Jason and Hector gave identical groans and immediately went
back to work. Again, Cassandra?s opinion went unquestioned.
Helen had always tacitly assumed that Lucas was the leader of the
kids and that his father, Castor, was the leader of the whole family,
but now she thought maybe there was another, less traditional dynamic
at work in the Delos family. When Cassandra spoke, everyone
listened?including Castor. And apparently, Cassandra didn?t
need the influence of the Furies to dislike Helen. Which reminded
her . . .
?I don?t see the Furies!? Helen suddenly exclaimed out loud.
?None of us do,? replied Castor in a pensive voice. Helen heard a
leathery squeak as he twisted around in his seat to look back at
them. ?We?ll figure it out later. You two need your rest for now.?
She couldn?t argue with that; in fact, she could barely keep her
eyes open. As soon as she heard the soporific purr of the engine
she nodded off exactly like a fussy baby on a car trip.
She woke up in a big, white bed as the sun was going down. The
room?s window framed the sky, which was doing things with color
that all the island painters had to be going bananas over.
She wiggled her toes. When that worked out okay she propped
herself up on her arms and got into a sitting position. Swinging her
legs out of bed, she realized that she was in someone else?s nightgown
and she wasn?t wearing anything underneath it. She knew
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she was recovering from a near-death experience, but she was still
bashful enough to blush. The nightgown was actually more what
Helen would call a nightie, as gowns were generally much longer
and more opaque. Testing her feet on the floor was enough to wipe
her modesty away, however, and her startled cry was quickly
answered with a welcome helping hand.