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She turned the lighter over now, the cigarette dangling from her lip, and through the little coil of smoke she read the inscription. "To David, my Savior, from Joshua. " Her eyes flashed on my face, and she smiled.
The words she'd read cut deep into me, but I would have none of it. I merely stared at her. This would take a little time.
"You're damned right," she said, "it's going to take time. Don't you think I want some of what she's getting. But let's talk about this here, Joshua, he was your lover, wasn't he? You were lovers with him and he died. "
The pain I felt was exquisite, and for all my claim to enlightenment and self knowledge, I was mortified that these words were spoken in Aaron's presence. Joshua had been young, and one of us.
She laughed a low, carnal laugh. "Course you can do women, too, if they're young enough, can't you?" she asked viciously.
"Where do you come from, Honey in the Sunshine?" I demanded.
"Don't call her by name," Aaron whispered.
"Oh, that's good advice, but it don't matter. I'm staying right where I am. Now let's talk about you and that boy, Joshua. Seems he was mighty young when you¡ª. "
"Stop it," I said sharply.
"Don't talk to it, David," said Aaron under his breath. "Don't address it. Every time you talk to it, you give it strength. "
A high pealing laughter erupted from the little woman at the dressing table. She shook her head and turned her body to face us completely, the hem of the slip riding up on her naked thighs.
"I'd say he was eighteen maybe," she said, looking at me with blazing eyes as she took the cigarette off her lip. "But you didn't know for sure, did you, David? You just knew you had to have him. "
"Get out of Merrick," I said. "You don't belong in Merrick. "
"Merrick's my sister!" she flashed. "I'll do what I want with her. She drove me crazy from the cradle, always reading my mind, telling me what I thought, telling me I made my own trouble, always blaming everything on me!"
She scowled at me and leant forward. I could see her nipples.
"You give yourself away for what you are," I said. "Or is it what you were?"
Suddenly she rose from the dressing table, and the left hand, free of the cigarette, swept all the bottles and the lamp off the right side of the table, with one fine blow.
There was a roar of shattered glass. The lamp went out with a loud spark. Two or more of the bottles were broken. The carpet was littered with sharp fragments. The room was filled with a powerful perfume.
She stood before us, her hand on her hip, the cigarette held high. She looked down at the bottles.
"Yeah, she likes those things!" she said.
Her posture became ever more suggestive, mocking. "And you do like what you see, don't you, David? She's just young enough for you. She's got some of the little boy left in her, don't she? Great Nananne knew you and what you wanted. And I know you too. "
Her face was full of anger and very beautiful.
"You killed Joshua, didn't you?" she said in a low voice, eyes suddenly narrow, as if she was peering into my soul. "You let him go on that climb in the Himalayas¡ª. " She pronounced the word as I would have said it. "And you knew it was dangerous but you loved him so much, you couldn't say no. "
I could say nothing. The pain in me was too intense. I tried to banish all thoughts of Joshua. I tried not to think of the day when they had brought his body back to London. I tried to focus on the girl before me.
"Merrick," I said with all the strength I could muster, "Merrick, drive her out. "
"You want me, and so do you, Aaron," she continued, the grin making her checks supple, her face flushing. "Either one of you'd tack me to that mattress if you thought you could. "
I said nothing.
"Merrick," said Aaron loudly. "Cast her out. She means you no good, darling, cast her out!"
"You know what Joshua was thinking about you when he fell off that cliff?" she said.
"Stop it!" I cried.
