Chương 58: “Lauren Fights”

She went back to work on Monday and on Tuesday she went to see a solicitor. She couldn't exactly hand the letter from the Ledger, so she talked about the house. About the heritage clause and the protected tenancy and everything Vorrath had laid the groundwork for three hundred years ago without knowing why. She came home on Tuesday evening with a folder and sat at the kitchen table and went through it page by page. She made notes. She made calls.

She was polite on the phone and she was clear and she did not take no for an answer. By Thursday she had paperwork. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. By Friday she had a meeting scheduled with the council's heritage office. June watched all of this from the kitchen doorway and then went upstairs and sat on her bed and looked at Vorrath.

"She's fighting," she said. One glow.

"She doesn't know what she's fighting for." He wrote on the water glass: she knows. June read it.

"The house?" He wrote: you. She was quiet for a moment. Then: "Same thing." He looked at her. She was ten years old. She had been saying things like that. Those simple, complete things… ever since the first week, and he had been filing them in places he didn't examine, and the places he didn't examine had gotten very full, and at some point, without deciding to, he had started examining them. He wrote: yes. Same thing. She lay back on her bed and looked at the ceiling.

"Twenty days," she said. He glowed once.

"Okay," she said.

"Okay."