Hélène paced to her washstand and poured water into the basin. “They’re already accustomed to you visiting. They won’t?—”
“Not at night!”
“Edward’s valet always travels with him,” his sister argued while she splashed water on her face. “The only other slave who sleeps in the house is Hannah, whom Tessa trusts with her life—just like I trust May.”
Hannah might be genuinely fond of Tessa. But the negress knew her future depended on the goodwill of her master, not her mistress. “Someone else sleeps in that house, Ellie: our eleven-year-old nephew.”
“A legitimate excuse for you to be visiting!” For a moment, a towel muffled Hélène’s voice. “And David’s bedchamber is on the other side of the upper floor! He won’t even know you’re there.” She took up the lamp and strode from the room, across the hall toward her bedchamber.
Joseph could either follow—or remain alone in darkness.
“If David does discover the truth, I think he’s old enough to understand.Hedoesn’t like Ed?—”
“David shouldn’t have to ‘understand’!”
“Will you please stop interrupting me?Youmay have decadesleft, butIdon’t! I am trying to explain about the signal.” With a small clatter of metal and glass, she set down the lamp on the table at her bedside. “A few days ago, I bought Tessa a new lamp.” Hélène motioned to hers, though it was a plain thing that had been in their family for years. Joseph supposed she was inviting him to imagine the other lamp. “It’s japanned in gilt and this beautiful Parisian blue—the very color of your eyes. Mine, too.” His sister smiled. “So you see, even if I don’t survive tomorrow, it’ll be like I’m guiding you. All you have to do is look for the blue lamp.”
Joseph sighed in exasperation. He braced his forearm against one of the bedposts, leaned his forehead against it, and closed his eyes.
Hélène reached out to clasp his free hand. “Liam has made me unspeakably happy these past two years—happier than I ever imagined I could be. I want that for Tessa—for you.”
Joseph did not open his eyes. He was, after all, leaning against the bed where Liam had made his sister unspeakably happy. “It’s impossible, Ellie.”
“Everythingis possible—while we have breath in our bodies.” At the end of every phrase, she squeezed his hand, as if she were tugging him away from something—or toward something. “Joseph, have you learned nothing from Cathy and Perry, from Sophie, from me? When we open our eyes each morning, we never know if we shall live to see the sun set.”
Finally Joseph looked down at her, though he did not move his arm from the bedpost. When had his right hand become a fist?
“‘The grave’s a fine and private place—but none, I think, do there embrace.’”
“‘Carpe diem’ is for pagans.”
“It is formortals.”
“Our souls areimmortal, Ellie—we must think of them. Only our bodies are mortal.”
She dropped her eyes to her right breast. “Yes. They are.” She grimaced and released his hand. She kneaded her flesh through her night-clothes, as if the tumors were paining her again.
After he had prayed for her, his sister plucked a small box fromthe table at her bedside. “I got you a present. Since I might not be here for your birthday.”
Joseph undid the green ribbon and lifted the lid. Nestled in a little bed of rose silk was an iron key, polished till it shone in the lamplight.
“Would you care to guess what that opens?”
He looked up warily. “Tessa’s garden gate?”
Hélène nodded, grinning. “The one on Longitude Lane. It’s perfect! You don’t even have to climb a balcony.”
She knew he’d recognize the allusion. Before his Ordination to the Subdiaconate, his sister had persuaded Joseph to accompany her to the play. “Ellie, youdoremember howRomeo and Julietends?”
“If Romeo had been wiser, it could have ended happily.”
“Romeo and Juliet were married toeach other.” Joseph replaced the lid. “You know I can’t accept this, Ellie.” He extended the box to her, but his sister crossed her arms and refused to take it back. So Joseph set the box on the table again and coiled the green ribbon atop it like a serpent. Then he lit a second lamp to see him down the stairs. “You should also know that counselling another to sin is itself a sin. Please try to muster some contrition before your Confession tomorrow.”
Hélène pouted, then rubbed above her breast again.
“Good night, Ellie.”
As he passed into the hall, his sister called after him: “Tessa’s breasts are perfect, by the way!”
