Unafraid, I thrust between the linen fabric under the bed, and my hands closed on a waxy package. I pulled it from its hiding place and drew the package up onto my lap. It was thick and tightly bound. Carrying it over to Miss Grange’s writing table, I felt a surge of excitement. I cut the cords, and the wrapping sprang back from the contents. Inside were three copybooks. The first was the red book I had seen lying on her desk, and inside, in perfect order, one after another, were neatly written several stories, covering page after page, as if the book were printed. The second was her diary, wrapped in its blue ribbon, and there were loose pages carefully inserted at various points of the book, as though they were additions latterly conceived. I took up the first of these additions stuck within the hard cover of the book and read what was written there. Both the spelling and the clothlike paper made it look to be an ancient receipt for laudanum.

Now a little uneasy, I opened up the third book, which was black and new—and blank, save for these words: “Here is your book, Maisie. Set us all down in here.”

I clapped the cover shut. Here was I, enacting the very scene Miss Grange must have imagined, for wasn’t I bent and leafing through her books, her poor body stretched out beside me, and hadn’t I arrived at her command in just the order she had envisioned? I cannot do it, I thought, I’ll not take on this part! I stood up from my chair with determined vigor, firmly intending to march downstairs and alert the household.

Then I thought I heard some small stirring. Or did my overstretched nerves produce a slight whispering? I turned my head to listen more closely. Nothing. I took three small steps away from Miss Grange’s bed, then paused. Ah, it was the rustling of my skirts against the bare wood floor. I walked firmly over to the door and put my hand upon the knob. But then, there it came again, from behind, the whisper of a whisper.

Did malignancies hover about? A black-faced demon soared directly into my heart’s chamber and fanned the unease burning there. I closed my eyes. There was nothing in the room. I opened my eyes, turned round, and gazed for a moment on Miss Grange beneath her makeshift shroud.