Part 41 (1/2)

”She looked sad.

” 'No,' she said, 'it's more like he comes when he wants to come, and now you have to tell me everything that happened to you with him. I overheard your telling Rowan and Michael, I admit. I was an eavesdropper. But you have to tell me. Describe him. Describe how he acted. I have to know. I'm so ferociously jealous when Oncle Julien appears to anybody else.'

”I recounted the whole experience for her. I described Julien's dapper clothes, his gentle manner. I described the flowered china pattern. She knew it. She said it was Royal Antoinette. She wasn't sure they even had it in his time. She said he had s.n.a.t.c.hed the image out of the pantry. He was a clever ghost.

”She was deeply affected by the fact that he had said her child was alive. That meant the world to her. I had a jewel there to give her in that simple intelligence.

” 'But doesn't a ghost ever lie?' I asked. I went, in my mind, back over my experience with Rebecca. Perhaps she never lied to me. She only deceived me and there can be a difference.

”I got up out of the bed. I went to the window and looked into the oak branches. It was so beautiful here. You'd never guess that you were in the middle of the city --that the waterfront lay a scant eight blocks from here to the left, that St. Charles Avenue with its legendary streetcars was only three blocks to the right.

” 'You know what I think?' I asked.

” 'What is it?' she said, sitting up. She pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around her legs. Her hands looked beautiful in her big laced ruffles. Her hair fell down around her shoulders in a way I'll never forget.

” 'I think I need you much more than you need me,' I said.

” 'Quinn, that's not true,' she said. 'I love you. You're the first person I've ever fallen in love with. It came on me all last night after they brought me home. It hurts and it's splendid and it's real. I need you because you're fresh and vital and you're not part of us.'

”She sounded so earnest.

” 'But I am,' I protested. 'I told you what Julien told me. He took the place of my great-greatgrandfather William, I told you.'

” 'But you weren't brought up a Mayfair,' she said. 'And you come with a strong name and tradition of your own. You live in a manor house with its own legends and grandeur! Besides, what does it matter? I need you and I love you, that's the point.'

” 'Mona, was it true what Dr. Rowan told me, that every time. . .?'

” 'Yes, it's true. They don't know why. But I'm constantly ovulating, constantly fertile; I conceive constantly and I lose the offspring, and every time it happens I'm weakened. More calcium is pulled out of my bones. Now, it is extremely possible --totally possible actually --that if they performed a hysterectomy on me, the problem would be solved, but then I'd never have children, and 215.

they're hoping that somehow they can solve the problem without that step.'

”I was frightened by all this, frightened for her. That I had unknowingly hurt her terrified me.

” 'If it means your life, Mona, you have to let them do the hysterectomy,' I said. 'You can't keep risking your very life.'

” 'I know, Quinn, I think about it constantly,' she said. 'And so does everyone else. There will come a moment when they say that it's time to do it, and that time may be very soon. Think about that, Quinn. Does the Lord of Blackwood Manor want a bride that can never have a child?'

” 'I love you, Mona. I don't need children. In fact, I know of a child we can have.'

” 'Just have?' she said, laughing. 'You mean just like that?'

”I told her about Pops, about Terry Sue and Tommy. Brilliant little Tommy sitting on the log with the book of paintings in his hand, and the black-and-blue mark on his face.

” 'Wow, think of it!' she said. 'It would be like Cinderella! You could just change his entire life!'

” 'Yep. I intend to do that, no matter what happens. So don't think about me anymore when you think about this hysterectomy. I'm pretty sure that Terry Sue is open to bargaining where Tommy's owners.h.i.+p is concerned. I'm going to help Terry Sue with the whole pa.s.sel of them, that's a done deal. But there's one thing I have to ask you.'

” 'You already sound like the man of the house,' she said matter-of-factly. 'I'll do my best.'

” 'No, I'm serious, Mona.'

”I sat on the bed next to her and I kissed her.

” 'Do Rowan and Michael know where your child is?' I asked.

