Free Quintspinner by Dianne Greenlay

gruesome wound. As Tess pried open the fingers of the second hand to spread them over the first, she gasped. Held tightly in the hand, even in death, were two fingers with the spinner ring still in place.

 
    Their disappearance and late return home from the market was held secondary in importance to another household situation that was in full blown crisis when Tess and Cassie slipped in through the back door and entered the kitchen.
    “Oh my heavens! Where have you girls been! The Doctor, he’s been in a right state about you bein’ gone and now he’s beyond reason, what with his wee son an’ all!” Mrs. Hanley scurried into the kitchen and gathering both girls to her ample bosom, pressed them to her in a fierce hug.
    “Charley? What’s wrong with him?” Tess wasn’t sure if she felt more annoyance that her baby brother was the centre of her father’s attention again, or relief that he had taken the attention away from their fateful day trip into the market.
    “Ooh! It’s just awful!” Mrs. Hanley fretted, and then with a quick look over her shoulder, she continued in a hushed voice. “Even from down here, we heard Mrs. Willoughby screamin’ an’ carryin’ on somethin’ frightful. The Doctor ran up to her room an’ found her at the side of the wee lad’s crib, pointin’ at him an’ callin’ for her husband. An’ that poor babe, well, he was takin’ a fit. Oh, his eyes was rolled back just so, and his little body was shakin’ so hard you’d have thought he was dyin’! And so Dr. Willoughby was callin’ an’ callin’ fer ya’ to come an’ calm Mrs. Willoughby, so’s he could tend to the babe. But of course ya’ wasn’t here, neither of ya’, was ya’?” Her tone had changed from excited story teller to reproachful caretaker. “An’ wherever it was that ya’ was, it not bein’ here, it couldn’t have been at a worse time, what with the visitor arrivin’ at the door an’ all….”
    “A fit? Is Charlie alright? What did father do? And who was the visitor?” Tess felt her heart fluttering with a fresh sense of panic.
    “Ah, the Doctor was near as worked up as his wife, with their son lookin’ like that, but no sooner did the fits pass, when a man arrived, dressed in fine clothes an’ demandin’ the doctor’s presence to attend to himself. That’s when Dr. Willoughby started yellin’ fer ya’ both again, but findin’ neither one of ya’ here, he grabbed his medical satchel an’ left in a hurry with the gentleman. Said he’d need to treat the gentleman at the gent’s own residence, bein’ as how he’d probably need to sedate him an’ so thought it best that the fellow be treated in the comfort of his own bedchambers. Told me that when ya’ returned, Cassie was to tend to young Charles an’ yerself was to tend to the Missus, Tess.” She shook her head and clucked her tongue. “An’ me darlin’s, I have never seen him in such a rage….”
    Dr. Willoughby arrived back home shortly after the evening meal had finished. He summoned both girls to his study, where they found him sitting behind his great desk. He wore a look of outward calm, but his hands, curled into fists so tight that his knuckles were white, belied his emotions.
    He cut directly to the heart of the matter. “Explain yourselves.”
    “It was my fault!” Cassie began but Tess quickly cut her off.
    “There was no fault of either of us at all! We just went to the market to do the day’s shopping–”
    “Tess was attacked!” Cassie interjected.
    “Attacked? How so? And by whom?”
    “A man, a filthy foul-smelling man, knocked me to the ground, but I bit him and he got up and ran–,” Tess admitted.
    “And an old woman took us to her place for a cup of tea–,” Cassie carried on.
    “You went to a complete stranger’s house? Unaccompanied at that?” Dr. Willoughby asked in frank astonishment. “What could you have possibly been thinking?”
    “Father, it wasn’t just anybody, it was