Chapter twelve
Come to me.
I shot up in bed. Lord Fitch summoned me. I crawled out from under the covers and groped along the wall, my hand to my head.
Merry, come back to me.
The voice sent a shooting pain through my skull. Merry. I made my way up the stairs to the deck. I must have cried out because suddenly a bunch of the sailors gathered around me.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Same thing as ‘fore I bet.”
“But she’s not tryin’ to get away.”
“She’s got some sort of curse on her. She’s gonna kill us all.”
“Well, we can’t let her go overboard. Let’s lock her in the cabin.”
I felt hands on me and they took me downstairs. They threw me on the floor and locked the door behind themselves. It was then that I lost the fight against Fitch’s voice. I pounded on the door, screaming for them to let me out, but they stood against the door, bracing it against my attacks. Eventually I tired out and curled up on the floor, holding my head.
“Is she okay?” I heard Caspian from outside.
A sailor answered. “She’s mad, she is. You can’t go in there.”
“She’s quiet now. I’m gonna see if she’s all right.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” the sailor warned.
Despite the sailor’s caution, Caspian entered. I flew past him, and assaulted the door that he closed behind himself. My hands bled from the coarse wood of the door, but I could not stop. Caspian caught me and pinned my arms to my sides. Finally I fell slack, exhausted.
“Merry?”
“It hurts,” I whimpered.
“I know. You told me when we left the island that it helped to listen to me. I’m gonna sing, but you can’t laugh, okay?”
He sang in his deep voice, though off key. When I relaxed, he let me go slowly in case he had to grab me again. Nothing happened. I was better—for now.
“Let’s go get you cleaned up,” he said.
He took me to the kitchen and started to wrap my hands. Mabel came in.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “They told me what happened.”
I nodded.
“Give that here,” she told Caspian, and unwrapped my hands to redo the bandages. “The crew don’t like this,” she warned. “They think women are bad luck without your screamin’ and hollerin’.”
When she left, I looked at Caspian. “How did she know about you bein’ Lord Fitch’s son?” I asked, flexing my hands.
“You remember she said something about tryin’ to get rid of him for years. She’s probably got a lot of information on him.”
“I wonder what it is that she’s got against him.”
“He’s the kind of person who has a lot of enemies.
The next day the men rallied together and announced that they wanted to throw me overboard. Mabel briefly explained my situation to them and offered them extra pay on arriving at port if they let me stay. They conceded, though hesitantly. After all, what use was extra money if they were not alive to use it?
…
Over dinner a few weeks later, Mabel and Caspian discussed what to do with Lord Fitch’s money. I watched Mabel closely. An idea had been forming in my mind, but I wanted to be sure before I brought it up. How did Mabel know so much about Lord Fitch? She said that she had sources, but who were they? Lord Fitch was not in the habit of making friends, and his servants were the only ones who knew anything about him. From what I had seen of Lord Fitch’s servants, they seemed unlikely to go behind their master’s back. More than that, the way she acted toward Caspian was different than the way she treated anyone else—not in a romantic way, but in another way I had seen before in my own life. Mabel looked at Caspian the way my mother used to look at Joseph and me.
Caspian startled me out of my thoughts. “What do you think, Merry?” he asked.
I looked up. “What?”
“What do you think about what Mabel was sayin’?” Caspian repeated.
“Oh…I wasn’t really listening,” I admitted.
We finished eating.
“Mabel, may I speak with you for a moment?” I asked her after Caspian left.
Mabel crossed her arms. “Are the men givin’ you trouble?”
“No, there’s something else. Are you…Caspian’s mother?”
She paled. “What?”
“He looks a little bit like you, and the way you look at him. I know it’s none of my business, but…”
She swallowed hard and swept out of the room, leaving me feeling as though I had made a mistake by asking.
That night a knock sounded at my door. It had been many, many days since Lord Fitch had taken control of me, and I was enjoying the quiet.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“Mabel.”
I opened the door, and there she stood.
“Have you told him?” she asked.
“No,” I answered, knowing who and what she spoke of.
“I didn’t want to leave him,” she blurted. “I had to get rid of Gregory.”
Surprised that she was talking to me at all, I did not respond. She drew a breath as if to speak. She changed her mind. “Don’t tell Caspian, please,” she said. “I already told him his father was the worst man in the world. I can’t tell him that his mother is…me.” She floundered for a moment, trying to decide whether to say anything more. She decided against it, and fled the cabin.
…
We landed in Hangman’s Harbor. I felt my habitual fear that Lord Fitch would find me, and it took me a moment to remember he was gone. Mabel paid the crew of the ship as promised, and we walked to Lord Fitch’s fortress where we would stay until we found another place to go. As I walked into the mansion, dread filled the pit of my stomach—entering the place where Lord Fitch had lived and committed so many terrible deeds made me feel sick. Immediately Mabel directed Caspian and me to the dungeon to release my family. She told Caspian she would inform the servants of their master’s demise and get everything in order for him to distribute his father’s wealth. We descended the steps to the dungeon.
