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Chapters (206)
  1. Praise for Maplecroft
  2. Title page
  3. Copyright page
  4. Contents
  5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  6. THESE ARE THE THINGS AN EARTHQUAKE BRINGS
  7. •   •   •
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  12. A DOCTOR, A LAWYER, A MERCHANT, A CHIEF
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  20. Phillip Zollicoffer, Professor of Biology, Miskatonic University
  21. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  26. BE SURE YOUR SINS WILL FIND YOU OUT
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  29. I CROSS THE MAGPIE, THE MAGPIE CROSSES ME
  30. •   •   •
  31. Nance O’Neil
  32. THIS KNOT I KNIT, THIS KNOT I TIE
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  37. AND IF YOU HAVE A HORSE WITH ONE WHITE LEG . . .
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  43. THE WORST IS TO BE JUDGED WITHOUT HOPE
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  46. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  53. BUT NETTLE SHANT HAVE NOTHING
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  55. CUT THEM ON FRIDAY, YOU CUT THEM FOR SORROW
  56. Phillip Zollicoffer, Professor of Biology, Miskatonic University
  57. •   •   •
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  62. HAPPY IS THE CORPSE THAT THE RAIN SHINES ON
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  67. A DWELLING PLACE OF JACKALS, THE DESOLATION FOREVER
  68. Lizzie Andrew Borden
  69. •   •   •
  70. •   •   •
  71. Nance O’Neil
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  84. Emma L. Borden
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  88. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  91. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  93. RIGHT CHEEK, LEFT CHEEK—WHY DO YOU BURN?
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  101. Aaron B. Stewart, Fire Chief, Farthington, Mass.
  102. Emma L. Borden
  103. •   •   •
  104. Gerald Macintyre, Telegraph Clerk, Western Union
  105. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  107. Physalia, Z. University I Was Not Now
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  109. DEPART, ALL ANIMALS WITHOUT BONES
  110. Emma L. Borden
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  115. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  119. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  130. Owen Seabury, M.D.
  131. Phillip Zollicoffer. Physalia Zollicoffris.
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  137. Christoff Dane, M.D., Ph.D., University of Rhode Island, Kingston
  138. •   •   •
  139. Emma L. Borden
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  144. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  150. Emma L. Borden
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  153. FAMILY SLAIN IN MAYFIELD
  154. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  165. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  176. Emma L. Borden
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  186. Owen Seabury, M.D.
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  197. Lizzie Andrew Borden
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  205. Inspector Simon Wolf
  206. •   •   •

I refused to nurture the hope that threatened to bloom in my breast. I’d come close to solutions before, and watched the mirages turn to sand as I approached. I would not let myself be disappointed so harshly again. I braced myself against further failure by asking the inevitable questions. “But wouldn’t it be too late? Vaccines are preventatives, and whatever’s happened to Nance, we surely have failed to prevent it.”

“Tetanus is treatable,” he insisted. “And not by any means a death sentence. All is not lost, and we have . . . it’s hardly a plan, but it’s a starting point.”

“And if you’re wrong?”

“If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. We’ll try something else.”

“What?” I asked, and I hated myself for the note of despair that crept into the word.

“I don’t know, but we’ll think of something. You and I, and Emma. And maybe this Inspector Wolf—you never know. He might turn over some rock and discover another useful path to direct us down. All is not lost,” he said again. Maybe he hadn’t heard himself the first time, or maybe he needed convincing as badly as I did.

I did not reply, because the words were stuck in my throat. But Nance is my all, and if she’s lost, then yes. So’s everything.

•   •   •

Emma wouldn’t like the look of those last lines, but what can I do?

Emma is only dying of normal things, so far as anyone can prove. Emma has all of her faculties, and some autonomy of her own—whether she’d act upon it or not. Some days she maneuvers the stairs just fine, and others she needs waiting upon, hand and foot. I shouldn’t doubt her, but so help me God, on those days I do.

Look at the state we’re in.

Maybe it’s all her fault, anyway. Maybe that stupid, stinking, putrid sample she forced me to box up and mail . . . if that’s where this began . . .

If that’s where it all began, and I lose Nance because of it.

If that’s what it comes to. I don’t know that I will ever be able to forgive her. I am strong, but I am not resilient. When my heart is manhandled it does not bounce; it shatters.

•   •   •

So the doctor left me with much to think about, and two women upstairs who need me all the time. He didn’t look in on either of them. He offered to, but I told him not to bother. Emma was fine, and napping . . . and Nance was not fine, but there was nothing new for him to address.