Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

Marina fought with herself to keep awake. The adrenaline had started to wear down, causing her to feel drowsy. She made an attempt to waken herself by eating a couple of the biscuits Penny had forced upon her before all of the strange events.

She was unsure of the sleeping patterns uncle Josiah and Charlotte might follow tonight, but Marina stayed up later than anticipated to be sure they’ve gone to bed. She waited for a moment, grabbing the lit lamp whilst standing before her bedroom door in anticipation. She opened it.

She looked at the left side of the corridor and then at the right. It was pitch black, not a person in sight. She proceeded down the hallway on her tiptoes, the way she used to wander down the same corridor as a child to fetch a book in her Papa’s study. This time, she was sneaking off to Nancy’s bedroom.

Marina had wanted to look for the teabag Griffin mentioned at this late hour, before realizing that the mentioned teabag was found in his bedroom. The room he was most likely sleeping in.

“People with a guilty conscience sleep lightly,” Marina’s Papa used to joke with her when he had prematurely awoken her Mama. They used to laugh about it, but somehow this exact saying prohibited Marina from entering uncle Josiah’s quarters. If someone had to have a guilty conscience, it certainly had to be her uncle, although she just to suspect him having poor morals and not a slither of guilt.

Instead, she walked down the corridor like a cat, barley making any noise. The only thing that might pinpoint Marina’s movements had to be the lamp she held, but all bedroom doors were closed, leaving her untraceable. At Nancy’s doorway she hesitated. A nervous tingle started to grow on her hands and feet. She wanted to duck and run away, but she didn’t feel like that could be a choice.

Instead, she gently knocked. She doubted Nancy to awaken, just knocking to use it as an excuse to let herself in. Yet, to Marina’s great surprise, the door swung open.

“Nancy?” Marina asked in confusion. Nancy stared at her cousin.

“Why do you sound confused, I should be confused. What are you doing out of your bedroom?” Nancy asked as she gripped Marina’s arm, dragging her into the room and closing the door behind her.

As Marina stumbled in, she noticed that Nancy had lit her own lamp on her desk, a piece of parchment on the table. The pot of ink stood ajar.

“I’m writing to Frederic,” Nancy said as she noticed Marina’s eyes draw toward the piece of parchment. “I’m in contact with him again.”

“That’s amazing, Nancy. You deserve a good life spent alongside your lover,” Marina said as she offered Nancy a sad smiled. Nancy ignored it, turning her cheek to Marina.

At first Marina thought she had upset her cousin, but instead she noticed her cousin to have fallen to a soft sob.

“What’s the matter?” Marina asked. She feared Josiah to have forced Nancy to end contact again, that she was banned from seeing the Baron.

“It’s about you,” Nancy sobbed with sad eyes falling upon Marina. Nancy gripped her head with one hand as if she feared it to fall off her body. “I’m so sorry for everything. How I’ve treated you lately, for ruining the courtship and-and everything that’s going to happen now.”

Nancy sniffled, forcing Marina to near her for a hug. As Marina held onto Nancy, she frowned at the unsuspected statements.

“What’s going to happen?” Marina laughed. “Despite me being locked in the bedroom until further notice. I might die in there, but at least it’s not so bad.”

Nancy looked at Marina, her eyes growing wider. “You don’t know?” she asked, her eyes ajar with worry.

“Know what, Nancy?” Marina asked, placing her lamp down on Nancy’s desk.

“Gosh, oh dear,” Nancy stammered, flapping her hands around as if she had burnt them.

“Know what, Nancy?” Marina repeated in a slightly louder tone. She was afraid to hear the answer, but she had to know. Her cousin looked hesitant to tell her, but she’ll pull the information from her if she must.

“My father,” Nancy whimpered. She caught her breath before she was able to start crying. Instead, she gestured for Marina to follow her to her bed, where they took a seat across from one another.

Nancy remained silent for a minute, but Marina stared at her in anticipation. Nancy gently took Marina’s hands into her own.

“My father is sending you to bedlam, Marina,” Nancy said, choking on Marina’s name. Marina raised an eyebrow, but felt her heart sink to her feet. She didn’t feel like she could move, or speak.

“He-he’s claiming hysteria,” she sobbed, her voice pitching higher as she attempted to conceal the tears forming in her eyes.

Marina shook her head, not wanting accept Nancy’s words. She even chuckled at them a little. “No,” she laughed. “He can’t do that.”

Nancy went in opposition with Marina, nodding to her each time she shook her head. “Yes, Marina. He can and he did,” she said, gripping Marina’s hands tighter into her own. “He sent out a letter, saying you are experiencing delusions and fits of violent rage.”

“B-but that’s not true?” Marina said, still not willing to accept Nancy’s claims.

“It isn’t, but he made sure it seems true,” Nancy cried, pulling Marina closer for an attempted hug, but Marina resisted it. She pulled back, still wanting to face Nancy directly in the eye.

