The Case of the Girl in Grey by Jordan Stratford

Author:Jordan Stratford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2016-01-25T16:00:00+00:00

“What do we do now?” Ada whispered.

“Wait” came Lizzie’s reply. The girls waited. Ada kept her mouth shut, for fear she might drown.

After forever, she heard the latch go on the glass doors to the porch beneath.

“But how can she know?” the girls heard Sir Caleb say.

“She doesn’t know. She suspects. I imagine Somerville put her up to it.” Ada was already squished together against the rain, but she squished even tighter at the sound of Mr. Brocklehurst’s gravelly voice.

“She’s just a girl,” Sir Caleb insisted.

“She’s clearly not just an anything. She’s a spy, and we’ll need to get rid of her.”

“You don’t mean—”

“No, no. The Byron child will be sent home in the morning. Then we’ll need to move quickly.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure about—”

“It’s a bit late not to be sure, Caleb. And we’re so close! We even managed to get rid of your wife, before you lost her.”

Lizzie jumped a little, and mouthed “Wife?!” silently to Ada.

“I didn’t lose her. She escaped! But they’ll find her, or the police will, and back to the hospital she goes. She’s out of her head—no one will believe anything she says.”

“You’d better hope no one will believe her. She knows too much.”

“An escaped madwoman. The Godwin girl thought she was a ghost!”

“Well, at least Somerville is out of our hair for a while,” said the oily, bloated man. “By the time she gets to Scotland and finds out there was no urgent business, we’ll have you married, and the inheritance will be mine!”

“Ours, I think you mean.”

“Of course, of course, Caleb. Slip of the tongue.” His voice sounded even oilier than usual.

“I wish we could find that blasted will,” Sir Caleb groused. “You know this estate—you promised you could find it!”

“I did find one! But he said there was another squirreled away somewhere—thought he was being clever, but it didn’t save him—”

“What if I marry Lizzie and the will shows up? We’ll be back where we are now.”

“A sight worse. You’ll be in Newgate for bigamy.”

“Listen to me, Brocklehurst. Find that will.”

“Don’t use that tone with me, baronet or no!” Mr. Brocklehurst spat angrily. “If it weren’t for me, you’d still be losing at cards on the docks in Kingston!”

There was a strange, quiet tapping sound, and Ada couldn’t make out what it was at first, until she realized it was her own teeth chattering in the freezing rain. She was shuddering violently, holding on to her arms instead of the roof, and began to feel hot instead of cold. Lizzie, herself a drowned rat, looked at Ada. “Are you all right?” said the shape of her mouth.

Ada nodded, or at least shivered up and down. She regretted it at once, as that shook forth a loud sneeze.

“What was that?” said Mr. Brocklehurst sharply.

“What was what?” asked Sir Caleb.

“I thought I heard…a sneeze. A girl sneeze.”

“You’re imagining things. This is hardly a night for a girl to be outside sneezing. She’d catch her death of fever.”

“Maybe it’s that Byron brat, or that wretched Lizzie,” said Mr.

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