The Madman’s Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

cage. I loosened the string and took out the folded diagram from between the Bible’s pages. I handed it to him, but he gave it only a glance, as if he didn’t even need to look at it.
    “You’ve seen that before,” I concluded.
    “Yes.” His features grew serious again. “It belongs to me. At least, it did. I acquired it from an old colleague of your father’s, but it was stolen two weeks ago with other documents. So you see why Balthazar reacted as he did. He thought you were a thief.” He unfolded the paper and raised an eyebrow. “The blood spatters are new.”
    My face turned red. How could I explain what had happened? I still felt the weight of the ax in my hand, remembered the frightened look on the boys’ faces. Like them, Montgomery would think I’d gone mad. He sat here in his well-tailored clothes, a servant at his call, crates ofexpensive items around him. The scandal obviously hadn’t brought his life crashing down. He’d changed from a servant to a gentleman, and I’d done exactly the opposite. I must look terribly pathetic to him. And the small scrap of pride I had wouldn’t let Montgomery think me lacking.
    I stood. “I should go. This was a mistake.”
    “Wait, Juliet.” Montgomery held my arm. For a second, his eyes flashed over my dress, my face. He swallowed. “Miss Moreau, I should say. I haven’t seen you in six years, and now I find you breaking into my room.” A muscle clenched in his jaw. “You owe me an explanation.”
    He’d been our servant, I told myself. I didn’t owe him anything. But that was a lie. Montgomery and I were bound together by our past. This was the boy who had secretly taught me biology because my father wouldn’t. Who’d told me fairy tales late at night to distract me from the screams coming from the laboratory.
    I sank back down, not sure how to act around him. His blue eyes glowed in the hazy light from the window. He moved the tea tray to a side table and poured me a cup, adding two lumps of sugar, then breaking a third in half with a spoon, crushing it, and stirring it in slowly—the peculiar way I used to prepare my tea when I was a little girl. I was so oddly touched that he remembered that I didn’t tell him I’d given up sugar in my tea long ago. As I took the cup, his rough fingers grazed mine and I bit my lip. Just the brief touch sent the muscle of my heart clenching with a longing to feel that bond with him again.
    My throat felt tight, but I forced out words. “I foundthe diagram and recognized it. I thought, maybe, it meant Father was here. Alive.” Spoken, it sounded even more foolish. I braced myself for his laughter.
    But he didn’t laugh. He didn’t even flinch. “I’m sorry to disappoint you,” he said softly. “It’s only Balthazar and myself.”
    I took a sip of the tea, which had grown cold, but its sweetness replaced the chloroform’s lingering tang. I wondered what Montgomery thought of me, showing up here, looking for a dead man. Father’s death had never been confirmed—just assumed. I think the world wanted him dead, or simply forgotten.
    But a girl couldn’t just forget her father.
    “Do you know what happened to him?” I asked. I wanted to ask if Montgomery believed the rumors, but the words wouldn’t come. I was frightened of what his answer might be.
    He looked toward the window, foot tapping a little too fast against the table leg. He shifted in his stiff clothes, as though his body wasn’t used to them. It struck me that a wealthy medical student wouldn’t pick so uncomfortably at his starched cuffs as Montgomery was doing. I wondered how recently he had acquired his fortune.
    As if sensing my thoughts, he loosened his shirt’s collar. “The day he disappeared, I ran away too. I was afraid I might be accused as well, because I sometimes helped him in the laboratory. I’ve heard speculation … that he died.”
    The teacup shook in my hand. I felt at the point of shattering with warring emotions. I