Such Wicked Intent Read Online Free

as the door closed behind her, and with a sigh I bent to gather my papers from the floor. Blinking to clear my tired eyes, I suddenly saw, among the garble of letters, a word.
    I stared, then snatched up my quill and circled it. My eyes roved across the lines, and I circled another word, then another and another. The same three words repeating again and again.
    Heat and ice squalled across my flesh. Could it be coincidence? Or my own mind, knowingly forcing my hand to write the words, so desperate was I for a message from my twin?
    Outside the window rain pelted the glass. I hurriedly gathered Elizabeth’s discarded papers, and my gaze flew over them. There. And there! And there!
    Come raise me.
    Come raise me.
    Come raise me.

C HAPTER 2
A KEYHOLE IN THE SKY
    I T SEEMS BEYOND DISPUTE, ” SAID OUR FRIEND H ENRY C LERVAL , running a hand through his wispy blond hair as he looked between the two sets of pages. “You’ve both recorded the same letters—and words.”
    I looked over triumphantly at Elizabeth.
    “I never doubted they were the same,” she said. “But it doesn’t mean they came from Konrad.”
    On a table in the music room I had spread out our transcripts from the previous night, as well as the red metal book and its contents. We had the château to ourselves. After our morning lessons, presided over as usual by Father, both my parents had left for Geneva, Father to attend to his magistrate’s duties, and Mother to help ready the city house for our return in October.
    Before Konrad’s funeral, their pace had been frenetic. They’d received visitors offering condolences from near and far; there had always been preparations and meals to oversee. Our house had always seemed full. And even then my parents seemed intent on keeping to their usual schedules—if anything, more vigorously than ever. Father resumed our morning lessons with Elizabeth, Henry, and me, and afterward he carried on with his own work. Mother threw herself into her duties about the house, carving out time to begin another pamphlet on the rights of women.
    Henry fluttered his fingers, giving his characteristic impressionof an agitated bird. “And you truly think Konrad spoke to you from beyond the grave?”
    “Why would it be anyone else?” I countered.
    There was an uncomfortable silence before Elizabeth replied. “I was taught that the dead who need to atone for their sins are sent to purgatory, and sometimes they wander the earth in the hopes of somehow making amends—and that they may try to communicate with the living.”
    “Very well, then,” I said. “By your way of thinking, Konrad is communicating to us from purgatory.”
    “But,” Elizabeth continued, “the Church also believes there are devils whose only aim is to beguile us and lead us into temptation.”
    Henry was nodding emphatically. “Remember that play of Marlowe’s, Doctor Faustus ? The doctor foolishly makes a deal with the devil, and in the end he’s dragged down to hell. I’d never felt such horror—not in the theater, anyway.” He paused. “With you two I’ve felt far greater horror, of course.”
    Despite myself I laughed. “Why, thank you, Henry. I’m flattered.”
    “What is it exactly you think you can achieve?” he asked me, removing his spectacles to polish them. I was surprised by the steadiness—the hint of challenge, even—in his blue-eyed gaze.
    I took a breath. My own thoughts were far from clear. “I don’t know. To see him again, I suppose. To help him.”
    “Admit it, Victor,” said Elizabeth. “You’d make your own deal with the devil if you could play God.”
    “Don’t listen to her,” I told Henry dismissively. “She plans to join a convent.”
    Bewildered, Henry looked from me to Elizabeth. “Is this true?”
    Elizabeth glared at me. “Why did you say that?”
    I shrugged. “Why keep it secret?”
    Henry looked truly distressed. “You really mean to become a… a nun ?”
    “Why does everyone seem to find this