They both looked at her. “I want to see my cousin. Now. I swear to God, you let me see her or I’ll knock her door down,” she demanded.
Virgil shrugged. “There is no need for that. Come.”
She followed them. At one point Virgil looked at her over his shoulder and smiled. Noemí rubbed her wrist and looked away. When they walked into Catalina’s room she was surprised to see her cousin awake. Mary was also there. It seemed this would be a group reunion.
“Noemí, what is it?” Catalina asked, a book in her hands.
“I wanted to see how you were doing.”
“Same as yesterday. Resting, mostly. It seems I’m the Sleeping Beauty.”
Sleeping Beauty, Snow White. Noemí couldn’t care less about that right now. But Catalina was smiling kindly, like she always used to smile. “You look tired. Anything wrong?”
Noemí hesitated and shook her head. “It’s nothing. Do you want me to read to you?” she asked.
“I was going to have a cup of tea. Do you want to join me?”
“No.”
Noemí wasn’t sure what she had expected to find, but it wasn’t Catalina in high spirits, the maid quietly arranging flowers in a vase, the meager blooms from the greenhouse. The scene struck her as artificial and yet there was nothing wrong. She stared at her cousin, trying to find the faintest trace of discomfort in her face.
“Really, Noemí. You seem a little odd. You aren’t getting a cold, are you?” Catalina asked.
“I’m fine. I’ll let you have your tea,” Noemí said, unwilling to reveal more in the presence of the others. Not that they seemed terribly interested in this conversation.
She stepped outside. Virgil exited the room too and closed the door. They looked at each other.
“Are you satisfied?” he asked.
“I’m appeased. For now,” she replied tersely, intending to walk back to her room alone, but he was going in the same direction, obviously wishing to continue their conversation and not minding her curtness.
“And I thought there was no appeasing you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.
“You’re on a quest to find faults around you.”
“Faults? No. Answers. And let me tell you, they’re pretty big ones.”
“Are they?”
“I saw this awful thing, moving—”
“Last night or now?”
“Now. And last night too,” she muttered, pressing her hand against her forehead.
She realized then that if she headed back to her room she’d have to look at the ugly wallpaper with the hideous black stain on it. She wasn’t ready to face it. Noemí changed course, quickly veering toward the stairs. She could always hide in the drawing room. It was the most comfortable room in the house.
“If you’re having bad dreams I can ask the doctor for a remedy to help you sleep the next time he visits us,” Virgil said.
She walked faster, intent on putting distance between him and her. “That won’t do any good since I wasn’t dreaming.”
“You weren’t dreaming last night? But you walked in your sleep.”
She turned around. They were standing on the stairs, and he was three steps above her.
“That was different. Today I was awake. Today—”