The Sweet Far Thing

Page 31

Lightning throbs against the roiling mass of black-and-gray clouds. For a moment, a plume of red snakes through the dark.
“We’ve seen that twice now. Do you know what it is?” I ask.
Pippa shakes her head. “Sometimes it happens. We should go downstairs. Wendy will be frightened, poor lamb.”
“Who is Wendy?” Ann asks.
For the first time, Pip gives a true smile. Her eyes shift to violet, and I am reminded of the way she was, alive and beautiful, happy about new gloves or some romantic tale. “How terrible of me, for I’ve not introduced you properly to my new friends!”
Pippa leads us down and into a tapestry-lined room, which is as dismal as a tomb. There are no candles, no lamps, no fire in the enormous hearth. The factory girls have made themselves at home, however. Bessie stretches out on a divan, among the weeds that wrap around it. Her friend Mae sits on the floor, braiding the hair of another girl, whose name appears to be Mercy, for Mae keeps saying, “Mercy, sit still.” Another girl, younger than the rest, sits in a corner, staring at nothing. I cannot keep from glancing at their wounds, their ghostly pale faces.
“What are you lookin’ at, then?” Bessie snarls, catching me.
My cheeks burn red, and I’m glad for the cover of dusk. “I’m sorry. It’s just that the last time I saw you all—”
“We thought you’d followed the girls in white to the Winterlands and were lost forever,” Felicity interrupts.
“They were in the company of those ghouls,” Pippa says, settling into a dilapidated throne.
“What happened?” Ann asks, breathless.
“That is the story I wished to tell you. By chance, I was on the same path, completely brokenhearted and filled with despair.”
“Oh, Pip,” Felicity says.
“There, there.” Pip smiles. “It has a happy ending. You know how I love happy endings.”
I swallow hard. I was the one who turned Pip away, who broke her heart so. I wish I could take it back.
“When I saw these poor lambs, I stopped feeling sorry for myself. I knew I had to do something or they would be lost. So I followed close behind. The moment they stopped to rest, and the girls in white went in search of berries, I took my chance. I told them what those hideous creatures were truly about. That they meant to lead them straight to those soul stealers, the trackers.” She smiles at them as if they were her dear children. “I rescued them. I saved you, didn’t I, my darlings?”
The girls join in a chorus of agreement. They gaze at Pippa in absolute adoration, as we all have from time to time.
“She’s a saint. Saved us, she did,” Mae says, wide-eyed. “‘You mustn’t follow them,’ she said. ‘They mean you ’arm. Come with me instead.’”
“She saved us sure as we’re standing ’ere,” Bessie says, concurring. “Didn’t she, Wendy?”
A girl of about twelve nods. She sucks on the ends of her pigtails, making them into wet points. “The others weren’t so lucky as us. They went on.”
“And have you seen any of the Winterlands creatures since then?” I ask.
“Not for ages now,” Mae says. “But Wendy has.”
“You’ve seen them?” I ask.
Bessie gives a small snort of derision. “Wendy don’t see nuffin’. Fire blinded ’er.”
“But I hear things, sometimes,” Wendy says, pulling the remnants of a ruined shawl about her. “Sounds like horses. And sometimes I ’ear somefin’ makes my skin crawl.”
“What is it?” I ask. “What do you hear?”
“A scream,” she answers. “Faraway-like. And I ’ope it don’t ever get no closer.”
“Gotcha!” Bessie shouts, wrapping her meaty paws about Wendy’s neck. Wendy screams, making us all jump.
Pippa is quite put out by the display. “Bessie, that is enough.”
Bessie pulls away her hands. “You used to laugh at my tricks.”
Pippa’s eyes go blue-white. “Tonight, I don’t find it amusing. It isn’t ladylike.” She turns to us, all smiles. “I’m teaching these girls to be ladies, just as if they were at Spence!” She claps as if she were Mrs. Nightwing herself. “Come now. A small demonstration for our guests.”
The girls rise obediently, eager to please their mistress. Under Pip’s direction, they show off their curtsies one by one. This is followed by a particularly amusing elocution lesson in which Pip works with Mae Sutter to change her thick East London accent. Mae struggles to put hs into her words where there are none, and Bessie teases her mercilessly.