The New Wife by Kirstyn McDermott

Author:Kirstyn McDermott [McDermott, Kirstyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brain Jar Press

* * *

It is clear that none of the wives wish to be here, save Marie-Catherine of course, who stands in customary stillness by the window. Charlotte paces, hands on hips; Gabrielle mutters words of prayer beneath her breath; Marie-Jeanne pushes her tongue between her teeth at regular intervals, before sucking it noisily back in again. I try not to look at her. Henriette, whom I convinced to gather them all together in my bedchamber, casts me an anxious glance.

I clear my throat. “We share a common problem, the six of us.”

“Seven,” Marie-Catherine whispers.

Charlotte rolls her eyes. “For pity’s sake.”

“Wait, please. Listen.” She raises a doubtful brow but makes no further motion to leave. It’s a minor benediction on her part, this stretching of patience, and I hurriedly continue. “Our husband makes sport of us all, some more so than others.” A nod for Gabrielle, who accepts it with a wan and trembling smile. “It is obscene; we should not stand for it.”

“You speak as though we have a choice in the matter, little dove.”

“I speak because we do have a choice in the matter. We can refuse.”

Henriette shakes her head. “That might be true for you, with breath still in your body and flesh he cannot touch, but the rest of us are not so fortunate. We run, we hide, we go mad. Those are our choices.”

“No, Henriette, you are wrong. Our husband once had the advantage, yes, but death has robbed him of that. He is no stronger now than any of you. He cannot hold his money, or his position, or any kind of authority over your necks any longer. Do you not see? He has no power but that which we allow him to take from us.”

“Perhaps that is power enough,” Henriette says, her voice subdued.

“He is still stronger,” Gabrielle insists. “You, he can only frighten. Us, he can hurt.”

“And you can hurt him.”

“Preposterous!” Charlotte says. “These are but foolish guesses, and ’tis we who will bear the brunt of their falsehood. He is beyond our ability to harm or hinder.”

“But one of you ripped out his tongue!” The women stare at me, shocked. I turn to Marie-Jeanne, who bares red-stained teeth in a smug and gory smile. “Was it you? Did you find such a gruesome revenge only fitting?”

“And how would she have done it?” Charlotte demands, striding forward to grasp Marie-Jeanne by the wrist. She holds up the woman’s bloody stump. “With what instruments?”

“Then you, Henriette? Or Gabrielle?”

The two women shake their heads. Henriette seems to blanch at the mere suggestion, but Gabrielle frowns. “He has… wounds from time to time,” she says, surveying her companions with a cautious glance. “But I would have never thought that one of you—”

“It was not one of us!” Charlotte snaps.

“One of us,” Marie-Catherine echoes from her place by the window.

And, at that moment, there comes the faint but unmistakable creak of a floorboard from outside my bedchamber.

Three indignant strides see me to the door. As I swing it open, the girl leaning on the other side stumbles and nearly falls into the room.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.