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Patient Stirling, the English scholar, the Talamasca saint. The man who got down with monsters. Starved for sleep yet ever attentive.
He turned to look at me. Clever, quick eyes.
"What do you mean?" he asked. "What failure?"
"I cannot impress upon her a sense of the gravity of her transformation. "
"Oh, she knows," he said.
"You surprise me," I answered. "Surely you don't forget who I am. You don't buy this facade. There's some reservoir of goodness and wisdom in you that never lets you forget what's behind this mask. And now you think you know her better than I do?"
"She's reeling from one shock after another," he said calmly. "How can it be helped? What did you expect of her? You know she worships you. And what if she teases you with outrageous propositions? It was always her way. I feel no fear when I'm near her, no instinctive wariness of an undisciplined power. In fact, quite to the contrary. I sense that there may come a moment when you look back and realize that somewhere along the line her innocence was lost and you can't even remember when it happened. "
I thought of the massacre last night, the ruthless elimination of Lord Rodrigo and his soldiers. I thought of the bodies heaved into the everlasting sea. I thought of nothing.
"Innocence is not our stock-in-trade, my friend," I said. "We don't cultivate it in one another. Honor, I think we can have, more than you may know, and principles, yes, and virtue as well. I've taught her that, and every now and then we can behave magnificently. Even heroically. But innocence? It's not to our advantage. "
He drew back to think on this, with just a little nod. I sensed that there were questions he wanted to ask me, but he didn't dare. Was it propriety or fear? I couldn't tell.
We were interrupted and perhaps it was for the best.
Jasmine came across the lawn with another carafe of coffee for Stirling. She was in a sharp tight red dress and high-heel shoes. She was singing loudly:
"Gloria! Gloria! In Excelsis Deo!"
"Where'd you pick up that hymn?" I asked. "Is everybody around here committed to driving me to madness?"
"Well, of course not," she said. "What would make you say a thing like that? That's a Catholic hymn, don't you know that? Grandma's been singing it in the kitchen all day. Says it's from the Latin Mass in the old days. Says she saw Patsy in a dream singing that hymn. Patsy all dressed in pink cowboy clothes, with a guitar. "
"Mon Dieu!" A shiver passed through me. No wonder Julien was leaving me alone tonight. Why not?
She poured two cups of the steaming coffee. She set down the carafe. Then she kissed me on top of my head.
"You know what Aunt Queen said to me last night in my sleep?" she asked in a cheery voice, her hand on my shoulder. I kissed her satin cheek.
"No, what?" I asked. "But please break it to me gently. I teeter on the brink. "
"She said she was tickled you were sleeping in her bed, said she always wanted a man handsome as you in her bed. She laughed and laughed and laughed. Grandma says when the dead come laughing and laughing in your dreams that means they're in Heaven. "
"I think it does mean that," said Stirling very sincerely. "This coffee is perfection. How do you do this?"
"Drink up," I said. "You have that powerful little MG TD with you, don't you?"
"I certainly do," he said. "You could see it right out there in front of the house if you had eyes in the back of your head. "
"I want you to take me for a ride in that thing. I have to deliver this saint here to Oberon. "
"Can you hold this carafe and this cup for me while I drive? Jasmine, you mind if I borrow them?"
"Don't you want the saucer? That's Royal Antoinette, the saucer's the prettiest part. Just look at it. Come in a big package from Julien Mayfair, this pattern, service for twelve, present for 'La Famille. ' "
Zap. "No," I said. "Not from Julien Mayfair. "
"Oh, yes, it did!" she said. "I have the letter. Keep forgetting to give it to Quinn. Was Julien Mayfair at the wake? I never met a Julien Mayfair. "
"When did this package arrive?" I asked.