Sharp rat cubI’m sure you know another Axel. Don’t be so ridiculous, says Hei?ur. It’s a done deal. I toss three thousand kr?nur on the table. Hei?ur gives me a harsh look and says, You’re exasperating, Harpa. “I’m sorry,” he said hastily, “to bother you again… but my car’s over there, otherwise I’d have waited for you farther down. I…” M. Deauville sensed the waves of reluctance radiating from me as I contemplated the prospect of returning to the sunspot, the danger zone, the area of unusual turbulence where the trouble had kicked off in the first place, and although I did not express these misgivings to M. Deauville, I did not have to. He sighed.‘Sometimes you need to go backwards to go forwards, Tristram,’ he stated in the firm, coaxing tones of the early days, the scraping-by days, the talking-me-down-from-the-ledge days. His voice on the other end of the line had guided me through the darkest episodes imaginable. I will not trouble you with that period of my life here. Suffice it to say that M. Deauville had held my hand through it, and that I quite literally owed him my life. He closes his book and moves closer to the wall to make room. I feel it’s going a bit too far to sit down on the bed next to him, and instead pull a folding chair over to the couch. Yves is wearing a white T-shirt. His skin is dark brown, and he has enormously developed arm muscles. The Captain First Secretary, Tadanobu, having heard certain false rumors, began to speak about me in the most unpleasant terms.“How could I have thought of her as a human being?” was the sort of thing he used to say… For an extended portion of my confinement— and each portion was an extended one, and each one was confined — I grew convinced that Deauville was in that cell with me, as indeed he possibly was. When I moved, he moved fluidly around me to ensure we never collided. Sometimes I swiped the air to catch him out, but there is no catching the Devil out. And for one dire passage of time, one truly diabolical interlude, I became convinced that I was not under the castle hiding from Deauville, but already in Hell, and that this was it for eternity. Imagine. A stone cell too dark to see in, too small to stand in, too cold to sleep in, and not another soul to speak to ever again. The fear almost paralysed me. The recollection of it still does.Doom, doom. Hell. Aren’t you terribly scandalized? asks Mom, sounding distressed. I felt the pain in that car the same as I had felt when Theon first said those words. sharp rat cub I know, says Edda. I really think she’s about to start crying. Were I writing a technical handbook, I would say to you:“A well-made dress suits everyone.” Having said that, no woman has the same arm width; the shape of the shoulder is never the same … everything depends on the shoulder; if a dress doesn’t fit on the shoulder, it will never fit … The front doesn’t move, it’s the back that takes the strain. A plump woman always has a narrow back, a slim woman always has a wide back; the back must have room to move, at least ten centimetres; you have to be able to bend down, play golf, put on your shoes. The customer’s measurements must therefore be taken with the arms crossed … I glanced up as I was racing away from him up the avenue to see the castle burning brightly through the trees. At first I thought it was on fire. Every light shone, every door was thrown open. Even the cellar had been breached— lights glimmered up through the grates. A search party had stampeded through each wing and floor. What could they be looking for? Me, I realised. ‘The young master didn’t come home last night.’ ‘The Garda? were looking for you.’ It hurts a bit, but I fell asleep. The whole room, stage and seating, was brightly lit. There were carpenters and painters banging, sawing, and painting on the set. Jude was standing to the side of the slightly elevated stage, looking at the work with a serious eye. When I walked in he seemed to sense my presence and turned to look at me. There’s a rustling of aluminum foil. The insatiable Hei?ur gobbles down sandwiches. She must burn enormous amounts of calories, this spindly woman. She can eat if she wants. To sleep is what I want. “Was that your husband?” he asked while pulling out the chair that Jude had vacated. “Nah,” my dad said. “I just want regular coffee. Our fortunes are tied together anyway. Read your mom’s, and you’ll read mine, too.”. |