fate. I’m obliged to maintain discipline, Reverend, and I have many ways of doing so.’
He unlocked the cupboard above the sink, took a needle from the medical kit and walked over to Elaine. She’d been listening, pretending to be in her own world, but listening all the same and she knew something was about to happen. She screamed when he picked up her hand.
‘It’s a sterilised needle, so there’s really no need for all this fuss. There won’t be any lasting damage.’ He stuck it slowly beneath the nail of her middle finger, pushing down firmly as she struggled, wondering how it was possible to scream and gurgle at the same time. It was as if she was drowning in the pain.
‘Stop it!’ Jayne screeched. ‘Just stop, please.’
‘You’re talking to me now, are you?’ he asked, not withdrawing the needle from Elaine’s nail, not until he’d really made his point.
‘Yes, I’ll talk, I will,’ she shouted.
‘What do you think, Elaine? Have you had enough?’ Elaine spluttered a yes, nodding wildly at him, imploring Jayne to help.
King allowed himself one more jab into Elaine’s nail bed, gratified by a final shriek to ensure compliance, then withdrew the needle.
‘Do you remember what happened?’ he asked Jayne. She shook her head.
‘My lips are sore,’ she said, ‘and my neck aches.’
‘Chloroform is a bit hard on the skin, I’m afraid, and then I had to sedate you with ketamine while I went to work in case you became distressed and injured yourself. It’s a wonderful drug. It altered your conscious state but allowed me to issue you directions which you were able to follow. You may find you have strange dreams for a few days. And you’ll be dehydrated.’ He collected the tray. ‘Here, drink this.’ She jerked her head away as he held the cup. ‘You need to drink and I’m not so primitive as to want to drug you constantly. The whole point of you being here is for us to engage with one another. I don’t want to have to be any more persuasive today. It’s hardly fair on Elaine.’
Elaine started to squeal and thrash on the bed. Jayne took the straw between her lips, sipping cautiously.
‘That’s better,’ King congratulated her.
‘What are you going to do to me?’ Jayne asked. It was said remarkably plainly in the circumstances, he thought admiringly.
‘I’m an educated man, Jayne, not an animal. I am forging a better life for myself and for you.’ He leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. ‘Though to be honest, I’m not sure how long it’ll be before Elaine has outstayed her welcome. She’s not working out the way I’d hoped.’
‘Why are you doing this?’ Jayne asked. King stared into her eyes, wondering what she was thinking. Was she hopeful of release, curious about him, too scared to understand her position yet? She seemed full of exciting possibilities. A paragon of potential. She reminded him vaguely of his sister. Not that Eleanor had lived to see adulthood, but if she had, she might have been a lot like the reverend. Their parents had always said Ellie was destined to be a leader with her extraordinary academic ability, not to mention her flair for music. She had been almost perfect. Sometimes annoyingly so.
‘I’m doing it for us. For a future where we can learn together, appreciate one another, stretch our minds in glorious ways.’
‘What if I don’t want to?’ Jayne asked. King thought about it. She wasn’t being defiant, he decided, or difficult. It was a genuine question and it deserved a genuine answer.
‘You will want to,’ he said. ‘Eventually. I’m here to guide you.’
‘This is wrong,’ she said. ‘Please, think about what you’re doing.’
‘Jayne, don’t,’ he counselled her. ‘Elaine tried, God knows she begged for days, and it won’t work. There’s a plan, you see. Sometimes a human has to aspire to a life greater than the one they’re born to. I am more than the sum of my parts, as are you. The physical being is unimportant. Elaine’s finger will heal, pain is transient. It’s a conduit for progression, enlightenment.’
‘I see,’ Jayne said simply. He waited for more, but that was it. He’d won. For today he should be content with that much.
He was exhausted, drained by disciplining Elaine and all the cleaning. Locking the door on his way out, he heard a whisper, considered going back in, but decided not to. They would need time to get to know one another. It wasn’t until he reached the bottom of the stairs that his tired brain finally unscrambled the words he’d heard.
‘We’re going to die here,’ Jayne had said, in that plain way of hers.
Reginald King thought that smoked salmon and mushroom risotto would make an excellent choice for supper.
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