“You were right to come,” Justine said. “He needed you.”

He always had. And he did now more than ever. I had to help Victor get well, and I had to protect him. I could not let anyone discover the truth:

Victor had gone mad.

Chapter Nine: This Horror Will Grow Mild, This Darkness Light

THE DOCTOR, A STATELY gentleman whose clothes told a story of a satisfied and wealthy clientele, had a room in his offices for cases like Victor, where the patient needed both seclusion and extra care.

I saw Victor safely settled, taking care to inform the doctor of his history of intense, prolonged fevers.

“He grows quite delirious,” I said, smoothing Victor’s curls away from his forehead and placing a damp cloth there. A matronly nurse hovered nearby, waiting for me to get out of her way. “He may say things that make no sense or sound horrible, but when he wakes he will have no memory of them because they are nothing more than fever dreams.”

The doctor nodded impatiently. “Yes, I am quite familiar with fevers. There is no need to expose yourself to further strain, Fräulein Lavenza. He will be well taken care of. You may visit him in the mornings, but we reserve the rest of the day for quiet repose. It is good you found him when you did. Another day or two and he might have perished from burning away all his body’s fluid.”

“Yes,” I murmured, kissing Victor’s cheek and then moving away from his bed. “That is a bad thing to burn.”

Some things, however, still needed burning.

In the sitting room, Mary and Justine waited. Justine was fidgeting nervously, looking at the ever-decreasing light out the window. She shot up like a spark from a flame when she saw me. “Elizabeth! How is Victor?”

“They have settled him in. I am certain he will be well. Thank you, Mary, for securing such a capable doctor so quickly. We were lucky to find you, for a number of reasons.”

Mary nodded, pulling on her gloves and adjusting her hat. “I am glad I came with you. My uncle would be happy I helped Victor. I wonder now if he was the last person to see Victor well. Though, obviously, Victor must have been in good health at that point. Otherwise, my uncle would never have left him there.”

“Unlike Henry,” I said, my thoughts dark and already clogged with ash and char.

Justine edged closer to the door. “Henry left so many months ago, though. He would have stayed, as well. Do we have anything else to do here? It will be nightfall soon, and we will be locked out!”

Mary looked quizzical.