creased with anxiety, went off to fill the big claw-foot tub. Annis took a sip of black coffee and held it in her mouth for a moment. The coffee washed away the lingering taste of the electuary, but she still felt as if her stomach were doing battle with her heart. Her skin prickled as sweat dried on it, and though she breathed the fresh air as deeply as she could, she felt as if nothing was working as it should. She drank more coffee, afraid to try to stand. If she stumbled, or was faint, Velma would call for help, and then what would she say?
It wasn’t like having influenza. She didn’t ache, exactly, and though she had been so hot under the blanket, she didn’t think she was feverish. She was just—she didn’t know. It reminded her a bit of having fallen from Bits’s back once when he took a jump. Her head had spun with black stars, and for long moments she couldn’t catch her breath. There had been no one to pick her up then. She had been as helpless as a baby, and Bits had dropped his head to nose her again and again while she tried to recover her wits.
Velma returned, silent now with worry. She put her hand under Annis’s arm and lifted her from the bed. Annis tried to walk steadily toward the bath, but she didn’t shrug off Velma’s hand. It was comfortingly steady. “I’ll be all right,” she said. “I just need to rest in the bath for a bit.”
Fearful tears gathered in Velma’s eyes as she helped her into the tub. To distract her Annis said, “You can lay out my clothes. Choose whichever dress you like. That will be good.”
Velma sniffled as she went back to the bedroom. Annis lay back in the cool water and closed her eyes. As her skin cooled and her breathing steadied, she tried to examine what was happening in her body, to track the battle to its source.
It was in her belly, of course. That was where she had first felt the effects of the maleficia, those unaccustomed sensations in her middle. Now Harriet’s electuary was braced against the maleficia. They were warriors, the icons of two powers facing each other across a battle line, about to charge—and Annis was between them.
It helped to picture it that way. She sank deeper in the water, letting it rise about her shoulders and up her neck until it reached her chin. She made her arms relax, and her legs, flexing her toes and her fingers. She pictured the remedy coursing through her blood, clearing it of the maleficia’s poison. She imagined the warrior of the electuary as her champion, her protector, her hero. She saw the soldier of the maleficia, Frances’s creation, driven to its knees.
Her breathing eased, and she stopped controlling it. Her heart settled into a normal rhythm. Her skin was soothed by the cool water and, she hoped, by the defeat of the maleficia. She supposed she would discover soon enough who had won this war.
She climbed out of the bathtub and was pleased to find her legs steady and her head clear. She dried herself and went into the bedroom to let Velma dress her hair, lace her into her corset—but not too tightly—and button her into a dimity shirtwaist and gored skirt.
Velma held up the Eton jacket that matched the skirt, but Annis shook her head. “I won’t bother with the jacket.”
Velma looked alarmed. “Mrs. Frances says—” she began.
“Never mind,” Annis said. “It’s too hot for a jacket this morning. If we go out walking, I’ll come and fetch it, I promise.”
She felt almost herself again, and really, it had taken her longer to recover from her tumble from Bits. With her hair pinned up and Harriet’s handkerchief in her hand, she went down the staircase to the breakfast room.
James was already there. He leaped to his feet when he saw her and pulled out the chair next to his. His hand brushed her back. When he leaned over her to adjust a fork into the proper position, she felt the warmth of his body on her cheek, but she experienced no reaction to his nearness, or to his touch through the fabric of her shirtwaist. Her belly felt normal. Her mouth didn’t dry, nor her heartbeat speed. She was in control.
She nestled the handkerchief safely in her lap as the breakfast began with a clink of silver on