Page 47 of House of Furies
“Just bruised,” I whispered.
“We will need to be rid of his things,” Mary was saying. She stood and scrounged up the doctor’s bag from where he had stored it under the bench. Flecks of bird dung stuck to the leather. She undid the latch and peered inside, closing her eyes with a gasp. Then, just as quickly, she locked the case up tight again. “Yes, we need to be rid of it.”
“What’s inside?” I asked.
Mary pulled the case away from me with a worried glance to Chijioke. “It isn’t important, Louisa. It only matters that you’re safe.”
“I want to know.”
She closed her eyes again and inhaled deeply, opening the latch and showing it to us. It was too dark to see clearly inside, but there was a definite peek of white and what looked like a silky slash of red.
“Bones,” Mary murmured. “And a lock of hair with a ribbon. Don’t look at it, Louisa, it’s too awful.”
I shrank back against Chijioke and pulled my knees to my chest, holding tight. It could have been me in there.It could have been me.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Derridon unfolded slowly from my view in the back of the wagon. Mary stayed with me, her horse tethered to the others as we rolled our way into the little town. It was scarcely more than a hamlet, one plaster-and-thatch chapel and a row of low, quaint buildings on either side of a main street. It was all quiet but for the soft merriment spilling out of the tavern.
Mary held my hand, or rather, she held her palm open on the bench and I perched my fingers on top of it, the occasional tremor fluttering through my body.
“How did you know?” I asked. My voice was better now, but it still hurt to speak. “I was praying... hoping... then you.”
She pulled in a long, shaky breath. Now that all was quiet again, she seemed as frail and uncertain as I. The doctor’s body was hidden under the widow’s cover, but his fresh blood soaked the wrapping, painting a macabre mask where I knew his face to be.
“It’s what I am,” she said. “Ach, I might have guarded you from afar, but I was too weak from the last ritual. I could hear you calling to me in my dreams. It woke me cold out of slumber. I came quick as I could, Louisa, I hope you know that.”
“Thank you.”
“No thanking, please.” Mary rolled her head back on hershoulders, staring up at the ceiling. “You should never have been alone with him. I swear on my life, Louisa, I didn’t know what he was, and I know Chijioke too well to think he would want you in any danger.”
“He ate her,” I whispered bleakly. “Heatehis daughter.”
“Devil take him, Chi should have clubbed him a dozen more times.”
“What will you do with the bones?”
“Bury them, I think. Make a little marker. She doesn’t belong in a bag.”
I nodded and carefully massaged my aching throat. “Her name was Catarina.”
“Aye. You can help me make the cross.” Mary pulled her hand out from under mine and touched my shoulder just as the wagon slowly came to a stop. “But youareall right?”
“I will be,” I managed.I hope.
The wagon rocked as Chijioke leapt down from the driver’s box. He appeared a moment later, wreathed in the orange light glowing up and down the street. The lantern lighter passed by with his long metal rod, checking the state of the candles and tending to those that seemed low. Given the strength of the full moon, his job was almost redundant. It was a blood moon so bright it looked like a glowing ruby studding the heavens. Somewhere behind us I heard Lee chatting to his uncle. I searched the storefronts with still-bleary eyes. We had stopped at the far edge of town between the Rook & Crook Inn, labeledwith the silhouette of a bird picking up a man by his hat, and a dirty, slipshod sign reading simply UDERTAKE. TheNandRhad been worn away to a few peeling specks of paint.
“Giles should be inside,” Chijioke said, climbing up and unlocking the gate of the wagon bed. “I’ll distract Bremerton and his boy while you get Louisa inside, then I can pull us around to unload.”
Oh God. Lee. It would be impossible to get him to leave if he saw me in this state. He was too kind, too good to abandon me when I had just narrowly avoided death. While I refused to let a few nasty bruises keep me from rescuing us both from Coldthistle, I would need time to cover up the marks on my skin. Perhaps I might steal some of the undertaker’s cosmetics to hide the welts, enough at least to fool Lee into thinking I was all right. But then... Mr. Morningside had been right about the widow. And he’d been right about Dr. Merriman, too. What if Lee really was hiding something unthinkable? No. The attack had rattled me, that was all. I would sit quietly for a while, perhaps have tea or a restorative, then find a way to slip Chijioke and Mary, then reunite with Lee.
“Will you fine gentlemen be enjoying a round at the Rook and Crook?” I heard Chijioke say above the rustling of Mary’s skirts as she slid off the bench and held out her hand.
We stepped down onto the cobbles and Mary locked the wagon gate; then she hooked her arm in mine and led me around the far side of the cart, keeping the tall, covered bed between usand the men speaking on the other side of it. I pulled the hood close over my eyes, and we scurried by the horses and into the shadowy awning of the undertaker’s shop.
As the door closed, Lee’s voice trickled through the glass window. “Was that Louisa? I meant to speak with her here in town.”
I’ll be back to find you soon, I promise.
