The Woman in the Coffin

by Nathan Long

  “Yes, friend?” asked Miss Lazarus, politely.

  Nellie paused as she realized that though Miss Lazarus might welcome the comparison to Artifice, the heroine of Lady Helia Skycourt’s popular Ghost and Skull adventures, Mr. James might not take so kindly to being compared to an animate human skull, no matter how used to his own looks he was.

  “You... You know Lady Helia Skycourt,” she said at last.

  “We do indeed,” said Mister James. “But mutual acquaintances are perhaps a topic for another time. You were going to tell us what steps you have taken.”

  So, it was true! Ghost and Skull were real! It was difficult to calm her mind enough to answer Mr. James’s question.

  “I... er... Nothing so far. W-We was going to get all the women cleaned up and give ’em some tea.”

  “An excellent idea,” said Miss Lazarus, briskly. “Thee and thy friend continue with that, and leave Mister James and myself to attend to...all of this.”

  Nellie couldn’t imagine what attending to might mean, but she was ready to leap at any opportunity to escape the sight of Malignita’s bloody corpse.

  “Yes, ma’am,” she said. “Right away.”

  She and Aurora began shepherding the still-stunned and staring women down the stairs.

  14

  Joy in the Morning

  An hour later, after a kettle had been found and tea served, and after the women had all been bathed and wrapped in “borrowed” robes and night things and laid down in various bedrooms, day rooms, and parlors, Nellie finally poured tea for herself and Aurora, and they sat down in the great dining room and sighed exhausted sighs.

  “Well,” said Nellie after she’d had a few long and much needed sips. “We won, eh?”

  “Won?” said Aurora. She did not seem to share Nellie’s enthusiasm.

  Nellie shrugged. “Malignita’s dead. Yer free. The ladies are too. There’ll be no more murders.”

  “Won’t there?” asked Aurora. She seemed smaller now, somehow. Sunk into herself. “The killer still lives.”

  “You are not th’killer!” said Nellie. “Malignita killed those men through you.”

  “Perhaps he did, but did I not let him?”

  “Of course y’didn’t! He was controlling you!”

  Aurora raised her eyes to Nellie’s. “If that is the case, then why did I not kill you?”

  Nellie paused. Aurora made a good point. If she’d had no control over her actions whatsoever, Nellie would be dead. But that didn’t mean she’d wanted to kill those men, did it? She just didn’t fight quite as hard to save them.

  “They were bad men,” she said at last. “Y’knew they were. Y’knew from Malignita’s thoughts what they’d done t’that poor girl. And y’knew that any one of ’em could ’a stopped what was happenin’, and instead they let it go on, even Tomlinson.”

  Aurora laughed, dark and bitter. “And you think I would have been strong enough to stop the doctor from killing an innocent stranger?”

  “Didn’t you just say? You didn’t kill me! That has to count for—”

  “Do you really believe I think of you as a stranger?”

  Nellie looked up. Aurora was staring at her, her eyes dark and hot.

  “Did you think,” she continued, “that when I dropped the dagger, I kissed you out of relief? Out of joy for being free at last? Angel, you said you loved me. That is why I did not kill you. Because I knew I had a reason to live—a reason to fight. Because you answered my prayers.”

  Nellie’s heart was pounding like a bass drum. “Aurora. I didn’t dare think... I was too afraid to... I never—”

  Aurora stood and took Nellie’s hand and pulled her into her arms, then kissed her, long and deep and hungry. Nellie returned the kiss, just as hungry, just as deep, crushing herself against Aurora’s strong curves, as if trying to melt into her.

  Finally, they stumbled back and took a breath, then looked at each other.

  “Can you forgive me my sins?” Aurora asked.

  Nellie squeezed her. “You seem to be havin’ a hard time of it, but by my way o’ thinkin’, you’ve none to forgive.”

  Aurora returned her squeeze, then sighed. “If you believe it, beloved, then perhaps someday I will come to as well. I... I thank you.”

  They hugged again, until there came a clearing of a throat behind them. They looked around, guilty, and started apart.

