Page 27 of The Curious Story of the Missing Lady
There was a sound of scraping from upstairs, and a thump, and the cry of a girl.
He looked to Lady Elizabeth, who was already bounding up the stairs.
Chapter 19
“Miserable little wretch,” she said, scowling over the girl with her arms folded.
Lady Madeline sat on her cot weeping bitterly. Several feet away was Garret, slowly and silently reinforcing the now-widened window with bricks and mortar.
“You’re a terrible little sow’s child! Nay, lower! A weevil! A maggot!”
“Please,” said Madeline. “I am in need of care for my ankle.”
“Care for your ankle!” shouted Lady Elizabeth. “It is my considered opinion that the slight pain you feel in your ankle, wretch, is but a tenth of the repayment you owe for the damage you caused to my house.”
“I’m sorry,” Madeline squeaked through her tears.
“Sorry? I come up here to find your cot dragged across the room and a hole in my window? Is this how I am to be compensated for the comforts I have provided for you out the goodness of my heart? I give you meals; I give you books! And what’s this? A candle? I don’t remember giving my permission for a candle!”
Garret remained silent as he busied himself at the window.
“Make it smaller than it was,” said Lady Elizabeth. “I don’t want her suffocating, but she’s to be punished, nonetheless.” She leaned down and put her face close to Madeline’s. “Oh, we wouldn’t want you up here drawing your last breath, would we? No, the world certainly doesn’t deserve to be deprived of another pestilence, does it? No. Of course not! We wouldn’t want your frail little body up here befouling the air and mouldering to nothing for weeks on end, would we?”
“Please ...” cried Madeline. “No more. I’ll repent! I promise you, My Lady!” She grasped fistfuls of Lady Elizabeth’s hem. “Oh, spare me that awful fate, My Lady! I promise I’ll do anything. Let me live. Let me have my meals and my books!”
She fell into such a fit of sorrow that she thought she’d swoon on the spot.
“Enough!” yelled Garret.
Madeline’s head sprung towards the sound, as did Lady Elizabeth’s.
“Pardon me?” said Lady Elizabeth in a voice of stark incredulity.
“She’s done wrong, and she knows it. What’s the sense in torturing the girl?”
Lady Elizabeth scowled at the man for a moment, but to Madeline’s surprise, said nothing. She turned back to the weeping girl.
“Listen to me, wretch, youwillabide by the rules I have laid down; do you understand?”
“I understand, My Lady.”
“And youwillbe grateful for my hospitality. After all, you are nothing but a lowly sow’s brood. That’s all you are and all you ever were and all you shall be.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
“Yes? Yes what?”
“Yes, I am a lowly—” she broke off in tears.
Lady Elizabeth stood up. “Disgusting child, dry your tears. I should make you repair that window yourself.”
Garret dropped his trowel into his pail and sighed. “That’s all for it.”
“When will it be dry?”
He looked at his work. “Morning?”
Lady Elizabeth turned to Madeline. “You’re to sleep in my wardrobe tonight.”
