Read Online The Daughters of Eden Trilogy: The Shadow Catcher, Fever Hill & the Serpent's Tooth by Michelle Paver - Free Book Online

if it were Cousin Lettice’s fault, and a stippling of red appeared on her cheeks. But her gaze never left Madeleine. ‘Did not your mother receive my letter?’ she said with a frown.
    Madeleine wondered what she meant. Then she remembered the letter on the doormat. She went into the hall and retrieved it from the mat, and handed it to Cousin Lettice. It was wet from being trampled, and the ink had run.
    Cousin Lettice’s colourless gaze went from Madeleine to the letter and back again. ‘How’, she demanded, ‘have you survived?’
    Madeleine told her about the geyser, the ham, and Dr Philpott.
    ‘Dr Philpott? So there has been a doctor. Where is he now?’
    Until then, Madeleine had been holding Dr Philpott against her chest. Now she held him out to Cousin Lettice.
    Cousin Lettice took Dr Philpott and read the title aloud. ‘. . . Hints on Other Matters Necessary to be Known to the Married Woman .’ Her head snapped up. ‘How much of this have you read? Tell me the truth . I shall know it if you tell a falsehood.’
    ‘All of it,’ said Madeleine. ‘But the first part had nothing to do with babies, so I only read it once.’
    Cousin Lettice narrowed her eyes and scrutinized her. Again Madeleine had the impression that she was mysteriously at fault. It reminded her of the Sunday School disaster – although she sensed that Cousin Lettice was more to be reckoned with than poor Miss McAllister. The Reverend’s sister might succumb to the occasional outburst of nerves, but Cousin Lettice burned with a deeper, more constant fire.
    Upstairs in the spare room, the baby began to cry.
    Cousin Septimus forgot about the ceiling rose and turned to Cousin Lettice with a horrified stare. Cousin Lettice went yellowish grey. ‘The infant,’ she said. ‘It survived?’
    Madeleine nodded.
    This time Cousin Septimus stayed below, while Madeleine took Cousin Lettice upstairs to show her the baby.
    They stood together beside the cot, and Madeleine watched Cousin Lettice scrutinize the baby. It was still crying, but with less conviction now that it had company.
    Cousin Lettice made no move to touch or comfort it. The stippling reappeared on her cheeks, and she gripped the edge of the cot with hands as shiny and yellow as chicken feet. ‘It survived,’ she said between her teeth. The ridge of her stays rose and fell. ‘It were better’, she declared, ‘if it had died.’
    The baby stopped crying and scowled at her.
    With her arms tightly clasped about her middle, Cousin Lettice began to pace up and down. Her mouth was a rigid line. The stippling on her cheeks had coalesced into an angry flush. ‘God is just ,’ she muttered to herself. ‘God is just.’ She shook her head.
    Then she came to a sudden halt, and turned on Madeleine. ‘You’, she said accusingly, ‘were born with a terrible burden. The infant carries it too.’
    Madeleine cast the baby a doubtful glance. How could it carry anything when it couldn’t even stand up?
    ‘You’, said Cousin Lettice, ‘carry a taint . You get it from your mother. Your mother was wicked . All the Durrants are wicked.’ A fleck of spittle had appeared at the corner of her mouth, and Madeleine watched it stretch with each word she took, and re-form into a ball when she paused for breath. ‘Your mother’, Cousin Lettice went on, ‘enticed your father away from his lawful wife. Your mother was degenerate . And so are you. Do you know what it means, to be degenerate?’
    Madeleine shook her head.
    ‘It means that your blood is tainted.’
    Madeleine wondered what tainted meant. She pictured little grey blotches floating in scarlet, like the dust devils she sometimes found beneath the bed.
    Cousin Lettice’s voice was coming at her in waves: now louder, now receding. ‘It means ’, she went on, ‘that the wickedness becomes worse with each succeeding generation. Depravity. Insanity. Disease. It is all there. In the blood.’ She drew herself up. ‘But God ’, she went on