Crescendo

'Good.' He patted her shoulder. 'You're going to be all right, Marina. Don't fret now.'

He took care of the physical symptoms with the utmost attention, but it was the mental symptoms which could kill.

'I knew it would go away when the time was ripe,' he said with a bland satisfaction as he went.

She lay down on the bed and watched the drain­ing light. It was only a short time since she walked into that room and heard Gideon play, but she had been falling forwards through time and it had been a tiring journey.

She needed to sleep. She wanted to cut everything from her memory. When Grandie came in she sighed, biting her lip. She did not want to talk about it.

He sat down on the edge of the bed and his gnarled stiff fingers took hold of one of her hands and stroked it. She felt the love and anxiety in him and couldn't turn away.

'How do you feel?' he asked her softly.

'Fine,' she said, as she had said to the doctor, and she had lied to both of them, but Grandie looked at her with the suffering face of one who is not de­ceived and she saw him shrink as though she had hit him.

'I wish to God I'd never let him cross the thresh­old !' he burst out. 'I knew the moment I set eyes on him with you that this would happen. I warned him, but he's the most...'

'Don't talk about him,' Marina said harshly, and his bowed fingers squeezed her hand and he groaned under his breath.

'I'd like to sleep now.'

He looked at her and brushed her hair back from her face with a careful hand. 'Of course,' he said, half eager, half concerned. 'You are all right? Would you like me to stay with you? I can sit in the chair and keep as still as a mouse.'

She laughed briefly. 'No, thank you, Grandie. There's no need.'

He did not want to leave her alone, she realised, by the way he looked at her. He was afraid. She sighed and touched his face.

'I am fine, really. I shall just sleep. The doctor gave me some pills.'

'Yes, he told me.' Grandie hesitated. 'A headache, he said. Is it bad?'

'Not any more. I'm just sleepy.'

There was a lot to say, of course. She had been away for a long time and the woman to whom she had come back was a stranger to her. For the past year she had inhabited the mind and body of a girl, half child, and during those months nobody had even hinted at the truth.

Even Mrs Robinson, she thought, and laughed in a wild way, looking at Grandie and seeing him flinch. 'Poor Mrs Robinson, how she must have longed to talk about it! She was brave all those months.'

Grandie frowned. 'She's been very good—they all have. Everyone has been so kind, Marina.'

They had and she shivered. 'I know. I'm grateful, really. It seems so funny to imagine Mrs Robinson with such an exciting story and not to be able to talk about it.' She paused. 'Not to my face, anyway.' Be­hind her back, of course, the story must have been the topic of gossip for months. What did they think? Did they all know about Gideon and ... She wouldn't think of that. She felt sick now. Her stomach was heaving and she closed her eyes because the room was going round.

'Are you all right?' Grandie asked anxiously, lean­ing over her.

'Go away,' she said, thinly. 'Please, just go away and let me sleep.'

She loved Grandie, but right now she wanted to be alone, because only when she was alone could she shut out all the memories and just sink into ob­livion.

During the night she woke up and the room was pitch dark and the sea sounded like a hoarse animal out in the mist, moaning in wild complaint. She lay, shivering, and heard a movement somewhere in the darkness. She lifted her head, sighing, and asked, 'Grandie?'

There was someone in the chair not too close to the bed. She heard a stir, breathing.

'Grandie?' she asked again.

She knew, of course, before he rose and the long- body uncoiled to a height far beyond that of Grandie.

'Get out of my room!' she whispered shakily.

He stood there, not speaking, but she felt him watching her and she hated him. She did not want him anywhere near her. She said again, 'Get out!' but now she said it louder, her voice shrill, and he came towards the bed., his black shadow looming over her like a threat.