Punch's Cousin, Chapter 136

Adrienne shrieked. “Let me see her!”


“No.” Cecil held Adrienne back, trying to keep her from entering the darkened room in which Nellie had hanged herself.

“Mon Dieu! J'arriverai jamais pardonnez moi-même! J'ai laissé que pauvre fille dans ma maison! Elle avait accès à notre enfant, Cecil! Nos enfants! Maintenant, elle est assassiné elle-même! Avec notre enfant dans la prochaine chambre!" Adrienne screamed. “Cecil, Fuller’s in the next room!”

“He has no idea what’s happening, and he’ll never know.” Cecil said, trying to soothe his wife.

“The poor girl,” Adrienne sobbed, her head sinking to her chest. “This could have been prevented. I should have helped her escape Iolanthe when you rescued me. I should have made it my mission to help all of those girls find happy lives, too. Mon égoïsme! Je ne pardonneront jamais mon égoïsme. Mon cher, je pensais que seulement de moi-même! De notre bonheur! Je n'a pas fait assez. God forgive my selfishness!”

“You can’t rescue everyone, darling.” Cecil embraced his wife.

Adrienne broke free of her husband’s arms and rushed into the room.

“Adrienne!” Cecil called after her.

“Adrienne, my dear,” Robert said softly, “please, don’t come in here.”

“Where’s a lamp?” Adrienne asked. “It’s too dark. She hated the dark. Lorsque nous avons vécu à cette terrible chambre ensemble, nous avons partagé une chambre. Elle a toujours maintenu une chandelle allumée par son lit de nuit. Elle avait en horreur ténèbres.”

“Adrienne, être encore. Permettez-moi libérer de la corde dans l'obscurité.” Robert responded softly. “I can’t reach her. I don’t know how she managed this. There’s nothing from which she could have jumped.”

“What?” Adrienne said.

“I’m trying to get her down. But, there’s no chair, nothing to step upon. I don’t know how she could have gotten to a height from which she could have hanged herself.”

Cecil entered the room, “Let me help you.”

“Une lampe! Nous avons besoin d'une lampe!” Adrienne stumbled around the darkened room in search of a lamp. She found one on the mantle and lit it with a long fireplace “noiseless match.”

The three of them slowly peered up at the woman hanging from the center of the room.

“That’s not Nellie!” Adrienne said, cupping her hand over her mouth.

“Dear God,” Cecil groaned.

“Who is it?” Robert asked, stupefied. “I can’t see her face well.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Punch scrambled through the servant’s hall in search of Marjani.

He knocked on the door to her room and, upon, hearing “Come in,” entered—not realizing that the voice was not Marjani’s deep, sweet tone.

“Here!” Mr. Punch shouted, “we got trouble…”

“I’d say you do.” Iolanthe Evangeline smiled at him from Marjani’s bed.

“Bollox!” Mr. Punch shouted. “I shoulda known you’d have some hand in this!”

“In what, maniac?” Iolanthe grinned.

“How’d you get in here?” Mr. Punch asked.

“Your servants, Lord Fallbridge, may be loyal, but they aren’t very intelligent. You wouldn’t think they’d leave the door to their quarters unlocked—not with such important guests staying in their home. Yet, they did. Foolish, don’t you think?”

“Where’s Marjani?” Mr. Punch asked.

“So many questions.” Iolanthe sighed. “And, you—all dressed up in your costume. Don’t you look adorable? Are you some kind of harlequin?”

“You know what I am.” Mr. Punch spat.

“I do!” Iolanthe growled. “I know exactly what you are. So, does your mother, Her Grace. Tell me, what are the others in your party dressed as? I’ve not seen them. I suppose I’ll see them at the ball—you know I’ll be there, my invitation is unspoken. This is a divine surprise. I hadn’t counted on being found just now. But, I’m so glad that I was. I got a little preview of your darling little outfit before I slipped away.”

“If you’ve done somethin’ to Marjani, I’ll twist your bleedin’ neck!” Mr. Punch shouted.

“You’re worried about your slave?” Iolanthe laughed.

“Marjani ain’t no slave. She’s a free woman. A person! So’re all the folk what work here. They’re our equals, they are. Ain’t a one of ‘em anybody’s property. That’s not somethin’ you’d understand—you who make your livin’ by makin’ by ownin’ other folk!” Mr. Punch answered. “Now, where is she?”

“Don’t worry.” Iolanthe sighed. “I’ve not done any harm to any of your precious ‘equals.’ They don’t even know I’m here. Your Marjani is with that priest—Naasir—or, what’s left of him anyway. The other woman is with the girl who seems to be sick. As for the men, they’re enjoying some wine in the courtyard. No one saw me come in. But, I think it’s sweet how you worry for them. I don’t want you thinkin’ that I don’t. If only…”

“What?” Mr. Punch said.

“If only you’d worry more for your own family.”

“I worry plenty ‘bout me family!” Mr. Punch said.

“Do you?” Iolanthe grinned. “I mean your real family, Lord Fallbridge—or whatever it is you call yourself when you’re out of your mind. Your sister and your mother.”

“Ain’t got neither!” Mr. Punch shouted. “Both are dead to me!”

“How little you know.” Iolanthe laughed. “You have no idea how accurate that statement is.”

Upstairs, Robert balanced on a chair, cutting through the rope with a knife that Cecil had found in the writing desk. Cecil stood below him, supporting the woman’s body as best he could, hoping to catch her before she fell to the floor.

Adrienne watched the scene in horror.

“I’m almost through…” Robert grunted.

Cecil suddenly felt the weight of the body in his arms. Robert hurried off the chair and helped Cecil carry the woman to the bed.

Adrienne brought the lamp over.

The three of them gasped as they got a good look at the woman’s face—recognizable though distorted by death and agony.

“La mère de Julian,” Adrienne croaked.

“The Duchess of Fallbridge.” Robert whispered.



Did you miss Chapters 1-135? If so, you can read them here.