Maude Lambson’s killer? I sign, relieved we are nolonger discussing matrimony.
“Precisely. Last time I saw him, he said he never intended tohurt you. Swore to me that he only meant to take you to the stable and tie youup so he could fetch his wife and ride for Mexico. According to Thornhill, henever made any attempts on your life and had not laid eyes on you sinceHalloween.”
Like I thought!
“Which means someone else spooked your horse and triedto choke you. Psychotic men seem to follow you in droves…”
Not my fault. They’re crazy.
Kelly leaves the window and picks something up. Sounds like hishat, the way his fingers trace the brim. “I must ride to Stonehenge—get goingon our plan for your release.”
But it won’t work, despite Kelly’s good intentions. Faust willnever let me go, not in a million years.
My pseudo-betrothed kisses the side of my head and puts his armsaround me. The fraternal tenderness in the embrace makes my eyes sting. Weremain like this for a while, until Titus tells us visiting hours are over.Kelly releases me and walks toward the guard at the door. “I’m the coroner ofStonehenge,” he tells Titus. “I’ll be back to claim my future bride, and you’llbe accountable for what happens here. One bruise on her is ten on you. For yourown sake, keep her healthy.”
He turns to me again. “I’ll visit in a week or so, Hester. Youhave my word.”
Kelly squeezes my hand and walks out of the room. Please keepyour promise, I silently beg. A week is a long time here.
Extending my hearing, I listen as the doctor strides throughthe asylum. He exits the building and walks across the courtyard. Then Kellystops and turns back toward the asylum, as though he is torn over his decisionto leave me. I’m torn as well. I don’t want him to go. A few moments later, hecurses under his breath, mounts his horse, and trots past the watchmen. Thesound of Kelly’s departure brings on temporary moral weakness. I almost forgetAnna and Isabelle and Faust’s ghosts, nearly abandon my mission at Ironwood.
All I want is for Noah Kelly to come back and make me safeagain.
“Time for another session,” Davis says the next day,interrupting my work at the wood shed. He sounds quite sorry to bear such tidings.
I give the kindling in my arms to Anna and follow the guard toFaust’s office. I feel a strong urge to apologize to Davis for causing himdistress. The boy has shown me nothing but kindness, and it isn’t his faultthat I am here.
As usual, a fire is burning in the hearth, probably fueled bythe wood I carried into the room a few hours earlier and stacked in the largecopper bin. I’m always surprised by how normal this room seems. If I were tovisit it, having no previous knowledge of the acts performed within thesewalls, would I think it had a quaint, cozy atmosphere?
No. Evil leaves a mark, and any person with a shred ofsensitivity would sense the darkness here.
Davis helps me onto the cot, and we wait for Faust to arrive.It is a short interval. The doctor walks into the office with something rattlingin his portmanteau. Sitting at his desk, he takes the Book from the drawer, hisflowery cologne drifting across the room. Faust removes several items from hisbag—glass clinks against a hard surface, a liquid of some sort gurgles.Curiouser and curiouser…
“I’ve missed you,” Faust finally says. “Our time together isthe highlight of my day, Hester.”
Does he think to flatter me? I may vomit on his cravat.
He opens the Book and makes a contented sound. “Yes, here itis.”
Belonging only to Faust, the patients of Ironwood are histrophies, and he relives our sessions by reading them over in private. It’s hisway of taking us down from the display case, to polish up and admire.
As he sits by my cot, I smell the new leather of his shoes. “Sosorry to hear of the commotion with Harry Swinton,” Faust declares. “He wasburned so badly he lost all the fingers on his dominant hand. I had to cut themoff. He can’t write or hold an implement properly, as a result. Be careful,pet. Harry bears a grudge against us both now.”
Faust adjusts his body to a more comfortable position. “Iexperienced something similar to Swinton when I came into contact with the skinon your face. My hand grew terribly hot and later I found blisters between thefingers. Why is that, do you suppose?” He turns to Davis and orders him towheel a cart over to the bed. “That will do. Back to your station.”
The doctor goes to get my medication. His movements soundpracticed, belonging to one experienced with filling syringes. Faust ties acord around my arm above the elbow and flicks the glass barrel a few times withhis finger. The needle punctures my skin, followed by a burning sensation asthe drug enters my body. Faust unties the cord and sits back in his chair.
“Many of my patients need this sort of encouragement, to allowtheir real selves to emerge. You will tell me everything I wish to know,Hester. There will be no secrets between us.”
This is not my mother’s laudanum. Whatever it is works fasterand takes me to a whole other sphere. Wishing to be everywhere at once, I feellike a fly caught in amber, like lightning frozen in the sky. I sense all thatoccurs in Ironwood simultaneously. Anna works over a steaming cauldron, cursingMatron under her breath. A man chokes on his own saliva in the east wing. Tituscorners Isabelle on the stairs.
A sense of detachment fills my mind, and I have no loyalty toany other being but myself, no need to conceal my thoughts. All is open wide, withoutany measure of self-preservation.
Faust looms over me, his head next to my lips. “The barriers youhave built around yourself are gone. You spoke as a child. There is nothing toprevent you from doing so now. What is your name?”
“Hester,” a faint, rasping voice replies, less
