“Day after day, for over two years, Max and Edward would meet in the study, and whilst I sat at Max’s feet, for two, three, or even four hours every evening, Max would endeavor to broaden Edward’s mind. They would repeatedly go over books and lessons, but the poor fellow’s brain was like a sieve. They’d go over something to the nth degree, and it appeared Edward had grasped the lesson, yet he’d return the next day, clueless…and then they’d start again. I have to give it to Max because he was unbelievably patient with Edward. Unfortunately, my patience had worn thin.”

“What do you mean?”

A half smile crossed Bennett’s face. “I had nothing else to do but listen for all those endless hours, and I didn’t even realize how much I was learning until I found myself mentally answering the questions Max was asking of Edward. Of course, even when Max was speaking English, some words still escaped me, my vocabulary wasn’t as it is now, and when he spoke in Italian or Latin, well, I would have been lost except he always explained it again in English.

“One night, I had sat on that hard, cold stone floor for almost four hours. My legs had gone numb. My back was on fire, and I literally wanted to wring Edward’s neck. The man was truly a dolt, and then Max announced Edward had only to name the three parts of Dante’s Divine Comedy, and their lesson would end for the night. Although I dared not show it on my face, inside, I was grinning like a fool. It was an easy question, and relief was three words away, except Edward didn’t know the answer. After months of talking about nothing but this bloody poem, the man had nothing, and it became a stalemate. Edward stared at Max. Max stared at Edward, and my annoyance boiled over. I yelled, ‘Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, you bloody loggerhead,’ and then a split-second later, I rued my very existence.”

“Oh, my God,” Ruby said, touching Bennett on the arm. “That’s right. You weren’t supposed to speak.”

“No, and I was never so ashamed in my life. I’d put my discomfort, my frustrations, and my indignation before the safety and the lives of dozens of innocent people. I had just killed them all, and I wanted to die,” Bennett said, her voice sinking to a whisper. “To say the room got deathly quiet is an understatement, and then Max told Edward to leave. I sat there, my heart pounding in my chest, and I dared not look up. I knew I would see superiority in his eyes, hubristic glee that he had finally bested me, and I refused to give him that. The door closed, and Max’s chair creaked, and then he said, ‘How did you know that?’