The curtains were drawn when I walked in, the room dark, but I saw movement in front of one of the windows. The figure turned, wide eyes glowing in the darkness, and I realized it was Catherine. When she saw it was me, her expression smoothed over and she turned back to the curtains and pulled them open all at once.
Light streamed in, blinding me, and I squinted against it.
“I thought you were Nurse Gray.”
“She went downstairs,” I said.
Catherine nodded and turned back to me. “I know. I’ve been pretending to drink my mid-morning cup of tea and waiting for her to leave so I can walk about the room. If it were up to her, I think I’d sleep my life away.”
“I wasn’t sure it was necessary, but I skipped my own tea so I could come and see you,” I admitted. “She does dose it with something, then?”
“She must,” Catherine said. “I’m ready every morning to begin my day, but after that tea, all I want to do is lie back down. I’m sure she means well, but I’m tired of being tired.”
I wasn’t so sure Nurse Gray did mean well, but I also had more important things to discuss with Catherine. Luckily, she broached the subject herself.
“What happened to you?” she asked, eyes narrowed at my appearance. She walked forward slowly, careful not to stamp on the wood floor and alert anyone downstairs to movement, and touched her hand to my cheek. “You are covered in scratches. I heard some commotion last night, but Nurse Gray told me it was nothing to worry about.”
I motioned for Catherine to sit down in the rocking chair in the corner, the one usually reserved for Nurse Gray, while I perched on the edge of her bed.
“You’re being cryptic,” she said nervously. “Are you all right?”
“Beyond some bruises and scratches, yes. I’m fine and so is everyone else.”
Catherine took a shallow breath and nodded, relieved.
“However, something has happened, and I want to hear your opinion on the matter.”
“Everyone else already knows?” It was more a statement than a question, and her mouth pinched into a tight line at being left out of household discussions.
“I wanted to come to you immediately, but they were worried it might upset you.”
“Alice, please. Out with it. I don’t want to live in this suspense forever. If everyone else already knows, I don’t want to be in the dark for another—”
“I saw something out on the moors.”
My sister’s mouth hung open, words still unspoken, but her eyes were expressive enough on their own. They widened until I could see a ring of white around the blue, alert and focused on my face. “What did you see?”
“I’m not sure,” I said honestly. “I ran away before I could understand what it was exactly, hence the scratches and bruises. The commotion you heard last night was me being brought in by Camellia and Charles. I don’t remember much of it until I woke up in bed later with Nurse Gray by my bedside. They think I’m mad, Cat.”
She flinched at the word and then nodded for me to continue.
“I saw figures dancing around a fire, dark robes, and I heard…screaming. Screeching, really. It chilled me to my bones, and I couldn’t stay to investigate. I ran.” I gripped my knee and shook my head. “I’m sorry. I wanted to stay to solve this all for you, but I couldn’t.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” Catherine said, standing up and pacing across the room.
“You are?”
She nodded and lowered her head, eyes cast to the floor. “My mind was muddled for so long because of exhaustion and the medications and fear, but as I’ve stopped taking so many of Nurse Gray’s draughts, my thoughts have cleared, and I’m no longer certain of what I saw.”
Catherine spoke nervously, her words disjointed in strange places, as though she was forcing the words out. As though she was trying to recall some half-memorized speech.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…” her shoulders drooped, and she sighed wearily, the sound coming from her very core. “I mean that I am no longer certain of what happened to me. Not as certain as I am that my story as it was upset everyone in my life. If I carry on speaking of ghosts, my family will fall apart. I will waste away in this room, memorizing the patterns of the wallpaper.”
“Catherine.”
“No.” My sister held up her hand to quiet me. “I’ve made up my mind. Exhaustion overtook me on my walk, and I fell and hit my head on a rock. Just as everyone said. I have no proof anything else happened, so—”
“I am your proof!” I said a bit too loudly. Catherine flinched and glanced towards the door, reminding me why she was saying any of this in the first place. Because my sister was afraid to exist in her own home. I pressed a hand to my chest and softened my voice, speaking earnestly. “I saw something yesterday that I can’t explain, Catherine. I saw things that mimicked the story you told, and I believe you. I know I didn’t at the start, but I am telling you now that I do.”
Catherine stared at me for a long moment, her blue eyes pale and sad. Then, she crossed the room and took my hands in hers. She studied our entangled fingers for awhile before she ran her thumbs over my knuckles and looked up at me. “You believe me, and now they think you’re mad, too.”
She dropped my hands and walked back to the rocking chair, lowering herself slowly like she was a much
