Blackwood Farm Part 26

"I told her the vision I had had of Rebecca hanging from the rusted hook, the hook having caught her rib. I told her how I had been unconscious on the floor afterwards.

" 'Jasmine said you fell down as if you'd been struck on the head. Your eyes never closed. And then you revived, just like that.'

" 'Did I have a seizure out there?' I asked. 'Is that what Jasmine really saw?'

" 'She didn't see it,' said Aunt Queen. 'But we can talk about all this tomorrow afternoon on our way to Mayfair Medical. As for the mysterious intruder, we have guards everywhere. The Shed Men are in their glory. But regarding tomorrow morning. . .'

" 'Patsy's been found and the will's going to be read,' I guessed.

" 'That's it exactly. Now brace yourself for a scene. But I have my hopes. And I have my plans. Your grandfather was Gravier's only living son. We'll see what happens. Now you go on up now, Big Ramona's probably waiting for you. Give me a sweet kiss. I love you.'

"I bent down to kiss her, to glory in her soft gray hair and her perfume. 'Good night, my love,' I said. 'Where's your bedfellow, Jasmine?'

" 'Oh, she is the most provoking creature. She's tired from her trip to the island. She's confused. She's soon to be our salvation, and she knows it. I think she's afraid of the challenge.'

" 'What do you mean?'

" 'Well, who's to run this place when you and I leave?' she said with a shrug. 'Jasmine can do it.'

"I'd never even thought of this, and it seemed so right suddenly. How many times had I gone into the bungalow to find Jasmine and come across her rapping on her computer. And who did the tours better than Jasmine?

" 'That's good, that's really good!' I said. 'I want to talk to her.'

" 'No, let me explain it to her,' Aunt Queen replied. 'She'll be coming later on. She's gone up to fuss in Pops' bedroom. I asked her to go through his jewelry, and she's making a night of it up there. Just tell the darling girl to stop her inventory and come down at a reasonable hour. I'll never go to sleep tonight if she's not here.'

"Something clicked in my mind. It clicked in my body, too. Jasmine alone in Pops' bedroom.

"I went up the stairs like a man going up to meet his bride. I looked in on Big Ramona and found her sound asleep. I went on to Pops' room.

"The door was open.

"His bed is a big heavy four-poster --you saw it --it's one of the oldest in the house. I saw Jasmine sitting on it, up against the velvet-covered pillows, and in her hand was a goblet of red wine. The bottle was on the nightstand.

"She was dressed all foxy, in one of her tightfitting leopard-skin tops that look brilliant with her mahogany skin, and close-cropped yellow hair, and a nothing of a leather skirt. One leg was up and the other stretched out. Spike heels. Flash of white panties. You never saw a more earnest invitation. And I was the only guest.

"I closed the door and locked it.

"She sighed and put the gla.s.s under the lamp on the nightstand. I sat beside her and then took her in my arms. I kissed her lips and felt the immediate fire. She pushed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against me. I squeezed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s so desperately it was a wonder I didn't hurt her. G.o.d, this is Heaven; you're in the G.o.d, this is Heaven; you're in the wrong place. wrong place. I slipped my hand up her leg and touched her silk panties and the heat behind them. I slipped my hand up her leg and touched her silk panties and the heat behind them.

" 'Pull'm down, tear'm off,' she said in my ear. 'Panties are cheap. Panties are nothing.' She was crying. I could hear it.

"I kissed her on the mouth again, and her tongue shot between my lips. Oh, Lord, G.o.d. I kissed her plenty, and I ripped her panties over her ankles and off her spike-heel shoes, and I cradled her foot 146.

in my hand and kissed her instep.

"Under her breath she cried. I gobbled her wet tears.

" 'Lord, it's wrong,' she whispered. 'I know it's so wrong. You, my baby Tarquin, but I need it so bad!'

" 'So do I, lady,' I said. 'You can't imagine!' "

18.

"IT WAS what we call the middle of the night. One, two in the morning --something like that. All of Blackwood Manor slept. I slept. Big Ramona snored. I woke now and then. I had a vague sense of a conversation with Rebecca. We were on the lawn, in the antique wicker chairs from the attic, and she was explaining to me that all the old wicker had been hers, that Manfred had bought it for her.

"She was so happy that I'd taken it down and had it restored, that Pops had painted it white. How handsome it was.

" 'You are my world, Tarquin,' she said.

"But that was only part of what she tried to tell me. She was trying to talk of other things, things I must do, how justice would be achieved, and I was arguing with her.

"How thin and indistinct was all this. I woke and stared in front of me and all the fabric dissolved. Then I turned over again and I was talking to her.

"Suddenly, I was wrenched up out of the bed and dragged across the floor!

"I was fully awake in an instant.

"Into the bathroom I was forced by powerful hands that hurt my arms. My head was smacked against the wall. I was lifted off my feet and held that way, and by the thin light from the door through which I'd just been dragged I saw that it was a tall man who held me.

