The Madman’s Daughter (40 page)

“One more trip should do it,” Montgomery muttered. We took the last of the cargo, and Montgomery unhitched Duke and pushed against his shoulder.

“Get on, you old boy,” he chided, but his voice caught. Duke took a few steps back but didn’t leave. His ears were alert, watching his master, ready to follow him to the ends of the earth. Montgomery picked up the last of the water jars and didn’t look back at the horse.

Every step down that dock was one less I’d ever take on the island. One more toward England. Montgomery and I would make a life there with each other. Comfortable. Quiet. We’d never mention the past. If he’d seen my role in Father’s murder, he’d never say anything, just as I’d never ask if he missed Balthazar. We’d forget about Edward—no, that was impossible.

I’d never forget Edward.

One more step. And another. And then I was at the launch.

“We don’t have a choice,” I said, my vocal cords trembling. Montgomery’s eyes reflected my own tangled emotions. For a moment I studied his face in the moonlight, wondering if the tie between us would be different in London. For now, it felt as though he and I
would always be bound together.

I reached for the line holding the launch, but Montgomery touched my shoulder softly. He turned me back to face him again. His features were knotted and tense, but then his lips parted. “Juliet—”

He pulled me into a deep kiss. My surprise melted and I kissed him back. My hand found the hard silhouette of his chest and pulled with trembling fingers at his shirt. I wanted to hold on to him forever. Believing in nothing except the truth of Montgomery, who for all his faults was as steady as the sea, as honest as the sun. My eyes watered with unexpected tears, and I kissed him harder, desperately. It wasn’t a happy ending. He and I would return to the real world, but there was only anguish left for Balthazar and the others.

Montgomery broke off the kiss, reluctantly. Swallowed hard. He was as afraid of the future as I was. For a moment it was only he and I and the sea and the unknown.

“All right,” he said, taking a deep breath. “It’s time.” He climbed into the boat and steadied himself. He motioned for Balthazar and me to hand him the cargo. We worked efficiently, not exchanging words. He settled the cargo carefully to prevent the boat tipping if we came across a storm. And then he climbed out and wiped his hand through his sea-blown hair.

An awful sickness roiled in my abdomen as though I’d missed an injection. But I hadn’t. It was the shame of what I had to do, knotting my insides. I couldn’t find the words to tell Balthazar we were leaving him behind.

At last Montgomery cleared his throat. “Right, then. You first, Juliet.”

I looked up in surprise. Were we just going to climb in and push off, leaving Balthazar puzzled and heartbroken as we drifted away? I searched Montgomery’s face, but it was like stone. He held out his hand, and I took it hesitantly and climbed down into the rocking boat. I settled between two trunks at the far end, trying to force back my tears.

“I wish it didn’t have to be this way,” I said, hunching into myself. I knew he would understand what I meant. Not just leaving Balthazar, but leaving all of them—Father, Edward, the bones of all those who had died so unfairly. This island—the things that happened here—should never have existed.

“So do I,” Montgomery said, his whispered voice so low the wind might have carried it off. But he kept his gaze on me, which was odd. I kept looking at Balthazar, feeling crushed by guilt, and guiltier still that Montgomery had to be the one to tell him.

“I’m afraid this is it,” he said.

I nodded, squeezing my knees in tighter. I wouldn’t look at Balthazar’s face. It might be cowardly, but I couldn’t live with the image of his heartbreak in my head forever.

“I’m so sorry, Juliet.” Montgomery suddenly crouched down to the pile, unraveling the line faster than my brain could think.
Sorry?
Why wasn’t he getting into the boat?

It hit me like a tidal wave. He wasn’t coming with me.

He wasn’t coming with me
.

The weight of it crushed me to the bottom of the launch.
I stared at him, and then at Balthazar, who was trying his best not to look at me. Balthazar had known all along. This wasn’t a farewell to Balthazar.

It was a farewell to me.

I jerked forward, crawling as the boat pitched. “Montgomery, no. Wait.…”

But he’d already pushed his weight against the bow and set me adrift. All that linked us now was a thin bit of line that he held so lightly, so loosely, poised to let go at any moment.

“Don’t you dare!” I screamed, crawling to the bow. “Don’t let go of that line!” My knee connected with the sharp edge of a trunk and my eyes filled with water, not just from the pain. “Don’t you dare leave me, Montgomery James!”

But as I scrambled to reach the edge of the launch, the frayed end of the line came away from his hand. Seconds. Just seconds ago Montgomery had been holding it, and now I was totally adrift. Alone. I looked at him, stunned.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, his face broken. “I can’t leave. I’ve been their only family. I have a responsibility to them.”

