A very few lines from Edmund shewed her the patient and the sickroom in a clearer light than all Lady Bertram’s sheets of paper could do. They also filled her with trepidation.

“It is the Curse, dearest Fanny, I have no doubt of it, I see it before me! Tom’s malady has a supernatural underlying cause. Thus, as it is my duty as a man of the cloth, I must perform the holy ritual of Exorcism to rid this house of evil—once and for all. And now, I pray you speak to no one of this just yet.”

Oh, Edmund, thought Fanny. If only you could recognize and see evil so clearly at other times. . . .

In the meantime, Lady Bertram was dreadfully useless. There was hardly any one in the house who might not have described his condition, from personal observation, better than herself; or who was not more useful to her son.

She could do nothing but glide in quietly and look at him. But when able to talk or be talked to, or read to, Edmund was the companion Tom preferred. Aunt Norris worried him by her cares, and Sir Thomas knew not how to bring down his conversation or his voice to the gentle level needed by the irritated and feeble. Edmund was the only one. Fanny found her estimation of him higher than ever when he appeared as the attendant, supporter, cheerer of a suffering brother.

There was not only the debility of recent illness to assist: there was also, as she now learnt, nerves much affected, spirits much depressed to calm and raise, and finally, the various secret holy rituals to enact in exactness, purity, and haste, when no one else was present. Her own imagination added that there must be a mind to be properly guided and a soul rescued from dark torment.

The family were not consumptive, though definitely Cursed, and Fanny was more inclined to hope than fear for her cousin, except when she thought of Miss Crawford. But heartless Miss Crawford gave her the idea of it all being a sort of good luck—it would indeed be good luck to Mary’s selfishness and vanity to have Tom pass on, and Edmund become the only son!

Even in the sick chamber the fortunate Mary was not forgotten. Edmund’s letter had this postscript:

“On the subject of my last, I had actually begun a letter when called away by Tom’s illness, but I have now changed my mind, and fear to trust the influence of friends. When Tom is better, I shall go. Meanwhile, back to the Exorcism.”

Fanny bit her lips and thought, Oh, if only he would Exorcise Miss Crawford!