"His hair was cleanly brushed back from his high rounded temples, and his large dark eyes were fastened on me.

" 'Oh, so you burn my books, you little imp, do you!' he whispered to me, his breath warm and odorless against my face. 'You burn my books! You play with me!'

"I could feel my emotions coming together and I knew all of a sudden that what I felt wasn't terror after all, it was rage, the same rage I'd felt when I'd done the thing that had so angered him.

" 'Get away from me and get out of my house!' I cried. 'How dare you come into my very room!

How dare you trespa.s.s again!'

"I struggled violently to get free. I pushed against his chest with all my might. He was immovable.

"His eyes were a glare in the shadows. Of the rest of him, all I saw was an open white s.h.i.+rt with white cuffs and a black coat. And he let me down on my feet slowly.

" 'You little fool,' he said, gripping my shoulders, and he smiled, and for the first time I saw his mouth, very finely shaped, with thick but perfectly sculpted lips.

"Again, I went wild in his grip. I pushed my knee against him, I kicked his s.h.i.+ns. I gained nothing!

" 'Never go near the island again!' he hissed. 'Never touch what's mine, do you hear me?'

" 'You're a liar and a trespa.s.ser,' I said. 'Bring your claim in a court of law!'

" 'Don't you realize I could kill you?' he returned with blazing anger. 'I have no qualms about it 147.

whatsoever. Why do you protest? Why do you do foolish things? What's so precious to you?'

" 'What's rightfully mine!' I said. 'Get out of my house before I bring it down on you.'

"Of course I knew that no one could hear me. Ramona slept like the dead. The house was too big, the walls too thick, and here we were in a windowless tiled bathroom.

"Suddenly he released his grip. My shoulders ached. He didn't let me go, however. And then when he spoke it was more calmly: " 'I'm not going to kill you. I don't want you dead. I have a theory about you. But you ever go near that island again and I will kill you, you understand me? You warn everyone away from that island forever. You make it off limits to the world, or I'll come back here and drag you out into that swamp and kill you slowly just the way Rebecca died, you impudent child.'

"He had scarcely finished the last two words when the big mirror to his right shattered and great dangerous pieces of gla.s.s fell with a loud noise all over the lavatory and the floor. I glimpsed Goblin behind him.

"Goblin's hands came up around the stranger's neck and I saw Goblin vanish as he obviously and fiercely exerted pressure.

"The man cursed in another language. He let me go, reaching for his own throat reflexively, and then the gla.s.s of the shower door broke and Goblin appeared again, tissue thin but visible to me and flas.h.i.+ng a knifelike piece of gla.s.s at the stranger, which the stranger pushed away with his immense strength rather easily.

"Again the man cursed, looking hastily to the right and the left and then behind himself. I saw that his black hair was very long and worn in a slender wavy ponytail. He had sharply squared shoulders.

"He was maddened, pivoting and grabbing me again, but there came from Goblin another a.s.sault with both his fists, and more fine bits of gla.s.s hurled at the intruder, who let me go, backing up and twirling like a dancer.

"Gla.s.s was flying around the room. The stranger had to duck a fragment aimed right at his face. More gla.s.s clattered to the floor as the lower portion of the shower door broke into finer pieces.

" 'What is it?' he hissed, warding off the shards with thrusts of his hands that came so fast I couldn't follow them.

"Goblin bore down on him with his fists and then throttled him again. He threw off Goblin with visible effort, and furiously.

"The light flashed on, then off, then on again. I saw him fully illuminated, a young man with perfect skin and satin black hair, his black suit very fine and his face, even in its obvious hatred, no less than beautiful.

" 'What is it, d.a.m.n you!' he snarled at me. Daggers of gla.s.s were raining upon him and he batted them off like insects. The lights continued to flash.

" 'You think I'm going to tell you!' I charged. 'You're in my house now, same as when you read your books on my island! Get out of it, or who knows what will happen? I can see the creature who fights you now. It's plain as day that you can't!'

"I was boiling with rage. I stood poised, lacking only the nerve to try to thrust a piece of gla.s.s right into his chest, and then he was gone, gone silently and swiftly as though he'd never been there, and I was alone in the bathroom, in the dark, amid all the broken gla.s.s, and Big Ramona in her bare feet and in her rose-print nightgown was staring at me.

" 'Lord, Child of Grace,' she said. 'What have you done!'

" 'It's not me, it was him, didn't you see him! Oh my G.o.d, didn't you see him?' I pleaded with her.

" 'I don't know what I saw. Don't you move, don't you walk in that gla.s.s! I was sound asleep and I hear all this gla.s.s breaking.'

148.

"Goblin stood before the lavatory, and in a reserved manner, a wise manner, he smiled at me. I threw my arms around him. I felt his shape.

