“I still love him.”

I believed her.

Love was not an answer to Daniel’s questions.

It was nevertheless something real in the room, and I was glad nobody treated it as fake merely because the property account was in doubt.

When we returned to the papers, Marjorie read Ruth’s statement silently.

“That isn’t how he explained it to me,” she said.

Claire reminded her of their conversation on September 14, when she had asked specifically about Julian’s authority.

Marjorie said she thought the questions concerned taxes.