Twice Round the Clock by Houston Billie

Author:Houston, Billie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: British Library Publishing
Published: 2023-04-10T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Seven To Eight

Mrs. Geraint awoke at seven out of a troubled dream in which she, armed with a large carving knife, was threatening the oncoming figure of her master. There, before her, was the tight-lipped, sneering face with its half-closed eyes. In each hand was held a wriggling kitten from which blood dripped. Nearer and nearer came the figure until it was bending right over her and the blood dripped down upon her nightdress. With one last despairing effort, she drew back the knife to strike, thrust it forward with all her might, uttered a stifled shriek, and awoke.

She sat up in bed trembling and perspiring, the terror of her dream still upon her. Her hand was clenched before her on the eiderdown. She opened it slowly, and gazed at it with fresh terror, for across the top of the palm was a shallow cut, and the blood from it covered her hand.

She pushed back the bedclothes and gasped as she saw a large stain upon her nightdress, and she was about to jump out of bed and scream for help, when she suddenly remembered that she was awake. The clock upon her mantelpiece helped her by striking seven, and instead of jumping out and giving reins to her terror, she switched on the light above her bed and calmed down.

One of her bad nights again. The first she had had for some months now; the first, in fact, since that dreadful night when she had awakened in the corridor outside Mr. Manning’s room to find his face not a foot away from her own.

But where did this blood upon her hand and nightdress come from? Had she been sleep-walking again, and somehow managed to cut her hand without it waking her? She must have done so; else, how to explain this blood. She had dreamed of a knife. Perhaps she had played with one in her sleep.

She shuddered and snuggled down again in the bed, drawing the sheets tight about her shoulders. Soon now Alice would come with her morning tea, and while she waited, she would rest a little more and calm herself.

As she did so, she allowed her thoughts to go back to the night before. She remembered that she had not been very well. The matter of the kittens had upset her, and, of course, she had fainted. Perhaps she had cut herself during the faint, and failed to notice it when they had put her to bed. She recalled that she had felt very drowsy and heavy about the head.

It was the taking of the kittens and the cat that had upset her so much. She thought of them now, and wondered what Manning had done with them; and as she thought about it, she came to a decision towards which she had been travelling for some time since. She would leave Treeholme and its hateful master. Miss Helen would soon be married. She would ask her to take her—Mrs. Geraint—into her new house, and until then she would go away to Sarah’s for a rest.

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