There were voices in her head, a woman and a young girl, screaming in agony, as the flames scorched their flesh… 

 Faye Wilding opened her eyes, the beams of sunlight streaming in through the curtains of her hospital room the first thing she saw.   The voices were quiet now.   

How long had she been here?  The last thing she remembered was Nolan slamming his fist into her face.    

She lifted her hand.Her left eye felt tender and swollen.    

She tried to remember what had happened; the fragments of memories arranging them as it all came flooding back to her.    

Last night had been the annual Children’s Charity Ball, her second as Mrs Nolan Wilding.    

They’d been dancing.  She was so happy and then all of a sudden the vision, the same vision she had seen so many times in her life, had assuaged her, causing her to scream in fear, wildly pushing Nolan away and fleeing the ballroom in terror, oblivious to the scandalized looks and hushed whispers of disapproval from all the matrons of high society.    

Always the same, a woman roped to a stake, screaming, as the flames scorched and burned the flesh from her bones.    

She’d fled back to their house, where Nolan had found her, sitting and crying on the bed.    ‘You stupid bitch, ’, he’d fumed, ’’do you have any idea of the humiliation you have caused me and my mother?  ’  

She’d stared up at him with her tearstained face, not even flinching at the verbal insult. 

She was used to it by now.  Her expressive hazel eyes showed no fear.This was the nature of their marriage.

‘I saw it again, Nolan, ’she said softly.  ’The vision.  .  .  .  of the burning woman.  ’  

‘Screw your damn vision!  ’ he yelled, dragging her off the bed by her flowing dark hair, his rage reaching boiling point.  Fighting back was futile, it would only make the beating so much worse.   

‘This was the last straw!    Do you think in my position, with my family’s standing and good name, do you think I need a goddamn lunatic for a wife?  This marriage is over and you have embarrassed me for the last time!  Do you hear me?  Do you?  ’  

Still holding her by the hair, his fist connected with her face and everything went blank from there, till now, that she remembered.    

She closed her eyes, then heard the door open and a woman’s voice speaking to her. 

  ‘Mrs Wilding?  ’ She opened her eyes, this must be her doctor.    

‘Yes, ’she answered.    

‘I’m Dr Miller.You gave us all a scare last night, after the fall you took down the stairs at your home.  ’

  Faye smiled.  So that’s the spin Nolan put on it, she’d fallen down the stairs.    

He’d probably dragged her from the bedroom and rolled her down it himself, an old trick of his.  He knew exactly how much force to use, not to kill her.    

The first time he’d hit her, four months into their marriage, he'd pushed her down the stairs and left her lying there till the paramedics arrived.  She had three broken ribs and a twisted ankle from that encounter.    
No one batted an eye at him.As heir to the wealthy Wilding empire, his money rendered him above reproach.  It also helped that his mother knew which strings to pull to keep it undercover.    

‘You were out for a while, ’the doctor continued, ’but luckily both of you are okay.  ’  

‘Both of us?  ’Faye asked, surprised at the word ‘both’.  Had Nolan in his abusive zest taken a tumble with her?  She found the thought quite amusing.    

‘Yes, Mrs Wilding.  You and your baby are both in perfect health.  ’