“Why ever did he try to kill you of all people? It seems sofarfetched.”
Kelly’s explanation didn’t cover all the details of our nightout, but I am too tired to explain. Ask Doctor, I sign.
She snorts with feeling. “Our next appointment isn’t ‘til Monday!Must I wait that long?”
See him tomorrow. Hospital.
“We’re going back?”
Appealing to her romantic nature, I suggest that Cordelia andher sweetheart Isaac spend time together while I’m with Tom. “Hmm,” Cordeliareplies, after some consideration. “That might be nice.”
My father was still ill when she left this morning, and I can’thelp saying a prayer of thanks. Fate plays havoc with my life most days andthis development is like a gift from above. We reach The Revels before the appointedsupper hour, but I have no appetite, since Kelly fed me a short while ago. Cordeliaremoves the untouched tray from my room and leaves for the servant’s diningarea below stairs. I grow restless, trapped within my little suite. I take upmy cane and walk through the house, ending up at my mother’s chamber. Shegreets me in a quiet fashion, but doesn’t mention the splinter marks on myface. Did she even look my way? I doubt it, caught up as she is with her ownworries. Cherub moves less and less, and Mama says her new doctor isn’toptimistic about a full-term delivery.
My mother reads aloud from the Ladies’ Home Journal, butMama doesn’t stop to comment on a certain article, as is her habit, or make furtherplans for the nursery. She doesn’t ask about the drama I experienced yesterday.Does she even know? Has my father learned of it? If not, he soon will, and Ihope to be several counties away when he does.
After an hour passes, I seek my bed, and fall asleep quickly. Mysubconscious replays the fight between Tom and David Thornhill. Blood iseverywhere, splattered on the wall, dripping from the ceiling. It gushes fromTom’s abdomen, forming a pool at my feet, glazing my shoes and ankles.
Lips blue, he looks at me balefully. “I did it for you, love.All for you.”
“No,” I cry. “No.”
At lightning speed, the scene moves back to the point beforeTom comes to my rescue. I alter my circumstances and wrestle with Thornhill,try to wrench the gun from his hand, and throw myself against him.
It doesn’t matter what I do, the end is always the same. Tom entersthe dream and dies to save me.
I go through the motions of my morning toilette in a daze,but then Cordelia takes over. She does my hair, sees that the pleats of mydress are just so, and fetches me a set of gloves to match. I hear hoovescrunching up our driveway. The horse sounds large and its bridle jingles. Is itthe one belonging to Kelly? I step into the hall, filled with dread. He canhave no other reason to be here now than to tell me something awful.
The front door opens and a person enters the house without invitation,bounds up the stairs. The scent of horseflesh and pine resin swirls about him.It is Kelly.
“Into your room, Hester,” he whispers, guiding me by the elbow.
Once we’re seated in my bedroom parlor, my head grows light,and I have trouble breathing. The doctor rubs my back vigorously. “Exhale,woman. Don’t pass out on me.”
I rally at his words, trying to regain my composure and lungfunction.
“Prepare yourself for good news, minx. Craddock woke up thismorning. Ate, drank. The nurses even got him to walk a few steps. All positivephysical developments.”
I lift my face at Kelly’s tone. His use of tact isfrightening—it doesn’t become him at all.
What? I sign. What else?
Kelly keeps his hand on my back. “In addition to the obviouswounds, it would seem that Tom sustained further injury. I don’t know how tosoften the blow, Hester. I performed some tests this morning, and the resultswere disturbing. Tom’s brain has been affected. His memory, to be precise.”
Tom can’t remember?
“Everything exists for him only in the present tense. No past,little comprehension of the future. Just here and now. I can’t explain why—itmight be due to lack of oxygen after his heart stopped. Or there could bepsychological issues involved.” I feel Kelly shrug. “I’ve seen it happenbefore, with the patient recovering his full faculties. In a few cases,however, the situation is permanent.”
No memory? None?
“Tom didn’t recognize his own mother an hour ago. Wasn’t evensure what their relationship entailed. But once Mrs. Craddock was identified,he accepted their connection. That’s promising.”
The doctor settles back into the sofa cushions. “If Tom canrelearn things, we have hope for recovery. Are you up to the challenge ofteaching him?”
How? I ask and point to myself. Dumb. Blind.
“You love the man,” Kelly replies, exasperated. “Craddock knewit once, and if you’re brave enough to stick it out, he’ll know it again. Areyou willing to try?”
Yes. Yes.
“That’s the answer I expected. Are you coming to the hospitaltoday?”
Cordelia bring me.
Without further comment, the doctor rises, and we walk to thefront door.
He mounts his horse and says farewell. “I’ll see you soon.”
Soon, I sign in return.
18
Alea iacta est.
The die is cast—Julius Caesar
Ihave Cordelia run into Hollister’s, the place where Tom and I first met. Shehurries back with a pound of English toffee—his favorite treat—assuring me thatit’s tastefully wrapped.
“I added a small note,” Cordie says. “To wish him a speedyrecovery. I signed your name at the bottom, miss.”
Ambivalent about the note, I thank her anyway and hold theparcel on my lap as we drive to the hospital. Willard drops us off and Cordeliagoes with me to Tom’s floor. She says there’s a screen drawn around his bed, soI take a seat a short distance away. We arrange to meet at five and then mycompanion leaves.
Sir Death is at His post by the door. He must visit often.Stonehenge boasts the biggest hospital in the area, and patients are broughtover from every town in the county.
I listen for anything that might concern Tom.
He has a visitor with him now. A female. I know this by thecreaking of a tightly laced corset, and the mothball
