Bee’s hands knot into fists. “I remember that last night in the attic,” she says, and looks up at Jane. “After it had gotten you. After he’d taken you away. I remember finding that match. It seemed like the only way out.”

“I tried to get back to you.” Jane shivers a little. “I tried to get you out before it was too late.”

“I know.” Bee hunches over, her head in her hands. “But it wasn’t all bad at Thornfield. Remember when he caught us together?”

Jane exhales a small laugh, a shadow of delight across her face. “He didn’t know what to do about that.”

“No, he didn’t.” A thin smile. The first time I’ve seen Bee really smile in days. “He’d been so afraid of so many things. But he’d never worried about losing his wives to each other.”

This is the final piece of their story, one I’d never known until now. How he’d locked them up together, abandoning them in that attic. How they’d found each other in the dark. They couldn’t keep that terrible thing away from them, from burrowing beneath their skin, but that couldn’t keep them apart, either.

An aching silence as Jane edges closer, resting her forehead against Bee’s. For a moment, they look so content together, like nothing in the world could ever come between them. Then it’s as if the past settles over them again, and Bee remembers everything at once.

Swallowing a sob, she pulls away, and Jane doesn’t argue. She just crawls across the floor to the far corner, her knees tucked into her chest.

Jane Eyre. She was so steel-willed once, so uncompromising. But years at Rochester’s mercy have left her like this. It’s the one thing he’s good at, forcing her and Bee to carry the weight of his sins. And he did it just because he didn’t want to be alone. It’s the same reason he’s got a houseful of girls up north. The same reason he took Daisy. His loneliness has become a burden the whole world has to bear.

The street outside bustles to life, and I call out through the wall, but no one hears me, the revelry of the day already brimming at full volume. No one will come for us. Not with that sign on the front door, not after the girls sent everyone away.

Bee rocks back and forth. “What are we going to do?”

Michael struggles to sit up. “We could last a few days up here,” he murmurs, but we all know we can’t wait that long. We need to be ready by sundown. Otherwise Daisy won’t stand a chance. Trapped in this room with me, Michael won’t stand a chance either.