Chapter Twenty-One:
Kathryn…
Kathryn had waited three weeks, under the watch of Mr. Holmes, to be strong enough to finish her assignment. She swore to find the documents, so she was going to find them. Finally one morning, Mr. Holmes asked her, "Are you ready to take off the bandages?"
"Yes," she said emphatically. "I'm sick of people asking me if we're married." They had been staying in an Inn a few miles north of Sir Lucas' manor house. Mr. Holmes had registered his name as Mr. Woodhouse, and every morning, when Kathryn went down to breakfast, sometimes slowly due to fatigue, she was asked, 'How are you this morning, Mrs. Woodhouse?' She hated it. Mr. Holmes hadn't gotten her a separate room because he wanted her to be close by in case she needed immediate medical attention even though he wasn't a man of medicine. "I need to get the documents on the Elixir, then find someway to get back to the Nautilus."
Mr. Holmes gently removed the bandages from her wound. "Do you really think that's wise, Miss Bennet?" he asked, examining the dark scar. "After all, Mr. Skinner will be there and he was the one who shot you."
"I realise that," she said, adjusting her dressing gown when her wound was proclaimed healed over. "But I have a duty to the others. It's fairly easy to ignore an invisible man. I shouldn't make them think I'm dead. It wouldn't be fair to them."
Her comrade looked at her critically. "So you'll return to the League for the sake of Dr. Jekyll and the others?" he asked. "But you will be able to ignore Mr. Skinner?"
"Yes," she said, standing and walking over to the wardrobe. Mr. Holmes was kind enough to buy her a few new dresses to wear while she recuperated. She took a black dress from the wardrobe and laid it on the bed she used. "But, I noticed you used Dr. Jekyll's name, Mr. Holmes. Why?"
He looked indifferent. "You just seem to be a bit attached to him," he said nonchalantly. "Why is it he keeps your company on your missions?"
She gave Mr. Holmes a stop it look and disappeared behind the dressing screen with the dress. "I am not attached to Dr. Jekyll," she said, dressing. "I'm not attached to any man. I doubt I ever will be again."
"Your behaviour would prove otherwise," he commented. "Wouldn't you agree, Miss Bennet?"
"No."
That night, Kathryn and Mr. Holmes stood waiting outside the back door of Sir Lucas' manor house. They were waiting for the last light lit in the house to go off. Kathryn's hair blew in front of her face. Making a soft noise of annoyance, she pulled her hair away from her face and tied it in a long braid, securing it with a black silk ribbon and threw it over her shoulder. "The light's out," she said, seeing the candlelight extinguish. "Let's go."
Mr. Holmes silently unlocked the door in a way that Kathryn didn't see and opened it. They entered and closed the door quietly. "He's in the study," she said. "I doubt, even after three weeks, that they've moved him. This way."
She led Mr. Holmes through the halls, feeling her way along the walls, without the use of a candle or oil lamp. She found the study and opened the door. She and Mr. Holmes entered the room, Mr. Holmes locking the door behind them. Kathryn lit a lamp and examined the room. As she expected, Sir Lucas was sitting exactly where she had left him. She and Mr. Holmes walked over to him, watchful for any traps or guards.
Kathryn set the lamp on the writing desk and took out the pistol Mr. Holmes gave her. She kept the pistol trained on Sir Lucas and nodded to Mr. Holmes. He took out his hip flask and poured the water from it into Sir Lucas' throat. The knight coughed and sputtered, waking up. "Good evening, Sir Lucas," Kathryn said, bitterness reigning supreme in her voice. "I believe you were expecting me."
Sir Lucas looked at Kathryn in the flickering lamplight. Mr. Holmes pulled out his own pistol and trained it to the knight's head. "Kitty?" Sir Lucas said. "Kitty Bennet? Is that you?"
"Kathryn, if you don't mind, sir," she spat. "All right, I know you've found a way to make the Elixir of Life. Tell me where you put the documents you kept on it. Or tell me how you did it."
"You look just like her," the knight said, instead of answering Kathryn's question. "Just like her."
"What are you talking about, cur?" she demanded.
"Your mum," he said. "She was so lovely. I can't understand why she ever married your father."
"Shut up," she said. But, she could feel her resolve wavering. She slowly lowered her pistol, her eyes gazing across the room, lost in a memory…
She was six years old. She was watching her father talk with Sir Lucas about something. She couldn't understand what they were saying. Then her father patted her head and left the room for a moment. She looked up at Sir Lucas. He was pouring a white powder into her father's coffee. Her father returned and sent her out of the library. She left, but pressed her eye against the keyhole to see what would happen. Her father drank his coffee. Then, minutes later, he fell to the library floor. Dead.
"Kathryn!" Mr. Holmes said sharply, bringing her out of her reverie.
