Last time on Gemma, we get it, it’ll all blow up shortly. Let’s just get on with it.
This chapter, we find out the other secrets.
As they practice dancing, Pippa and Felicity get into a fight when Felicity insults her for wanting to marry so high when she’s just a merchant’s daughter, and then Pippa says her mother’s a whore who left her father to sleep with an artist and also her mom doesn’t care about her.
“I hate you.”
There is a chorus of embarrassed gasps from the goody-girls. To my surprise, Pippa goes soft and quiet.
“It’s not me you hate, Fee. It’s not me.”
I…don’t quite get this. I’d say that it’s supposed to be that she’s lashing out at Pippa because she’s upset at her mom, but Pippa was quite nasty about it and completely deserves what Felicity just said.
The girls are partnered up for the dance and Pippa is miserable because now Felicity will never like her again.
Suddenly one of Gemma’s visions triggers and she realizes it’s dragging Pippa along. She yanks them back but before she can ask anything, Pippa has an epileptic fit.
Once again the headmistress and other adults are pretty sympathetic, doing everything they can to prevent her from hurting herself and making it clear none of the girls are ever to breathe a word of this.
Gemma blames herself and goes to see Pippa later. Moore is there and Gemma promptly breaks down.
“I’m a horrid girl, Miss Moore. You don’t know what I’m capable of.”
“There now, what’s this nonsense?” she murmurs.
“It’s true. I’m not at all a good person. If it weren’t for me, my mother would still be alive.”
“Your mother died of cholera. That wasn’t your doing.”
The truth has been bottled up inside me for so long that it comes pouring out, spilling everywhere. “No, she didn’t. She was murdered. I ran away from her and she came after me and was murdered. I killed her with my unkindness. It’s all my fault, all of it.”
Moore reassures her that it wasn’t really her fault, then explains to Gemma, who somehow knows everything but not this, that epilepsy is to marriageable girls as a broken leg is to a racehorse and that’s why Pippa’s had to keep it a secret.
“Miss Moore . . .” I stop.
“Here in private you may call me Hester.”
Uh, why the sudden familiarity? Also huh, Greek name. Wonder if that means anything.
Anyway, Gemma wants to know about what if the Order was real, and also if you have the power to do stuff is it wrong to use it?
“Things aren’t good or bad in and of themselves. It’s what we do with them that makes them so. At
least, that’s how I see it.”
You know who doesn’t see it that way? GOD.
I realize that Victorians were hardly uniform in their opinions and stuff, but I’d expect a finishing school to be particularly traditional, or at least to make sure the teachers toed the line just because parents will complain if their kid comes back disagreeing with them. And so much of their society ran on the idea certain things were wrong because they inherently were.
Gemma asks if Pippa will remember what happened, but now it’s only because she’s worried Pippa will remember the moment right before the seizure. Then her stomach growls and she’s sent off to eat.
On the way down she looks at the class pictures and realizes there’s none for 1871.
While they eat, the girls chatter about a Spiritualist Demonstration they’re going to and they get into an argument about if Spiritualism is stupid nonsense like Gypsy fortune-telling.
“While I’m afraid I’m not enamored of such poppycock, Lady Wellstone is indeed a woman of fine character and one of Spence’s greatest benefactresses, and I have no doubt that your outing with Mademoiselle LeFarge will prove . . . beneficial in some way.”
I’m thinking if she’s that big of a benefactress you shouldn’t be calling it poppycock.
Anyway, then Gemma asks about the photo. It was never taken because of the girls who died that year. I was expecting this to be a bunch, but it’s only the two from the diary, they didn’t take out anyone else with them.
On that note, we go to the next chapter.
THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE WHO MIGHT BE ABLE TO SHARE my secret and explain it to me have been dead and gone for twenty years, everything they know returned to the earth.