“What about me?” I choked as the launch drifted seaward. I reached out, grappling for a hand I knew would never come. “You have a responsibility to me!”

“You’re better off without me. You can forget all of this. I would only have tied you to this place.” His voice broke. “I don’t belong there. I’m a criminal. An aberration.”

“You’re Montgomery,” I called. “We belong together.”

He shook his head. His face was wet with sweat. “No. I belong with the island.”

The betrayal ripped me apart more than any of Father’s surgeries could have done. Montgomery looked away, just as I’d planned on looking away from Balthazar’s heartbroken face. A wave caught the launch and I glided farther toward open sea, gripping the edge of the boat as though clinging to life. “No!” I screamed, one more time. Sobs choked in my throat. Hadn’t I always known Montgomery was as wild as the creatures he’d created, unable to leave them? The smell of smoke lingered in the air, and it felt so wrong, like more than the compound was burning.

Maybe he said something else. I couldn’t be sure. The dock drew farther away with each wave, until Montgomery and Balthazar were nothing more than a trick my eyes were playing on me. As I was swept out to sea, among the expensive baubles meant to buy me passage and the food that Edward had so carefully packed away, the island took form on the horizon. I saw the blaze that was once the compound. Two columns of smoke rose into the stars—one from the volcano, one from the compound. And then I saw nothing, as the waves spun me around in their dips and swells and the island disappeared into night, except the glowing blaze where fire destroyed the red walls of my father’s laboratory.

I
AM SO FORTUNATE
to have worked with a wonderful team to turn this book into a finished product. I owe a big thanks to my incredible editor, Kristin Daly Rens, and the rest of the Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins team, including assistant editor Sara Sargent, designers Alison Klapthor and Alison Donalty for the beautiful design, Renée Cafiero for an amazing copyedit, Emilie Polster and Stephanie Hoffman in marketing, and Caroline Sun, Olivia DeLeon, and Alison Lisnow in publicity. Any author would be thrilled to have you all on her team, and I am glad I get to be one of the lucky ones.

I also owe an enormous thanks to the amazing literary/black belt ninja agent team: Josh, Tracey, and Quinlan at Adams Literary. Plain and simple, you made a writer’s dream come true, and that has changed my life forever.

Thanks also to my critique group, the Secret Gardeners, as well as my beta readers, Constance, Lauren, Kim, Ameliann, and especially Melissa, who has been reading my work and giving me insightful feedback since that first awful picture book ages ago. I’d also like to acknowledge the Lucky 13s and Friday the Thirteeners for moral support, and to congratulate them on their debuts. It’s been a heck of a year!

Of course, my parents, Peggy and Tim, played a big role giving me my love of literature. You and the whole Highland Books family make up my favorite home away from home and the best place for a child to grow up. Thanks also to all my friends and family who offered support through frantic phone calls, photography sessions, playlists, and book-shaped cakes. And to my husband, Jesse, who gave me the courage to believe in myself. You make each day better than the last. And lastly, I want to acknowledge my admiration for H. G. Wells, whose book
The Island of Doctor Moreau
inspired me to create this story. I’ll never forget reading Wells’s works when I was a teenager myself, and being exposed to such compelling and insightful ideas about the world we inhabit.

This list could take up so many pages, because I have so many more people to thank for their very generous support along the way. Holding this book in my hands is an incomparable feeling, and I will never be able to find the words to express to each and every one of you how thankful I am for your encouragement.

MEGAN SHEPHERD
grew up in her family’s independent bookstore in North Carolina. An avid reader and world traveler who spent several years in the Peace Corps, Megan now lives with her husband in Asheville, North Carolina.
The Madman’s Daughter
is her first novel. You can visit her online at www.meganshepherd.com.

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Cover photos © 2013 by Lara Jade and Jasper James/Millennium Images, UK
Cover design by Alison Klapthor

Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

The Madman’s Daughter

Copyright © 2013 by Megan Shepherd

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shepherd, Megan.

The madman’s daughter / Megan Shepherd. — 1st ed.

p.     cm.

Summary: Dr. Moreau’s daughter, Juliet, travels to her estranged father’s island, only to encounter murder, medical horrors, and a love triangle.

ISBN 978-0-06-212802-7 (trade bdg.)

ISBN 978-0-06-224696-7 (international ed.)

EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780062128041

[1. Science fiction. 2. Fathers and daughters—Fiction. 3. Characters in literature—Fiction.] I. Title.

12 13 14 15 16 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Edition