Chapter 2 — Beneath the Silk

He pushed the door open, and the sight of her took the breath out of him.

Cosima stood beside the bed with the back of her gown unfastened.

An old brass key — something she had, he would learn, sewn in desperation into the lining of her corset — had worked through the silk and cut a shallow line into her skin.

That was the source of the stain.

That was the small emergency the maid had seen.