  Miss Lazarus inclined her head from the hallway. “Please forgive my intrusion, friends, but would thee mind joining myself and Mister James upstairs?”

  ***

  When they reached the top floor, they found an odd and grisly tableau before them. Lying on the floor, just as he had been earlier, was Dr. Malignita, but joining him now in the pool of blood that surrounded him was Sir George Childers. Additionally, each corpse held a dagger and clutched the other by the lapel, while looking down at them both was Mr. James, legs wide and arms akimbo, like an artist admiring his own work.

  “Tells quite a story, does it not?” he asked.

  Nellie raised an eyebrow. “Well....”

  “Something wrong?” asked Mr. James.

  “Sir George has one wound,” said Aurora, frowning. “The doctor has... upwards of forty? Are you trying to suggest that Sir George somehow stabbed the doctor so many times, and yet the doctor still managed to...”

  Miss Lazarus smiled. “In our many dealings with Scotland Yard, we have found that it is not necessary for the detectives to find a crime believable, only...plausible.”

  “They are most anxious to call things solved, you see,” said Mr. James, chuckling. “Especially when it comes to deaths among the, er, quality.”

  “Indeed,” said Miss Lazarus. “And so, to be done with the matter, they will find that it was Dr. Malignita who killed Mr. Wedlock and Mr. Brightline and Mr. Unwin and Mr. Tomlinson, regardless of how unlikely that a man his size fit through all those bedroom windows. And that it was the noble and selfless Sir George who sacrificed himself to stop Malignita’s reign of terror.”

  “Nevertheless,” said Mr. James,’. “it would be advisable, I think, if Dr. Malignita’s close associate, Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty of the East, and Nellie O’Day, the young entertainer accused of taking advantage of Miss Aurora, were unavailable for questioning until the case had been closed and filed and given time to be forgotten.”

  “But...” said Nellie. “Where would we go? What would we do? I don’t know nothing but the stage.”

  “That,” said Miss Lazarus, “is what we wished to speak to thee of. Please. Let us step away from this unpleasantness.”

  She led the way into the salon, and they all sat facing each other on the chairs that had so recently been occupied by Dr. Malignita’s victims.

  “Now,” said Mr. James, rubbing his hands. “One of the many aims and activities of the Society of the Hermetic Sciences is the protection of humanity from the predations of those who would use the occult for evil, and we are always on the lookout for skilled and quick-thinking individuals who might be interested in fighting the good fight.”

  “Our numbers are few,” said Miss Lazarus. “For we do not recruit the uninitiated. Those who do not know the true darkness of the world must be spared that knowledge at all costs. Therefore, only those who have already experienced the supernatural and survived the encounter are asked to join.”

  Nellie swallowed, uneasy. “You want us to do all this...again?”

  “Think of what Malignita did to the women you rescued,” said Mister James. “Think of what he did to Aurora. There are other villains out there doing the same, and worse, to women and men and children just as innocent. If we could show you how to stop them and save their victims, would you join us?”

  Aurora nodded instantly. “I would. There are things I know. People. Faces. Those who helped Marwood take me, and...train me. I can think of no better way to atone for—”

  She broke off as she noticed Nellie squirming. “Angel?”

  Nellie hesitated,
her face reddening. “I... I want to help. I mean, what them ladies went through, I wouldn’t wish such a thing on my worst enemy, and I’d like to smash anyone who set out to hurt someone like that. But I ain’t some kind of magician like—”

  “Friend, we do not need thee to be,” said Miss Lazarus. “Thee have an agile and open mind, nimble and clever hands, and a friendly and engaging manner. Those things, combined with Miss Aurora’s mental and physical abilities, will be potent weapons against the world’s fiends. And thee will not face them alone. Thee shall have allies wherever you go.”

  “It’ll still be dangerous work,” said Mr. James. “We won’t lie about that. But it will never boring, I assure you.”

  Nellie hung her head, afraid to look at Aurora. “I’m sorry. I just... All I really want t’do is sing and perform. It’s been my whole life.”

  “Oh, but that is precisely what thee will be doing!” exclaimed Miss Lazarus. “As thee cannot stay here in England for now, thee shall tour the stages of Europe, doing what thee knows best, while helping the Society with its activities when the need arises.”

