“Yes, dear?” Lydia answered, stifling her laugh of disbelief.
“Will I have a governess if I live here?” Her voice was thick with worry, and it melted Lydia’s mild irritation.
“Well, yes. A governess is important for teaching you and helping you learn. But I will personally select the governess and make sure she is the nicest person who ever lived.”
“She can’t be,” Elsie replied, “for you are the nicest person who ever lived. But I should like it very much if she was the second nicest person.”
“Then she shall be,” Lydia promised her.
“That’s good, I suppose,” Elsie replied, a yawn cutting off her words. “Thank you, Lydia.”
“Goodnight, Elsie,” Lydia answered with mock forcefulness. Her sister giggled from her place across the room, but she did not speak any further. Soon, Lydia could hear the rhythmic sound of her soft breathing. She offered up a brief prayer of thanksgiving that the child was finally asleep, and drifted off herself.
She knew not how much time had passed during the night, but Lydia awoke with a start in the darkness. Something was off, and the feeling that terrible things may be afoot was only compounded by all of her earlier worries. Swinging her feet to the floor, Lydia crossed the room to check on her sister.
Elsie was not there.
“Elsie!” Lydia called out in alarm. “Elsie, where are you?” There was no answer.Not again, Lydia thought, remembering all of her sister’s nighttime walking.
She raced out into the hall, looking to either end in the darkness. Listening intently for footsteps, Lydia went in the direction of the staircase, hoping she had chosen correctly.
Peering in room after empty room, frantically whispering for Elsie, Lydia felt a familiar panic rise up in her heart. Her sister’s sleepwalking had never been so dire as this, but then again, she was roaming about in an unfamiliar house. If she awoke, she would be terrified at not knowing where she was.
“Elsie?” Lydia continued to call out as she searched the rooms. A high-pitched scream from down another hallway made Lydia break out into a sprint. “Elsie! I’m coming! Only tell me where you are!”
The screams continued, growing at turns louder or fainter as Lydia took different routes. She whirled in a circle, trying to find the source of the screams, running in different directions in hopes it might take her to Elsie.
As she moved down the stairs and to another hallway, the smell of acrid smoke assaulted Lydia’s nose. It became thicker, choking her as she tried to call out for Elsie. She began to cough and her eyes stung from the fumes, though she pressed on.
“Elsie?” Lydia called out, only to succumb to another bout of coughing. “Where are you? Please, answer me!” The heat from the flames that began to lick at the walls was becoming more intense with every step she took. Her instincts screamed for her to flee, but she could not leave Elsie.
“Lydia! Help me!” Elsie cried out in the darkness, made thicker by the black billowing smoke pouring from one of the doors.
A plume of smoke drifted upwards from under a closed door, the very door where Lydia thought she had heard her sister’s frightened cry. As Lydia reached for the handle, she froze, Elsie’s screaming sounding from behind her.
Suddenly, unseen arms grabbed Lydia around the middle and lifted her off her feet. She was moving backwards through the air, trying futilely to rain down feeble blows with her fists against her assailant. It felt like perhaps much longer, but within only a few moments Lydia was outside, the night air cool and soothing against her raw throat.
“Are you all right? Both of you?” Matthew demanded, feeling of both of them and checking for injuries.
“Matthew?” Lydia asked, confused. “But how?” She looked beside her and saw Elsie looking very small and frightened.
“I do not know, but you’re safe now,” he shouted in his panicked state, his voice shaking. “I must go find your uncle and Lockwood. And Madame Saunier is still inside! Remain here, and do not attempt to come back in the house!”
Lydia wrapped her arms around Elsie and nodded, watching Matthew run back into the house. It was so strange, as the outside appeared perfect and unaffected, yet she knew the back side of the house to be roaring with unfettered flames.
The wait was interminable. Once Elsie stopped shaking with fright, Lydia dared to broach how she came to be downstairs.
“I heard Mother and Father again,” Elsie explained, though her words were uncertain. “I know you don’t believe me, but I did hear them! They were talking just as they do at home, and they were laughing at some amusing tale.”
“Elsie, we have spoken about this before. That was not Mother and Father’s voices,” Lydia said, trying to remain gentle but knowing her fear was getting the better of her.
“But I did! I heard them, just as always,” Elsie protested as she began to cry. “I don’t know why you don’t believe me.”
“Because it’s just not how it works!” Lydia cried out, feeling Elsie stiffen in her arms. She was quiet while she gathered her thoughts. “Elsie, I’m sorry I spoke sharply, I’m only afraid for Matthew and the rest.”
“It’s all right,” Elsie answered in a voice so small that Lydia wished she could take it back.
“But my dear sister, I am sorry to tell you this—Mother and Father are not here. They simply do not speak to you, you do not hear them in the night. You only wish you could speak to them, so your mind conjures up a sound that isn’t there.”
