Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100859 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Except…
“You ruined my blouse,” I remind him. “Now what am I supposed to wear?”
He chuckles. “My apologies. I’ll go fetch you one of my shirts, and you can make do for now if you wear it under your coat.”
“You’re thin,” I remind him. “There’s no chance my breasts will fit in there.”
He grins at me, his eyes dancing. “You say that as if your breasts are a hindrance. I think they deserve to be worshipped.”
I watch as he leans in and places his mouth on my bare breast, his hand going to the other one until I’m sighing with pleasure.
Here we go again.
Chapter 25
Brom
I have blood on my hands.
I’m sitting on my bed, staring at my bloodstained hands.
Then I blink, and the blood is gone. Wiped clean.
“Brom?” my mother’s voice rings out. I look up to see her standing in the doorway to my bedroom. “Is everything alright?”
I nod. But no. That’s a lie. Nothing is right. Everything is wrong.
“I’ve been calling you for supper for the last few minutes,” she says. “If you don’t have an appetite, that’s fine.”
“I’m not hungry,” I mumble, the words sounding foreign.
“It’s normal,” she says to me.
I give her a sharp look. “What’s normal?”
“To not have an appetite after all you’ve done.”
“What have I done?”
She just smiles at me and closes the door.
Chapter 26
Crane
“Ichabod,” the voice whispers through the darkness. For a moment I can’t tell if my eyes are open or closed.
“Ichabod,” the voice says again. Marie.
I sit up in my bed. The candles I had lit on my desk have gone out. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the black, the moon’s light faint.
The last few nights I’ve heard Marie’s voice, heard the thump of the woman outside in the hall. At this point it’s obvious it’s not a prank. I wish it was. That would be so much easier to deal with.
“You can’t hide from the truth,” Marie whispers and I feel cold breath at my neck.
I yelp and scramble out of bed, whirling around to see nothing at all.
“What do you want?” I ask, my voice shaking slightly. It’s a stupid question. She never answers. Neither does the woman I am certain is Vivienne Henry.
There’s only silence now. Only darkness.
I sigh and sit down in my chair, putting my head in my hands. A man could be driven to madness this way. I have to wonder if any of the other teachers are haunted by ghosts here, whether ones from their pasts or ones from the school. Is that why Vivienne Henry killed herself? Did they drive her to madness?
But Marie’s ghost has always followed me. The opium kept her at bay for a long time but now that I’m clear-headed, she’s back. Taunting me. Reminding me of what I did to her. Of what I can never ever escape from.
It’s enough to dig my nails into my bare thighs. What I wouldn’t give for some opium right now. Just enough to let me sleep, to help me escape for just one night. But I know that if I did leave the school to find some, that I probably wouldn’t be allowed back in. I’m sure the Sisters have a way of finding out. They don’t seem to be paying much attention to me while I’ve been here but I wouldn’t risk losing my job over it.
Besides, it would only cloud my brain. I need to be thinking as sharply as possible if I want to be able to help Brom regain his memories. I feel like I’m a waste of a human being if I can’t be useful at all times.
I need light, I think. I don’t want to sleep, don’t want to be in the darkness anymore. That’s where my demons live.
I get up and strike a match and light the candles along my desk.
I drop the match.
Outside the window, between me and the lake, is a woman dressed in white. She’s twirling on the shore, her head back to the sky, long dark hair whipping around her, lost in some sort of frenzied worship. She looks young and familiar but I can’t quite place her.
Then three people in hooded black cloaks come out towards her. I assume they are the sisters but I can’t be sure. They are moving fast, urgently. They grab the twirling girl and the minute they put their hands on her she automatically goes still. Her head dips down as if she’s fallen asleep on her feet, her hair falling over her face.
I watch as they lead her away from the lake and bring her to the left, possibly towards the cathedral, until they disappear from my sight.
I get up, a prickle of unease on my scalp, and bring out my salts and black tourmaline from my drawer. It wouldn’t hurt to ward the room tonight, just in case.