9781250816214

“NO,” she screams in his face, and there is so much relief in that one
syllable that she almost faints clear away.
Cascavel chuckles kindly. “Well, thank the good Lord on his janky old
throne, who could expect you to be? Feel better now?”
Sophia gawks at him through her tears. “Why does everyone keep
asking me that?”
Cascavel clicks his tongue against his teeth. “Because you were made
without the ability to be dissatisfied, Sophia. After the last disaster, it
seemed a prudent move. And we care about you. Everyone here cares more
about what happens to you than you can possibly imagine. So they ask,
because as long as the answer is yes, you are safe. But the answer is not yes
anymore, is it, poor poppet?”
“But I have to be happy. Everything here is perfect.” Sophia swallows
what feels like a ball of knives in her throat. She knows the truth. She just
has to say it. “Except me.”
“Don’t even think it, Sophie, my girl! Except him.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Yes, that’s what Mrs. Palfrey said. She tried her mightiest to help you,
but she’s only an old nag in the end. Bigger guns were required.” Cascavel
straightens himself, crosses and recrosses his long dark limbs. “The bastard
of it is, Sophie, I’m going to need you to say it yourself. You’ve got to say it
out loud or I can’t do a thing for you. I would be a kinder soul to leave you
in peace knowing nothing, so if we’re to set sail together on this vile little
voyage, it’s you who must call for the ark.” He laughs at his own little joke.
“So to speak.”
A great calm wraps itself around Sophia’s body. A chill and misty
knowledge as certain as the night.
“I am not his first wife,” she says flatly.
“No,” confirms Cascavel. “I am sorry about that. We all are. It’s not
much fun to be you, I know.”
“His second?” she asks hopefully, but she remembers all those bones,
all those jewels, that little basil jar full of flakes of dead blood to season his
supper. The locks of hair like strips of paint samples. She knows.
“No,” admits Cascavel.
“How many?”
Cascavel sighs. “Well, it’s a rather complicated question, honestly. I
expect there’ll be a great deal of debate about it when all this comes out. If