“Ow,” she cried out, one hand going to her scalp. She thought she would awaken to angelic music and the smiling faces of her parents, not what felt like a hedgehog trying to burrow into her head. She had rescued the little creature from the pineapple pits, and now it betrayed her by being a tormenter in Hell.
“Sorry, love, your hair is such a tangled mess. I was trying to get the knots out,” Marjory’s voice said from beside her.
She opened her eyes to find the nurse at her bedside, a brush in her hand. Dawn rubbed her fingers over her hair and snagged something long and thin. She tugged and pain shot over her scalp again. She dropped her hand to find a stick in her fingers.
Marjory rested the brush in her lap. “There’s all sorts in there. It’s a right proper bird’s nest. Surprised I haven’t pulled out any chicks yet, but plenty of twigs, leaves, and sticks. Looks like you tried to run through the maze walls instead of along the path.”
“Cut it off,” Dawn murmured. Her throat burned, her head throbbed, and her chest ached where only splinters of her heart were left.
The nurse picked strands of hair and bits of twig from the bristles on the brush. “I’m sure we can work through the tangles and get the forest out. It will just take a bit of patience, and you certainly won’t be going anywhere for a wee while.”
Dawn didn’t care about her hair or anything. She just wanted the pain to go away. Was it possible for a soul to hurt? She felt cut and exposed down to the very essence of what she was. “Cut it all off. I don’t care.”
A cough interrupted her thoughts, a sound that didn’t come from Nurse Hatton. Dawn raised tired eyes to look beyond the nurse and found Dr Day standing by her bed.
“I’ll fetch some scissors,” Marjory said and rose from the chair.
Dr Day stepped closer and picked up Dawn’s limp arm. He pressed warm fingers to the pulse at her wrist while he stared at the pocket watch in his other hand. He glanced at her as she attempted to sit up.
“It’s good to see you awake. You gave us all quite a fright. Your pulse is still erratic, but it seems to be settling now.” He snapped the watch shut and returned it to his pocket with one hand and then placed her hand back on the quilt. “I was going to lecture you about the dangers of midnight antics, especially given the arrhythmia I heard in your chest and the tonic I found by your bed. But I suspect over the years you have heard enough lectures from doctors about what is best for your heart.” His moustache twitched, but he withheld his reproach. He was a handsome and pleasant chap. Why couldn’t they have settled on each other, instead of both of them pining after an unattainable member of the Seton family?
“I am well aware of my condition. I have spent my life sheltered and protected like my orchid. This position was my opportunity to live. I found a new lease on life here, and my heart has troubled me little until I stumbled into the centre of the maze.” Her voice rasped, and her throat closed over the last word. She glanced around the room, looking for something to relieve the dryness.
Mouse lay on the floor by the bed, and his tail gave a happy thump when she smiled at him. At least the dog’s affections were unwavering.
Dr Day picked up a pitcher from the bedside table and poured a glass of water. He held it out for her to grasp. Dawn took a grateful swallow as the cool liquid extinguished some of the heat in her throat.
“How did I end up here?” she asked.
The doctor’s look was appraising as he helped Dawn sit up and placed a pillow behind her back. “Jasper carried you out of the maze and raised the alarm. We thought we might lose you. Your heart had stopped, and I had to inject you with a stimulant to revive the beat.”
Not stopped. Broken. What a shame he had bothered to revive her. If only she had expired while curled up under the Ravenswood, at least her decomposing body might have done some good feeding the weak tree.
“Nurse Hatton removed your torn nightgown and dressed you in a clean one while you were unconscious.” The doctor unhooked the stethoscope from around his neck and rolled it up. He gave her a stern look. “You have multiple contusions and cuts over your body. Some are rather nasty from those thorns. None require stitches, but you will be bruised and sore for some days. We also need to talk about your wrist. That infection is quite nasty.”
The heat in her wrist barely registered now she was covered in scratches from Ava’s serpent vine. Would the poison work quicker now and drag her down to madness? “It’s the black vine suffocating the estate. I believe it to be poisonous.”
Dr Day frowned. “None of the men who have been scratched over the years have exhibited such symptoms. I’m sure it is dirt that has made its way into the wound. We cleaned it out while you were unconscious, and that will aid its healing.”
“No men who have been scratched. Did you know it also scratched Lettie, many years ago?” Fire raced over her body and seeped toward her bones. How long did she have to find a cure? Lettie had endured for forty years, but Dawn wouldn’t have the same lifespan.
The doctor stroked a finger either side of his moustache as he considered her words. “You think there is some connection between the infection on your wrist and Lettie’s condition?”
“Is it not worth investigating if both originate with the same black vine?” The least she could do was seed the idea.
He made a humming noise that could have been agreement or dismissal.
Nurse Hatton bustled back in with a pair of scissors and a bucket. “All finished, Doctor?”
“For now.” He dropped the stethoscope into his black bag and snapped it shut.
Marjory looked to Dawn. “Let’s get your hair sorted then, if you are sure you want it to come off.”
Dawn prodded at her hair. It felt horrid, like a solid mess of mud rolled on the forest floor. She probably looked like Ava in tree form, but less nymph and more troll.
“Yes. I’m sure.” Her eyelids dropped closed and she drew a painful breath. Being alive hurt. She wanted to curl up and let the blackness claim her again.
“I will leave you in the capable hands of Nurse Hatton. There is one last thing though. Jasper would very much like to see you,” Dr Day said.
“No.” Dawn turned her face to the wall in case tears sprung to her eyes.
A light touch fell as the doctor patted her shoulder. “Very well. I will tell him you don’t feel up to it. We can see how you feel later today or perhaps tomorrow.”
The door snipped shut and low voices rose and fell in the room beyond.
A scrape sounded as Marjory scooted the chair closer to the bed. “I’ll only take it as short as I need to clear the tangles. We don’t want you looking like some poor unfortunate who has escaped from Bedlam.”
Dawn nodded, but remained silent as the scissors snipped. There were a few faint tugs on her scalp as the nurse worked her way around from front to back.
“Something must have upset you terribly. Dr Day says panic stopped your heart.”
“I saw something horrid in there,” she whispered. Her mouth and tongue were still dry, like soil too long without rain. “Two creatures locked in an unnatural embrace.”
Marjory made a tsking noise. “You’ve been working yourself to exhaustion trying to match those young men, and now we find out you have a weak heart. You should have said something. You have so much on your mind, you probably just conjured something from an old nightmare and imagined it was real.”
Bile burned up her throat at the memory scorched into her mind. “No. This was no figment of my imagination. I saw Jasper and Ava, but not as people.”
There, she said the words aloud. She didn’t stop to think she might have gone mad, she simply accepted what she saw – a stone gargoyle man and a woodland wraith woman, performing intimate acts upon each other under the full moon. She could still hear the gasps, sighs, and moans coming from Ava’s wooden throat. They dallied with each other while the Ravenswood tree sickened and died. This was no bedtime fairytale like her mother had spun. She was caught in a nightmare.