The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier

Author:Jonathan Auxier
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2014-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

olly stood in the middle of Penny’s bedroom. “Miss Penny?” she said, her voice rising.

“I won’t drink it!” the girl shouted. “You can’t make me!” The girl was presently on her bed—not in her bed but standing atop it, each foot planted on a pillow, her back pressed against the wall.

Molly sighed. In her hand was a spoon filled with some blackish liquid that smelled bitter like alcohol. It had been supplied by a doctor who had come to check up on the family earlier that week. Molly had learned only that morning, when she saw the bottle untouched, that Penny had been lying about taking it. “Doctor Crouch said you have to drink this every night before bed.” She took a step closer. “It’s just a little spoonful.”

“I won’t! I won’t! I won’t!” Penny leapt to the floor, keeping the bed between herself and the spoon. “Alistair said it’s made from rat’s blood.”

“Rat’s blood?” Molly rolled her eyes. “And how would Alistair know that?”

The girl threw her arms out. “He’s older than me … Older people know all sorts of things!”

Molly nodded, conceding the point. “I’m older than your brother, and I say it’s not rat’s blood. And the doctor—why, he’s older than all of us put together.” She sat down on the edge of the bed, catching a glimpse of herself in the dark window. She tucked a loose strand of hair under her cap. “Now, why don’t you tell me what’s really troublin’ you?”

The girl worked her lips together, making her face very small. “I don’t want us to be sick,” she said, her voice low.

Molly looked at the girl’s face, so pale in the lamplight. She thought of the portrait downstairs—how many times she had seen it and wondered at how the family was changing. “Miss Penny, just ’cause you don’t want to believe a thing doesn’t mean it’s not true. If you’re sick, this medicine is the way to get better. Besides, I was in the room when the doctor looked at you. He said it was just a touch of fever—”

“He said he didn’t know what kind of fever. That means it could be anything!” She climbed back onto the bed, approaching Molly. “It could be black death or scurvy or cholera or even exploding eyeball disease … Alistair told me about that one.”

Molly nodded gravely. “Well, if you think your eyeballs are gonna explode, please do it outside. I dinna want to clean up your sheets.” She smiled to show she wasn’t serious. Her gaze drifted to the small bookshelf along Penny’s wall, where she noticed a number of new Princess Penny books lining the bottom. She turned back to the girl. “Now, what do you think Princess Penny would do if she was faced with a great, big, horrible spoon o’ medicine? You think she’d run away scared? Or would she take it all down with a hearty laugh and ask for more?”

Penny tugged at the end of her braid. “A hearty laugh,” she said.

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