Read Online Stephanie Grace Whitson - [Quilt Chronicles] by Key on the Quilt - Free Book Online

on account of some fool woman, either, but here I am. So git to doin’ what Miss Dawson said and quit harping. You’ll get lunch soon enough.” Taking up a stance by the door, the guard put his back against one of the walls and folded his arms across his generous stomach, then nodded at Mamie. “Go on now, ma’am. I’ll handle the ladies.”
    Muttering her thanks, Mamie waved for Ivy to follow her. Thinking they would be going downstairs to an office, she was surprised when Mr. Underhill led the way across the wide hall to the empty ward.
    Mr. Underhill glanced at Ivy and lowered his voice. “He wants the ones he’s talked to kept separate from the others. Guess he figured this would make things easy on you, it being just across the hall and all. They can stay here with you while I shuttle the others over to be questioned. You’ll just have to tell me who to bring next.”
    It did make sense, but Mamie hated the idea of half a day or more of this nonsense. It would put everyone in a sour mood, likely for the remainder of the week, and there was no telling how long it would take to reestablish a sense of routine.
If it’s all the same to You, Lord, I’d just as soon You led someone straight to wherever in the world Pearl Brand is hiding. And then let them put her in the hole for a good long while.
    It was going to be hard not to resent Pearl after this. On the other hand, that might not be an issue. Did the warden’s questioning each of the women himself mean he had lost confidence in Mamie? Did he believe she’d missed some hint of trouble brewing? Maybe she had. Maybe she’d been wrong to look at the job as a calling. Well, there would be plenty of time to think about all of that.
Don’t borrow tomorrow’s trouble;
wasn’t that what the Good Book said?
    Taking a deep breath, Mamie followed Mr. Underhill across the twenty or so feet of hallway separating the two wards that were, essentially, mirrors of each other. Just inside the door, Mr. Underhill jerked sideways and stumbled into Mamie. When he stomped her foot, she cried out, barely managing to keep from crushing Ivy as the two slammed into the wall just to the right of the door. She heard the air go out of the poor child and saw Ivy’s face go white.
    With a cry of protest, Mamie whirled about to face Mr. Underhill. Her cheeks blazing, she opened her mouth and said—nothing. For there was Pearl Brand, standing behind a chair in which an unconscious Warden McKenna sat, his legs splayed out in an unnatural pose, a bluish lump showing just at the hairline on one side of his forehead.
    Pearl kept the warden in the chair with one thick arm about his neck, even as her free hand held the tapered end of an ominous-looking, homemade weapon against the tanned flesh just beneath the man’s jawline.
    “Don’t move,” she said, glaring at Mr. Underhill. “One sound. One word and—“
    “I s–see that,” Underhill stammered. “Y–you’re the one in charge here. What do you want me to d–do?” As he spoke, he sidled toward where Mamie and Ivy cowered against the cold stone wall.
    Pearl nodded at Mamie and Ivy. “Tie them up. And gag them.” She sneered at Mamie. “Guess it’ll be
silent
prayers today, Dawson.”
    Mamie could feel Ivy trembling. She reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze.
    “And then?” Mr. Underhill said.
    “And then we’ll have ourselves a game of checkers,” Pearl snapped. “What do you think, Frankenstein? That’s what they call you behind your back, y’know.
Frankenstein
.” She spat on the floor, then tightened her grip on the warden’s neck even as she gestured with the weapon. “Just do what you’re told.”
    “I don’t believe I can,” Mr. Underhill said, and before Pearl reacted to the odd comment, he launched himself through the air.

CHAPTER 7
    M artin’s crossed forearms hit Pearl Brand just above the arm with which she held the homemade weapon to the warden’s throat. The force of the blow knocked