She didn’t expound, but she didn’t need to.The traps in her house.The claim to be a sharpshooter.Even those knitting needles she always seemed to have, whether accompanied by yarn or not.They all screamed of the fear she carried.Her sense of safety had been forever ripped from her, and the injustice of it welled up a desire both to shield her in his arms and to find and punish the man.“How long were you held prisoner?”
She frowned as she thought.“I don’t know.A few hours?He took me before intermission.I think during the first scene.The night patrol was still out when I escaped.”
“The police didn’t rescue you?”
She huffed.“If I’d waited for the police, I’d be dead.Winston was ready to kill me when I stabbed him and ran.”
Aharrowing childhooddidn’t begin to cover what Nora had been through.No wonder she went to such measures to defend herself.No child should face evil, let alone without anyone to count on but themselves.
His thoughts snagged.“Wait.Winston?Wasn’t that the man your ma warned me about?”
“Yes.He and his partner, Ursula, were never caught.Since they were fellow singers Mum said she upset, my parents have always feared they’d try to take me again.That’s why we moved here and changed our names.To keep our secret, Father forbade us from acquaintances with those connected to opera and from drawing attention to ourselves by singing.”
Mr.Davis’s stringent rules now made sense, and Ezekiel couldn’t fault him for them, even if he didn’t agree.
“If your ma really is Constanza, why don’t you just tell Dr.Chalfant?”It seemed cruel to leave her there for believing the truth.
“Telling Dr.Chalfant won’t get her released.She attacked an innocent man during a bout of paranoia.Father believes we’d be in danger if word got out Mum is in Longview.”
“Doyouthink Winston and Ursula still seek to harm you?That was a long time ago.”
“Maybe not Ursula, but Winston likely does.Wherever he is, he has one less eye and is very angry about it.”
One eye?Sickening realization burned in his throat.AdlerwasWinston.It explained Adler’s insistence to know more about Ezekiel’s encounter with the Brisbanes and Graham’s certainty that Ezekiel was a danger to Nora.If Adler was Mrs.Reed’s brother, did that mean Mrs.Reed was Ursula?Was that why Graham cautioned against the lessons?
“There’s more.Mum wrote a libretto to help her process what happened.Her heroine was Katherine Yates, the woman she now claims to be.I don’t know if she’s succumbed to delusions or if the libretto is connected to the guilt she so desperately wanted to be free of.In her libretto, Katherine was a criminal who betrayed her partners after witnessing one of them murder a maid.
“In some ways, I feel like I’m going mad.”Her gaze darted away, and she clutched her cameo so tight that her knuckles whitened.“I don’t know what to think or believe.Is the libretto just a story?Or is it a confession of Mum’s past that my parents have kept hidden from me?Are Winston and Ursula more than jealous colleagues who really would still be hunting me?Or has fear locked us all in cages of paranoia?”Raw vulnerability strained her voice.
She stroked the top page of the libretto on the piano’s top.“I want to sing.I want to attempt a life on the stage to see if it’s what I really desire or if it’s just the childish idealization of a life stolen from me.But I’m afraid that if I sing or go on a stage, Winston will find me and finish the job he failed to complete.”
“That’s a little long without music again.I only have one piece left,” Mrs.Jerden’s sing-song voice called.
The last thing Ezekiel wanted to do was play music.Before him stood a woman of incredible strength struggling beneath the weight of overwhelming fear, yet daring to hope for a future in the very world that had stolen her sense of security.How long had she carriedthis burden?Did her friends know the full weight of it, or had she hidden it from them too?Well, she wouldn’t be alone anymore.He scooted until he half hung off the bench and patted the narrow space next to him.He had no idea what tune his hand took up, but as soon as Nora sat, he cradled her against him where he could convey with more than words that he was here for her and he always would be.It was a precarious balance, the two of them on a seat meant for one, but by the way she clung to him, there was no danger of either of them falling.
He kissed her temple.“Nora.”He waited for her to look up.“No matter the answer to those questions, you are safe with me.I will not allow anyone to hurt you.Ever.”
Somehow, someway, he’d find Mrs.Reed and Adler and save Nora from them, for Graham had been right.Ezekiel had led the wolves to Nora’s door.
Chapter Twenty-Five
EVEN WITHEZEKIEL’S STEADYING PRESENCE, Nora’s fear screamed that not even he could save her.Either she was losing her mind or Winstonhadfound her.The sad truth was no one could save her from herself, and the Winston of her fears would go to any length to hurt her and anyone in his way.
A fist slammed against the front door with the power of an enraged beast.Nora shot to her feet and shrieked.He’d found her.But was this real or imagined?
Tristan hissed with his back arched on the windowsill that faced the street.
Ezekiel scrambled to his feet and shifted her behind him.
So this was real.Did Winston stand on the other side, ready to take his eye for an eye, or worse, her life?
The pounding continued, growing in intensity.
Ezekiel pushed her toward the kitchen.“Go to Mrs.Jerden.No one who knocks like that has good intentions.”
“You’re not answering it, are you?”
Before he could respond, an all-too-familiar face appeared at the window and called through the glass.“Nora Davis, you let me in right now.”
