It was instinctive to deny the truth, but Dora's bright odd eyes were watching her intently, and there was nothing gullible in her-in fact, she looked hideously knowing.
"I-" Hester began, chill turning to hot panic. There was no one else within hearing. The deep stairwell was only two feet away. A quick lift by those huge shoulders and she would be over it, to fall twenty or thirty feet down onto the stone floor of the laundry room. Was that how it had been for Prudence? A few moments of throat-closing terror and then death? Was the whole answer as simple as this-a huge, ugly, stolid nurse with a personal hatred of women who were a threat to her livelihood with their new ideas and standards?
"Yeah?" Dora demanded. "What? Cat got your tongue? Not so smart now, are we?" She shook Hester roughly, like a rat. "What were you doing there? What were you waiting for, eh?"
There was no believable lie. She might as well die, if she were going to, telling the truth. It did occur to her to scream, but that might well panic Dora into killing her instantly.
"I was..." Her mouth was so dry she had to gulp and swallow before she could form the words. "I was..." she began again, "trying to see how deserted the-the corridor was at this time of day. Who usually passed." She swallowed again. Dora's huge hands were gripping her arms so tightly she was going to have purple bruises there tomorrow-if there was a tomorrow.
Dora moved her face a fraction closer till Hester could see the open pores of her skin and the separate short black eyelashes.
"O' course you were," Dora hissed softly. "Just 'cos I ain't bin to school don't mean I'm stupid! 'Oo did yer see? An' why do you care? You weren't even 'ere when that bitch were done. What's it to you? That's wot I wanna know." She looked her up and down. "You just a nosy cow, 'r yer got some reason?"
Hester had a strong belief that merely being nosy would not excuse her in Dora's eyes. And a reason would be more believable.
"A-a reason," she gasped.
"Yeah? So what is it then?"
They were only a foot from the banister now, and the drop down the stairwell. A quick turn of those great shoulders and Hester would be over.
What would she believe? And what would she not hate her for? At this point truth was irrelevant.
"I-I want to make sure they don't blame Dr. Beck just because he's foreign," she gasped.
"Why?" Dora's eyes narrowed. "Wot's it ter you if they do?" she demanded. "You only just got here. Why do you care if they 'ang 'im?"
"I knew him before." Hester was warming to the lie now. It sounded good.
"Did yer, now? And where was that then? 'E didn't work in your 'ospital in the war! 'E were 'ere."
"I know that," Hester answered. "The war only lasted two years."
"Got a thing for 'im, 'ave yer?" Dora's grip relaxed a little. "Won't do yer no good. 'E's married. Cold bitch with a face like a dead 'addock and a body to match. Still, that's your trouble, not mine. I daresay as yer wouldn't be the first fine lady to take 'er pleasures wrong side of the blanket." She squinted at Hester narrowly, a new expression in her face, not entirely unkind. "Mind, you be careful as yer don't get yerself inter no trouble." Her grasp loosened even more. "Wot you learn, then?"
Hester took a deep breath.
"That hardly anyone comes along there, and those who do aren't looking right or left, and probably wouldn't recognize anyone in the shadows even if they noticed them. There's plenty of time to kill someone and stuff them into me chute."
Dora grinned suddenly and startlingly, showing several blackened teeth.
"That's right. So you watch yourself, miss! Or you could end up the same." And without warning she let go, pushing Hester away with a little shove, and turned on her heel to march away.
Hester's knees were so weak they nearly buckled underneath her and she sank to the floor, feeling it hard and cold below her, her back to the wall. She must look ridiculous. Then, on second thought, everyone passing would only think she was drunk-not collapsed with relief. She sat there for several more moments before climbing up, holding the railing and swallowing hard before setting out again along the passage.