“Don’t forget whose house this is, Camellia,” Charles warned.
“Nurse Gray agrees with me,” Camellia went on. “We spoke last night, and she thinks we should keep a close eye on Alice. She hasn’t seemed well since she arrived.”
Since I arrived? My face wrinkled in displeasure. Who was Camellia to decide whether I was well or not? She didn’t even know me.
“That is just Alice’s way,” Charles said, coming to my defense, though it didn’t feel quite like a defense. It still felt like an insult. “She is an odd girl, outspoken and commanding. But I’ve never seen her like I did last night. Something happened to her.”
“Madness,” Camellia whispered harshly. “That apparently runs in the family.”
Charles sighed loudly.
“It is no fault of yours, brother. You could not have known you were marrying into a family with these kinds of emotional and mental troubles. You shouldn’t blame yourself.”
At that, I was about to charge down the stairs and tell Camellia exactly what I thought of her. If she wanted to say my family had problems, what of hers?
She’d lost her family in a fire and was clearly trying to replace them with another family rather than face her own grief. If she wanted to discuss emotional and mental troubles, then I was more than happy to accommodate her.
However, just before I could stomp down the stairs, alerting the couple to my presence, Camellia continued speaking. “As I said, Nurse Gray is in agreement. We should keep both women away from Hazel until we can figure out how to help them.”
“Catherine would never hurt our daughter,” Charles said passionately.
“Catherine wouldn’t,” Camellia agreed. “But the woman in that room is not the same Catherine anymore. She has changed. You and I have both seen it since my arrival. Even since Alice’s arrival, she has changed.”
“She does seem to be wilting away.”
“Especially over the last week.” It was not difficult to understand what Camellia was implying. She thought I, for whatever reason, was causing my sister to decline even further.
“I don’t want to tell you how to manage your own home, but I think it would be wise to keep Alice away from your wife and, especially, your child until we know she is safe.”
“Alice wouldn’t hurt anyone,” Charles said, though his voice was weak. It sounded as though he barely believed what he was saying. “I don’t believe that is necessary.”
“Perhaps not, but isn’t it better to be cautious now rather than sorry later?”
I wanted to go down and argue on my own behalf, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. Besides, I wanted to speak to Catherine, and if Camellia got her way, soon enough, I wouldn’t be allowed to.
I tiptoed across the hallway to my sister’s room and pushed open the door, but the second I tried to step inside, I was accosted by Nurse Gray.
The petite woman was surprisingly formidable, and she forced me into the hallway without ever physically touching me. She walked forward with long steps, making me walk backwards so we didn’t run into one another. Once I was in the middle of the hallway, she pulled Catherine’s door shut behind her.
“I was just coming to check on you,” she said. “I’m glad to see you had a good night’s rest.”
I studied her face for any sign of whether or not she’d slipped some of her sleep aid into my water, but her face was blank and clinical.
“I had an unnaturally deep sleep,” I said. “I slept through breakfast, which I’ve never done before.”
“To be expected,” Nurse Gray said matter-of-factly. “You endured a great deal yesterday, and your body needs time to recover. In fact, you should go back to bed now. I’ll have breakfast brought to your room.”
She held out her hand, ready to lead me back to my room, but I dodged her. “Actually, I feel well enough to go downstairs.”
She clicked her tongue at me. “The worst thing anyone can do for recovery is to overexert oneself too soon. Believe me, I’ve seen it done time and time again. No, it will be better for you to rest today.”
As much as I wanted to remind Nurse Gray that she was not hired to be my nurse and that perhaps she should mind her own business, I felt quarreling with the woman would be an even bigger overexertion than going down to breakfast. She would not give up without a fight, and even if I did win, my prize would be spending time with Charles and Camellia minutes after they’d been “secretly” discussing my sanity.
I wasn’t sure I felt comfortable with that experience yet. They would probably take my awkwardness as yet another sign that I was mentally unfit to go near my own sister. For right now, as much as I didn’t want to agree with Nurse Gray, the best thing for me to do would be to remain in my room for awhile longer.
Sensing my resignation, Nurse Gray pressed her cold hand to the middle of my back and directed me back to my room.
11
Nurse Gray delivered tea with my breakfast, and despite the thirst burning in the back of my throat, I didn’t drink it. I had things to do and could not waste the day in sleep. So, when she left me to eat, I poured the tea from my bedroom window.
The toast, however, I ate readily. I slathered it in warm butter and jam and couldn’t believe how much more like myself I felt once I was done. My muscles still ached and the bruises and scratches I’d earned from my run through the moors still stung when I allowed my mind to focus on them, but on the whole, I felt recovered enough. I wouldn’t dare say such a thing to Nurse Gray, though.
When she came back for my breakfast tray, I feigned sleep. I threw one arm over my eyes and pressed my cheek into my pillow, facing away from the door.
