Weavingshaw

Expressing doubt about Leena’s ability, Mr. St. Silas takes her to Newtorn Prison to prove it. The prison’s Warden is notably subservient to St. Silas. During a tour, Leena learns that inmates are used as factory labor and asks the Warden about her father, Ali Al-Sayer, who is imprisoned there for attempting to organize a workers’ union. The Warden dismissively tells her that the prison does not bother to differentiate between its immigrant prisoners.

St. Silas leads Leena to the cell of a man named Colson, his own former secretary. Inside the cell, Leena sees the ghost of a young man with a fatal wound in his temple. When Leena asks the spirit whether his killer is present, the ghost nods and points at Mr. St. Silas. With her ability now proven, St. Silas acknowledges that she is telling the truth.

Back in his study, St. Silas reveals that Leena also has Sweeper’s Cough, which he identified by the blue tinge of her fingernails. He uses this leverage to coerce her into signing a new contract. Leena reluctantly agrees to work as his secretary in exchange for medication for herself. Her primary assignment is to locate the ghost of Percival Avon, the 16th Marquess of Avon and master of an estate called Weavingshaw. The contract states she will be freed from his service as soon as the ghost is found.

During their negotiation, St. Silas admits to murdering one of his former secretaries and having the other imprisoned because they were plotting against him. As she leaves, St. Silas ominously tells her that her life now has a price, which she set herself by signing the contract. The housekeeper, Mrs. Van, sees her out.

While she and Rami recover from Sweeper’s Cough, Leena recalls the origins of her abilities. She began seeing ghosts three years prior, and she quit her position as a lady’s companion to Lord Hargreaves’s mother before her odd behavior could get her sent to a mental institution. She learned that ghosts try to possess her when she is weak, and she and Rami discovered that striking two copper coins together wards off ghosts. In addition, a circle of salt drawn around her bed keeps the spirits at bay while she sleeps. However, a mouse once broke the circle and a ghost nearly possessed her, so she has never slept easily since.

During her illness, Leena has a vivid dream of her mother, who died of illness in a refugee camp. In the dream, her mother helps her practice reading from a book entitled A Guide to Botany, which Leena still keeps as her most prized possession. Her mother warns her that a group called “the Wake” will take her father and that she must “[b]eware the promise of Weavingshaw” because “All Avons are demon-kissed” (47).

After recovering, Leena goes to the Old Market for supplies. She wants to purchase a dagger for self-defense but is unable to afford one. At the market, she sees the ghost of a boy who was flogged to death for his work in the anti-monarch rebellion movement. The ghost is following a young woman who is distributing rebel pamphlets. Leena warns the girl that soldiers are approaching, allowing her to escape. At the local lending library, Leena researches Lord Avon. She discovers that according to the official records he died at 36 from an “undisclosed illness,” left no heirs, and his estate, Weavingshaw, was subsequently purchased by a tradesman named Mr. Martin. She also finds an illustration of the Avon family crest, a wolf battling a Deathgrip flower with the motto, “I complete what is mine” (56). Leena reports to St. Silas’s house to begin her service, bringing with her a broken golden timepiece Margery gave her as a gift.

Mr. St. Silas explains Leena’s duties: She will attend his consultations with clients and secretly report to him if any ghosts are present. He then interrogates her about how she acquired her ability. Leena reveals that it began while she was employed at Hythe House by Lord Hargreaves. This information prompts a trade: Leena reveals that Lady Hargreaves didn’t die of a sudden illness as the official reports say. She was found drowned, her pockets filled with rocks. In exchange, St. Silas tells her that the Wake is a group of aristocrats working in the shadows who smuggle prisoners out of Newtorn Prison and sell them across Morland and to other continents.

St. Silas then shows Leena a portrait of Lord Avon and reveals that Lord Avon was murdered. Believing the ghost will be at his ancestral home, Leena insists they must travel to Weavingshaw, but St. Silas answers that they will go there when the time is right.

Leena begins her work attending the Saint’s consultations. Mr. St. Silas records confessions in a set of black ledgers and strictly forbids her from ever touching them. During one session, a former factory owner confesses that he used to lock his workers inside his factory to prevent theft. This practice resulted in their deaths when a fire broke out 10 years ago. Leena sees the ghost of a burned woman accompanying the man.

Immediately after St. Silas writes the man’s secret in the ledger, the confessor is overcome by a sudden agony, as if physically and psychically tormented. As punishment for her interruptions during the consultations, St. Silas threatens to burn pages from her cherished botany book, a possession he somehow knows is invaluable to her.

Leena begins clearing her throat, shifting her chair, sneezing, and tapping her fingers during consultations to fill the silence St. Silas enforces against his clients. In response, St. Silas subtly threatens her by mentioning her brother and reminding her that he is aware of her vulnerabilities. 

Later, a member of the Black Coats gang comes to confess that his rebel comrades are dead because of him. Leena sees the wrathful ghosts of the murdered rebels following him. She relays this information to St. Silas, who uses it to expose the man’s initial lie that he had simply fallen asleep on his watch. The man admits that he betrayed his comrades to the King’s soldiers for money. Once the true confession is recorded in the ledger, the Black Coat suffers the same agonizing transformation that the factory owner did.

After a fruitless search for Lord Avon’s ghost at his former boarding school, Leena tries to sneak out at night to visit Rami. As she descends the stairs she hears a crash behind a locked door. St. Silas opens it and intercepts her, and she then witnesses a King’s soldier dragging away a confessor whose lips have been carved with an “X” as punishment for lying. St. Silas denies Leena’s request to leave but says she can make a supervised visit to her brother in two weeks.

Later, St. Silas leaves Leena alone in the confession room as a test of her obedience. She touches one of the black ledgers and is struck by an overwhelming, supernatural wave of pain and grief. St. Silas returns and informs her she has failed his test. Their confrontation is interrupted by the Black Coat who betrayed the rebels. The man returns with a pistol, claiming St. Silas is a demon who has cursed him. When the man points the gun at Leena, St. Silas slits his throat with a knife.