The Journey: Illustrated Edition (An Anna Kronberg Thriller) (32 page)

Only the midwife — thinking of the birth she had to attend to, and of the doctor needing more light to examine the patients — foiled Sherlock’s well-laid plans. She had ignored his warnings, for she believed we had all lost our bearings. I wondered how often it was ignorance that ended lives prematurely.

Sherlock must have guessed my plans to leave long before I told him. When I lay in bed, healing, and nursing my child — and with that making all doctors and nurses believe I was indeed mad, for who wouldn’t take a wet nurse under these circumstances? — he tried to convince me to come with him. Once I almost said yes, when he spoke about the South of France, where the warm winters would lower the risk for my daughter to fall ill. He knew of a laboratory in Montpellier where he wished to experiment with novel coal tar derivatives — aniline dyes, which are used to stain cells. He planned to adapt them for a diagnostic test to identify various forms of post-mortem tissue damage, and he believed I could modify them to stain bacteria.

He offered the two things I wanted the most — safety for my daughter and science for myself. But I was tired of the mortal danger he revelled in. Moran and Parker, who had eluded us for so long, would try to find us.

So I stood in that doorway to say goodbye. I held his hand, unable to tell him I loved him, unable to say I hoped that one day, perhaps when we were both a little wiser, we would meet again.

I gazed at my hand that had held his only a few hours earlier, knowing it wouldn’t touch him for years to come. If ever. And yet it had let him go easily. The calluses, the missing index finger, its odd shape. I liked it the way it was. It was a hand that had no wish to hold anyone down.

I blinked the burning from my eyes and pulled Klara’s cap lower onto her face. Within a week of her birth, her nose and ears had begun to look like her father’s. How odd; seeing her face and being reminded of James didn’t bother me the least. It was her lovely face, and hers alone. Thinking about her and her father, I was surprised to see how unreasonable my fears had been. She reminded me of the good things in James. Even if there had only been so few. When I looked at her, I never thought of the violence and manipulation that dominated our relationship. I thought of the short moments of mutual respect.

I gazed out at the leaden sea merging into a leaden sky — a continuum of dark bluish-grey that would surround me for two weeks to come. Soon, storms would toss the vessel about, and most passengers would be sick. Only infants wouldn’t be bothered by the constant rocking and rolling. To them, it was reminiscent of the womb and the movement of their mother’s hips.

I inhaled the salty air, let the cold sting my nostrils and the back of my throat. Then I turned away and made for my cabin, wiping my slate clean, preparing myself for a new beginning.

(22)

— credits —

All images and illustrations used in this book are in the public domain, except when stated otherwise. I have made every reasonable effort to locate, contact and acknowledge right holders, but I’m only human. Should you feel that I have infringed upon your rights or the rights of any third parties, or if images have not been properly identified or acknowledged, please contact me at:

www.anneliewendeberg.com

The raven at the beginning of each chapter is a drawing by the author. The scene break is from
The Last Drawing Room. A Novel,
by Alexander Fraser. London, 1886. Credit: The British Library.

(1)
Beachy Head from above, Eastbourne, England, 1890s.
Title from the Detroit Publishing Co., Catalogue J - foreign section, print no. 10276. Forms part of: Views of the British Isles, in the Photochrome print collection. Credits: Library of Congress, USA
 

(2)
Map of Sussex.
From
:
Excursions in the County of Sussex: comprising brief historical and topographical delineations; together with descriptions of the residences of the nobility and gentry, remains of antiquity, and other interesting objects of curiosity ... With fifty engravings, including a map of the county
. Published: London, 1822. Credit: British Library
 

(3)
Lewes Castle, Sussex.
From
:
Excursions in the County of Sussex: comprising brief historical and topographical delineations; together with descriptions of the residences of the nobility and gentry, remains of antiquity, and other interesting objects of curiosity ... With fifty engravings, including a map of the county
. Published: London, 1822. Credit: British Library
 

(4)
Lover’s Seat.
From
:
Picturesque Sussex. Drawings,
by S. E. Slader.
 
Published by S. E. Slader, London, 1881. Credit: British Library

(5)
Ticehurst private asylum.
Archive and Manuscripts Collections Ticehurst House Hospital ('Private Asylum for Insane Persons') A North View of the Asylum  at  Ticehurst, Sussex, c.1828-29. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

(6)
Pier and harbour, Littlehampton, England
. Between 1890 and 1900. Title from the Detroit Publishing Co., Catalogue J - foreign section, print no. 11330. Forms part of: Views of the British Isles, in the Photochrome print collection. Credits: Library of Congress, USA
 

(7)
Seven Dials
.
From:
The Queen’s London. A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Scenery of the Great Metropolis in the fifty-ninth year of the Reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria.
 Publisher: Cassell & Company, London. 1896. Author’s archives.

