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Back Maplecroft
Chapters (206)
  1. Praise for Maplecroft
  2. Title page
  3. Copyright page
  4. Contents
  5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  6. THESE ARE THE THINGS AN EARTHQUAKE BRINGS
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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
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  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
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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
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  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
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  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
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  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. •   •   •

His lips twisted, miming what I’d said. I believe it honestly confused him; he toyed with the shape of it, uncertain of whether it was familiar or foreign in his mouth. He came to a decision. “Close enough,” he said. And then he sounded more sure of himself as he looked over his shoulder and said to Emma: “You must come with me, you know. She wants to have us both. You were the one who found the specimen; you were the one who saved it from the sun.” He looked back to me and said, “You see? Look, she is standing. Already she is stronger. She is ready and willing, little sister. You must not stand in her way.”

Ready and willing?

When I looked at Emma’s face, her posture, her fierce grip on the vial in her hand . . . it was not readiness or willingness I saw there. It was anger, red-hot and raw. She looked swiftly back and forth between the madman and myself, and for one blazing, awful instant I could not tell who she hated the most.

But I couldn’t watch her, or interrogate her. I had to watch him, and while I had his attention, I said, “I won’t let you leave with her. I won’t let you take her away. She’s all I have left. She’s my whole world.”

“It’s not my fault that the feeling isn’t mutual,” he said, and I don’t think he meant to be unkind. If anything, I heard some small note of apology in the observation.

Even so, his words bit me with their truth. He was charming me again . . . not to win my affection, but to keep me from interfering. That charming, charming voice, with those charming, charming eyes . . . except they weren’t charming at all. They were dead inside, just like him.

I shook my head, and water sloshed roughly in my ears. I realized I was still holding my axe, but I’d let it sink. Its head was set upon the floor, and my fingers held it so loosely that I was in danger of dropping it altogether.

No.

I tightened my knuckles to clutch its reassuring handle, and lifted it up.

Emma lifted something up, too. The vial in her hand. She nodded at me, but I frowned at her—I still didn’t understand! What did she want me to do? Was that the toxin? Were those the vials she fiddled and fumbled with? Yes, I thought so. What else could they be?

“I won’t . . . go . . . with you,” she told him.

Zollicoffer was not confused or angry, only insistent when he looked back to her and said, “You will. You must. I would not compel you of my own regard, but Mother compels me. This is the order, now. And you will see, it is for the best.”

“To hell with you and your Mother.”