“You’re certain of that?”
“I am,” he said, planting a soft kiss on the crown of my head. “It’s dark in there now. I’m going to call out the dermatologist to make a house call. If I throw enough money at her, I’m sure she can adjust her appointments to accommodate you. She’ll bring more of your tonic, and anything else she can treat you with. My god, darling, your skin is rose-red.”
“I don’t know how long I was exposed for. Light wakes me up very fast, sir, usually – any hint of direct sun and my eyes open. Someone did this to me deliberately,” I said, talking fast, unable to make any sense of the ordeal I’d just gone through.
“Rest now, darling. I can finish with Mr Taylor while you recuperate. It’s Monday. I’ve my meeting with the investors this afternoon, and I always keep my schedule free to accommodate that. There’s no work for you to rush back to.”
Nick left the house every Monday afternoon withoutfail to meet with his various accounting and investment bodies, but I’d always found it curious that they didn’t meet him here, the way Dorian had, in the office. Not to mention the fact that they met so frequently, and that I wasn’t taken along with him to see how that aspect of the business worked. When I asked him, Nick said they had some ongoing work to do, and that when it was finished, he would have more time to spend privately with me.
Still, something felt off about it.
“Can’t you cancel on them just this once, and be with me instead?” I asked, almost petulantly. “I feel horrible. I just want to lay in your arms.”
“It’ll be better for you to lay in your bed alone and let your skin settle, darling. I would be no help to you whatsoever,” said Nick.
“Don’t tell me what’s best for me,” I said angrily. “Someone did this to me, and you don’t even care who!”
Nick sighed. He joined me on the floor of the bathroom and held me, but I stiffened at his touch – and not just because of the pain ripping through my skin.
“You must have forgotten to close them last night,” he said, in a patronising tone that made me want to shove him away.
“You know that’s not true. I only have them open on darker days, when it’s raining, and I always shut them at night – the drapes too.”
“Can you remember doing it? I can’t. I only remember making love with you, and that it was dark when I left to go back to my own room this morning,” said Nick. “We had a bad night’s sleep, we were distracted by the work on Mr Taylor...it happens. It was a mistake. The wasp on thewindow – do you remember that? The shutters and drapes were open.”
I cowered against my knees, remembering. I’d been so distracted by my dream and the wasp that I hadn’t even thought about the fact that the shutters and drapes were open.
“We’ll just have to be more careful in the future, Grace, and hope that your poor skin heals up easily once the doctor’s been,” said Nick.
I was speechless, and in too much pain to argue. Margaret entered the bathroom, timidly, though she observed Nick’s arm around me with such distaste that she pursed her lips and looked away at the floor.
“All closed. All the shutters and curtains in the room and the hall. We’re due for intermittent rain and sunshine,” she said, never once looking at me. “You’d better keep inside until you’re better.”
The way she mentioned the sun irked me – like she was rubbing it in.
“What about my tonic? It was gone from the dressing table. Someone had to have taken it.” I glared at Maggie, watching her face for giveaway expressions, perhaps a smirk. There were none, but I still wasn’t convinced.
“I found it under the bed. It must have rolled under there,” she said, producing it from the deep pocket of her apron. My blood boiled to see it in her hands. “Let me help put it on you, dear. Let’s get you laid out on the bed and I’ll apply it for you.”
I reached out and snatched the pot from her hands, startling her.
“I can do it myself.” I hissed. “Just get out.”
Maggie’s mouth made a grim line and she looked as though she wanted to scold me, but her eye’s caught Nick’s and I noticed him shake his head very quickly. They were communicating something related to the hushed conversation I hadn’t been able to hear. I didn't have the energy to analyse it further. I only wanted to smother myself in tonic and lay down in the dark.
The doctor came during the morning and wrapped my wrists and arms in bandages, and patched a part of my neck and jaw that had been turned towards the light and exposed to it for the longest period of time. Mercifully the pain was the worst of it, with no permanent damage caused. Still, I was certain someone had done this to me, and Nick and Maggie’s excuses weren’t tallying with me. They knew something, and the moment I could leave the bed, I was determined to find out what it was.
I dozed. At lunchtime, Maggie brought me in a tray and left again.
My phone buzzed, surprising me – I was still getting used to owning one. It was so forgotten that it barely had any charge left. It was a message from Eugenie, asking to see me again. Thrilled to hear from her, I sat up and messaged her back, all-but-begging her to visit me.
When Maggie let her into the room, I had opened the curtains and shutters just enough to allow us to see one another. My skin wasn’t burning so fiercely now that it was treated and bandaged, and the sky outside had grown gloomy once more, with a light rain pattering against the window.
Eugenie was wearing her hair in the same punky style as the night I’d met her, with her eyes darkly outlined andher lips rouged. She wore a red plaid fitted jacket with a matching heart-shaped bag, and a long black dress beneath it with black pointed boots. When she plonked herself down on the bed next to me like an old friend, as if we’d known one another for years, I didn’t mind at all. It was such a joy and a relief to see her.
I relayed the whole story to her, leaving nothing out, and awaited her appraisal of the events.
“Sounds suspicious to me,” she said, validating me such that I wanted to throw my arms around her and hug her. “I could imagine leaving the shutters and curtains open accidentally, but to pull the ropes so tight, and to bolt the shutters with no key...”
