Locked

Chapter Twenty

V slowly opened her eyes, though she couldn't see much. A few dim lights were scattered around the room. She felt numb and cold all over. Something was tickling the back of her brain, but she let it pass. The world around her swam and swayed. Someone came over and patted her hand. Comforted by this action, she fell back into a dreamless slumber.

The next time V woke, she was immediately aware of an intense pain. Her hands felt awkward and slow – as if they didn't belong to her – as she grappled for the source of the pain. Voices stopped as a shuffling of feet was followed by someone holding her arms down. The voices continued again, muffled and foreign. A trickling of liquid was poured down her throat. She let the pain radiate outwards, feeling it all over her body, as she slowly blacked out.

V woke with a start. She was aware she was awake, but she didn't open her eyes: not yet. She remembered pain, but could no longer feel it. A cool cloth was pressed to her forehead. She relaxed a little. A woman's voice was whispering beside her. V could just make out the words, "I still can't wrap my head around it."

A man's voice chimed in. It was a little distant, but V could still hear it: "There must be something we're missing; he can't have gone completely off his rocker. When she wakes up we can ask what happened."

A loud bang scared the cloth holder into removing it from V's head. "Thomas!" The woman sounded surprised.

"I'm sorry; it's just that the young man I thought I knew would never have done anything of the sort."

"What...?" V whispered.

"Oh dear!" the woman exclaimed, "She's awake!"

V opened her eyes. The two people talking were on either side of her bed.

"Boy, am I glad to see you two." V said with a faint smile.

"So are we!" Mrs. Mason, for it was she who had been talking before, smiled in return. The man, Mr. Mulberry, spoke with urgency: "What happened at the wharf?"

Mrs. Mason shot him a dirty look.

V racked her brain, the wharf? A twinkle of a memory surfaced in her brain. It started as an inkling, but soon after developed into an explosion of memories.

V sat up abruptly. Her head swayed but she stayed up, "Where's Will?" The urgency cracked her voice.

Mrs. Mason and Mr. Mulberry simultaneously tried to push her back to a more horizontal position, but V batted them off.

"Where is Will?!" She cried out.

The cook and the butler looked at each other. Their apprehensive looks were no encouragement to V's question and Mrs. Mason seemed to be avoiding her gaze entirely.

It was Mr. Mulberry who finally uttered the fateful words. "He's been arrested." He said evenly.

V couldn't deal with the information. She lay back on the pillows, her head swimming and her thoughts jumbled.

Mr. Mulberry continued, "The evidence against him was just too damning. They'll try him in three days' time."

V shut her eyes tight. Maybe if she could pretend this was all a dream. She would open her eyes and find herself in a garden with Will beside her. Better yet, she would find herself under the bridge, after Clara and Eddie had been adopted, and she would throw the locket in the murky water and never be bothered with it again.

But that wasn't the case. V opened her eyes to see the cook and butler staring intently at her. "Why can't I testify?" She asked calmly.

Mr. Mulberry was about to respond, when Mrs. Mason interjected, "You need rest my dear." The two stood. Mrs. Mason placed a cup of tea on the bedside table along with a newspaper.