Page 24 of Fragile Wicked Things

A crash echoed in the room. Something was knocked over and rattled to the floor. My eyes flew open. Edward held the woman against a wall and, in the darkness, it appeared they were high off the floor and her feet swung below her skirt, but I attributed the illusion to my head injury.

"I should have left you where I found you," he said.

"Walled up alive in that nunnery? Leave me there to be quiet and unmolested?"

"Twasn't a nunnery! I dare to imagine what you offered the guard who allowed you out at night."

"Yes, you found me and were so rapt in my beauty that you couldn't wait to do all sorts of nasty things with me. Oh, my love, I want to do bad things with you."

"Go near her and I will tear out your heart."

"I can smell them on you. Who did you kill tonight? Was it her parents? Did they fight back decently or cowardly like so many of them?"

"Leave," Edward said.

"Their blood is still pumping in you. Let me lick the blood from your face, from your hands."

The woman bent towards him, her tongue out and he let go of her, releasing her to the floor below and she landed with a thud. "Give me just a taste. Shall I beg for it?" she said.

The woman, her red hair now in disarray, crawled along the floor towards him as he stood by an upturned side table.

A demoniac laugh rumbled in her belly and escaped through her throat.

She stopped on her hands and knees in front of him and looked up with a girl-like innocence, a daughter pleading not to be spanked for her impudence.

Then she threw herself backwards and spread her legs open, running her hands along her body as she writhed on the floor.

Her hand disappeared under her petticoat and she moaned.

"Did they plead for their lives? Tell me how you killed them. Tell me what they tasted like. My Darkness, you're back."

Edward remained motionless, not engaging in her behavior.

"The girl tastes like strawberries," she said.

In a rage, Edward grabbed her by the wrists, and she fought back, kicking and screaming as he dragged her out of the room.

A door slammed shut and the woman pounded on it, demanding to be let in.

Her voice strained, pained then angry and after some time had passed, things quieted down and she was gone.

I was safe again. Edward returned and caught me with my eyes open.

"You're awake now, child. What did you see?"

"I was asleep until I heard a door slam and a woman yelling to be let in."

He nodded his head, and I could tell that he seemed satisfied with my answer. Then he moved closer to me and brought up a chair for me to sit in. "Have you no kin?" he asked.

"Just my mother. She…" I couldn't bring myself to say the words that I knew were true.

He remained deep in thought and quiet for a moment and finally said, "You will go to the orphanage then. They will care for you." Turning his head towards the door where he tossed out the red-haired woman, he said, "It isn't safe here."

I reached out, placing my tiny hand over his. "Your hands are cold. Sit closer to the fire."

Edward turned to stare at the fire and, after a moment, stood, gathered me up, and carried me to the carriage, where the driver, who I would later come to know as Giovanni, lay waiting.

After the ordeal with the red-haired woman, I supposed Edward hurried to get me out.

Although I didn't want to stay where I'd be in danger, I didn't want to leave him either.

He had saved my life. There was now a bond.

Edward pulled back the black velvet curtains of the carriage so I could look at the stars.

They reminded me of how small I was, how insignificant, and, what's more, of how they watched over me.

We pulled away from Edward's estate and I looked up at the gargoyles on the roof that were carved in stone, grotesquely looking down at me.

The winged savages had four sharp teeth, all visible in their wicked smile, and one turned its head in my direction, his gaze following the carriage as we drove away.

I was to go to an orphanage where they would care for me and I would be safe, but when we pulled onto a rocky roadway, I noticed a dilapidated building.

The paint was stripped on the door and windows, the grounds were not maintained and it had a foreboding manner to it in the darkness.

A dog barked at the carriage as we pulled up, his fur scraggly, his body so thin I could make out his ribs.

Giovanni ignored the dog and banged the brass knocker.

In a short time, a woman in a nightcap and gown came to the door with a lit candle and shooed away the dog.

"Wha' you wan?" Her harsh words were addressed to Giovanni, but when she saw the design of the ornate five-glass carriage, her manner changed and her face softened in embarrassment.

"Lord Rochester has a girl for you," Giovanni said.

I pulled away from Edward and resisted at first, sure that if he saw my fear, he would change his mind.

Instead, he held my hand and guided me out of the carriage and into the home.

We followed the old woman up a set of stairs, down a corridor and into a room where at least thirty girls lay sleeping.

The room was dark and dank, a broken glass window the cause of the cold, and the unlit fireplace had no sign of firewood.

The young girls shivered under their threadbare blankets.

The old woman told me to follow her to a spare bed closest to the broken window and I did so, counting each step as if walking to my death.

She pulled back a blanket, the mattress was yellowed, the stuffing inside pricked out and it lacked a pillow.

Sleeping in the alleyway was worse, colder, harder, but at least I had my mother.

I knew no one would care for me here. A quick succession of steps came towards me from behind and then hands scooped me up into the air, placing me on Edward's hip. He carried me out.

But Jane, why do you cry? Oh dear, you're thinking of your own miserable childhood.

You see how Edward can be kind, to refuse to leave me in that terrible place.

Me, who was nothing to him. Instead, he took me back to his home, settled me into my own room where I slept in a real bed and, placing a blanket over me, sat next to me.

He raised his hand to his chin, leaned forward and finally spoke for the first time since we had left the orphanage.

"Since you have no family," he began, "and I have no family, you will stay with me."

We lived there quite happily, with me as his ward, Edward as my guardian, and Giovanni as his handler. Yes, quite happily—for a time.