" 'Thank G.o.d for you,' I declared. I caressed his hair. I kissed him. 'You scared him off. You did it.'

"The whole house was waking up. I could hear feet pounding up the stairs. I heard Clem holler out to me from the hall. I heard an alarm go off, though how or where I didn't know.

"And as they crowded into the bedroom, I knew what they saw. They saw me standing alone amid all the broken gla.s.s, as barefoot as Big Ramona, and embracing a form they couldn't see --the empty air for all they knew or had ever known."

19.

"BY THE TIME we reached Mayfair Medical I was a gibbering idiot in a b.l.o.o.d.y nights.h.i.+rt. I was in the back of Aunt Queen's limo with her on one side and Clem on the other and Big Ramona in front of us, on the J seat, and Jasmine at the far end of the J, back to the driver, everybody begging me to calm down. Clem's fingers were biting into my arm and Aunt Queen was exerting as much pressure as she could. At one point, Big Ramona told Aunt Queen to move, and she took ahold of me like a professional wrestler.

"It was the old story. The more you tell people you're not insane the crazier they think you are. And they clearly thought I was crazy.

"How many times did I say that the intruder had been in the house? How many times did they tell me that was impossible? How many times did I tell them that Goblin broke the gla.s.s, Goblin saved my life, how many times did they exchange their urgent heartfelt glances?

"I was still raving when we pulled into the Emergency porte cochere, and they had a gurney ready for me. Of course I swore up and down that I didn't need it. Then I realized I was barefoot and my feet were scratched from the gla.s.s. All right. Hospital regulations.

"I could have dressed properly before we ever left home, if only people had listened.

"But off I went into the Emergency Room, where the nights.h.i.+rt was unceremoniously cut off and topical medicines were applied to the cuts and sc.r.a.pes all over me.

"As to my head, I told them that the pain was killing me. The stranger had slammed me against the wall. Give me something for my headache if you do nothing else. You can forget about the scratches and bruises.

"And bruises there were aplenty. And when I saw how bad they were, I started yelling for Aunt Queen and Jasmine to come. Oh, if only Pops were here! Oh, d.a.m.n!

"They began to tie me down and I went truly crazy.

"All the time, Goblin was with me, very strong, very visible, his face full of concern, but I didn't dare try to speak to him and he knew it. After the energy he had used I couldn't understand why he still looked so dense and so powerful. He didn't like what was happening. He made no bones about it. And suddenly I became terrified that he would start breaking the gla.s.s and the whole scene would devolve into chaos.

" 'Goblin, don't do anything in here,' I said, staring at him. 'It will only make it worse. Let me just play it on out.'

"Then Dr. Winn Mayfair himself, proud scion of the legendary Mayfair family and working 149.

head of the whole complex, approached the gurney. It seemed a spell fell over the Emergency Room, doctors and nurses mesmerized by the mere presence of the guy.

"I calmed down too. I was quite literally bound hand and foot, and why should I object to this doctor examining me?

"Now, the only reason I knew anything about Dr. Winn Mayfair was that Lynelle had told me all about him. He had been born in New Orleans, reared in Boston and become a physician up North, coming South only when the family here contacted him and offered him a dream job at the new medical center.

"He had become the partner and confidant of Rowan Mayfair, the other M.D. member of the famous clan, the one who had created and endowed the center and designed all its special features.

"It was Dr. Winn who took over the actual day-to-day management of everything, whereas Dr. Rowan worked tirelessly in research having to do with human growth hormone, Lynelle's old dream.

"Somewhere behind the scenes was Dr. Winn's father, Dr. Elliott Mayfair, a cardiac surgeon, and he had also been persuaded to transplant back home, and Rowan, Elliott and Winn Mayfair were the backbone of the establishment.

"Dr. Winn had a reputation for having a very quiet voice and a very gentle touch. His field had been neurosurgery --the same field as that of Dr. Rowan Mayfair --and the two were said to be cousins who resembled each other in temperament and gifts, as well as physical looks, though they had only met recently, each quite astonished at the other.

"Lynelle had wors.h.i.+ped the guy.

"What I saw was a smooth, brilliant and attentive man, tall and lean, who had been roused from bed to meet Miss Lorraine McQueen and her legendary boy prodigy who communed with the Dead.

"He had beautifully groomed silver blond hair and cold blue eyes behind rectangular wirerimmed gla.s.ses, and he talked to me under his breath, which tended to give his words a confidential tone, which I frankly welcomed. He also spoke slowly.

"At once he took my blood pressure himself, though a nurse had done it before, and then he looked into both my pupils. He put his stethoscope to my head, listening for the longest time, as though my brain were talking to him. Then he felt my glands and he inspected the bruises on my arms. His touch was reverent.

" 'I know your head hurts,' he said in a liquid voice, 'but we can't give you anything for the pain that might mask the symptoms of the head injury. As soon as they've finished with these lacerations, we're taking you for a CAT scan.'