Shadows Gray

Chapter Twenty-Eight



I replay my awful tête-à-tête with Rose again and again. Home again, and alone as well, I sit on my bed, hugging my pillow to my chest and feeling numb. I surprise myself by not crying; though the tears threaten to spill and my head pounds and my throat has that uncomfortable lump in it, I do not cry. I think I am too confused as to what to cry over first: Rose’s madness, the death of my mother, or Luke’s betrayal. Should I categorize my sorrows alphabetically or numerically? The thought makes me choke back a bitter laugh.

I hear Israel come home: there is no mistaking the heavy tread of his boots. Dad is light on his feet and Dr Smythe has a soft stride as well. Israel practically marches.

I tell myself to run to him but my body ignores my commands. I can’t move from this bed.

His footfalls approach until our bedroom door opens and I manage a shaky smile to greet him.

“What a day,” Israel yawns, tossing his coat onto the desk. “I thought twenty first century America was busy. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I saw today.”

“No? Wouldn’t I?” I reply grimly. “I could say the same to you.”

“Oh? Did you try to talk an old lady out of using leaches so often she’s weak from loss of blood, too?” He grimaces. “Forget spiders – I’m definitely moving leaches into the number spot of creepy things I don’t like.”

“No leaches, just imaginary tea parties with insane sisters.”

“What?” He looks at me in concern. “What in the world is that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. I found Rose here, here and now. She’s,” I pause. “She’s really…how would we say it in modern terms? She’s really messed up, Is.”

“Messed up how?” he sits beside me on the bed, causing it to sag and me to lean into him.

“In every way possible,” I give a strangled laugh that is more like a sob. “She killed our mother. She knows how to control traveling and she went back in time,” I feel as incredulous as I sound at the words coming out of my mouth, “and pushed our mother off that cliff. She’s mad. I’m not diagnosing her myself; she spent I don’t know how many years in Bedlam.”

I feel, rather than see, Israel take a deep breath and I match my breathing to his. Our chests rise and fall together as we sit.

“How will you tell Noah?” Israel finally breaks the silence.

“I don’t know. As gently as possible, I guess. How do you tell someone their daughter is back from the dead, killed your wife, and seems to want revenge on everyone else?”

“Revenge?”

“She’s been toying with me. Was in my room that night I got the scratches on my arm. It must have been her who locked me in that house and left me there. I thought someone was trying to keep me from getting close to her but it must have been her. Unless of course, it was Luke.”

“Luke? Now what are you talking about?” Israel sounds as baffled as I feel.

“Oh, right. Forgot to mention that lovely part. After our little tea party and after she started throwing dishes at me, guess who walked in?”

“Is this where I say, Luke?” Now he sounds less baffled and more forbidding. “How long have they been…?”

“Together? And believe me, they are together in every sense of the word.” I laugh harshly. “Who knows? But I feel extremely stupid.”

“He wasn’t worth it, Sonnet.”

“Worth what?”

“Worth your love.”

“I didn’t love Luke,” I smile up at him in surprise. “Never did. I found him sweet and funny and fun to be around and maybe when I thought he cared about me it may have gone to my head a little, but no one was falling in love, Is. You don’t have to worry about a broken heart.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Good,” he practically growls. “Then I can stop waiting to do this.” And he dips his head and kisses my lips, soft and sweet and slow. And for a moment at least, everything slows to a wonderful, perfect halt and all is right with the world.

********************

Later, I tell Dad about my time with Rose and about Luke’s betrayal of us. Though my mind still feels cloudy from confusion, and possibly from all the kissing Is and I have been doing, I explain things as best I can and for a long while Dad is quiet as he sits across from me. His tall legs dangle in front of him and his long arms dangle to his side, like a dejected marionette. It is a while before he speaks and when he does, his voice sounds hollow.

