"You have no right to decide!"
She looked at Matt with sorrow and sympathy. "I know the man you know as Phineas is a healing magician, and I can see that you're ill, Mr. Glass, but I cannot allow you to ask him to cure you. Indeed, he cannot cure you of grave sickness. It's best to succumb to God's will than fight it."
"Listen to me," I said darkly. "Matt was shot in cold blood. That is not God's will. That was the act of a vicious murderer."
She flinched and covered her mouth with Matt's handkerchief.
"He can live longer when a doctor's magic is combined with horology magic," I went on. "We do not have time to go into the specifics, but I urge you most vehemently to tell us where to find Phineas Millroy. Otherwise your secret will be out." I straightened my shoulders and spine. "I'll tell everyone that you killed Mother Alfreda."
She whimpered and tears spilled, but I was beyond caring. We had confirmation that Phineas was alive and also a medical magician. Desperation replaced relief. We were so close, and I refused to be thwarted now that he was within reach.
When she didn't speak, I tried to think of how else to force her to talk. But it was Matt who spoke next. "Tell us what happened," he said. I thought he deliberately gentled his voice to soothe her, but one look at his pinched face made me wonder if he were in pain again. "Tell us why it was necessary to smuggle him out of the convent."
She swallowed. "I…I can't. It's too painful."
"Mother Alfreda was going to do something to him, wasn't she?" She merely blinked at Matt. "Kill him?" he suggested.
She choked on a sob. "I believe so," she said in a small voice. "He was so tiny and helpless, just an innocent baby, yet she thought of him as evil."
"How did she find out about his magic? A baby couldn't perform a spell."
"He didn't need to. His magic is strong, like mine, and simply touching him improved minor ailments. Headaches would disappear, small cuts healed faster and so on. He possessed enough magic that it simply exuded from him without a spell being necessary. But only in a minor way, you understand. He couldn't heal deep cuts or chronic aches, just temporary ones."
"You touched him?" I asked. "Is that how you knew he was a magician?"
She nodded. "I was fixing a cradle in the nursery one day and overheard Sister Francesca—that's Abigail Pilcher—marvel at how warm he felt. Yet when one of the other nuns touched him, she said he felt cool to her. I already knew Sister Francesca was a magician. I'd touched a silk handkerchief she'd fixed and sold in the shop. I never told her that I was a magician too. I thought it best not to tell anyone. But her comment about the warm baby made me curious, so I touched him. I felt his warmth immediately, and I knew it was magical warmth. I didn't know he was a healing magician, however. Not until one of the other nuns complained of a headache before going into the nursery then came out marveling out how better she felt after spending ten minutes with the baby. He was the only one in the nursery at the time, so it had to be him. She thought it was because he was a content baby and his contentment rubbed off on her, but I suspected it was something more. So I snuck into the nursery and experimented on a bruise." She indicated her thumb. "I touched it to his cheek. The bruise instantly went away."
She handed back the handkerchief but Matt refused to take it. "You didn't speak to Abigail Pilcher about what you'd learned and what should be done?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I was too afraid. I knew my magic would be seen as the devil's work. Growing up in Dublin, I'd witnessed first-hand how magicians were treated by the church." Her chin trembled and she struggled to speak. "And she had her own problems at that time."
"Her pregnancy," I said. "So you decided to smuggle Phineas out of the convent alone?"
She nodded. "If I didn't, he would have died, like the other baby."
"The other missing boy?" I said. "The one whose records you also buried in the woods?"
Another nod. "He disappeared from the convent some months before Phineas. Sister Clare brought it to my attention. According to Mother Alfreda, he'd died in the night and she'd taken his body to the morgue herself. Sister Clare thought it odd that she didn't wait for morning. I also had my doubts about the story, but I thought it plausible that he had died. I already knew the baby was a magician, so I was concerned for him. I'd held him once, when I had to relieve one of the sisters in the nursery. Like Phineas, he exuded magical warmth from his skin. I foolishly mentioned it to the Mother Superior. I didn't mention magic, of course, only his warmth. She touched him and said he wasn't. But a look came into her eyes then. A cold, cruel look that frightened me. She directed it at both the baby and me. She must have known somehow that what I'd felt was the baby's magic. I cannot tell you how deeply I regret bringing it to her attention. If I could go back to that day…" She smothered another sob with Matt's handkerchief.
"Did she accuse you?" Matt asked.
"No. She said nothing, but it was that night that the baby apparently died. Yet he was healthy. Despite my doubts, I kept my mouth shut. She no longer trusted me, I could see. Her attitude toward me changed, and I was terrified she'd expose me and send me away. But I couldn't take my mind off the baby, so I visited the morgue. No one had brought in a baby's body that night. I considered all other possibilities—adoption, placing him in an orphanage—but it didn't make sense. Why would she do that in secret? Why not make it official?"
"Hell," Matt said quietly. He seemed to know something I did not.
"What happened to him?" I asked in a rush of breath.
"I had my suspicion, but I needed to be sure," Sister Bernadette went on. "I didn't want to confront the reverend mother without evidence, so I spoke to Father Antonio instead. I asked him what happens if someone is suspected of witchcraft. I made it sound as if I was interested in the subject from a scholarly perspective. He told me about exorcism."
I placed a hand to my throat. "Oh God. That poor baby."
She blinked back tears and nodded. "Father Antonio explained the process, but it seemed too harsh for a baby to endure. I asked him if there was a minimum age for the subject and he said yes. Suffice it to say, a baby is too young. From the way he spoke freely to me, I didn't think he had performed the ritual on this baby. So I only had one option left to me after all."
"You confronted Mother Alfreda?" I asked.
"No. I said nothing. I thought I would but found I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. She already suspected me but hadn't done anything about it. I was afraid if I confronted her, she'd finally act and…" She swallowed.
"Yes, of course. So what happened then?"