Among the Darkness Stirs

“Why is it to be rather long?” she asked.

“We are reviewing the quarterly books. All the monies of the workhouse. It’s tedious but necessary,” he said.

They were finally able to hail a hansom cab, and he directed the driver to the workhouse first. When they were finally at the workhouse gates, he clasped Audrey to him in a tight embrace.

“Don’t be brave. Don’t be stupid. Don’t wander around at night, and lock all your doors and windows,” he whispered to her. “I don’t think I could bear if something happened to you.” He pulled away from her and smoothed back a lock of hair from her face. “You’ll do as I ask?”

“Yes.”

Once Audrey was inside the cottage, she locked the front door and went upstairs to her room. It was so quiet outside, and inside the cottage, she felt so lonely. It had been different when she had first come to the workhouse. She had had a room at the end of the hall and hadn’t felt so alone with all the inmates surrounding her. Now, in the cottage, she roamed from room to room, looking inside Frances’ room and then her mother’s.

She stood inside the doorway, staring at her mother’s empty bed and the desk that overlooked the gardens and beyond. She sighed as moved over to the desk and then to the vanity chair and table. She touched her mother’s brush and hand mirror. She should have handled her differently. She should have believed her and been kinder to her. She knew her mother had been hurt, and now, with everything happening, it was possible her mother had seen something that was out of place, and her muddled mind had made it something else.

She looked out of the window and down into the garden. Her mother must have done the same. She must have been looking down at the audience during the concert just as Audrey was looking down into the garden. She must have seen—

Suddenly, a thought struck Audrey, and it almost terrified her.

She took a seat to settle herself. Her mother had said at the theater that she had seen him. No one knew what she was talking about and had thought she was a little mad.

When Audrey had tried to confront her, Augusta had said, “There’s no mix-up. I’m not simple. I saw him. As plain as I see you.” Then she had gone on to say she had seen the shadow man.

What if, instead of being mad, her mother had been watching out the window all these months and had already been aware of something going on that they had just now discovered?

What if she had watched someone going into the morgue for some unknown reason and she had watched this person walk the grounds at night? And as fantastical as it seemed, that night at the concert, her mother had seen that same man in the audience.

Audrey heard a creak in the house, and even though she knew it was the sound of an old house settling, she quickly moved from her mother’s room to her own and turned the lock on the door the minute she was inside.

Her heart was pounding. It made so little sense. What was happening in the morgue, and what did the dead inmates have to do with it? She undressed quickly and shivered in the cool autumn air. She must tell Henry what she thought tomorrow when she saw him.

The next day, Henry listened intently as Audrey told him of her discovery. “Who do we know attended the concert that night?” he asked.

“That’s no help either.” She shook her head. “I remember talking to Joseph the day after about my mother’s outburst. He told me that most of the staff was there and went on to say that they all often attend and enjoyed the concerts.”

“We can’t catch a break, can we?” He studied her face in the setting sun. The children had gone on to supper, and they had stayed behind in the classroom to talk.

“I thought I might visit the hospital to ask her about who she saw,” Audrey said.

“You might do more harm. She’s very fragile, mentally,” Henry reminded her.

She sighed. “You’re right. I should leave it for now. It scares me that someone I’m working with, speaking to every day, might be up to no good.”

He kissed her once and then looked at the large wall clock and saw the time. “I must dash. The meeting starts soon. Let’s meet after.”

Audrey returned to the classroom and finished grading the child

ren’s work. She was pleased. They had come so far since she had first joined the workhouse, and she was proud of them. The young girl who would soon go into service as a housemaid was becoming more fluent in French, and Audrey had offered to write her a character reference.

She thought longingly of Frances, safe in the big house, and her mother in the hospital. She hoped they would be together again as a family soon.

She turned off the gaslights in the room and locked the door behind her. She had missed supper, but she would make herself some tea when she returned home. She walked along the long hallway from the classroom and noticed the gaslights, which were normally brightly lit, were shut off.

“That’s strange,” she said to herself.

She began to walk down the long hallway towards the courtyard. Her black, heeled boots echoed on the floor as she walked. She hadn’t taken more than several steps when a figure emerged before her. The figure was in silhouette and too far away to reveal more than that, but she saw it was a man, tall and almost menacing.

She looked behind her and then before her. The man wasn’t moving but seemed to be waiting for her. Audrey didn’t want to be afraid, but even so, her heart raced with fear. There must be a perfectly sane reason for this.

“Hello?” she called out to him.