“He’s claiming I’m mad so that he can send me to bedlam where I can rot and die? Be mistreated?” Marina said angrily. Nancy jolted back, thinking the anger to be aimed toward her. Yet, she nodded in response.

Marina jumped up from her seat on Nancy’s bed, part of her wanting grab the lit lamp and throw it, set the house on fire. Perhaps, she had gone mad, but her uncle had certainly driven her mad.

“I hate him,” Marina mumbled, gnawing her teeth in anger. “I hate him so, so much.”

“It’s sinful to hate someone, Marina,” Nancy gasped, following Marina in her tracks, fearful she might do something.

“Then I am guilty of being a sinner, but I am in no sense a mad woman,” Marina shot back. She realised her mistake of taking her anger out on Nancy, turning around to apologise. “I’m sorry, I’m not angry at you but most certainly your Papa. I often wonder how you can be his offspring.”

“Because I can be cruel and jealous, too,” Nancy sadly said, averting her eyes to her feet in guilt.

“Nancy, you acted like any woman would’ve acted in a situation I’ve put you in, it’s nothing you have to apologise about. We as woman are forced to grow up and fid a partner, they claim we have no other use in society. It’s normal to seek revenge if someone stole that chance from you,” Marina comforted Nancy, though her tone remained upset on the topic of bedlam.

“Still, if only I’d known why you actually had done so. I was just jealous that you bloomed so naturally with Griffin. I was so angered by the fact that I couldn’t have that with Frederic, I couldn’t invite him over and sit in the drawing room drinking tea- I took all of that out on you and your courtship,” Nancy guiltily said.

“Nancy, I have no hard feelings towards you, just as I hope you have no hard feelings toward me. I love you, you’re my family,” Marina said softly, momentarily forgetting about her sentence to an asylum. In the moment she was just happy to rekindle a connection with her cousin.

“Have you seen Leilah, or heard what had happened to her?” Marina asked Nancy. Nancy squinted her eyes in confusion.

“Papa told her to go away, so she ran. Don’t you remember?” Nancy responded, looking at Marina trying to reignite her memory. “She’s probably at home.”

“She’s not,” Marina shook her head. “Her husband appeared at my window inquiring about her whereabouts, she never returned home.”

“Oh my!” Nancy gasped, putting both her delicate hands over her mouth. “What do you think happened?”

“I’m unsure, but the duke told me he’d be on the search for her,” Marina replied, bummed that no one could provide a location of Leilah. Marina desperately longed to hug Leilah, thank her for what she had done for her. But now, she was missing.

“The duke?” Nancy asked curiously. “What kind of meetings do you have at your window?”

Marina chuckled at her words, but noticed Nancy’s face to be serious. She swallowed her smile.

“It’s not quite possible for me to have these interactions anywhere else in the Cromwell now, is it?” Marina sighed. In her mind the image of herself in a straitjacket haunted her, being thrown into an empty room with no windows as she screamed for mercy. She tried to wipe the thought to focus on the topic at hand, but she found it increasingly difficult.

“I need your help, Nancy,” Marina finally said, reaching the topic she had ventured in for. “Leilah gave the duke a teabag. We suspect you father to have poisoned our fathers by making tea out of deadly nightshade. A botanist at Griffin’s manor found the leaves in the tea to be identical to deadly nightshade. Leilah mentioned to the duke that she had found the teabag in his bedroom. If you could possibly retrieve the teabag from his room, we could link the murder weapon to the murderer.”

Nancy looked at Marina blankly for a moment, before she dramatically grasped her hair with both hands. “The tea business,” she mumbled, horrified by the realization.

“He briefly had some business where he claimed to make tea, but he never allowed me or Mama to drink any of it, saying it’s not for our consumption,” Nancy gasped. “I thought it was just one of his money-making schemes, I didn’t know he-.”

Nancy stopped her words, the expression of surprise fading from her face. “I don’t think I can longer be surprised by Papa’s actions; I should’ve known.”

“Might I ask you to do the task of the search? If I’m found searching in the room I might as well die right then and there, I feel it a much better way than for your Papa to find me,” Marina asked again, hoping her cousin to agree.

“Of course, of course,” Nancy mumbled. “I’m certainly not the favourite child, but he certainly likes me a lot more than he likes you.”

“That’ll be of great help, Nancy, you don’t understand what it might mean to me,” Marina replied in gratitude. If somehow, they could that piece of evidence, uncle Josiah would surely be locked away and Marina wouldn’t have to face bedlam.

“I do understand,” Nancy said, her voice was soft and understanding, but Marina couldn’t help but notice the sadness it held. “It would mean a lot to all of us, if I must be honest.”

Marina looked at Nancy, and finally realised how hard this all must be on her. Though few fathers are good ones, she ended up with the worst. But Marina couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Nancy did love him, like all daughter’s tend to love their fathers. But how could she continue loving such a cruel man when he faces no consequences for the vile deeds he had committed?

“Thank you, Nancy,” Marina started to thank, but both cousins were abruptly interrupted.