Page 62 of The Orphan of Cemetery Hill

Though Tabby was burning with curiosity, she knew her sister was right; there would be time now, all the time in the world. “What happened in the last few days, exactly?” Memories of a faceless audience of men, of a chalk-white corpse beneath a sheet flitted through her pounding head.

There was a brittle silence before Alice spoke. “You were part of some experiment, taken by Mr. Whitby to help him communicate with the spirit world in his quest for resurrecting the dead.”

Tabby didn’t need to be reminded of all that. She would have the tang of chemicals, Dr. Jameson’s greedy eyes, and Mr. Whitby’s cold, dispassionate voice bored into her memory until the day she died, and perhaps beyond.

“He was arrested, and when the public gets wind of everything that has been happening at Harvard, Mr. Whitby and his associates’ names will be in every paper, their good characters dragged through the mud,” Alice added smugly.

So, the world was not completely bereft of integrity. Even the richest, most powerful men still had to bow before the scales of justice. With the resurrection men no longer a threat, perhaps she could work to prove Caleb’s innocence. Hope surged through her. Then Caleb could come back a free man—if he hadn’t already started a new life for himself somewhere with a wife and family. She pushed the stomach-turning thought away.

“Alice,” she said slowly, “how did you know all those things about Mr. Whitby and Rose? And who is Mr. Pope?”

The smile faded from her sister’s lips. “For all his mad ideas, Mr. Whitby was right about one thing: I only had to go deep inside of myself to find what has always been there, what I have never before tried to harness.”

“You used your gift,” Tabby said. “You looked into the future.” Alice nodded, and Tabby considered this. “What did you see?” she asked.

Alice looked swiftly away. “I saw what became of Mr. Whitby.”

“And Mr. Pope? Who was he?”

“A man to whom I owe money for cards,” Alice said. Then she brightened. “Eli is waiting in the other room. He said he didn’t want to interrupt our reunion.”

Tabby couldn’t help smiling; that sounded like him. “Would you send him in now, please?”

Alice gave Tabby’s hand one more squeeze before she went to fetch Eli.

The door creaked back open, and Eli’s familiar scent of pipe tobacco washed over her. “Hello, Tabby cat. You gave us a fright.”

Reaching out her hand, Tabby felt Eli’s close around hers, reassuring and firm. “I know, I’m sorry,” she said. “It was the last thing I wanted to do.”

Eli gave a little snort. “There you go again, worrying about me when it’s supposed to be the other way round.” He smoothed back her hair, looking at her with something between pride and awe. “I always knew my Tabby cat was special.”

“You know...” she said before trailing off.

“Alice and Mary-Ruth told me everything.”

So, he had finally learned about her sight. He didn’t seem hurt, yet Tabby couldn’t help the guilt that sat heavy on her heart. “I should have told you, I don’t know why I didn’t. It’s not that I didn’t trust you, it’s just that—”

He stopped her. “Hush now, I understand. It’s a hard world and you got to do what you got to do to protect yourself. No reason to feel guilty about that.” He looked down at his hands, massaging the knotty fingers. “I do wish you would have told me. Hell, I wish you would have felt safe knowing you could trust me, but I understand. I know how a secret can sit with you, weigh you down, and eat at your soul.”

Nodding, she fiddled with the edge of her worn quilt. When she was younger, she had traced the faded geometric pattern of pink and blue triangles with her fingers, marveling at the dainty appliqués and relishing the feeling of something soft and homey after the coldness of the crypt. Her secret had been a cold and heavy mantle, but Eli’s secret had meant life and death. How could she begrudge him keeping it from her?

“There’s something that I’ve kept from you, Tabby,” he said, as if reading her mind.

She would do anything to spare him the heartache of saying it. “They told me,” she said softly.

He nodded, as if this didn’t surprise him in the least. “Huh. So you know. They know, too. Here I thought I was invisible.”

“I don’t think they would dare send you back, not now.”

Eli let out a long breath, tenting his fingers and looking off into the corner. “When I reached free soil, I thought that it would all be over, that I would start new and leave the past behind. But it haunts me, how could it not? That pain is in my bones, my blood. When I found you, I saw something of myself in you. I wanted to help someone, and you were there, an orphan just as I had been.”

Tabby blinked back tears. Eli was being kind, as he always was. Tabby had been made an orphan by tragic circumstances, yes, but they had been by chance, a terrible accident. Eli had been made an orphan by systematic cruelty, by an institution that took pleasure in ripping children from their parents. That he saw the two of them as kindred spirits spoke more to his bottomless well of compassion than anything else.

Silence lapped up around them, until Eli stretched out his legs, the chair creaking. “Well, if I’m to stay, there’s things I put off too long as it is. There’s something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?”

He rubbed at his graying tufts of hair as he often did when he didn’t want to come right out and say something. “The thing is, I’ve asked Miss Suze to marry me.”

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