asylum, Harriet said, “I will remind you, Annis. Once we begin—both of us holding Frances between us—we mustn’t break the contact. If the glamour should fade, you and I would be trapped.”
“I know.”
“It could be hard for anyone to extricate us. Visitors are rare at Blackwell’s, and women who go there are assumed to be insane. No one questions it.”
“I know that, too. I read Nellie Bly’s book.”
“You’re not afraid?”
“I am, a bit.”
“Good. Because I am, too.”
44
Annis
Annis hadn’t told Harriet that she had seen her float again
after she pronounced her cantrip. She hadn’t meant to spy, but the adder stone had begun to tremble in her hands, and her body to tingle from head to foot, as if she had touched lightning. She felt the room tilt around her, spun by the power of the magic, and she feared she would lose her balance.
Her eyelids had fluttered open just as Harriet lifted from the floor. Annis saw the tiles shining with candlelight beneath Harriet’s feet. Her shadow floated like the silhouette of a ghost.
The moment Harriet began to settle to earth again, Annis squeezed her eyelids shut and gripped the adder stone harder, pressing it against her. Strands of her hair stirred against her forehead, and she shivered with wonder.
Her aunt Harriet, she thought, must be the most powerful witch of the age.
The day before, Annis and James had enjoyed a long ride through the park, and returned pink cheeked and tousled from being out in the cold sunshine all afternoon. The note from Aunt Harriet had been waiting when they came in from the stables. Annis read it with James standing at her shoulder.
It helped that James had already met Harriet and knew her to be a sober and intelligent person. “I need to go with her,” Annis said. “It’s a terrible place, and she shouldn’t go alone.”
“I shall accompany you,” he said gallantly.
“Oh no, James. Thank you, but it’s best you don’t. She’s in a wing for female inmates, and by all accounts the women are in shocking conditions. Frances would hate you to see her like that. We will be fine together, my great-aunt and I. I promise you.”
He tried, but didn’t quite succeed, to hide the relief he felt at that. He protested again, but without much conviction. They were about to separate, to go and dress for dinner, when she remembered to warn him. “Don’t mention this to Papa, will you, James? He will scowl and tell me I should leave well enough alone.”
“He may be right.”
“He can’t change my mind,” she said. “I will simply ignore his objections. But he would spoil our dinner, and that would be a shame. Mrs. King is a wonderful cook.”
“Very well,” he said, with an indulgent smile. “Let us not ruin Mrs. King’s dinner. And at dinner, I can thank him for the loan of his horse today.”
“Oh, that’s hardly necessary. It was good for Chessie to get out of the stables for a change. Papa hardly ever rides anymore.”
“All the same,” James said. “I want to be on the best terms with your father.”
“Why?” Annis said, without thinking. A heartbeat later she felt the flame of embarrassment in her cheeks. “Oh. Oh, that.”
He took her hand and pressed it between his. “Oh yes, Annis. That. And soon.”
Bemused, she had mounted the staircase, trying not to imagine the conversation James and her father might have.
On their way to meet the boatman, Annis told Harriet that Velma had been upset not to be included in their visit. “It wasn’t easy, talking her out of it,” she said.
“I find that touching. It can’t be easy, caring for Frances all the time.”
“I’m sure it’s not. Velma is not terribly bright, but she’s loyal, and she seems to have transferred her loyalty from me to Frances.”
“Frances needs her more.”
Annis smiled. “That’s what Velma said.”
“Perhaps she’s brighter than you think.”
“Maybe she is, at that.” Annis leaned toward the window to watch the city spin by. “Aunt Harriet, I should tell you, too—well, the thing is—it’s about James.”
“Would you like to tell me about James? About how you feel?”
Annis twisted back to gaze at her aunt. “You’ve guessed, I think.”
“I suspect your heart and your mind are divided.”
“Yes. For one thing, I still worry that he’s under the influence of the maleficia.”
“I doubt that very much. It’s my opinion that he’s made a full recovery.”
“I also want to stay in New York, to study with you, to breed horses.”