Audrey slammed her palm down upon the table next to her and stood up. Her temper exploded, and she began yelling at her mother. “There is no shadow man! Are you insane? Do you want your daughter upstairs to think that you are insane? What shadow man? What? Where is he? Tell me, Mother!”
Augusta looked at her daughter with large eyes. They both heard Frances call from up above to ask if everything was all right.
“It’s nothing, dearest. Go back to your room,” Audrey told her, and Frances complied after a moment. Her hands were shaking as she took her seat again. “I apologize, Mother. I didn’t mean to yell at you.”
Augusta looked quietly at her daughter and then down at her lap. “If you really want me to participate in these trials, then I shall. I don’t wish to leave you, but you said two weeks, and that isn’t that long.”
Audrey touched her forehead. “No. It isn’t.”
“And you’ll—you’ll be careful?”
“I will be careful. And you’ve no need to worry about Frances.”
“Very well.” Augusta nodded, got up, and left the room.
Audrey closed her eyes as she heard her mother moving about upstairs. Her temper was on edge, and that should not have happened. She should not have yelled at her mother like that. She pulled her small purse towards her to take it upstairs, and she saw the peppermints inside. Marguerite!
She wanted to get out of the house and take in the crisp clean air. She picked up her purse and walked slowly back to the workhouse. From the path by the cottage, she passed several buildings, including the laundry, the bakery, and the stables.
In the evening light, the workhouse building looked like a huge, overpowering monstrosity. It was stately, yet cold, and the many windows reminded her of the Greek god Argus with the many eyes watching her as she moved about the grounds.
She stopped before Marguerite’s room and knocked sharply. Before a response came, she stepped inside.
There was an older inmate inside the room who had her back to the door. She was peeling off the flowers that Marguerite had placed on the walls and putting them in the waste bin. Marguerite was nowhere to be seen.
“Hello?” Audrey said sternly. “What on earth are you doing there?”
The woman turned around abruptly at the sound of Audrey’s voice, hand over her heart. “Oh, my goodness! You gave me such a fright!” she exclaimed.
“What are doing? Who gave you leave to come here and remove Ms. Shirley’s things? Stop that immediately,” Audrey told her.
The woman frowned. “I was told by Matron herself to come clean up this room.”
That made Audrey pause. “Matron sent you here? Why?”
The woman shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m supposed to get the room ready for whoever will next occupy it.”
“Whoever will occupy it next?” Audrey asked. “They’ve moved Marguerite? Where did they move her to?”
The woman frowned again. “Moved her? No one moved her. She died last night. In her sleep.”
Audrey’s stomach clenched in disbelief. “She died? Marguerite is dead?” Audrey sat upon the bed and shook her head, unable to believe it.
“You don’t look well, miss. I’ll get you a glass of water.”
Audrey heard her moving about the room just as her eyes took in the objects about her. The biscuit tin. A scarf she must have brought with her. A comb. The waste bin filled with flowers. She picked one up and looked at it. A white gardenia. She could almost smell it.
“She died in her sleep?” Audrey asked the woman.
“Yes, miss. That’s what they said.” The woman handed her the glass of water, but Audrey set it on the table. She watched as the woman returned to the work of taking the pictures down.
She sat down on the bed and looked about the sparse space, feeling sad. The music hall theater actress had been reduced to this one little room with her flowers being tossed into the rubbish bin. She was about to stand up when she saw something peeking out from underneath the pillow. She glanced at the inmate once and thanked her for the water.
“That’s all right. It was a shock. I could tell.”
“It was,” Audrey agreed.
When the woman turned away again, she reached under the pillow and pulled out the diary she had read before. With trembling hands, she pushed it into her purse with the peppermints just as the woman turned back to her.