his help and comfort. She rounded on them all and instead of the grief Lucy had expected to see on her face, it was etched with rage.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this!” Persis shouted. “It wasn’t meant to end this way!” And she started to cry, her sobbing a raw contrast to the gentle rock of Marilynne’s body in the water.

“It wasn’t meant to be like this,” Persis said. Her eyes were pink from so much crying, the tip of her nose red, a tissue shredded between her restless fingers. They were all in the kitchen at Gunpowder Barn; so was Gabriel, whom Persis had called as soon as Lucy and Finn had been able to coax her away from Marilynne and up to the house. The police and ambulance service were dealing with the body and had asked them all to wait at the barn.

“All Aunt Marilynne wanted was the treasure,” Persis said miserably. “She said it was ours, that Granddad Isaac had been on the trail of it and that it was her duty to continue the search.” She drooped in her chair. “No one was supposed to die,” she said.

“Here.” Lucy pressed a mug of tea into her hands, sparing a thought for Cleo’s advice as she added three spoonfuls of sugar to it. “We don’t know what happened yet,” she said. “It could just have been a terrible accident.”

Persis looked at her with bruised-looking eyes. “You don’t understand,” she said. “I’m talking about you. I’m talking about Charlie.”

Lucy’s heart jumped. Beside her she heard Finn draw in his breath sharply.

“I don’t know anything about this,” Gabriel said plaintively, though whether to exonerate himself from any blame or because he felt aggrieved, Lucy wasn’t sure.

“No one tells you anything because you can’t keep a secret,” Persis snapped, rounding on him. “Aunt M made me promise. She said you’d only blab if you knew.” She sniffed, her eyes filling with tears again and Lucy pushed the box of tissues across the table toward her. She didn’t want to comfort Persis—she felt horrified and repelled and she didn’t even know the story yet, but at the same time Persis looked so lost and small it was difficult not to respond to that. And Persis was looking at Finn.

“I didn’t know at the time,” she said. “I swear it. I didn’t know she meant to kill him.”