Midnight Whispers (Cutler 4)

Things did quiet down and I became friendlier with Mrs. Stoddard. After all, I thought, it wasn't her fault Aunt Bet had driven Mrs. Boston away and she was asked to replace her. Jefferson got to like her more, too, and I could see she began to favor him. The twins saw it as well and before long, they were complaining about Mrs. Stoddard, and Aunt Bet was finding fault with the way she cleaned and cooked.

No one could work for these people, I thought. They were despicable.

I still made nocturnal gravesite visits and cried and complained to Mommy and Daddy. It usually left me feeling better. I never caught Uncle Philip there again at night, but one evening, after I had returned from the cemetery and quietly entered the house as usual, tiptoeing up the stairway, the interlude of family peace came to an abrupt and explosive end.

Aunt Bet burst out of my room just as I reached the second floor landing.

"Where were you?" she demanded. She had her hands behind her back as if she were holding something she didn't want me to see.

"I went for a walk," I said. "What were you doing in my room?"

"What walk? Where? Who did you meet? You met someone, didn't you?" she fired.

"What?"

"I told you," she said to Uncle Philip, who had come to their bedroom doorway. He stared out at me, not with a look of anger on his face as much as a look of genuine surprise. "You have a secret boyfriend, don't you? You meet him somewhere." She shook her head in disgust. "You're just like Fern."

"Aunt Bet, I don't know what you're talking about, but I'd like to know why you were in my room. What do you have behind your back?" I demanded.

She smiled gleefully and slowly brought her arms around.

"Disgusting," she said and held out my copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover, the marker I had left in chapter ten still there.

9

ONE BETRAYAL TOO MANY

"HOW DARE YOU GO SNOOPING AROUND THROUGH MY closets and drawers!" I cried. "What right do you have going into my room and looking at my things? You're not my mother! You could never be my mother!" I raged.

Aunt Bet straightened up and lifted her head in a haughty manner. The twins came to the doorway of their bedrooms simultaneously and peered out with sleepy but curious eyes. Only Jefferson remained asleep, something for which I was thankful. He had seen and been victim of enough of Aunt Bet's actions.

"I don't intend to be your mother, Christie, but your uncle Philip and I are your guardians now and that brings heavy responsibility with it. We're here to be su

re specifically that this sort of thing doesn't happen," she added, waving the book.

"What sort of thing?"

I turned to Uncle Philip, but he continued to stare at me with this amazed look on his face.

"The same sort of improper behavior your aunt Fern is famous for by now," she replied coldly. "I know how you so-called modern teenage girls carry on," she said nodding. "You're far more promiscuous than girls were when I was your age."

"That's not true . . . at least it isn't true for me," I replied.

"Really?" She smiled coldly. "Then why did you mark off these particular passages in this obscene book?" she asked, opening it. I felt my face turn crimson. "Would you like me to read the passages out loud?"

"No! Fern marked those passages. She gave me the book for my birthday as a mean joke. I've never even looked at it again since then."

"Isn't this your primer, your textbook on sexual behavior? Did you get ideas from it and then sneak out at night to practice them with some town boy?" she asked in a tone of accusation.

"I didn't meet anyone!" I said, but she wasn't listening to me any longer. She was off and running on her own train of thought, regardless of what I or anyone else would say.

"I often told Philip that Dawn and Jimmy were losing their grip on Fern. It got so they couldn't control her any longer and she continued and continues to get into serious trouble at school. It's a wonder she isn't pregnant yet," Aunt 1et concluded. "Now you're following in her dirty footsteps."

"I am not!"

"Only I won't stand for it," she said, ignoring my denial. "I won't be as weak and forgiving as Dawn was. After all, your uncle's reputation and mine are now forever tied to yours. What you do with yourself is no longer only your concern. Your actions reflect on us, too."

"I haven't done anything wrong!" I cried, the tears now streaming freely down my cheeks.