Page 143 of A Curse of Hope and Shadows: Part I
“Keep… keep it inside?”
I explained, as calmly as I could, that nothing could keep a child inside once it was determined to come into this world. Things could be done to delay it—herbs, bedrest—but nothing at this stage.
“Nothing?” he stormed, wheeling round to face the physician, “then what did you do to her?”
Finally, I was able to see my patient, and—saints and stars—what he had done to her.
He had stitched her up.
I am used to screaming during childbirth. I am not used to the cacophony I experienced that day, nor feeling like I wanted to scream myself. I freed Liana from the stitches, but there was nothing I could do for the child.
Thankfully, the Duke’s anger was directed more at the physician, but when the incompetent creature finally left the room, his attentions at last came back to his wife, to the blood on the sheets, to the quiet around her.
Finally, he grew quiet too.
Liana knew she was dying. She called for her husband, her voice low. “Look after him,” she said. “He is all the good I leave in this world.”
“Him?” The Duke’s rage returned twofold. “This—this is all his fault!”
“No,” Liana called, “it’s yours.”
The Duke stared at her, his rage as white as his face, before picking up a nearby chair and throwing it at the wall where it splintered into a thousand pieces. He flung himself towards the door, although several people barred his path, as if they knew where he would go.
Liana grabbed my wrist, and with all the strength she could muster, half wailed, half screamed, “He’s a monster, he’s a monster, he’s a monster.”
They were the last words that she would ever speak.
Adeline could not read any more. And therewasmore. Something about her mother burying the child that was and wasn’t, rather than cremating it like tradition usually dictated. Giving her a name. Wishing for flowers. Her eyes skimmed the details through her tears, thoughts blurred by the one overriding fact:
Liana’s last words.
Dimitri had heard them.
Chapter Thirty-three: The Space Between Them
Adeline made her way back to the Manor with slow and steady steps. It was worse than the first time she had made the journey before getting her position, now that she knew what monster truly lurked behind its walls.
She slipped silently in through the back, creeping towards the kitchen. Mrs Harper was bent over the stove, a few other servants ferreting about, but only Mrs Minton saw her approach.
She leapt up from her seat, gesturing towards her office.
Adeline’s heart plummeted. She had been expecting this. But it was still too soon. What if Mrs Minton didn’t even allow her to see Dimitri, had her escorted from the grounds immediately?
No, no, she wouldn’t do that. She’d let them say goodbye—
“I heard what happened,” said Mrs Minton, closing the door behind them.
“Am I going to be dismissed?”
Mrs Minton paused. “I would suggest you take a leave of absence while the Duke is in residence. After he leaves, he does not need to know who I employ, and I doubt he’ll remember your face.”
Adeline breathed a sigh of exhausted relief.
Mrs Minton surveyed her carefully, eyes unblinking, face stern. “I am sure that he made you do it, but it was far from advisable.”
“I know. I know it was. I just—”
“Yes?”
