It clunked against the planks.

“Thank you, Miss Coates.” He wasn’t slurring yet, but I knew soon he would be. I’d been in this situation a hundred times. “Remember our last time together?”

“You think I could forget?” I snapped. The fog was beginning to play with my mind, making me feel like I was inside the past, the blankness like a canvas for my memories to paint. I saw rain sizzling on surging seas. Lightning bolts slicing through thunderheads. Sewel’s face hovering over me.

“You disappeared that night,” he said now. “But I knew you didn’t die. I knew you ran. I knew it in here.” He thumped his heart. “I knew ’cause I taught you to be strong.”

“You taught me nothing. All you did was hurt me and scare me.”

He lifted his head, finding me with his eyes. “You tested me. You never learnt your place. That’s why I had to be rough with you.”

“I forgot my place? You’re my stepfather and you—you—” Hot spit flooded my mouth. I swallowed. Breathed. Pushed away the feeling of his hands on me.

He sat up. “You want to talk right and wrong? How about the time you tried to send me to a watery grave?”

Right then, I knew no amount of talking would ever change anything. He was evil. We’d never understand each other. “I’ve never known anyone with such a twisted mind as yours, Sewel.”

“Yours is the twisted mind. But we’ll remedy it right now.” He leaned down and plucked the stocking up. His knife flashed as he sliced off the knot at the top. The stocking fell, jewels bursting out as it struck the well. Sewel stared at the precious items strewn over the hay. Necklaces and broaches. Bracelets and elaborate hairpins. “My God…you weren’t lyin’.” He picked up a necklace. “Pretty little thing.” In the whiteness of the fog, the rubies looked red as holly berries. He held the necklace over the rail and let go. It disappeared with a soft plunk. “Time to dive, Frannie.”

A lifetime went by. Then I heard myself laugh. “You think I’m afraid of going in there?”

“I don’t care how you feel about it. Get in there.”

I came to my knees at the gunwale, keeping the knife in my left hand, hidden from him. Necklaces and rings crunched under me as I leaned over the edge and stared down. The water looked calmer than I’d ever seen it. Through wisps of fog, my reflection stared back at me. I didn’t look like Emmeline Coates or Francisca Tasker. I didn’t know whose face was in the water.

“You know I won’t be able to find it,” I said, my voice trembling. I heard all the blunted edges in it again. All the fear and fury of my past. “This gown will pull me under. Even if I could swim, I won’t be able to see anything in the dark and the current’ll sweep me away.”