The Bride of Blackbeard (19 page)

“Sadie! Oh Sadie! I was wondering where you
had gotten to! Come in. Why, I have cookies you can have.”

Megan looked the rope net up and down and
then at the cookies by the tea. With ease, she climbed the ropes
and reached the space between ceiling and door. She contorted her
torso until she was parallel with the ground and squeezed her way
in. Throwing her legs over, she came down the other side, and
landed with a
thud
at the woman’s feet.

Happily clapping, the woman opened her
arms.

Megan crawled over, let the woman squeeze
her, and tried not to sob.

“Come sit, darling, you must be
starving!”

She tried to chew, cry and nod as she
crammed cookies into her mouth

“Sadie! Is that the manners I taught
you?”

Voices could be heard and footsteps clomping
along the hallways.

“Check in Sonata’s room.”

“How could she get in there?”

Megan shook her head back and forth.

The old woman looked at her and toward the
sound of the voices “You must hide
. They
are coming for
you.”

She walked toward her open window, which was
slightly cracked and tried to heave it up. Unable to raise it
higher, Megan rushed to her side to help. It only budged a few
inches more, but it was enough for Megan to slide her body out onto
the ledge.

The voices were now inside Sonata’s room.
Megan began to inch along the ledge.

“She is outside on the sill! If she is
killed, heads will roll. Her family is wealthy.”

“Don’t you touch Sadie!” Megan heard the
kind woman shout over the noise of voices.

In the courtyard, many patients out for
their daily exercise in the fenced courtyard stopped to stare up at
her. They looked as if they had been frozen in time.

She struggled to crawl up the sloping roof,
to an open window where she could get back into the
Blackhouse
.

A man at the window looked into her eyes and
smiled. No kindness was in his smile, something closer to madness.
On all fours he came out the window and slowly scaled the roof
toward Megan. His feet slipped and he grabbed at the roof,
searching for a hold. Fearful, Megan stood still. Then he suddenly
leapt toward her, hands flailing wildly in the air in an attempt to
grab her.

She dodged and his lunge was rewarded with a
fistful of her shift.

The man tottered in place and lost his
footing. His body aimed for the ground as he hurdled down the roof,
pulling her with him. She screamed along with Sonata who was
screaming from inside.

“Let me go!” she finally managed to get out.
His face registered shock and amazement to hear her speak. He let
her go seconds before he lost contact with the roof and began his
free fall.

A sickening thud echoed below.

Megan buried her face in her hands and
crawled back to the place in her mind from whence she’d come.

~ * ~

“How is it, pray tell, that a child the age
of five is able to outsmart fifteen orderlies, and sends one
plummeting to his death?” Dr. Vorhath spoke through clenched teeth
as he pounded his fist against the massive table.

“Sir, the child
is
intelligent—capable of reasoning and problem solving.”

“Nonsense! She is little more than an
animal, with no feeling or awareness of anything except her most
primitive instincts.”

“We have her in solitary confinement,
sir.”

“And there she will stay ‘til I decide what
else should be done to improve her mind.”

~ * ~

Megan rocked in the dark.

She opened her eyes, closed her eyes, but it
all looked the same. She began to crawl on her hands and knees
around the floor, tracing the room’s outline.

Where am I? What have they done with the
light? Where are Ma and Pa? Why have they not come for me?

She wrapped her arms around herself and
thought again of home. Of the fireplace and the rocking chair and
of Mother—the way her hair smelled when she held her close.

More tears leaked out and she lay on her
side, begging for sleep to come.

Click.

She yelped and covered her eyes to the slit
of light that suddenly appeared in the room. Her eyes, normally
sensitive to light, were beyond painful. She’d been without proper
food or light for three days now.

The sound of an old woman’s shaky voice.
“Sadie, is that you?”

Megan scrambled to her feet. She had no idea
what to call this woman.
She?
“Yes, it is me.”

“Hurry before they come!” ‘she’ said.

They joined hands and trotted down the
hallway toward the stairs as fast as the old woman could
manage.

Footsteps...coming.

