Page 64 of House of Roots and Ruin
I stared at the empty pitcher and was about to pull the plush chain dangling at the side of the bed when something Hanna once told me stirred in my mind.
Whenever something’s troubling you, you always turn to the water.
I nodded at the sage wisdom of her phantom voice.
I just needed more water.
?
??
Ropes of gilt flowers wound themselves round the rose-gold faucet. The water rushed into the sunken tub. Rows of glass bottles lined the bathroom’s vanity, filled with salts, flakes, oils, and dried flowers. I opened them without thought, pouring messy and extravagant amounts into the tub. They bloomed across the water in a beguiling purple hue, shimmering with iridescent luster, and perfuming the air.
I didn’t care about any of it, the colors, the redolent scents. I just wanted to get into the water.
I struggled out of my blouse and skirt. They clung to me in the steamy air and I nearly tore my chemise to be free of it. I felt slowly strangled, the snug embrace of my corset reminding me too uncomfortably of the vines creeping over my skin. My fingers shook as I undid the final set of hooks and eyes and tossed the garment to the floor.
I all but fell into the dazzling water.
The tub was exceptionally deep and long and I dove beneath the surface, completely submerging myself for as long as my lungs could stand.
When I finally bobbed back up, the water rose past my chest, coming up to my chin. I turned one of the handles with a flick of my toes and the faucet’s steady stream slowed to a trickle before petering out. I inhaled deeply, basking in my wet surroundings and finally feeling as though I could draw in a proper breath.
The water was warm and comforting, surrounding me in an embrace that felt of home. I stretched out, lying on my back,and stared up at the painted ceiling. Leaves, blossoms, and birds edged its surface, thick at the sides, then tapering off as they approached the small, vined chandelier in the center of the room.
My body swayed back and forth, tossed on the momentum of the little ripples pacing about. I’d obviously cleaned myself since coming to Chauntilalie but this was the first time I’d truly stopped to appreciate the wonders of the room, of the tub.
The water was unusually slippery, flowing over my limbs with sensuous caresses and I glanced at the half-empty bottles of oils, feeling guilty I’d blindly used up so much of them in my haste.
I’d replace them later.
For now, all I wanted was to close my eyes and let the water soothe my frayed nerves. I could already feel the tension in my head disappearing, breaking away from me as calved glaciers fell into the sea, melting smaller and smaller until they were nothing more than water themselves.
When I finally emerged from the bath, the pads of my fingers and toes were wrinkled as prunes but I felt like myself once more.
Being in the water had given me a chance to think, unencumbered, to put together all of the swirling fears that had plagued me since that fateful night at Highmoor, when I’d first seen Rosalie and Ligeia roaming the halls.
Camille believed I saw ghosts and after having listened to Hanna, having seen her flicker, and feel my hand pass through her, I believed she was right.
Ghosts were real. I could see them.
But that did not make me mad.
What happened to me in the poison garden…that was less certain and felt impossible to clearly explain.
My sisters—my long-dead sisters—had been there.
If they were ghosts, and I knew ghosts were real, what did that make the weeping woman?
Real, certainly, but a ghost?
Not necessarily.
Gerard’s theory, that the toxins in the laurel plant were powerful enough to open up a portal in the mind, a thin spot between worlds where wonders grand and dreadful could be experienced, seemed plausible. And if I was already the sort of person prone to seeing otherworldly figures…
Had I seen a god? Or was there a more rational explanation?
Was it a hallucination? A poisoning of my mind? A mind full of locked away memories, memories long forgotten that could be turned into something strange and monstrous?
