Free Jack the Ripper Victims Series: The Double Event by Alan M. Clark Page B

with an expression of exaggerated sobriety. “They’ll eat anything. This is raw corn. We have sophisticated taste. To poison me, one would have to tempt me with warm buttered dumplings and blueberries.” Ada gave a large gap-toothed smile. “Now that I’ve lost most of my teeth, I can eat all the sweets I want.”
    Elizabeth smiled, thinking of her favorite Christmas dinner. “For me, ham and lingonberry jam!”
    The two women laughed together. Ada’s unexpected good humor gave Elizabeth a glimpse of what the woman might have been like under happier circumstances.
    Elizabeth decided that she liked Ada.
    If you let her, she will become a good friend, Bess said.
    ~ ~ ~
    In the following week Elizabeth kept her appointments at Kurhuset, after which she carried her examination reports to the police station. Since her condition didn’t improve, more appointments were required. Klaudio allowed her more time to recover.
    Once Ada’s poison had killed the adult rodents, the squeals of baby mice inside Elizabeth’s mattress continued for a while. A short time later their cries ceased. Within a week her bed began to smell of rotting flesh.
    At first, she believed the odor a product of her illness. As her condition worsened, the chancre on her vulva became hard, red, granular, and gave forth a pungent smell. Miserable with sore muscles and aching joints, she remained in bed most of the time.
    When possible, Ada helped her to and from Kurhuset and the police station.
    At best, the treatment for her chancre slowed the advance of the disease. By mid-August, the disease had taken a firm grip. Following an examination on August 13, the staff of Kurhuset placed her in third floor ward with other women suffering from syphilis.
    Curtains kept Elizabeth from seeing the worst of the suffering. Even so, she could not escape the demoralizing sounds and smells. She found none of the other women in any condition to socialize. If she started a conversation, her partner invariably used the opportunity to express misery or anger. She decided that most of the patients had gone mad. The moans of those in agony kept her awake at night. She drifted through her days in an uncomfortable half-stupor from lack of sleep.
    Elizabeth’s treatments continued, but with a new ointment, one made from cacao butter and mercury, applied four times a day, as well as daily oral doses of quinine. When she saw no apparent improvement after a week, the quinine was replaced with oral doses of mercury sublimate.
    The doctors are trying to kill you, Liza said.
    The treatment is a drastic measure for a severe illness, Bess said. If you’re patient, they’ll make you well again.
    Elizabeth’s limbs swelled and her skin had a painful itch. Her toes and fingertips became bright pink and sore to the touch. On occasion, her heart beat wildly in her chest, she’d sweat heavily, and salivate profusely. Eventually her skin began to shed in thin layers.
    Elizabeth stopped looking at the evidence of the illness between her legs. The weeks passed. She drowsed as much as possible, yet found little satisfying deep sleep. Spots appeared on her skin, she had swollen, bleeding gums, severe aches in her joints, and bed sores. With time, she retreated into herself and no longer cared to understand the words of the patients, nurses, and physicians.
    Elizabeth knew she would die. Indeed, she welcomed death. She hoped to go to heaven.
    After what I did to the old woman, I am not worthy of such a reward, but perhaps God will not judge me too harshly. Even as the thoughts formed, she could not determine in her delirium if she truly believed in God and Heaven. Elizabeth was resigned to whatever might befall her.
    A long period of grayness ensued.
    ~ ~ ~
    As the grayness began to lift, Elizabeth wasn’t certain she wanted to emerge from herself. In moments of wakefulness, she squinted fearfully at the ward through half-shut eyelids. The treatments ceased and her symptoms began to fall