Page 40 of A Madness So Discreet

A tiny fist reached up, latching on to Grace’s pinkie with a strength she hadn’t expected, his skin as soft as velvet. A breath escaped her in a rush as he pulled her down to him, and Mary squeezed her other palm.

“He’s not so great,” Mary assured her. “Smells something awful.”

“Mary,” the mother chided her again.

Grace disentangled herself from the baby, pulling the pram cover back and over to shut out the sun. Mary tugged on her hand and when Grace leaned down to her, she found the little girl bounding into her for a hug. The pressure of the little body against her own brought back a wave of memories, and she fought to keep her balance as Mary leaned into her.

“We best be going, Mary,” her mother said, and Grace pushed herself to her feet, hastily wiping tears from her eyes.

“’Bye, lady,” Mary said, waving to Grace as they walked away. “I hope I see you again.”

“Me too,” Grace said once they were out of earshot. Her fingers played with a frayed corner of Alice’s letter, her eyes still on Mary’s golden crown of hair. “I’ll not stop writing.”

“Grace? Grace?” Her name sailed over the green hills, calling her out of her reverie and resurrecting the blank eyes the asylum staff expected to see. Letter shoved safely in the folds of her dress, she stood and waved to gain Janey’s attention.

The nurse spotted her and crossed the space between them, hair flying loose from the tightly coiled bun she usually wore. “There you are. Someone is wishing to speak with you.”

Grace’s stomach rolled. She’d thought Thornhollow would give her more time to collect herself before tracking her down. Janey groaned in irritation as the ends of her hair whipped around her face. “The wind today,” she complained, beckoning Grace to come out from under the shelter of the willow branches. “It’ll pull my hair whichever way it pleases, comb and brush notwithstanding. And you with a gentleman come to see you and your own head a sight indeed.”

Grace’s head jerked up at Janey’s words, confusion in her glance.

“It’s a policeman, name of Davey,” Janey explained. “Said he wanted to speak with Dr. Thornhollow but nobody could find him. So then he asked for you and wouldn’t leave until we produced you. I don’t know what it is you and the doctor are up to, but if it brings the like of him around here every now and then I don’t think I dislike it.”

Grace smiled to herself, aware that Janey was madly trying to tame her hair for more reasons than one as they came around to the front of the asylum. Davey was waiting on the gravel path beside his mount, his hat in his hands so that it wouldn’t be blown from his head.

“Here she is, Officer,” Janey said, voice brighter than usual.

“Thank you, miss,” Davey said, hands turning the brim of his hat in a circle as he spoke, eyes everywhere except the women’s faces. “I appreciate you finding her for me.”

“It’s no problem, no problem,” Janey said quickly, then looked back and forth between the two of them. “Well, I’ll just be out of your way, then, let you go about your business.”

Davey waited until Janey had gone into the asylum. He approached Grace cautiously, hands still buried in his hat and his eyes never quite able to settle on her own.

“Thank you for . . . for seeing me, I suppose,” he began slowly. “I have something to say to the doctor, but he don’t seem to be here and I got to say this thing before I lose the nerve to get it out.”

Grace raised an eyebrow to invite him to continue, breaking the usual dead stare she reserved for strangers.

“You see, when you’re a new man on the job you’re supposed to learn from the ones above you. But George . . . don’t get me wrong, he knows his trade. He can handle the drunks and the men going after their wives and the other way around better than any of ’em. But that girl, the other night, the one who . . . well, you’re well enough aware of what I’m saying, I suppose. Anyway, he’s got it in his head that she was just a drunkard, and he don’t want to hear nothing about what the doctor thinks, though I tell you right now if it was drink on her breath, it wasn’t no spirit I’ve ever smelled before, and I’ve had my nose in a few.” He chuckled, then glanced back at her. “Sorry, ma’am, if I shouldn’t be saying so.”

Grace shrugged.

Davey ran one hand through his hair, tapping his hat against his hip with the other. “What I’m here for is to say that I was on late shift the other night when we found a whor—when we got a call about a woman who had died in her bed. That bed being located above a brothel, if you take my meaning. She was dead as a doornail and laid out the same way, with her eyes open and looking every second like she’d sit up and tell us to pay up or get out of her room.” He laughed again, then blushed when he realized what he’d said.

“Anyways, the room had that same smell about it. I tried to say as much to George, but there ain’t nobody too interested in a dead woman of ill repute who drunk herself to death. And that’s how it went down in the books. Drunk herself into the dark, and I couldn’t quite bring myself to let that stand so I came here to tell the doctor what I seen, and find you instead.

“Which, I think . . .” He trailed off again, nerves back into his voice now that he’d lost momentum. “If you don’t mind my saying so, I think that you’ve got your own way about you, talking or not. Soon as I knew the doctor couldn’t be had I said I wanted that Grace girl, because I feel that telling you is as good as telling him, and that I done what I came to do.”

Color flushed his whole face, rising up through his neck and filling every pore straight to his hairline. Davey cleared his throat and jammed his hat onto his head.

“And I . . . I wish you a good evening,” he said, bowing awkwardly and jumping onto his horse, the back of his neck as red as the sunset.

TWENTY-THREE

“Dr. Thornhollow, I—” Grace burst into his office, only to stop cold two steps later. “Doctor, are you drunk?”

“Thoroughly.” He mock toasted her with a tumbler from his armchair, which he’d moved to squarely face the blackboard. “And this time there’s no deceit in it. It appears you get to see all my worst traits today, Grace.”

She closed the office door behind her, latching it for both their sakes. “Doctor,” she said slowly. “Davey was here and he—”