“Your mother knew and I knew that Rose wasn’t right. Prue knew, of course, but you were just too young. We hid her as best we could from people; she was so violent even as a tiny thing, barely walking. Old Babba threatened to take her away from us. She had the ‘Sight,’ or at least claimed she did. Seeing into the future and all that. She warned us nothing good would come from Rose, that she would bring nothing but misery and death to us, but naturally we wouldn’t listen. She was our child, our little girl, and we loved her. Sometimes she would seem almost normal, like a typical child, other times she’d lash out, or even worse, seem as though she was in a trance. She was like your grandmother when she would get like that. You come from a special line of madness, Sonny. It’s time you knew that.” His voice is so wavering and apologetic. His hands still dangle uselessly by his side and it is strange to not see them actively straightening his collar or fingering his whiskers or smoothing his hair. He seems broken, like someone has snapped his strings.

“Truth be told, we were all a little scared of her,” Dad continues. “You were the only one who wasn’t, and we had to shield her from you as much as possible. She got pleasure from hurting things and we didn’t know what she’d do to someone as trusting and loving as you were. Oh, we let you play with her of course, but we were always right there ready to scoop Rose up, or take you elsewhere if she started getting upset.”

“She seems to think she can manipulate traveling,” I interject. “Do you think that’s possible? The whole reason we’re here is because she led us here somehow. And if she really did kill Mother, she had to go back in time to do it.”

“I don’t know the answer to that. I know your mother always felt a traveling spell coming on. She would get headaches that lasted for days until she could hardly stand it anymore and she knew it was coming. She didn’t know how to manipulate things to get where she desired though. She didn’t have time to learn,” his voice broke a bit. “But she said her mother knew.”

“The mad grandmother?” I ask, skeptically.

“Yes. She died in an asylum. She was mad as a hatter, but not dangerous. She lost her memories as an old woman and with it the ability to travel somehow. She must have spent the last twenty years locked up. She was taken care of and seemed content enough the last time your mother and I saw her. She didn’t know Caroline anymore, didn’t know me. We were strangers to her. Somehow seemed kinder to leave her in one spot.”

“Well, Rose seems to be dangerous,” Israel interrupts. “And she seems out for revenge. I don’t think it’s safe to stay here and we shouldn’t bet on Prue being safe either.”

“Are you talking about getting out of here? Getting out of London?” I ask. My hand is cold in his and I’m so grateful for the warmth. I’m so grateful for him.

“I don’t see any other alternative. We should be able to disappear. As far as I can tell, it’s some kind of coincidence that she found us in America to begin with.”

“She could have traveled far enough in time to get records and track us that way.”

“Everything legal from that time is under the name Emily Winn, remember? And she doesn’t know me or know you’d be with me.”

“Wait. The night the police brought you home, Dad,” I turn my attention back to him. “Did you tell them your name? Did they take you to the station before they brought you home?”

“I probably did.” Dad begins to stroke his mustache in a worried fashion. “I was drunk, you know.”

“Yes, we know.” Indulgently I pat his hand. “Then that’s how she found us. Police records of some sort. It’s not that difficult to find someone with a computer and a name. So she traveled back to kill Mother and then she came to us to scare me and mess with me. But why’d she bring us here next?”

“1887 London.” Israel shakes his head. “There has to be something special about the here and now.”

“Besides the corsets?” I mutter, sitting up straighter as a whale bone is sticking into my rib. “Because that seems like revenge enough to me.”

“Wait,” Dad’s fingers freeze to his mustache and his eyes widen. “1887? Is that the year now? I didn’t think to ask. I knew the basic era of course, but 1887? December. Boxing Day?”

“Yes.”

“Then this is a pivotal night in history.”

“Is it?” I reply slowly, wondering what he’s getting at. “What of it? I’m racking my brain and nothing from history is standing out.”

Dad unfolds himself from the chair and it’s as though his puppet limbs come to life. “She’s out to hurt everyone who she thinks deserted her. She’s had opportunity to hurt you, but hasn’t taken it. What if she wants to hurt us by hurting the ones we love?”

“Dad, I still don’t know what you’re getting at. What about the date has you so upset?”

“It’s Emme,” he says, grimly. “This is the night that some legends say Jack the Ripper murdered his first girl. I think it could be Emme.”