‘She’ pulled Megan into a broom closet,
holding her hand over Megan’s mouth. They held their breath until
the footsteps passed. Leaving the small room, ‘she’ led her down a
spiral staircase to a dirt floored cellar. Huge fires burned here
and everything from brooms to empty beds littered the large
room.

“You stay here. I will bring you food. If
anyone comes, you hide? Do you understand me?”

Megan nodded. She was alone in the dark
again, but at least this time she was free.

~ * ~

“How is it that she has escaped again? How
has a child let herself out of solitary confinement, when there are
only three keys?”

“The key from the nurse’s area is
missing.”

“I see. Search Sonata Messing’s room and I
believe you will find it.”

~ * ~

The alarm sounded so loud, even in the
basement, she plugged her ears as tightly as she could. Even
muffling the hurt, it cut into her head and was painful. She
dropped to her knees, for she knew that sound meant something
bad.

Unable to prevent herself, she darted around
the cellar without direction or reasoning. Run, get home...the
words shouted in her head. Slowing, she paced back and forth on the
dirt floor like a caged animal, holding her ears in case of another
offensive outburst of noise.

“Sadie, where are you?” The old woman’s
whispery voice came from the stairs. “Come with me, child.”

It was Megan’s turn to lead as they exited
the door in the kitchen, and onto the grounds. She tried to run and
pull ‘she’ with her, but ‘she’ was old and moved slowly. They ran
across the grounds, keeping to the fence as best they could, ‘she’
running her hand along it the whole time.

Stopping short, ‘she’ pulled on Megan’s
hand. “Here!” ‘she’ said and pushed on a loose board that moved
aside.

Megan slipped through the fence by turning
sideways. The thin, frail, old woman was able to fit through the
opening, too.

The forest seemed to sigh as the wind
whipped through the boughs—twisted tree trunks and bogs surrounded
the
Blackhouse
. Cypress trees reminded her of spider webs as
she flew past them in the dark. Although scary, the forest was not
as frightening as the dark solitary room she’d left behind.

About five minutes after entering the woods,
they heard the barking. Dogs! From the sound of them, they were
quickly gaining.

“Wolves,” said ‘she.’ “Run!”

The sound of water drew their attention.
“There is a river over the hill,” ‘she’ said, pulling Megan in that
direction.

Now visible torches bounced up and down
through the woods.

The first of the dogs reached Megan, wrapped
its teeth around her leg and brought her to the ground. ‘She’
picked up a tree branch and whacked furiously at the dog's snout as
well as her feeble arms could manage. A second bounded into the
clearing, its teeth tearing the old woman's flesh like parchment
paper.

A third arrived, snarling and snapping at
her now prone form on the ground. Feebly ‘she’ swung her arms to
knock it off while blood sprayed from her cut arm.

“Climb the tree, Sadie!”

Megan scrambled to climb, but the dog’s jaws
bit into her shift, ripping it off. It latched onto her leg and
pulled her to the muddy ground.

“Place her into the baths!” she heard a
voice bellow from the trees.

~ Chapter Eleven ~

Lucian reined the carriage into the circle
in front of StoneWater. He jumped down and held up his hand to help
Stanzy out. After the toiling end to their Nags Head trip, and the
last four days at Hawthorne House with Katrina, she was
exhausted.

No matter how often Katrina said she was
adjusting to her new post, Constanza had seen she wasn’t. Why else
seek a way out of her governess role by marrying someone she didn’t
love? The entire trip back, Stanzy fretted over her sister’s lack
of good sense and she felt relieved to be back at StoneWater.

“It doesn’t seem so long ago that you helped
me down out of a carriage when I’d first arrived here. I
knew
then you wanted me.”

Lucian’s brow lifted. “Is that so? Just how
did you
know
?”

“Your hand held mine too long, and you
brushed my palm with your thumb.”

“Well, come here. I no longer have to keep
my thumbs to myself.” He reached to pull her to him.

“Miss Constanza! Lucian! Oh, thank heaven
ya’ll are back. Come inside now. We must talk.” Bess’ frame was
leaning out the downstairs window, her face pinched in
distress.

They rushed into the kitchen and sat at the
table, looking at her expectantly.

