Iron Cast(3)

“Nurse Salem, any particular reason you’re gossiping in the hallway?” A man’s voice made Ada jump, and she whirled, finding herself face-to-face with Dr. Knox.

He was lumpy in his white coat, with a bald head and thin spectacles that he must’ve repaired since his last encounter with Ada. He ignored her and crossed his arms.

“Sorry, Doctor,” Corinne said. “I was just asking where I could find the walking path.”

“Go left,” he said, waving toward the front doors. “Weren’t you given a tour this morning? No one here has time to draw you a map.”

He cast a sympathetic glance toward the desk nurse, who seemed appeased by his scolding of Corinne. She sat back down.

“The agents are waiting for you in the basement, Doctor,” she said with a preening smile.

He nodded and finally acknowledged Ada. “Miss Navarra, I trust that after our discussion about rewards and consequences, you’ll be able to behave yourself on these little walks?”

Ada couldn’t recall any such discussion. In fact, the last time she had seen Dr. Knox, she had just flipped a table on top of him, but she just nodded.

“Good,” he said. “Remember, privileges are earned.” He patted Corinne on the shoulder in a fatherly gesture and left.

Ada saw the face Corinne made but didn’t dare say anything with the nurse still watching them from her chair. She kept her head down, reminding herself to look contrite, and they walked out the front door.

They didn’t turn left toward the brown grassy lawn. They just kept walking down the wide gravel drive—slowly at first, but soon they were sprinting. The sharp rocks stabbed at Ada’s feet, but she didn’t care. Moonlight wafted across the grounds like a jazz melody, and the cold wind of January had never felt so good.

“What about the gates?” Ada asked. She had to pump her legs to keep up, even though Corinne was much shorter. Her muscles were just now remembering what it meant to move.

“Jackson will have them open.”

“Jackson? He’s here?” The newest hire at Johnny’s club had been around for only a week before Ada was arrested.

“Cripes, don’t tell me you didn’t recognize him. I thought for sure he got the eyes wrong.”

No wonder Doctor Knox had seemed so forgiving toward her.

“Dead ringer,” Ada said, ignoring the burning in her lungs. “He’s good.”

“He’s an ass.”

A laugh burst from Ada before she could stop it. She didn’t know why she was laughing, except that her best friend was beside her, and they were running so fast her feet were barely touching the ground, and up ahead she could see the open gates of the wrought-iron fence surrounding the Haversham Asylum for Afflictions of the Blood.

They breezed through with a brief twinge of pain, crossed the road, and half ran, half slid down the long embankment on the other side. They had only the moon for light, and Corinne slowed as she headed for the line of trees. Ada followed close behind her.

“We gonna walk to Boston?” Ada asked. She rubbed her arms vigorously against the cold.

Corinne glanced over her shoulder toward the empty road, then blew some warm breath into her hands. She didn’t seem particularly concerned by the increasing likelihood of someone in Haversham realizing they’d been duped and chasing after them with iron-tipped billy clubs. But then Corinne never seemed particularly concerned about anything.

“I brought the Ford,” she replied, stopping for a moment to fiddle with the buckle on her shoe. “There’s an access road through here.”

“I hate the Ford,” Ada said.

“So sorry, Princess. I could always leave you here. Maybe your next rescue will be more to your liking.”

Ada knew it was a joke, but the mere notion of going back was like a knife in her stomach. Even as they went deeper into the wood, she could feel the asylum looming over them. Suddenly every stone and fallen branch was excruciating beneath her ill-protected feet. Corinne was looking at her strangely again as they walked, no doubt confused by Ada’s sudden reticence. Ada forced a tight smile.

“I’ll admit,” she said, “I was hoping for some explosions or at least a sleeping draft in the head nurse’s tea.”

“What are we, gangsters?”

“Well—”

“Never mind.”

The dead trees and underbrush extended for only a few hundred yards before opening onto a dirt road, where the hulking black Ford was waiting. Ada climbed in to shield herself from the rising wind, and Corinne leaned in through the driver’s side to grab some leather gloves from the seat.

“There’s a coat in the back, and aspirin’s under the seat,” Corinne said.

Ada immediately snatched up the bottle of aspirin and swallowed three. She shook a few into Corinne’s palm as well. Then she retrieved her coat from the backseat and slid into it gratefully, buttoning it all the way. The winter chill had reached her bones by now, but she felt marginally better buried under the thick gray wool.

It took Corinne almost twenty minutes to start the car, but finally it roared to life. Ada never understood how Corinne, who was small and wiry, with only five feet and a couple of inches to her name, ever found the strength to crank the pistons to life—and with only one broken thumb on her record. It wasn’t an achievement many sixteen-year-olds could boast of. She suspected Corinne was just more stubborn than the engine.