All Bedlam Courses Past (part two hundred fourteen)

All Bedlam Courses Past

Chapter Eight

Things Relative

(part two hundred fourteen)

“That is the statement of Miss Maria Gardener,” Phelan said, placing the maid’s bit on the discard pile, and looking Weem in the eye.

Arnulfa, from an additional page of her own testimony, supplied the delicacies of the foot and its care. Mr. Demrose was not informed of the ulcer’s existence. He had never been permitted to see the foot. Mrs. Demrose bore her suffering, rouged her cheeks for him, wore her hair and her teeth for him. Her evening retirement occurred at 5:30 p.m. Yes, at 5:30 p.m., at home or elsewhere. By the time lamps were extinguished, the hair had been placed on its stand and arranged, cleansed with a linen cloth dabbed over the strands, the cloth soaked in witch hazel, the strands air-dried for ten minutes, then fresh-glossed with a scented oil, the curls rewound.

“On implements,” Monaghan said. Arnulfa had shown him the case of them, the enameled trough to be filled from the boiling kettle, the waterproof insert to hold the rods. The teeth were subjected to a freshening too, a peroxide soak, and a brushing. Mrs. Demrose would take some portion of the tincture before reclining into her pillows. Arnulfa did not assist with this, and could not guess at the amount. Miss Buckley was allowed to visit while Mrs. Demrose had her cap on; when her teeth were out, the daughter was out as well. Mr. Demrose was not in the least to enter after his wife’s bedtime. Nor did he ever seek to. It was well understood between them.

Did Miss Buckley ever try the odd visit? Or Mrs. Demrose express a desire to see either after 5:30 p.m.? Had there ever been anything like an emergency? If emergency were not putting the matter too strongly.

Miss Buckley, no. Not within Arnulfa’s experience. Mrs. Demrose, no. She had never expressed this. Certainly, no emergency.

This dispatching of questions in their order was impressive, and Monaghan gave a lifted brow to Élucide. “And you’ll note the state of the marriage, as to intimacy, if I dare say it. Now…”

One more glance at the paper.

Miss Zucker had risen at four. She had looked at the clock. She had slept soundly and woken at nothing; she was quite accustomed to the noise of traffic outside her door. Skipping details of her personal toilette, the novel she allowed herself to read (Arnulfa’s mother did not believe reading before sleep to be healthful), her account arrived at the hour of 5:30 a.m., her time for passing into Mrs. Demrose’s chamber.

“While the only thing further I mean to put across, Miss Gremot, is this, of the bolt on the door. Miss Zucker, being astonished at the lack of Mrs. Demrose, went through to Miss Buckley’s. Miss Buckley was awakened and snappish, but appealed to, fell equally astonished, rushing from her bed to the large cabin on Miss Zucker’s heels. They thought of looking up and down the passageway, they thought next of Mr. Demrose, and it was Miss Buckley who went to knock him up. Demrose…as we shall learn more…said, ‘Oh, my god, Regina!’, and would have ventured in his drawers to see for himself, if Miss Buckley, noting the McGhee women’s heads out, hadn’t urged him to be decent. Picture only this, a chaos of comings and goings, and here we have Miss Zucker, who cannot afterwards recall if she had undone the bolt, if Miss Buckley had, or if the night before she had forgotten the fixing of it.”

226

Bedlam

All Bedlam Courses Past (part two hundred fifteen)

(2025, Stephanie Foster)