The house did not return to what it had been.
That was the first thing I noticed.
Nothing obvious had changed. The corridors were still as orderly as before, the servants moved with the same quiet efficiency, and the routines remained intact. Anyone looking from the outside would have seen no disruption, no sign that anything had shifted.
But it had.
The difference was in the way people paused just slightly longer before speaking, in the way instructions were carried out without being repeated, in the way attention settled more carefully whenever I entered a room. It wasn't hesitation. It was adjustment.
Deliberate.
Measured.
I walked through the main corridor without slowing, my attention moving ahead of me rather than lingering on the details. Eliot remained beside me, silent as usual, waiting until I chose to speak.
"The outer estate reports," I said. "Have they arrived?"
"They have," Eliot replied. "They're in the east room, arranged with the rest of the records."
