Through a Darkening Glass: A Novel by R. S. Maxwell

Author:R. S. Maxwell [Maxwell, R. S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Published: 2023-01-01T04:00:00+00:00

They spent the rest of the afternoon around the fireplace, chatting and enjoying themselves. Elise remained close to Malcolm on the sofa, and Ruth observed her keenly from a chair opposite, watching her reactions to things, noting how she stared blankly at the fire, the flame’s light reflecting and dancing in her blue eyes. While other times, Elise would look with birdlike attention towards the sound of Malcolm’s voice and hold her gaze briefly there, as if she were indeed listening. As Ruth watched, she couldn’t help but consider the woman’s eyes, like the two kiln ponds themselves—once filled with light and fire, they’d been transmuted into something starless, cold, and watery. They were enigmatic, fathomless, and whatever lurked within them was now unknown, like trying to peer through a darkening glass.

Ruth then started to wonder: What went on in this woman’s head? Was she really in a catatonic state due to some brain injury, or . . . She realized how outlandish the notion might be, but nevertheless considered it. What if Elise was completely lucid and sane and simply chose to behave this way? She’d purposefully found a way to retreat from reality, to close herself off from the world and allow someone to care for her, to dress her and bathe her. She’d never have to perform any wifely duties, never have to tend to her husband’s needs. She could simply while away the days, her every need catered to. What if, as a cure for boredom, she slipped out at night, taking things that she fancied, like a magpie, nibbling from gardens, fooling everyone, pulling the wool over her own husband’s eyes? What if she wasn’t simply wandering aimlessly, led astray by her brain damage and somehow finding her way home at night, as Ruth had sometimes suspected, but was doing it all purposefully? What if she was, in fact, knowingly playing the part—the part of the Wraith of Martynsborough?

It was an extraordinary thought, but as these notions jostled around in Ruth’s mind, she was ever watchful of Elise, and it was almost as if the mute woman was, in turn, considering her. Ruth could sense cogs and wheels turning somewhere underneath that pretty blonde hair. Her pale-blue eyes slid over and met Ruth’s, and as the rest listened to Vera recount some story, Elise looked at her intently with an unusual, knowing stare that contained . . . humour? A challenge? Ruth saw the glimmer of a smile—not the type that pulls on the corners of one’s mouth, but the type that gleams in the eye. It was there, but then gone, then it returned. Ruth had to look away, to collect herself, because for a brief and frightening moment, she was convinced that Elise had read her mind.

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