Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

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DO NOT READ UNTIL YOU HAVE READ ALL OF THE OTHER CHAPTERS. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!






Jessamina stood rooted to the spot, unable to take her eyes off of the gleaming weapon in Vincent’s hand.

“You look surprised, dear! Did you really never suspect me at all? Were you really that in love?” He sneered.

She shook her head repeatedly, still refusing to believe that she had fallen in love with a murderer like him.

“Jessamina, you are an incredibly remarkable woman. The way you managed to kill off some of our men, albeit not our most important, was incredible. Dare I say, respectable?” He grinned at her, his once perfect smile curling into an unrecognizable snarl. “Yes, using your father’s untraceable poison was very clever. After all, any man of any age could die of heart failure. And with no needle marks, the police never investigated any further. The Blue Pigeon Society is so large that even with five of its members gone, the committee simply declared the deaths ‘accidental’. Even I, who found the similar way in which they all perished to be suspicious, forgot about them after a time. You could have gone on for another year with your scheme without anyone noticing. But then, you had to make me your next target.”

Jessamina tried to grab something next to her for use as a weapon, but Vincent was too quick for her. He knocked her in the eye, causing her to fall against the nightstand and crash into the lantern. Cut and bleeding from the broken glass, she screamed in pain.

“Please, Jessamina, I really am much stronger than you. I hope you realize now that is rather senseless to try and fight me. Do not try me again.” He loomed over her body slumped on the floor. “Where was I? Oh, right, you somehow thought that you, a delicate flower of a girl, could outwit a killer like me! Ha! You may be very beautiful, Jessamina, but unlike you I am not immediately distracted by such trivialities as beauty, charm, and grace.”

“I am not sure I know what you mean--”

“Your brooch, Jessamina! I know what it does. When I found it that night at my ball, I noticed the little lever on the side. Curious as to what it would do, I took it outside on the balcony. I held my breath, of course, the moment the powder was expelled, but I immediately guessed what its use was. Of course, I knew that you might simply wear that brooch as a method of self-defense, but I was already suspicious. When I returned it to you and asked about my father, it wasn’t hard for me to put the pieces together. I knew your father was a skilled physician and apothecary, and I knew that you had access to things that could simulate heart failure. What I did not know, however, was how you managed to do such things without making puncture wounds.

“It was clear that you didn’t know my full name; clear that everyone previously had told you to call me James. You thought that my father was the killer, which also meant you had no idea how old and sickly he was. That was a relief, but you still knew too much. Being the man that I am, I wanted to dispose of you right away, but seeing as you are a respectable unmarried woman, I knew I could never get you alone without anyone noticing. So I did the next best thing: I distracted you. I found your imperfections and insecurities, and then I convinced you that they were all in your head. In other words, I did what I always do: I flirted. And you seemed so sincerely flattered and dazed by all the compliments, that I realized the best way to keep you off my tracks. I would make you fall so -- what did I say at the engagement dinner? Ah yes! So ‘completely and irrevocably’ in love with me, that you would forget all about your little plan.”

“Well, it worked.” Jessamina said, her face pinched with pain. “I did love you, James.”

“‘Vincent’, Jessamina. Let us not try and pretend we are anyone different than who we are. And it did work, for a time. You slowly stopped asking questions about my father, which meant that I was getting closer and closer to reaching my objective. I never planned to ever marry you. Even then I was going to court you until I was certain my leaving would cause you immense emotional distress. But when you said you did not want to see me anymore, I knew it was because you felt too guilty about wanting to hurt my father. I thought you had given up on your plan for fear of hurting me. So I thought no more about you.

“But then, you had to try again! You concocted that ridiculous scheme of trying to lure my father out of hiding. I watched from the window that day, when you disguised yourself as a messenger. My servant, because he is incredibly stupid, believed your disguise, but I saw right through it. When he told me about your untraceable poison and steam-inoculator, everything clicked into place. You had been using our own weapon against us! Genius! And what’s more, all it took was a simple medical tool to administer it. I knew I needed to have it, but I also knew that I needed you to be dead. You knew far too much and were far too dangerous to be let alone anymore.

“So I invited you to my Christmas Ball, assuming you would be too weak to decline an invitation. And then, I staged an impromptu proposal, which you immediately accepted without any hesitation. It was really almost too easy; now we could be alone together without any witnesses. Of course, I knew I needed to wait a while and establish our engagement before I killed you. Otherwise, the police would immediately mark me as their first suspect, and I did not need any more trouble than you were already causing me. I decided I would wait for a while, and then stage a kidnapping. I would pretend that I had been knocked unconscious from behind, and when I awoke, you were gone. And later, when they found your body cut up and thrown into the river, they would never expect the loving fiance, so overcome with grief that he had lost his one true love.

“So I waited. Waited for the day when you would let down your guard, allowing me to make my move. And today, my dear, just happens to be that day.”

He lunged forward, aiming for her throat, but she managed to roll her body out of the way just in time.

