“I’ve arranged that.”

“Good.”

She paused.

“I don’t want everything to go through your solicitor.”

“It won’t.”

That answer mattered.

Generosity could become another kind of enclosure when every route led back through the same powerful person.

Anna wanted choices outside his house.

Outside his staff.

Outside his gratitude.

He could respect that without making her refusal a personal injury.

They agreed that her belongings would remain untouched except where she gave instructions.

A trusted person could collect things with her or for her.

No one would describe the absence as abandonment.

Then she asked how Maisie was.

Julian answered honestly.

“Upset. Asking questions.”

“Are you telling her I might come back?”

“I’m telling her you haven’t decided.”

Anna exhaled.

“Thank you.”

After the call, he sat for a long time.

There were things he wanted.

He wanted the child comforted.

The nanny restored.

The evening reduced to a terrible interruption.

None of those wants entitled him to ask Anna to heal faster.

The first meeting with the household staff took place without Maisie.

Julian began with the facts he could establish himself.

Anna had been behind a locked door.

Estelle held the key.

She refused to hand it over.

A spare was used.

Nobody needed to decide whether the necklace accusation was true before recognizing that confinement had happened.

Mrs. Holloway listened with both hands around her notebook.

Then she said something difficult.

“If you had been home, I would have asked you immediately.”

Julian looked at her.

“What stopped you while I was away?”

“I thought Mrs. Estelle was speaking for you about Anna leaving.”

“She wasn’t.”

“I know that now.”

He nodded.

“But you shouldn’t have needed to know that to ask where a member of staff had gone.”

They discussed the gap between an instruction and a fact.

A resignation needed confirmation from the employee.

A change in childcare needed the responsible adults informed.

A concern about wrongdoing needed a proper process.

No household rank gave somebody permission to keep another person inside a room.