“What if they’re dead?” I blurted, voicing the worry I had had since we left the island.
Caspian looked at me, but said nothing.
When we got to the bottom of the steps two guards sat at a barrel, playing cards. They rose and blocked the way when we entered.
“You can’t be down here,” said one of the jailers.
“Lord Fitch is dead,” Caspian said authoritatively. “I’m taking his place as master of this house.”
They glanced at each other uncertainly. “Do you have any proof?”
“I’m Lord Fitch’s son. When he found out, I was brought down here and he visited me. Do you recall now?”
They nodded nervously.
“We’re looking for George Blame and Joseph Blame,” I said. “Where are they?”
“If you’ll follow me,” the jailer said nervously.
He took us down a corridor lined with cells containing sick and dying inmates. I held my breath and tried not to look.
We found my father and brother sharing a cell. I almost failed to recognize them. They had become frail and sick in Lord Fitch’s care. A wave of guilt washed over me.
“Is this them?” Caspian asked.
“Yeah,” I said.
“Let them out,” Caspian ordered the jailer.
He hesitated, but then bent his head to find the right key.
“Elena?” came my father’s whisper from the cell, calling my by my mother’s name.
“No, it’s Merry,” I said guiltily.
“Merry!” Joseph said, his voice weak.
“I think we’ll have to help one at a time,” Caspian said.
Father and Joseph looked as if they could not walk two steps on their own
. We started with Father, who groaned in pain but said not a word to us as we helped him out of his cell.
“We’ll be right back,” I promised Joseph.
Caspian and I left Father with a few servants that we put under Mabel’s surveillance. We sent two more servants to town for a doctor, and then returned to the dungeon for Joseph.
“Joseph, I’m so sorry about everything,” I said sincerely as we carried him up the stairs.
“You look like Mother,” he mumbled almost incoherently.
Caspian and I put Joseph into the hands the servants, and soon after, the doctor arrived to care for my family.
Over the next several days, I tagged along with Mabel because the doctor refused to allow me passage into my family’s room for more than a few minutes, and sitting alone within these dark stone walls with nothing to do did not appeal to me. Mabel and Caspian released the remaining prisoners and found people to care for them, then focused on distributing Lord Fitch’s wealth.
Finally, the doctor declared my family well enough for visitors. Father still slept, but Joseph sat up in bed, looking much better than before. He wore a big smile on his face as he greeted me. I hugged him, feeling how his bones protruded much more than they did six years earlier.
“What’d he do to you?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter, but what did you do? Where were you?”
I told him the story, including the things I found out about Lord Fitch.
“He would have killed you?” Joseph asked.
“It was the only reason he wanted me in the first place. I was his way of living a few years longer.”
“You lived on a ship with a bunch of men? For how many years?”
“That would be your main concern,” I said wryly. “It was a few days after you left. But I was safe,” I assured him.
He started to say something, but then broke into a coughing fit.
“Joseph, I’m so sorry I did this to you and Father,” I said when he stopped. “I never meant for any of this to happen.”
“Well, it did. But it is over now, so there is no need to keep apologizing, otherwise I really will get mad.”
Merry.
Fitch’s voice entered my head, and I tried to push it away.
“Merry, what’s wrong?” Joseph asked.
“Um, nothing,” I said, hoping that was true.
Come to me.
I heard Joseph talking, but could not focus on what he said. I noticed a pause. I shook my head to try to clear it.
“I’m sorry, what?” I said.
“Merry? Are you alright?”
Merry, the voice said. I am waiting for you.
“I’m too far away!” I tried to say back to Fitch in my head.
“Merry!” Joseph tried to get my attention.
“Get Caspian,” I whispered right before the pain hit.
I think Joseph called for a servant. I managed to keep myself under control until Caspian arrived. As before, Caspian prevented me from attempting to go after Lord Fitch, and made sure I was okay before letting go of me.
“Was that Lord Fitch?” Joseph asked after everything settled.
“I thought he stopped trying to get me, but I was wrong,” I said, breathing hard.
I noticed my father staring at me wide-eyed, but he turned away from me.
After that incident, I avoided visiting my family. This was not hard at all; they were still bedridden from their ordeal. I slept very little at night, fearing the unfriendly dark. I felt guilty that I was the cause of all the harm that had come to my family. I was embarrassed that they had seen me when Lord Fitch called. I knew that eventually they would die, leaving me behind. Even though that unhappy event would happen probably many years in the future, it weighed on my mind. I feared that my father harbored anger against me. Unfortunately, my fears were confirmed when a servant came to inform me on behalf of my father that he had disowned me.
Within the hour I had food packed into a knapsack, and for the second time in my life, I ran away.