Jessamina struggled to speak. “I simply do not understand how you--”

“How I did it?” Vincent asked. “I made everybody believe that I was a bad liar. That I was a good person. Then, I had everyone, every last one, in the palm of my hand. Even you."

“I do not understand how you can kill innocent, remarkable men like my father and not feel any remorse for what you did.”
“Ha! Your father! Jessamina, your father was hardly innocent. He was a member of the Blue Pigeon Society, too!”
“Liar! I refuse to fall your tricks -- you simply want to mess with my mind!”
“Fine! Believe what you want. But do you think he never profited from our imports? How else do you think he got those rare herbs or those rare presents for you and your mother?”
“Certainly not by any illegal means! He was a good man who saved the lives of many men--”
“And yet made us the poison after all! Really, Jessamina, did you never stop to consider why he had so many vials of that poison saved up? He was cowardly and broke his promise at the last minute. He broke the rules. And we all know what happens to those who break the rules.”

He sliced once more, sending a searing pain down Jessamina’s arm. The pain was too much for her to handle; she heard herself screaming as the cuts were being made to someone else’s body, as if she were merely an outsider observing the scene.

“Jessa!” A voice yelled from down the stairs. She knew immediately that it was Edmund; he had come to save her. She scrambled to get to her feet, to make it the door, but he yanked her back by the hair, causing her to cry out in pain.

Edmund ran in, medical case in hand, and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Vincent holding a knife to Jessamina’s bare throat. She trembled with fear beneath his strong hold.

“Edmund, what an unexpected surprise! I forgot that I had told you to come today. I am afraid that other plans have gotten in the way of our little...medical session.”

Edmund took one step towards Jessamina, but Vincent merely pressed the knife harder into Jessamina’s throat, causing her to gag.

“One more step and I swear I will have you watch as I kill her.” Vincent growled. Edmund froze, terror in his eyes at the thought of Jessamina being harmed any more than she already had been.

“Did you bring the steam-inoculator, as I told you earlier?” Vincent asked.
Jessamina groaned, knowing exactly why Vincent had called Edmund here. He wanted the weapon of his dreams, and asking Edmund to visit the sickly Mr. Blackhorne was the perfect excuse to get it.

“Edmund,” Jessamina whispered. “Please forgive me. I never meant to hurt you. I never meant to drag you into this mess.”
“Jessa, what are you talking about?” Edmund asked. “Why is he hurting you?”

“Are you really pretending that you do not know the reason you are here?” Vincent laughed. “I know what your involvement in all of this is! Jessamina gave me your address--”
“He knows nothing, I promise!” Jessamina insisted. “I merely gave you his address because I know you would recognize my own. He knows nothing of what I have been doing these past few years!”
“Do you really expect me to believe he never noticed that his steam-inoculator kept disappearing? Or that vials of poison were being stolen from his store?”

“Just let her go!” Edmund pleaded. “Take whatever you need -- money, medicine, my steam-inoculator. Kill me if you have to! Just please, let her live.”

“Well, isn’t this touching?” Vincent asked with mock sympathy. “I always suspected you were in love with her.”

“Of course I love her! I have. I will. I do. It is the simple truth of she and I.”

Edmund looked at Jessamina with such pain in his eyes that she wanted to reach out and touch him, but she immediately felt herself restrained again. She winced at how every movement made the gashes on her arms and legs burn with greater intensity. She felt herself growing woozy with the pain.

“Here,” Edmund continued, “If you want the steam-inoculator, you can have it.” He slowly opened his bag and pulled out the heavy brass contraption, careful not to make any movements that might cause Vincent to panic. He held the device out to him. “Here. Take it.”

And, almost as if in a dream, time slowed as Jessamina watched the steam-inoculator slip out of Edmund’s fingers and tumble downwards. It crashed with a loud thud and began to hum violently.

Vincent started at the noise. This was her only chance. She reached her hand up to the knife and pulled it away from him. And the moment he lunged towards her, with his piercing blue eyes so violent and full of hatred --

She thrust the knife into his stomach several times, not even aware of her surroundings anymore. All she knew was that she would never let this man hurt her ever again. His face grow slack and still, and he fell to the floor in a heap in front of her. As her knife clattered to the floor, she was snapped back to reality.

Up until this point, all of the murders she had committed were clean and elegant. They were barely murders at all; just the quick stopping of a heartbeat. She was hardly responsible for the deaths of all those people; she let the poison do the work for her.

But now she was covered in his blood. The blood of the man who she trusted; who had told her he loved her and who she had loved. The blood of the man who hadn’t killed her right away, like she almost wished he did, but instead led her to believe that she had found happiness. A man who dared to tell her that her father...

It was too much for her to handle. She staggered backwards until she found a wall, and then slid down it, leaving a smear of both Vincent’s blood and her own on the wall.

Edmund rushed towards her and knelt by her side.

There were no words anymore. No words to tell him how she was feeling.

So, as Edmund held her in his arms, Jessamina Elizabeth Delaney cried for the very first time since her father died.

THE END