“As are we.”
Eliza gasped and whirled around. Miss Almay and Mrs. Hodge rushed toward them. Miss Almay shoved through the crowd of stunned girls and came to a stop right in front of Theresa and Eliza. Her skin was ruddy with exertion, and her dark hair had come loose from its bun, but
her expression was triumphant.
Eliza glanced anxiously over her shoulder at the chapel. Catherine lay right inside, her chances at survival dwindling with each passing moment. They were so close. So very close.
“Miss Almay,” Helen began. “Please, don’t—”
“I’ll deal with you later, Miss Jennings,” Miss Almay snapped, not bothering to cast a glance at her maid. Instead she glared down her long nose at Eliza and Theresa. Eliza’s pulse pounded in her ears. She could practically hear Catherine begging her to do something— begging her to save her life. “I don’t know how you managed to sneak out of the house so quietly, but Mrs. Hodge caught a glimpse of your candles out the window.”
Eliza looked at Theresa, desperate for some sort of a sign that she had a plan. Theresa, however, was looking right at Helen.
“Miss Almay, let me explain,” Theresa began. “Well, you know how devout Alice is. She simply must pray inside the chapel every single day. It makes her feel closer to God. Isn’t that right, Alice?” She didn’t wait for the girl’s answer. “But this morning, Alice missed morning services because of her, well, monthly . . . trouble.”
Helen took Eliza’s hand. “Concentrate on Miss Almay and chant with me,” she said so quietly Eliza wasn’t even sure she’d spoken the words aloud.
“Befuddled, bewildered, be gone,” Helen whispered, staring straight at Mrs. Hodge. “Befuddled, bewildered, be gone. Befuddled, bewildered, be gone.”
Panicked and baffled, Eliza followed Helen’s lead. She stared at Miss Almay’s face as she repeated the chant.
“Befuddled, bewildered, be gone. Befuddled, bewildered, be gone.”
Eliza focused on the chant, on Miss Almay, on her strength, as hard as she possibly could, but nothing was happening. Her palm began to sweat inside Helen’s grip, and her breath grew shallow and still nothing. Theresa, meanwhile, was running out of fiction to tell.
“So we promised Alice that we would bring her up here tonight before midnight so she could pray . . .”
“Befuddled, bewildered, be gone. Befuddled, bewildered, be gone.”
Clarissa, who was standing behind Eliza and Helen, suddenly took Eliza’s other hand. She started to chant along with them, staring intently at Miss Almay.
“Befuddled, bewildered, be gone. Befuddled, bewildered, be gone.”
Soon Jane joined in with them. Then Lavender, Viola, and Bia. Finally Marilyn and Genevieve caught on, dragging Alice with them.
“Befuddled, bewildered, be gone,” they whispered together. “Befuddled, bewildered, be gone. Befuddled, bewildered, be gone.”
A cold wind kicked up around their feet, swirling up from the ground.
“What? What’s this?” Miss Almay demanded, shielding her eyes. “What are you girls doing?”
“It’s not working!” Eliza cried.
“Just keep going!” Helen ordered.
“Befuddled, bewildered, be gone. Befuddled, bewildered, be gone. Befuddled, bewildered, be gone.”
And just when Eliza was certain that whatever was supposed to happen would never happen without the power of the full coven, without Theresa reciting with them, the wind suddenly stopped. Eliza pushed her hair away from her eyes and blinked through the cloud of dusty dirt that billowed around them. When the haze cleared, she saw Theresa laughing.
“What can you possibly find amusing at this moment?” Eliza demanded.
“Look at them!” Theresa said, pointing to the lawn.
There, in the middle of the moonlit lawn, was a dazed-looking Miss Almay. She staggered from side to side with her arms splayed out in front of her, blinking rapidly and looking around overhead, her chin jerking this way and that as if she was following a rowdy flock of birds with her eyes. Mrs. Hodge was walking into a thick tree trunk over and over and over again.
“Poor Mrs. Hodge,” Theresa said. “She’ll have a bump the size of Plymouth Rock tomorrow.”
Eliza walked over to Mrs. Hodge and, taking her by the shoulders, turned her toward the school. Mrs. Hodge instantly began walking straight ahead, her eyes glazed over like a dead animal’s. As Eliza watched her go, Theresa gave Miss Almay a slight shove, sending her after her maid. The headmistress spun in circles as she walked.