Page 77 of Murder on Harley Street
“Stay in your room,” Harry said. “If Sister Dearden comes back, don’t speak to her. Pretend to be asleep.”
I’d not thought it possible, but her face paled even more.
We relocked Sister Dearden’s door then raced out of the lodging house and hurried in the direction of the Iverson residence. Neither of us spoke. There was nothing to say, and discussion might only slow us down. Although I had questions, and Harry probably did, too, we didn’t have all the answers yet.
We just knew we had to get to Mrs. Iverson before Sister Dearden committed the drastic action she alluded to her in her unsent letter.
The housekeeper answered our knock. “Dr. Iverson is not at home.”
“It’s not him we came to see,” Harry said. “Is Mrs. Iverson in?”
“She’s not receiving any more callers.”
Harry tried to peer past her. “Is Sister Dearden with her?”
The housekeeper’s lips thinned. She refused to answer.
Every delayed moment could prove fatal for Mrs. Iverson. Or give the co-conspirators time to hatch a new plan. I wasn’t sure how close the two women were, or to what degree the doctor’s wife was involved in the murder.
Mrs. Iverson’s high-pitched cry came from inside. “What are you doing?”
Harry pushed past the housekeeper and raced up the stairs in the direction of the voice. The housekeeper and I picked up our skirts and hurried after him. We caught up to Harry at the sitting room door, but he wouldn’t let us enter.
“Step away,” he ordered.
Beyond him, Sister Dearden had her back to us as she stood over Mrs. Iverson, sprawled on the sofa. At Harry’s command she jumped aside and thrust a knife to Mrs. Iverson’s throat.
Mrs. Iverson hissed as the blade bit into her skin. She didn’t try to push it away, or her attacker. She held her side. Blood dampened her fingers.
The housekeeper screamed.
Harry surged into the room, but Sister Dearden ordered him back.
“Don’t come any closer, or I’ll slice her open.”
Chapter16
“But you love her!” I cried. “Don’t hurt her.”
Sister Dearden bared her teeth. Her face was so twisted with rage and the effects of the cocaine in the Nerve Elixir that she looked nothing like the woman we’d first met a few days prior. “Shehas hurtme! Do my feelings mean nothing? Am I not deserving of love, too? Or is that reserved only for those who arenormal?”
I moved up alongside Harry. “Youarenormal. I know it’s been hard for you?—”
“Youdon’tknow! You can never understand what it’s like for me. Or her. You are not like us, Miss Fox. You are free to love whomever you choose.” Tears welled in her eyes and her jaw shuddered as she struggled not to shed them. “But we must hide our love. We have to tell lies, even to our families. We are always pretending to be something we are not, always keeping secrets. It’s exhausting.”
I almost told her that I did understand, but held back. Harry’s and my situation was not quite the same as hers. “Yet you found a way,” I said gently. “You had a life.”
“I did, but she ruined it all.” She jerked her head at Mrs. Iverson.
Mrs. Iverson peered up at the woman looming over her. “How did I?”
“You denied your true nature. I poured my heart out to you, and you called me and people like me disgusting.”
“I-I’m sorry. Truly. It’s not how I feel. I-I was scared. Scared of uprooting my life, scared of the unknown, and the strange emotions you produced in me.”
Her words caught Sister Dearden’s full attention. So much so that Harry inched forward unnoticed.
Mrs. Iverson stared unblinking into the nurse’s eyes. She reached one bloodied hand up and touched the wrist holding the knife at her throat. “Forgive me, Tuppence. I love you. I do. And I want to be with you. But if I don’t get medical attention soon…” She winced in pain, not from the knife biting into her skin but from the gash in her side.
