In the clear for the moment, I set to work on cleaning the rug, hoping that had been the worst of it.
After worrying over the rug for some time, I realized that I would need some sort of cleaning solution to save it. As Henri seemed to be doing alright for now, I made my way down the hallway, toward the staircase that would lead to the kitchen and workrooms. I must have taken a wrong turn, for I suddenly found myself in a gallery, the light of my lantern faintly cutting through the darkness.
I walked slowly into the room, holding my lantern up to view portrait after portrait, surely ancestors of the family. I paused as I came to Countess Helena Morano, Henri and Blanche’s mother. She looked the picture of beauty and was clearly happy with an easy, wide smile—a smile that reminded me quite a bit of Henri.
I stepped back and stared at the painting. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something more to her story. I was in a precarious situation myself, and even people I cared for were ushering me into a life that I had no desire to step into. Despite that, I wouldn’t take my life to escape that fate.
I would never know the answer. What had been going through her head when she’d leaped from the cliff was something only she knew and had died with her.
I heard a shuffling up ahead of me and blinked. I held the lantern up, but of course, the light didn’t penetrate far into the gloom. I thought I was alone, but perhaps I was being observed by someone, a servant perhaps, although I didn’t know why they wouldn’t have a light to guide them.
“Hello?” I called out tentatively. “Is anyone there?”
No further sound came to me, but I knew that I’d heard something. I took several more steps into the room, illuminating more grim faces and haunted eyes. In the window at the far end of the gallery, I saw a pool of moonlight gather on the floor as a cloud moved aside.
I paused, about to turn back to try to locate the servants’ area once more, when my eyes landed on a tapestry on the wall. It billowed, as if lifted by a breeze, revealing a recess in the wall. I took a step toward it, wondering if perhaps there were passages within the castle’s walls that no one knew about. Perhaps I could even use such a passage to escape the castle and flee. But as I drew closer, I checked my expectations. This was more likely a damaged area of wall that had been covered. It was likely nothing of consequence.
I reached out for the tapestry and pulled it aside.
My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open in horror. A corpse. I was staring at a corpse.
I swallowed a scream. My hand clenched my lantern as I numbly took in the skeletal form before me. It was a woman’s body in a threadbare lavender dress, with blonde hair clinging to her scalp in clumps. The skin stretched tight across her bony arms and face, where sunken eyes remained closed, and lips receded from ghoulish teeth. She was an unnatural yellow color as she sat in the recess, legs pulled up to her chest, head resting against her knees, as if only asleep. She had a locket around her neck, similar to the one I’d found in Henri’s coat pocket once upon a time.
I reached out for the locket, curious, my mind not quite coming to terms with the fact that I was looking upon a dead body. An inch away, I hesitated, remembering myself. I couldn’t very well touch a corpse, no matter how much I wanted to have a look at that locket.
The corpse’s eyes suddenly snapped open and stared back at me. Her mouth fell open in a moan.
I fell to the floor, unconscious.
When I came to, I found myself in darkness, my lamp having gone out. I lay on the floor, dazed for a minute, until I remembered where I was and what I had seen.
I sat up quickly, staring at the tapestry hanging upon the wall, and gulping in deep breaths of cool air. Had I actually seen that? Or had it been my imagination, ignited by the Gothic atmosphere of this place?
I reached out and, despite my better judgment, flung the tapestry aside.
The recess was empty.
Letting out a breath, I slumped back against the floor. I stared at the ceiling, wondering if perhaps I had imagined the corpse. A corpse couldn’t move, after all, and that had definitely been a corpse. No person could have lived looking the way she had.
Once I’d calmed myself, I retraced my steps back to Henri’s room. I gave up on looking for anything to clean the rug. The servants would have to see to it in the morning.
Luckily, Henri was in a fitful sleep when I slipped back inside and as nearly two hours had passed since I’d last given him an injection, I administered another.
Henri awakened as I pulled the syringe from his arm and I smiled down at him, smoothing his hair back. “Hi,” I said.
“Hi,” he returned, watching as I tossed the syringe into the trash bin. “How long have I been asleep?”
“A few hours. Close your eyes. You can use the rest.”
Henri shook his head. “I feel like I’m burning from the inside out. I hate this, Emile. I don’t want to have to do this every month. I’d rather be in chains.”
I retrieved a damp cloth and dabbed at his forehead. “I’m here with you, Henri. Just rest.”
“I’m a monster, Emile,” Henri said, leaning back into his pillow. “You should hear it from my lips if you’re to be stuck with me. I’m a monster and I get insanely jealous and I get angry and I’m mean. I don’t deserve someone like you in my life. Not one bit.”
“Henri, you’re feverish. Stop talking.”
“I almost didn’t give Valancourt your letter. I was so worried that you’d still choose him over me. I considered just tearing it up and leaving him in suspense. But I had to give it to him. You’d made me promise.”
