how little I’d eaten, I knew part of her worry was for me. For once, she did not scold me. Perhaps she realized the same thing I did. In regard to the commission I was about to undertake, a full stomach would not be an asset.
However, I also suspected I was not the only reason for her disquiet. My mention of the cholera had also unsettled her. I had seen how white her face had grown. But what I couldn’t decide was whether it was the disease itself that upset her, or the fear that Anderley might be exposed to it.
CHAPTER EIGHT
An hour later, I stood with my arms submerged to the elbows in a basin of cold water. I watched the icy liquid turn pink as I scrubbed the evidence of my recent efforts from my hands. Despite the gloves I wore, blood and other fluids always seemed to seep through to my skin.
During my time sketching my late husband’s dissections, I had rarely touched the cadavers he lectured to me over. But during the course of our investigations, I did not have the dubious luxury of allowing someone else to prod and manipulate the limbs. At first this had caused me great distress, but I had grown steadily more comfortable with the duties of our calling. Now the sight and touch of dead flesh did not revolt me as before.
But the odor of decay still threatened to overpower me, particularly with the heightened sense of smell that my being heavy with child brought with it. I paused in my ministrations, swallowing against an intense swell of nausea.
Having decided my hands were as clean as they were ever going to get, I reached for a fresh towel, clutching it close to my body with my stiff, reddened fingers. Then I stepped from the antechamber where the body had been stored into the larger wine cellar. The dim room was lined with wooden shelves and covered in bottles of various liquors, from whisky to brandy and Madeira. In one corner stood kegs of ale and even beer, most made at the castle’s own brewery. The must and dust of the castle walls and the sweet aroma of the wood filled my nostrils, replacing the stench from the other room, and I breathed deeply, taking it eagerly into my lungs.
The apron I had worn over the woolen black nun’s habit had caught the gore from such a close examination of the body, but I still wouldn’t wager on its cleanliness. So when Gage joined me from the other room, shutting the antechamber up tight, I urged him to unfasten the garment at the back of my neck. He set the lantern he was holding down on a small table which held a lamp and the boots that had belonged to the victim.
I had found little of significance during my study of the corpse. Much of the evidence I’d hoped to find was already gone—either devoured by scavengers or sullied by decomposition. I could not tell if there had been a struggle. The tissue that might have revealed defensive wounds was missing. However, I did confirm that the cause of death was from blunt force trauma to the head, just as we’d initially suspected, so he might have been struck from behind without ever knowing the attack was coming. It was also evident, from the wear on the heel of the boot which had remained on the corpse, as well as from the torn stocking and ragged heel of the other foot, that he had been dragged to his final resting place.
As for the chipped tooth, it appeared to be recently damaged, for the edges were jagged and not worn. I told Gage as much, as he rolled the habit upward as I’d directed, trapping whatever splatter it might have accumulated inside its folds, and then lifted it over my head.
“We’ll still need to ask Lady Helmswick about the tooth,” he remarked as I pointed toward the burlap sack Bree had located.
“Of course, but at least we’ll be able to anticipate her answer.”
“Anything else of note?” he asked, diverting his gaze as he stuffed the habit in the sack.
Knowing him as well as I did, I could tell he felt ashamed that he’d had to step away from the table and allow me to finish my examination alone. The putrid smells rising from the corpse had made him gag and nearly cast up his accounts. A fact which would have made me