Two days later, a new headline splashes across the front page ofThe Charleston Daily Courier:Vampire Slayer Promises to Vanquish Charleston’s Bloodthirsty Killer
Kate reads the article aloud with bravado, pacing through the parlor. “Famed vampire scholar Dr. Ezra Winthrop, lately from Massachusetts, will arrive in our fair city on the morrow. He will commence his search for the dreaded vampire immediately. Dr. Winthrop will host a presentation this Sunday, on the Battery, near the corner of Water Street, at seven in the evening, to address community concerns.”
“A presentation?” I cock my head, quizzically.
“Yes. I must prepare the way, sweetling. Give them a taste of what’s to come.” She grins. “It will drum up enthusiasm for our performance. We want a robust crowd. One the real killer won’t be able to resist.”
“Do you really think he’ll expose himself so readily?”
“No. I don’t. I think he’ll come to watch, blend in with the crowd, as he’s done for months. Then I believe he’ll go away once he no longer has a scapegoat in you.”
I think of the six murdered women. Their families. Will their deaths merely be forgotten? “But where’s the justice in that, Kate? He should be made to pay some sort of price. What if he just leaves, and goes somewhere else to do the same thing?”
Kate’s shoulders sink. “We can’t worry about that, Lil. Ending the murders here and now, that’s our imperative. And securing your freedom.Yoursafety.”
“It just seems sort of ... selfish.”
She ceases her restless pacing and sits next to me on the divan. “What are our choices? Capturing him ourselves? Do you think they’ll grant you clemency for your sister’s murder, and laud you as some kind of hero? Do you think they’ll believe a word you say, even if we discover who’s behind all of this? The killer must be someone important. Someone influential, with money, to be able to infiltrate the upper echelons of the chivalry and gain access to these women. This is a man who knows how to cover his tracks and hide. It’s not worth the risk.” She cups my jaw, resting her forehead against mine. “I’ll go to town. Build excitement. In a few days, I’ll send notice of your capture to the paper, and we’ll perform our grand finale. And then, to London.”
But as I watch Kate dress in her smartest suit that night and transform into Ezra Winthrop, I become more and more anxious. I think of all the ways our ruse might go wrong. Yes, she looks completely different as Winthrop, with his lean, rangy swagger. There’s no chance anyone will mistake her for Varina. And no one in the city—or here in the marshes, for that matter—likely knows her real name: Katherine O’Malley. But what if someone follows her? What if a nosy guardsman or detective pries into Winthrop’s background, studies his lofty credentials a little too closely?
After she kisses me goodbye, in character as Winthrop, I admonish her to be careful. She gives me a cocky smile. “When I return, I want you ready for me,” she says. “Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I say. “Just please ...”
“I have a gun, Lil, remember?” she says, breaking character for a moment. “A Deringer. It’s how I scared off those men who were hunting you, in the marsh. And I’ve a knife in my trousers.” Her face shifts, transforms back to Winthrop’s calculating, cold gaze. “Don’t doubt for an instant that I’ll use them if necessary. Now. Be good while I’mgone.” I watch her go, my apprehension keen. Everything depends on how convincing she is. Everything depends on her. And that’s what frightens me.
I’m not suited to being a kept woman. Of that, I am certain. During the long hours Kate is gone, I go to the library and straighten the shelves, missing Ruby and our lessons together terribly. Since my return from the marsh, a restive dissatisfaction has settled deep in my bones. I’m grateful to be back at Angel’s Rest, certainly. And Idolove Kate—of that, there can be no doubt. But I’ve survived near-death time upon time. There has to be a reason—some higher calling or purpose I’m meant to fulfill besides being her companion and lover. But until I’m free and able to explore and interrogate that purpose more fully, I’m stuck. It’s not a feeling I relish.
But this is the sort of life I’m used to. Placating. Pleasing. Unlike my mother, whose anger would rise if I ever challenged her authority, Kate uses other means. Coercion. Pleasure. Charm. So I moan for her. I sigh, I lay myself out for her, like an offering on an altar. And yes, being desired is powerful—something my mother and Rebecca both knew and used to their advantage. But desire is also a trap.
Still, when Kate returns, hours later, I am in her bed, just as she requested, my skin perfumed with rosewater. She wakes me with a stinging slap to my bare rump, then has her way with me as Winthrop, until my knees give out and I collapse onto the mattress, trembling and exhausted. Butsheisn’t tired. Not in the least. She washes up, dons her nightgown, and then with much excitement, tells me about the presentation. “You should have seen it, Lil. There were droves of people! Droves. From every walk. I swear, when I demonstrated how I would slay you, a woman swooned. If it weren’t for her husband, she would have fallen to the ground. I had them in the palm of my hand!” She laughs, her enthusiasm infectious. “They believe it, all of it.”
I pull my shift on over my sex-flushed skin, resting my chin on my knees. “I’ve no doubt, my love.” Though I smile and give her the praise she craves, envy runs through me at her freedom. That others got to bask in her performance, her presence, while I worried and fretted here alone.
“Were the authorities there?”
“Yes. Guardsmen and detectives. Even a doctor, who they’ve got studying the case. He’s a bit of a skeptic, that one, but all the same, I convinced him. They all asked about my education, my background. I told them everything I’ve rehearsed, and they were duly impressed.”
“Yes, of course,” I say, rolling my eyes playfully.
“And the coroner was there, too. He thanked me profusely for coming. I was able to pull him aside and persuade him to allow me to retain your body, for my studies, with the promise I’d share my findings with him. I oiled the wheels a bit, and he was amenable.”
“And you’re certain they believed you?”
“There’s no doubt. They even offered to take me out for a pint after my presentation, but I refused. Winthrop must keep his head clear, you know.” Kate tugs the hem of my shift. “And after his triumphant performance, he was very eager to return to you. It wasn’t all a lie. Idoplan to study your body for the rest of my life, though my findings won’t ever leave our boudoir.”
“You’re shameless,” I say, pulling my hem free from her grasping fingers. “I’m glad it went well.”
“It’s going to be spectacular,” Kate says. “We’ll rehearse as many times as we can, in preparation. I’ll visit the butcher for some pig’s blood and a sheep’s bladder tomorrow, so we might have a full-dress rehearsal. And then”—she snaps her fingers—“three nights from now, I’ll vanquish Charleston’s dreaded vampire forever.”
I scowl. “You do realize you’re talking aboutme.”
“Oh, yes, my darling girl,” she says, slipping easily into Winthrop’s baritone as she pins me to the mattress, holding me by the wrists. “You’ll be utterly conquered. Ravaged to oblivion.”
“I think you enjoy being Winthrop a littletoomuch,” I say, wriggling free. “I’m tired, Kate. Let’s go to sleep.”
She groans. “Fine. There’s always tomorrow.”
