“Which one are you?” She sneered softly.
She brought the child to her face and inhaled. “Foul stench. Dirty baby. Dirty, little piggy.” Julian’s former nanny scowled as she replaced the child in his crib.
“Now, for you.” She whispered as she picked up the other child. She sniffed him as well. “Also dirty. Filthy. Little boys are filthy.”
She gazed at the child’s sleeping face and frowned. “You’re too big to be my Lady’s boy. You must be the offspring of that soiled French dove and the sculptor.” She lowered him back into the crib.
“But, how can I be sure?” Agnes Rittenhouse sighed as she began to pace in front of the nursery fire.
The sound of her footsteps awakened Columbia who looked up and squinted.
“Hullo,” Columbia mumbled. “Who are you?”
“Don’t speak to me,” Agnes spat.
Columbia frowned, rubbing her eyes as she sat up. “Why not?”
“Because you’re low. You’re low and you don’t belong here. This is no place for the likes of you. You don’t deserve to be in the nursery. You should be beneath the house with the others of your kind.”
“There ain’t no people under the house,” Columbia replied honestly.
“Well, then, out in the cabins or wherever they keep your kind.”
“Why you in here?” Columbia asked.
“You dare question me?” Agnes Rittenhouse shrieked, raising her hand as if she intended to strike the child.
Columbia screamed, “Grandmama! Grandmama!” She scurried quickly to the corner of the room.
Though Marjani could not hear her granddaughters yelps, Meridian did. Meridian, who had been preparing Julian’s bed in a nearby room, came quickly through the passage and stormed into the nursery.
“What you doin’ in here?” Meridian demanded upon spying Agnes Rittenhouse.
“I’m a nanny, my dear.” Agnes smiled. “I’m looking after the children.”
“We don’t need no nanny here.” Meridian said firmly. “We got a whole house full o’ people who look after these children. You need to get yourself out of here before I go get Missus Adrienne.”
“I don’t take orders from your kind,” Agnes spat.
“In this house, you do.” Meridian nodded defiantly.
“Your mistress bid me to look after these boys.” Agnes lied.
“No she didn’t.” Meridian shook her head. “I know all that goes on in this house and Missus Adrienne didn’t do no such thing.”
“Are you calling me a liar?” Agnes moaned.
“I am.” Meridian smiled.
“I’ll have you know that Mrs. Halifax asked that I look after the boys for the remainder of their stay in New Orleans.”
“They leave for England tomorrow.” Meridian smirked.
“Do they?” Agnes chuckled. “Since you know all that goes on in this house, I find it curious that you’re unaware that the Duke is ill—unconscious on the floor below. He’s not going anywhere.”
“He sure is.” Meridian growled. “No, you get out of here.”
“No.” Agnes shook her head.
“I’ll call for Missus Adrienne and Mr. Cecil.” Meridian threatened.
“Come closer and speak with me,” Agnes smiled.
Meridian grunted and walked toward the door to holler for Cecil and Adrienne. It was then that she felt Agnes’ claw sink into the flesh of her arm.
“You leave me no choice,” Agnes sniffed.
Meanwhile, in a world of his own—a world of thick, heavy darkness—Mr. Punch sobbed.
“What’s all this, then?” Punch wept. “Why am I locked away while me master’s out there? Body ain’t movin’. Don’t he need me no more? Out there with folk what will hurt him. Worse still, maybe in here with folk what’ll hurt him more.”
Punch moaned. “That’s it, ain’t it? He’s in here. With them! Them ghosts and things what I tried to keep from him all this time! I ain’t gonna let them get to him. Not now. We gotta get home to England, we do. Me and Robert and the others. And, Colin. Little Colin.”
Mr. Punch began to claw wildly at the darkness in front of him. He grappled and clawed until he through his imagined arms would drop off.
Then, hope. Just a dot of hope. Light—no more than a pinprick.
“Coo!” Punch exclaimed, kneeling forward. He gazed through the tiny hole in the darkness and saw the scene of the nursery at Fallbridge Hall.
“Bloody Hell!” Punch shouted as he tried to make the hole larger. “I’m comin’, Master!”
Did you miss Chapters 1-351? If so, you can read them here.
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