Garden of Lies by Eileen Goudge Read Free Book Online Page A

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    pointing the way to the nursery. She must let nothing happen to her, no matter what.
    She stumbled, a hard smacking pain in her wrists, knees, but she picked herself up, and forced
    her legs to move. She seemed to be moving in slow motion. So weak. And between her legs it
    hurt so.
    There, up ahead, a glimmer through the haze of smoke. The long window looking into the
    nursery. She sobbed with relief. But something was wrong. It looked deserted, the rows of
    bassinets empty. Sylvie blinked to clear her streaming eyes. No, there was still someone. A young
    nun she recognized from the delivery room.
    Sylvie pushed her way through the door.
    [28] The young nurse glanced up briefly, her face pinched, a mask of terror. She was
    frantically wrapping a squalling infant in a wet sheet. Sylvie saw the name on the bassinet:
    SANTINI. Angie’s baby. Nearby, hers, the one marked ROSEN.
    Empty. Her heart froze.
    She clutched at the sister’s arm. “My baby ...”
    “The babies are safe,” the nurse rasped, coughing. “They’ve all been taken down. This is the
    last one.”
    Relief crashed through Sylvie, leaving her trembling. Then she remembered about Angie.
    “Mrs. Santini,” she gasped. “I couldn’t wake her. Please. You have to help her. I’ll take the
    baby.”
    “Wait.” The nurse snatched up a pair of scissors and snipped off the beaded ID bracelet about
    the infant’s tiny ivory wrist. Beads scattered, pinging off the linoleum floor. “Porcelain,” she
    choked. “Absorbs heat ... might burn ...”
    Sylvie saw there were other beads from other bracelets scattered about the floor, the counter.
    One, a tiny pink cube imprinted with a black “R,” winked up at her from a starched fold in the
    young sister’s sleeve.
    Sylvie reached out, took the damp bundle in her arms. Feeling her strength surge back with the
    warm weight of the infant against her breast, her palm supporting the tiny wobbly head.
    Relentlessly, Sylvie fought her way back through the thickening haze, past the deserted nurse’s
    station, toward the stairwell.
    Turn the corner. There. Just ahead. She wrenched open the door marked EXIT. And threw
    herself back.
    The stairwell was engulfed in flames. She heard a high shrill scream and realized it was hers.
    Dear God, where now?
    She remembered the windows. They opened out onto fire escape platforms, the old-fashioned
    kind with stairs that zigzagged down the side of the building.
    Sylvie hurried into the nearest room, gently lowering the baby onto a bed. She struggled to
    raise the window. But it wasn’t budging. Then she heard a crack—a sound like a gunshot—and
    the window jerked up. Sylvie, weak with relief, snatched the baby up. She pulled a chair to the
    sill and carefully, slowly stepped up onto it.
    [29] And looked down.
    Five stories below, the street swam dizzily into view. Strange, how light it seemed, more like
    day than night. Insect-sized people scurrying about. Fire engines angled like toy trucks along the
    curb. The sidewalk a snake pit of hoses.
    Everything seemed to tilt sharply, and she felt as if she were going to fall. Sylvie closed her
    eyes and took a deep breath.
    No. Don’t look down. Just move.
    Sylvie stepped out onto the platform, the iron slats warm and rough beneath her bare soles, and
    began inching her way down the stairs, gripping the iron handrail with one hand while she braced
    the baby with the other. The stairs seemed perilously steep, making her legs and arms go rubbery
    with terror.
    How would she ever make it down five stories? What if she were to fall, or drop the baby?
    No. No, she couldn’t think that. She mustn’t.
    Coughing, her eyes stinging, Sylvie groped her way down, scraping and bruising her feet as she
    scrabbled for purchase.
    She had just reached the fourth-floor platform when the air rocked with a deafening explosion,
    and the fire escape shook violently. Sylvie froze. She darted a glance upward and saw flames
    shoot from the