She shook her head clear of the painful memory and raised her pistol. "Tell me what I want to know, Sir Lucas," she said. "And you may be left alive."
Sir Lucas laughed. "Are you threatening to kill me, Kathryn?" he asked her. He continued to laugh. "You couldn't hurt an insect when you were a child. How could you kill anyone?"
"Don't tempt me," she growled, pressing her pistol against Sir Lucas' head. "Now, I'll ask you again. Where are your documents on the Elixir of Life?" He didn't speak. She cocked the hammer. "I will do it. Tell me what I want to know."
"You know, Kathryn," he said instead. "For such a lovely girl, you're extremely bitter."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.
He cleared his throat. "If you were so bent on avenging your father's death, you would have come for me years ago," he explained. "But you let your bitterness get the better of you and you waited. Twenty-six years is a long time to wait, girl."
"Where are your documents?" she asked. When Sir Lucas didn't answer, she quickly formed an idea. "Mr. Holmes, come here, please."
"Holmes?" Sir Lucas repeated, surprised. "You brought Holmes with you?"
Kathryn ignored him. "Keep your gun on him," she instructed Mr. Holmes. She took her pistol from Sir Lucas' head and pulled the left side of Mr. Holmes' coat from him. She quickly looked through his inside pocket until she found what she was looking for. Pulling it out, she said, "Thank you, Mr. Holmes."
"Kathryn, what is that?" Sir Lucas asked, indicating to the morocco case she set on the desk.
Working quickly, Kathryn took an empty flask that was conveniently on hand and set it before her. She pulled a vial of Wolfsbane out of her bodice and shook a few leaves into the flask. Using a small paperweight as a pestle, she ground the leaves into a fine powder. She rifled through the desk drawers until she came upon a few vials of Asphodel and Wormwood. She ground a bit of both with the Wolfsbane in the flask. When she had a very fine powder of the different plants, she lifted Mr. Holmes' hip flask from him and poured some water into the flask with the powder. She used a pen to stir the contents well. Then she opened the morocco case and removed its contents.
"Wh-what're you going to do with that?" Sir Lucas asked nervously, indicating to the hypodermic syringe she held.
Kathryn didn't answer him. She carefully filled the syringe with the solution she just created and turned to Sir Lucas. "Now, I will ask you one more time," she said pleasantly, holding the syringe where he could see it. Mr. Holmes was giving her an odd look. She ignored him. "And I expect you to comply. Where are the documents on the Elixir of Life?" Sir Lucas didn't answer; he was eyeing the syringe warily.
"Sir Lucas, it is in your best interest to answer her," Mr. Holmes suggested. "You should cooperate."
The knight didn't answer. "Fine, have it your way," Kathryn said lightly. She pulled Sir Lucas' left arm towards her and rolled up the sleeve, exposing his pale forearm. "Last chance to cooperate before I take drastic steps." He gave her a steely look. "Well, Mr. Holmes, I tried being pleasant. Now, I get to play." She thrust the delicate needle into Sir Lucas' forearm.
"No!" he said, wincing in the sharp pain. "I'll tell you. I'll tell you!"
"Good," Kathryn smiled. "Where are they?"
Sir Lucas swallowed. "In that filer," he said, nodded to a deep drawer in the writing desk. "It's in a file labelled Merlini. Please don't hurt me, Miss Bennet. Please."
Kathryn nodded to Mr. Holmes. She kept her hand on the syringe as Mr. Holmes went through the filer, looking for the file. Presently he pulled one out and looked at the documents. "It's here," he said. "Let's go, Kate."
"Well, Sir Lucas," she said. "It appears that you won't be losing your life tonight, after all."
He laughed at her. "You fool," he said. "Did you honestly think that I would create an Elixir of Life and not drink it? You couldn't kill me even if you stuck your pistol in my mouth!"
Kathryn smiled coldly. "I didn't think you would so stupid as to not take it," she said. "But I didn't think you would be stupid enough to say something like that while you still had a needle in your arm." She pressed down the tiny piston and waited until all the contents of the syringe had emptied itself into Sir Lucas' arm. She took the needle out of his arm and returned it to the morocco case.
"You bi—!" Sir Lucas cried before he lost consciousness.
"Sweet dreams, Sir Lucas," Kathryn said coldly. "I'll return. With an antidote to the Elixir." She handed Mr. Holmes his syringe then left the study.
Mr. Holmes followed her. "What did you give him?" he asked as they walked out into the cool, crisp night.
"Hm?" she asked. "Oh! A Draught of the Living Death with an infusion of Wolfsbane." She chuckled sinisterly.
"Would that kill him?"
"Gods no. It will make him sleep," she said. "And with the Wolfsbane, he'll be very sick. But, his servants can't do anything to help him. He'll have to wait until I come back with an antidote." She smirked. "You could call it my small act of revenge."