” 'No,' she said, 'I don't think that they do. Sometimes I think that they might --Mayfair Medical is a world unto itself --but no, they couldn't --. I can't stand that idea. I can't stand that they wouldn't tell me. But let's not talk about it, Quinn. Rowan is a cold calculating scientist in many respects, but Rowan has a conscience made out of pure gold. Let's just talk about us.'

”I put my arms around her. Pure gold. The image struck me. Pure gold. I thought of the mausoleum and the mysterious stranger telling me that the mausoleum was made of gold.

” 'There's no way in the world you could run off to Europe with me,' I said. 'You need the treatment that Dr. Rowan is giving you at the medical center, don't you?'

”She sighed. She nodded. 'It was a dream, running away. They're giving me hormone treatments and all kinds of nutrients, I don't know. I'm in and out all during the week. I'm wired up for two and three hours at a stretch. I don't think there's much progress. I wanted to fly away. It was wrong of me to involve you in my dream, to let you believe it with me for a little while.'

” 'I don't mind,' I said. 'I don't have to go. In fact, I won't go. Not as long as we can see each other, and I think they trust us now. I think they know that I won't hurt you, and you know it too.'

”There came a rap at the door.

”Time for supper, and I was cordially invited to join them downstairs. In fact, they wouldn't hear of my not joining them, and after a quick call to Jasmine to report my whereabouts I appeared in the dining room to find Mona --attired in another gorgeous white s.h.i.+rt with billowing sleeves, this time over a tropical print miniskirt-shorts combination that was, if anything, more s.e.xy than her bare panties had been earlier --and Michael and Rowan, somewhat formally attired.

”Michael looked quite the gentleman in his seersucker three-piece suit, and Rowan wore a lovely simple navy blue dress with a bold triple strand of pearls.

”Only on second glance did it register that Mona had put on Aunt Queen's cameo and that it looked beautiful at her throat.

”To my utter amazement Stirling Oliver of the Talamasca had come to join us and in keeping with the mild late spring weather he wore a white three-piece suit with a lemon yellow tie. I remember that tie for some reason. I don't know why. I remember men's ties. His gray hair was clipped short, combed straight back from his temples, and he looked like a man in his sixties of excellent health.

216.

”They were all vivid impressive people and the house in no way overpowered them or diminished their easy charm.

”I was very glad to see Stirling again and had a strong sense that Aunt Queen would be disturbed if she knew. As it was I had little choice in the matter and that felt very comfortable for me.

” 'I saw your friend, Goblin, outside,' he said confidentially, as he shook my hand. 'He indicated you wished to be on your own.'

” 'Are you serious?' I asked. 'Did you really see him and talk to him?'

” 'Yes, he was right by the gate. He was very strong, but you must realize my talents for such perception are, if anything, rather over-developed. For me the world's a crowded place.'

” 'Was he angry or bitter?' I asked.

” 'Neither,' he said, 'but rather glad to be seen.'

”At this point Mona spoke up, taking our arms as she interposed, 'Why don't I invite him in?

We'll make a place at the table for him?'

” 'No, not tonight,' I said. 'I want to be selfish. He has his moments. This is one of mine.'

”The dinner went on swimmingly, with lots of conversation about whether I should in fact go to Europe, and Michael felt that there comes in each person's life a perfect time to go to Europe and one can go either too early or too late. I agreed with that heartily and then dared to ask if it was at all possible for Mona to go if Aunt Queen would agree to bring another female chaperone dedicated entirely to Mona, and I made it clear in euphemisms, which the august dining room seemed to require, that I would never risk Mona's health or well-being for cheap l.u.s.t.

”I hope I made half the potent figure that I tried to be. When only Mona consented to everything I said, Rowan went on to state matter-of-factly that Mona couldn't be away from Mayfair Medical at this time, it was simply out of the question, and that if it was at all possible she and Michael would take Mona to Europe so that Mona could have the experience again.