Page 25 of The Thirteenth Child
My fingers hovered over the doorknob, but I could feel the wildchaos that lingered on the other side of the door, waiting with bated breath, and I dropped my hand.
“Fine,” I called to my godfather, certain he could hear me, present or not. “You’ve made your point.”
With a peevish sigh, I flopped into the armchair and grabbed the first book I spotted.
A Treatise on the Physicks of Human Anatomy,read the spine.
Kicking my legs over the chair’s arm, I settled in, opened the book, and began to read.
I read for hours.
I read till my limbs grew heavy with sleep.
I read through the pins and needles as they woke.
I read until the words no longer made sense, then stood, stretching, and searched the little cottage for a medical dictionary I was certain I’d spotted the night before.
I looked up the words I’d had trouble pronouncing, let alone understanding, and went back to the first book, determined to reread those sections with fresh eyes.
I read and consulted my dictionary and read again, and slowly—very, very slowly—the text began to make sense, solidifying into something I could remember, something I would be able to recall at a moment’s notice, something I could explain and, most importantly,use.I only set the book aside when my stomach let out a grumble so loud it broke my concentration.
There was no clock in the cottage, and without a sun—the windows were still dark as pitch—I had no way of guessing what time it was.
But it felt like lunch, so lunch I had.
In the ice chest was a plate of ham I’d somehow overlooked earlier, already cut into thick slices, and I layered it on the ends of the bread loaf. No one was there to stop me, so I dipped the corners of the sandwich directly into a pot of mustard, again and again, reveling in my new ability to do whatever I wanted, to grab and take without considering anything but my own pleasure.
The mustard was a rich yellow, full of whole seeds that stuck between my teeth, and I nearly groaned at its perfection.
I ate one sandwich, then another, to my gluttonous satisfaction. My stomach had never felt so full. It stretched painfully taut, poking out past the jut of my hipbones. I ran my sticky fingers over it with fascinated wonder, staining my pretty frock.
“Ilium,”I murmured aloud, recalling the name of the bone as I touched my hip. I’d read the word earlier and was pleased I’d remembered it.
I ran my hands down my legs, reciting each bone the anatomy book had introduced to me. After I’d reached my toes, I did the same with my arms, talking my way from the clavicle and acromion to the humerus and ulna, down to the metacarpals and the phalanges.
I’d done it.
I remembered them all.
I couldn’t wait to tell Merrick, and drummed my fingers on the countertop, wondering when he might return.
“Soon, surely,” I said out loud, just to have the sound of something ring out in the cottage. I glanced at the stack of books teetering on the edge of the worktable, reading their spines.
Bad Blood and Medical Interventions,read the third from the top, and I shrugged. It was the most interesting-sounding of thelot, and I had no doubt that if I tried to go on an afternoon stroll, a storm would rise again, dashing any plans but those Merrick had expressly laid for me.
Using the hand pump, I filled the kettle and set it to boil on the strange ball of flames still blazing in the fireplace. Then I curled up in the tufted velvet armchair, opened the book, and began reading.
I awoke with a start, once again disoriented, and with a strange tastein my mouth. It must have fallen open as I slept, because my tongue felt impossibly dry and a little furry.
What time was it?
It felt late, terribly late, as though I should have been in bed, not napping in an armchair.
How long had I slept?
Merrick had left me last night, and though there was no clock to back me up, I was certain I’d slept long and deep. I’d been out for at least ten hours. Maybe twelve. Maybe even more. Then the bath, breakfast, all that reading, lunch. Then more reading. Hours and hours passed in silence and solitude.
It had been at least a whole day.
