The quiet in the hall was broken by a cry in the distance. “Oh, help me, Doctor!”
Thaïs, wailing.
“Oh dear,” Miss Smith said. “I must go help Dr. Hogue. I’ll knock in a few minutes when it’s time to say farewell. Quick, in with you.”
She opened the door to a dreary room and gestured them inside it, locking the door behind them.
Elinor was sitting in a chair with her back to them, facing the wall. She turned her head at the sound of the door, and her face broke into a shocked smile.
“My darlings, is that truly you?” she breathed. She seemed dazed, as if she wasn’t sure if they were real.
Sera crouched down before Elinor and spoke in a low, urgent whisper. “We’re here. And we’ve come to get you out.”
The trouble was how. They had not anticipated being locked inside the room.
The tiny room was dark, with a single small window near the ceiling allowing a wan shaft of gray light to filter in. It was less a window than a port-hole. Sera looked about the small room for ideas. It held nothing but a single wooden chair and a narrow bed.
And attached to each corner: shackles.
She had been cowardly to hesitate in coming here. They would not leave without Elinor.
Cornelia was already dragging a chair beneath the window. “Does this open?” she asked.
Elinor looked alarmed. “Darling, Bell will have you arrested if he knows you’ve come for me. You are kind but you must not risk it.”
“He can only do that if we are caught,” Sera said.
Elinor shook her head. “He is angry enough to do anything. You must not risk his ire. For both our sakes.”
Cornelia turned around with murder in her eyes. “Aunt. He has already locked you away. He has kept you from your children. What else is there to take?”
“You,” Elinor said. “I won’t let him hurt my girls.”
“We would rather live with the consequences than bear another day knowing you are locked up,” Cornelia said. “We are all sick with it.”
Elinor sighed and looked down at her wrists. “Then I hope you brought a knife.”
Belatedly, Sera realized Elinor’s arms were locked to the chair by a pair of thick leather cuffs cinched tight against her sleeves with padlocks.
“Only the doctor has the key. Hogue is convinced I’m a threat to my own life.”
“That bloody bastard,” Cornelia hissed.
“Well, I did threaten to starve myself if he dunked me in his ice bath one more time,” Elinor said with the barest hint of a smile.
Seraphina was mildly relieved that their friend had at least not lost her mordant sense of humor. She pulled up the hem of her dress and removed a pair of heavy shears secured in the lining with thread. Kneeling over Elinor, she slowly inched the metal blade beneath the leather.
Elinor sucked in her breath. The cuffs were so tight that there was barely room to edge in the blade.
“Be very still,” Sera whispered. “I don’t want to cut your wrists.”
As Sera slowly sawed through the thick leather, Cornelia began toiling with the window, grunting.
“Do you see Jack outside?” Sera asked.
Elinor looked up sharply. “Jack is here?”
“Yes,” Cornelia said. “He’s dressed as a gardener. He’s even stolen himself a wheelbarrow.” She knocked on the window to alert him to their location, waving, then went back to struggling with the windowpane to force it open.
“It won’t budge. It’s been sealed with paint.” She fished a knife out of her own hemline and set about chipping at it as Sera finished cutting through the cuff.
This was taking far too long. Miss Smith would be back any minute, and if she discovered the cuff had been damaged, Elinor would no doubt suffer the consequences.
The thought was chilling.
“There we are, that’s one,” she said, freeing Elinor’s arm.
She paused and stood to press her ear against the door, listening for signs of Miss Smith. It was quiet.
“Hurry, Cornelia. I can’t hear any more commotion,” Sera said as she bent to work on Elinor’s other cuff. “Thaïs must have run out of distractions.”
Cornelia scoffed. “Not yet. She’ll have fainted dead away now and have them crowded around, trying to revive her. Here, I think I’ve got it. Come help me lift.”
Sera handed the shears to Elinor, who used her free hand to continue gnawing through the leather.
Sera and Cornelia gripped the windowpane, counted to three, and heaved. It still would not budge.
“Oh dear God. All of this to be thwarted by a window?” Sera murmured.
They could see Jack below, pretending to pull weeds. Cornelia pounded to get his attention. He looked up. She gestured desperately, indicating it wouldn’t open.
He looked around for passersby, then turned his wheelbarrow over and stood up on it between the wheels. He took a steel pick and a hammer from his leather belt and set to work prying it open from the outside.
Sera felt her spirits lift as the glass began to rise, creaking in protest.
Until she heard footsteps coming down the corridor.
“Someone’s coming,” she hissed. “We must get her out. Now.”
Cornelia took Elinor’s hand. “Stand on the chair, dear, and we will lift you.”
Sera rushed back to the chair and took one of Elinor’s feet as Cornelia took the other and Elinor hoisted herself up by her arms.
“Cornelia, one more push,” Sera grunted, summoning every ounce of strength she possessed.
“I’ve got her,” Jack called. “Just a little higher.”
With a final gasp, Elinor went over the sill and tumbled toward the ground.
She and Jack fell into the shrubs. For a sickening moment, neither of them moved.
Get up. Get up. Please get up.
Jack stirred first, turning to help Elinor. The look that passed between them as he set her down on the grass took Sera’s breath away. She knew the rumors of adultery were unfounded, but the affection between the two of them was so obvious she almost sympathized with Bell for deeming it a threat.
It made her think, momentarily, of the way Adam’s eyes had darkened when he’d said, You look like you could use a friend.
Absurd, thinking of Adam at a time like this.
“We must run, as fast as you can,” Jack said, taking Elinor’s hand. “Are you ready?”
Elinor looked up at Seraphina and Cornelia through the window. “Yes. Goodbye, my loves. And be careful.”
Miss Smith knocked at the door. “Ladies. I’m afraid it’s time.” They heard her key turning in the lock.
Christ. If they had been a half a minute longer, they would have been caught in the act.
Sera leaned out the door before Miss Smith had fully opened it. She put a finger to her lips, urging quiet.
“She fell asleep, poor thing,” Sera whispered. “Exhausted from her tears.”
Cornelia gingerly closed the door behind them, making a show of doing it quietly so as not to wake the patient inside, while blocking Miss Smith’s view inside the room.
“Thank you,” Seraphina said to Miss Smith. “I think the visit did much to lift her spirits.”
Miss Smith smiled. “She is lucky to have you. Shall I show you out? Your friend had a bit of a fright, and she is waiting for you in the parlor.”