“It is Megan. They took her the night you
left. A doctor came and fetched her and carted her off to the
asylum.”

Never having swooned in her life, Stanzy
felt her vision go to a pinprick and the kitchen disappeared as she
fought against the spell.

Lucian’s arm held her waist tightly.
“Constanza. Open your eyes.”

She pressed her palms against her forehead.
“Where are Ian and Sarah, and where have they taken Megan?”

“He is upstairs in his study. Her royalness
has headed back to Bath. They had Megan taken to a place called St.
Augustus Lunatic Asylum.”

Stanzy and Lucian ran up the stairs and
burst into Hopkins’ study.

“How could you, Ian?” Lucian accused. “You
are a gutless maggot. She is your daughter! I do not care if you
get rid of me. This farm will go to the debtors if I go and you
know it. You gave in to Sarah, didn’t you?”

Ian ran a hand down his face, which looked
more lined than ever. “
We
felt it best for Megan.”

“We?” queried Stanzy. “Don’t you mean Sarah
felt it best for her? Do you have any idea what they do to people
in asylums, Ian? Well I do! I used to visit them with my father in
England, and I will not rest one moment ‘til I have Megan back here
and out of harm’s way! The bleeding is nothing, compared to
procedures they may try on her—her with no voice and no way to
protect herself against them!”

“Maybe I have been too hasty,” Hopkins
admitted.

“We are going Ian—now—to get her.” She
turned to Hopkins. “If you do not want to come, you need to write a
letter for us, releasing her into our care.”

“Yes, that would probably be best, so I can
handle Sarah’s wrath when she returns.”

~ * ~

After the his governess and Lucian departed
from his study, Hopkins retrieved a letter from the desk drawer and
read a portion of it once again. He stood and crossed the room to
bolt the door.

“Keep Blackwell busy at the ports for
whatever reason you can concoct. I have plans that you best not
interfere with. Should you choose not to heed my request, I know
the lawmen would be very interested in knowing all about your
‘special storehouses.’ I will be along shortly to discuss this at
length…”

~ * ~

As Stanzy lifted herself up beside Lucian on
the carriage seat, he said, “What do they do at the asylum?”

She stared straight ahead and said nothing.
Some sights were too horrendous to be uttered out loud.

He slapped the reins on the horses to hurry
them along.

~ * ~

Megan couldn’t stop screaming. After wailing
for going on half an hour, a smelly rag was draped over her face.
Thrashing against it, her arms soon felt heavy and weak. But she
still heard their voices—right up to the point when she surrendered
to the peaceful silence inside her mind.

“What is your assessment, Dr. Valleter? Do
you think she is possessed?”

“No. The idea is becoming increasingly a
superstition in my mind. She is ill, to be sure. The latest
treatment plans convey a need for a shock to the system to restore
balance. Similar to the bloodletting, and you have seen our deep
submersion baths I assume?”

“Yes, sir, very impressive.”

“We will begin with those and see how she
progresses. She may be a candidate for some of our more novel ideas
as I believe she is likely to become a resident here, and not for a
short-term stay. Reconvene upon the implementation of those
treatments so we may plan her next course of treatment.”

~ * ~

The river was icy cold, just like she
remembered the morning she snuck outside and fell in—Pa had pulled
her from the water. It was even colder this morning. At any moment
Pa would reach in and pull her out and her body would stop shaking.
Her teeth chattered—hard. A wretched taste filled her mouth as she
bit her tongue. Slowly opening her eyes a slit, she saw ten pairs
of eyes regarding her. Large chunks of ice floated around her in
the tub. Her skin burned when the hunks grazed her as they floated
past.

No.

The
Blackhouse
—she was still here.
She began to cry again, feebly, for she had no strength left. She
felt the hoarse sound in her chest when she wailed.

When the darkness crawled into her mind to
claim her, she cried out, “Pa, please.”

“She spoke,” she heard a female voice say.
“Get her out of the tank!”

That night, Megan thrashed fitfully on her
bed—it was too cold to sleep. She opened her eyes and immediately
shut them again as ‘the men’ were in the room. If they knew she was
awake, they may try to do something else to her.