(8)
The Bank of England & Royal Exchange.
From:
Pictures of London. With short descriptions by A.W. Dulcken.
Author: Henry Williams Dulcken. 1892. Publisher: Ward & Lock. Credit: British Library, London.

(9)
 
Newgate, the central courtyard, London.
From:
The Queen’s London. A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Scenery of the Great Metropolis in the fifty-ninth year of the Reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria.
 Publisher: Cassell & Company, London. 1896. Author’s archives.

(10)
The “Graveyard” at Newgate Prison, London.
From:
The Queen’s London. A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Scenery of the Great Metropolis in the fifty-ninth year of the Reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria.
 Publisher: Cassell & Company, London. 1896. Author’s archives.

(11)
From
:
A manual on the Operations of Surgery for the use of senior students, house surgeons, and junior practitioners.,
by Dr Joseph Bell. Publisher: Maclachlan & Stewart, Edinburgh, 1883. Credit: The Project Gutenberg.

(12)
Library of a men’s club at Pall Mall. London.
From:
The Queen’s London. A Pictorial and Descriptive Record of the Streets, Buildings, Parks, and Scenery of the Great Metropolis in the fifty-ninth year of the Reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria.
 Publisher: Cassell & Company, London. 1896. Author’s archives.

(13) La Grande Place, Brussels, 1890s. Title from the Detroit Publishing Co., Catalogue J - foreign section, print no. 9230. Forms part of: Views of the British Isles, in the Photochrome print collection. Credits: Library of Congress, USA
 

(14)
Anatomy - History: Dissecting Rooms, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, 1894.
Credit: US National Library of Medicine.

CHAPTER 22: (deleted)
The University, Berlin, 1894
.
From
:
Berlin in Wort und Bild, etc.
, by Paul Lindenberg. Credit: British Library, London.

(15) The horse tram, Berlin, 1894.
From
:
Berlin in Wort und Bild, etc.
, by Paul Lindenberg. Credit: British Library, London.

(16) The Charité Hospital, Berlin, 1894.
From
:
Berlin in Wort und Bild, etc.
, by Paul Lindenberg. Credit: British Library, London.

(17) Dr Koch’s first graduate course in bacteriology in Berlin, 1891. Credit: US National Library of Medicine.

(18)
From:
Illustrated Songs and Hymns for the little ones, by Thomas Bywater Smithies. 1874. Credit: British Library, London.

(19) Foto is a courtesy of Magnus Wendeberg. Copyright by Magnus Wendeberg,
www.magnuswendeberg.com

(20)
Obstetric instruments.
Tabula XXXIV
From:
 
Geburtshülflicher Atlas in 48 Tafeln und erklärendem Texte
, by Hermann Friedrich Kilian. Published: ArnzDüsseldorf
 
1835-1840. Credit: Wellcome Library London.

(21)
Backyard/alley in Poststraße 5, Berlin, 1891.
From
:
Aus Alt-Berlin. Stille Ecken und Winkel der Reichshauptstadt in kulturhistorischen Schilderungen, etc.,
by Oscar Schwebel. Credit: British Library, London.

(22) Derived from:
The Olympic
, between ca. 1910 and 1915. Glass negative. Publisher: Bain News Service. Forms part of the George Grantham Bain Collection. Credit: Libraray of Congress, USA.

Acknowledgements (1
^st
edition)

I’m deeply indebted to my husband and to my children, who by now, have had to suffer three years of wife/mom writing — I love you, you are my home, my life, and my passion.

I bow to my developmental editor, Sabrina Flynn, for slapping me repeatedly for those plot-twists gone wrong, for unnecessary mushiness softening the necessary gruesomeness, and to my Holmesian-Pottermaniac, Rita Singer, for pointing out the fairy piss and unicorn farts. You both helped Holmesifying my weird Holmes.
 

Many thanks go to my lovely copy editor, Nancy DeMarco, and to Susan Uttendorfsky for the final proofread.
 

My dear beta readers, Bryan Kroeger, Kirsten Lenius, Ruth Griffin, Elena Hofmann-Smith, and Karen Schoch-McDaniel — thank you for your feedback and for volunteering as test subjects for my story.

Note:
No beta readers were harmed during the production of this book.

To all my readers — thank you! Thank you for reading what leaks from my weird brain onto paper. Without you, I wouldn’t have half as much fun doing what I’m doing all these long nights. A writer without readers is only a very unhappy scribbler.

Acknowledgements for this edition.

I’m very grateful to all the people and organisations who share their historical images: the Library of Congress, the Wellcome Library London, the Stadtbibliothek J.G. Säume, Grimma, the Galerie de l'Observatoire Océanologique de Villefranche-sur-Mer, the British Library, the US National Library of Medicine, and many Pinterest and Flickr users.