Well aren’t we melodramatic. First, no, everything would include the diary, and second, you know full well other people know about this. Kartik’s group is knowledgeable, they (or perhaps just he and his dead? brother) are just not helpful, your mom went to a shop with the eye and moon symbol on it so that must have been a place connected to this, the description we have so far is that this ability is naturally occurring so those girls are hardly the only ones to have it besides you, AND the Order is widespread enough knowledge that your art teacher could just glance at the symbol and tell you about it (I’m assuming the art teacher is here by chance and not because she’s secretly part of it, which may be wrong, but otherwise that’s proof many people have at least passing knowledge of the Order and presumably there’s books and stuff on the subject somewhere.)
Felicity promptly summons up some tears and tries to work more information out of Mrs. Nightwing. We find out she was a teacher back then, and Mrs. Spence was the headmistress. Wait, but if Mrs. Nightwing’s been a teacher the whole time, how’d she get married? Mrs. is a married designation, was that not true back then? Is there some other way you can get the title? Anyway, Mrs. Spence died in the fire too.
She says the two girls were lovely, with Mary quiet and Sarah, in retrospect, perhaps too much of a free spirit. The girls were up prowling the halls for some reason and must have brought a candle. A drape caught.
Mrs. Spence must have rushed in to help them, the door slammed shut behind her . . .” She trails off, staring into her tea as if it might help her. “I couldn’t get it open, you see. It was as if something heavy was holding it fast.
Creepy!
Ann barges in. “Is it true that Sarah and Mary were involved with something supernatural?”
A dish crashes to the floor. Brigid is on hands and knees, sweeping the pieces into her apron.
Hello plot.
Anyway Mrs. Nightwing says absolutely not where did you hear that and the girls all deny having any knowledge. This is actually handled pretty well, with Mrs. Nightwing knowing they must have heard it somewhere because no one says “is it true” about things they just randomly thought of, and not taking their denials seriously, but at the same time she can’t force them to admit it so she just ends by telling them it’s completely wrong and if she hears anyone passing the rumor around they’ll regret it.
After everyone trails off the new wolfpack pounces on Brigid, smelling plot. Brigid is happy to tell them all about it.
If you want to know something about a household, ask the servants. That’s what my father used to say.
That seems like things we think of more in modern times, but it is rather true, so lacking a thorough understanding of Victorians, I’ll let it go.
Brigid says the girls were little demons.
But I go to bring her breakfast on a tray and find her not in bed where she should be but down on the floor, crouched low like an animal, talking to Mary. They was having harsh words. I hear Mary sayin’, ‘Oh, no, Sarah, we can’t do that, we can’t!’ And Sarah says something about ‘That’s easy enough for you to say. You want to go off and leave me.’ And Mary started in cryin’ soft and Sarah wrapped her in her arms and kissed her bold as you please. Well I ’bout fell out right there, I can tell you. ‘We’ll be together, Mary. Always.’ And then she said something else, I couldn’t tell wot exactly, but something about ‘sacrifice.’ Sarah says, ‘This is wot it wants, Mary, wot it demands. It’s the only way.’ And that’s when Mary grabbed her and said, ‘It’s murder, Sarah.’ That’s wot she said:murder . Makes m’ blood run cold all over again just thinkin’ about it.”
Huh. And connect that to what Nightwing said about Mrs. Spence, that she must have rushed in to help them, not that this is what Nightwing actually saw. Sounds like she was their victim. So now the question is, why did they die as well? A doublecross by the spirit?
When they realize Brigid’s there, Sarah threatens her and shows off a hex doll, saying not to tell or else. Nothing comes of it because a few days later is the fire. She also confirms that they hung out with the Gypsies.
Brigid concludes by saying they’d better not get involved in this.
Don’t want you to start putting on airs, taking fancy names like they did. Thought they was duchesses or some such, Sarah making me call her . . . wot was it now?” She stops, thinks, shakes it off.
…Circe?
They head off to go to bed.
