Page 59 of A Sorceress Comes to Call
Surely.
Probably.
She’d ask Hester in the morning.
… anybody there…?
It was the smallest whisper of a thought and Cordelia would never have noticed it except that she had no reason to think such a thing.
She rolled over in bed. Had she dozed off? Maybe it was just a symptom of that, the random thoughts that drifted through your brain when you were half-asleep.
… hello?… are you listening?…
Cordelia opened her eyes. The banked firelight was just visible as a pale line between the dark swaths of the bedcurtains. The air in the bedroom was still. She couldn’t hear breathing.
… please, can you hear me?…
The words dropped into Cordelia’s brain fully formed, without any of the swirling pre-echoes that accompanied actual thinking. Was someone whispering to her? She sat up in bed. “Is someone there?”
… Cordelia? Is that you?…
Good god, was there someone under the bed? Cordelia froze. Every childhood dream of monsters under the bed came roaring back into her ears. She stopped breathing.
… are you still there?
Instinct took over. Cordelia snatched the edge of the blanket and dragged it over her head, curling into the smallest ball that she could. If there were monsters, they couldn’t get her through the blankets. Those were the rules.
… Cordelia…?
Go away, she thought, yelling the words inside her own skull. Go away, go away, GO AWAY!
It worked. There were no more whispers. In the morning, Cordelia had almost forgotten that they’d been there in the first place.
CHAPTER 21
“I’m sorry,” Hester said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything.”
Cordelia looked up, startled. They’d been sitting in the parlor together, not saying much, and it hadn’t occurred to her that Hester was quiet because she was feeling guilty. “There’s nothing you could have done, though.”
“I know,” said Hester. “But I’m still sorry. That must be…” She rubbed her hand over her face. “I can’t imagine.”
Cordelia nodded. That was true. She probably couldn’t imagine. But at least she knew that it wasn’t Cordelia talking when her mother made her obedient, and that felt important.
She was trying to figure out how to express that when the door opened. Both Hester and Cordelia looked up, suddenly wary, like two mice watching a hawk’s shadow pass overhead. But instead of Evangeline, it was a familiar face, though unexpectedly haggard.
“You must forgive me for coming to you in all my dust,” said Lord Evermore. There were dark circles under his eyes and a thin layer of road grime across his clothes. He pulled off his riding gloves, slapping them once against his leg, and tossed them on a side table.
“I would forgive you anything, now that you’ve come back,” said Hester, unexpectedly emphatic. Evermore blinked at her, his lips parting, and to Cordelia’s surprise, Hester flushed and looked away.
“At any rate,” said Evermore, after a moment, “I felt that it was important to speak to you both.” He shut the door and drew away. “Willard tells me that there has been quite an upset in my absence.”
Hester held up a hand. “Yes. But I can’t quite deal with that right now. What have you learned?”
Evermore was silent for a moment. “You were right,” he said finally, studying Cordelia with a half frown. “I don’t know how you knew, but you were right.”
“You’d better begin at the beginning,” said Hester. “You found Parker, I take it?”
“Yes.” He slumped and rubbed his hand over his face. “Not an easy job, let me tell you. The wardens have been fending off strings of gawkers and alienists and weren’t inclined to let another one in. I had to claim to be paying for his lawyer before they’d let me in to see him, so thank you for that, Hester. Now I will have a reputation for bankrolling murderers, which I imagine will serve me wonderfully during the social season.”
