Redwing snapped his fingers and I blinked and tried to speak, only for blood to dribble out between my lips, running over my chin and dripping on to the Frozen Charlotte doll cupped in my hand. Confused, I wiped my mouth with my fingers, swallowing blood without meaning to. My mouth tasted of metal, my tongue throbbed, my throat was dry. My head was pounding and my thoughts were all tangled up in some dark fog. It was hard to think, hard to remember where I was or what was happening.
It felt like we had only just begun the trance session and yet, to my surprise, sunlight streamed in through the windows. Could it actually have worked?
“You did well, Jemima,” Redwing said from the other side of the room. I looked up and saw that he was standing before the window with his back to me, gazing out towards the grounds.
“Why … why is my tongue bleeding?” I asked, my mouth still slick and hot with blood.
Redwing did not turn round. “You bit it during the trance. That can happen.”
“Did it work?” I asked, setting the Frozen Charlotte down on the nearby table. “Did you speak to Vanessa?”
From what I could recall, I had given it my best effort, had not resisted Redwing in any way.
“You did well,” Redwing said again, finally turning to face me. He looked tired but there was some light burning in his eyes. A sort of triumph that I hadn’t seen before. “I suggest you get some sleep,” he said pleasantly. “We will resume our session again tonight.”
Still in a haze I tried to stand up, only for the room to swim around me and the floor to tilt beneath my feet. I reached out to steady myself on the back of Redwing’s armchair and that was when I noticed my sleeves had been pushed back and there were cigarette burns, three of them, on my right arm.
“What are these?” I asked.
“It is how I establish if you really are in a deep trance state,” Redwing said, moving over to his desk. “When one is deep in trance, one becomes impervious to pain.”
“Surely just one burn would have been enough to establish that?” I asked.
Redwing lifted the corner of his mouth in an ugly smirk. “It pays to be thorough,” he said. “And I take mesmerism very seriously, my dear.”
In that moment I saw that he enjoyed inflicting pain, that he relished having the opportunity to punish me.
With an effort, I gathered my wits and walked towards the door without saying another word. Out in the hall the grandfather clock seemed to tick too loudly as I walked past it and the stairs stretched on forever. It felt like an eternity before I reached my bedroom, where I could finally close and lock the door.
With my back to the wall I slid down to the floor. My breathing was fast and shallow in my chest, and I had to concentrate hard on slowing it down. Had Redwing told the truth when he said I’d bitten my own tongue? What had really happened in his study during those long hours I could not remember?
I put my head in my hands. When I’d offered to take my mother’s place, I hadn’t really thought the trance was likely to work, let alone that I would be able to remember nothing afterwards.
My head throbbed with the most appalling headache and I felt exhausted, so I drew the curtains across the windows and reeled to bed, where I immediately fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.