“We’ve been reading the diary of a dead girl.” Felicity shudders. “There’s something terribly creepy
about that.”
Hm. On the one had this is interesting if we’re finally seeing Felicity’s limits. But on the other, I can’t help but think she’s only saying that because Pippa isn’t here to say it and the line doesn’t work coming from Ann. It wouldn’t seem creepy because Ann keeps getting set up in the story as the timid mouse who objects to silly things like drinking alcohol, so you can’t use her to try to convince the reader this is legitimately unsettling.
Ann suggests that maybe it is real. Felicity, jitters already gone, says they should go visit Mother Elena.
“What about . . .” I almost say Ithal’s name, but stop myself. Felicity’s eyes are a warning.
“What about what?” Ann asks, puzzled.
“The men,” I say, speaking deliberately to Felicity. “There are men in the camp. How will we make certain we’re safe?”
“The men,” Ann repeats solemnly. Men . How one small word could have so much current running through it . . .
Felicity matches my tone, sending me her coded message. “I’m sure we can handle the men. You know how those Gypsies make up all sorts of lies. We’ll just laugh along with them.”
Actually moderately clever communication there. Felicity’s plan itself isn’t the best, but it’s not like there’s many better ones, and I think that while she doesn’t want Ann to know, she recognizes it’s not the end of the world if she finds out, either. Ann reporting on her would just be a she said/she said thing, and Ann has no reason to harm Felicity when they’re all being sister magic wolves. Particularly Felicity, in fact, since without her the whole thing falls apart and she goes back to being at the bottom of the pecking order. Worse, likely, since the other girls will be mad about the time she spent on top.
Felicity says it’ll be fine, they can chaperone each other and anyway, who’d ravish the two of them?
“Are you saying we’re not ravish-worthy?”
Felicity grins so widely, her whole face comes to life. “Let’s find out.”
An amusing little exchange to end on.
But it’s a line right before that one that’s a problem.
There’s an excitement in the air I can almost taste, a sense of purpose I’ve never felt before. And I want more of it.
This does not make any sense in context. Gemma has seen her mother stalked by a shadow that ate a mysterious stranger and led her to kill herself. She saw the same man in a frozen hell fleeing from some monster and his brother claims to be taken by the shadow is a fate worse than death. She’s had a closer look at the shadow as well, and it’s a horrible undead monstrosity. Yet she’s treating all this like a game and acting as if the warnings they’re getting are inconsequential when she knows there’s a horrible shadow monster around.
It’s times like this I wonder how authors write. Did the author write up the main schoolgirl section first, then realize it wasn’t long enough for a book, so she added in an extra chunk at the beginning? I can’t understand how someone would write like this if they’re going chronologically.
I think this also gets into style. Fanfic is hardly perfect at plotting either, but because there’s a lot of emphasis on character, even stories that are plot instead of character driven tend to pay attention to characters reacting to things and developing. Even when characters are forced around at the whim of plot, there’s usually the sense that the author is trying to make them fit properly and just not doing a good job, whereas in a lot of published fiction I get the sense it’s not even something the author’s aware of. Unless a story is specifically geared toward the inner workings of characters, it often won’t factor in at all.
Anyway, this section brings up by omission something very interesting. Were only the two girls ever involved in the Order? The fact the rest were untouched, and when Mary claims the fallout from what they did destroys the Order no less, suggests no one else was part of it. But in that case, how was Gemma’s mother involved?
And if the climax of what they did got them killed, how could she have wrote the note in the diary that it’s about how they accidentally destroyed the Order? Was the fire after the Order was gone and their attempt to stop the spirit, or Mary’s attempt to stop her possessed friend?
Considering the diary is also hidden and the realms hold spirits, perhaps both were done by Mary postmortem.
Then again, the fact two girls died doesn’t mean only two girls were there. It’s possible Gemma’s mother was also involved and just happened to survive. But if so she should be mentioned in the diary eventually.