  “Precisely,” said Mr. James, beaming. “Performing will be your cover. The perfect reason for you and Aurora to travel and stay together wherever you go.”

  Nellie looked at Aurora and saw both longing and sympathy in her eyes.

  “Angel,” she said. “I understand if such a life does not appeal to you, and I would not force it on you, but...but I told you of the stooped man, the Austrian woman. I’m not certain I could live happy, knowing they are using others as I was used—worse than I was used. Though I love you and would not be parted from you, I cannot see how I can turn away from this. Will... Will you join me?”

  Nellie chewed her lip, afraid—afraid of change, afraid of meeting more villains like Malignita, afraid of throwing away a burgeoning career for a far more dangerous and uncertain one, but just as afraid of losing Aurora when she had only just found her. Such a life was nothing she had ever wanted. On the other hand, it had certainly been exciting, picking locks and sneaking through hotels, avoiding the police and tailing Aurora on the back of a hansom cab. A little of that now and then combined with the day-to-day of singing and dancing wouldn’t be so bad, would it? Almost like living inside a Ghost and Skull penny dread! And doing it with Aurora at her side? Why...

  Her heart thudded as she had a sudden thought. “We can work up an act together! Songs, jokes, handsprings, high wire! It would be a smash!”

  Aurora laughed. “But of course! To finally perform again with my heart and mind and body my own, and with a partner I love and trust, that will be a delight.” She took Nellie’s hand and kissed it. “Let us do this, angel. Please.”

  Nellie cast a shy look at Miss Lazarus and Mr. James, then turned back to Aurora and nodded.

  “All right, then. As long as we’re together, I’m up for anything.”

  EPILOGUE

  Lady Helia Skycourt opened an envelope stamped with a Prague postmark and pulled out a sheaf of thin, densely written sheets. A heavy card fell from them into her lap. She picked it up and saw that it was a cabinet photograph of a music hall double act. The smaller of the performers was dressed in a Renaissance doublet and hose, and was straining up on tiptoe, trying to offer a rose to the other performer, who wore a feminine outfit from the same era but with a very abbreviated skirt, and who dangled gracefully from a silken rope just above the first performer’s head. The name of the act was printed in a neat German hand beneath them: O’Romeo and Juliet.

  Helia chuckled and set the card aside, then relaxed into her easy chair to peruse the letter. The spelling and grammar were atrocious, but it was enthralling nonetheless.

  It began:

  Dear Lady Helia, I want to thank you for sending yore friends to help us, and wish to tell you the rest of how Aurora and me got free of Dr. Malignita. I also want to tell you what we been at since we begun our tour of Europe. You would not beleave the adventures weve had.

  Several cigarettes and two cups of tea later, Helia finished the last sheet of the letter, smiled, then folded it up and tucked it back into the envelope.

  “Hmmm,” she said aloud. “Suddenly, I have an idea for a new serial.”

  The End

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks again to Elizabeth Watasin for letting me write this glorified fan-fic. Thanks to Grey Walker and Winona Nelson for early reads, to Winona again for connecting me with Rebecca Yanovskaya, to Rebecca for the absolutely incredible cover art, to Andy Law for invaluable type and layout advice, to my editor, Richard Shealy, for saving me from multiple embarrassments, and most of all to my wife, Lili, for her patience and encouragment. You are all, collectively and individually, the best.

  About The Author

  Nathan Long

  Nathan Long is a screen, prose and game writer, with two movies, one Saturday-morning adventure series, and a handful of live-action and animated TV episodes to his name, as well as eleven fantasy novels and several award-winning short stories. He hails from Pennsylvania, where he grew up, went to school, and played in various punk and rock-a-billy bands, before following his writing dreams to Hollywood - where he now writes full time - and still occasionally plays in bands.

  He is now the senior writer for inXile Entertainment, contributing to their much loved CRPG series, Wasteland, Bard's Tale, and Torment: Tides of Numenera.

  Books By This Author

  Jane Carver of Waar

  Swords of Waar