H C Turk, page 54
"Then away we are," I affirmed again, "taking only what our figures wear, in that little can we pack for walking."
"No, missus," Eric sighed. "The distance is too great for us to walk."
"Not likely, sir, can I make arrangements as per my previous journey where a person's wagon was found in my path and gained for mere pence."
"What pence we have, we save," Eric added. "In advance I shall hire a carriage, and pay the fare upon our arrival, as borrowed from Grand."
"And I'm praying the man be home when you arrive," Elsie prayed, "so as no further difficulty become you. As well Fm praying the Mistress Amanda will not be taking me in harshly when I retreat there, for in the past she has been decent to me."
Turning sharply to the husband, I demanded, "Sir, do we burden Lord Andrew with our pets?"
"We do not abandon our family, missus, neither to the Rathel nor to the streets. Instead, we allow my grandfather the generosity that is prideful to him as a gentleman, and present ourselves, all four."
"Oh, and please, Master Eric, do not be letting this dull woman so drag you-"
"This woman shall continue as our servant by determining with the missus what items we might take along, in that this task is one too many for me," Eric stated. Then he quit our major, former room, moving to one away from all family members except the dog, for Randolph would best accept his sorrow. *
So pleased was Lord Andrew by our coming to him in our need that he nearly dragged the entire family into his fine home, paying the driver with his own hand perhaps too generous a gratuity, as though the transporter were responsible for our visit, as though he sought us out. What, then, would Grand pay in tribute to Lady Rathel, who had sent us here by happenstance, in that her true goal was jail—or Hell? Our only explication to Lord Andrew was that we were less than fortunate in moving from the former homesite, having been caught without a roof-and might we stay the day?
"I defy you to leave," he smiled happily, and welcomed us aboard.
Our family was provided with two chambers, Elsie situated in so grand a suite that she felt herself a queen, and felt herself weep. Such guilt she expressed to Lord Andrew's servants that they had no poor feelings toward her, despite their base lodgings. Being unfamiliar with his surrounds, the dog could not decide which chamber to select. After much panting and prancing to and fro between those of his family, he bounded away, taking as his run the entire house.
Fed sublimely was this family, except Elsie, who insisted upon eating with the servants in the kitchen, in her cowardice running there instead of remaining to argue with me. The witch who had banished burned creatures from her own home nearly fainted onto the plate while picking for potatoes and peas, though so strong and brave she was that no puking ensued. Delirious were the males of the family for the same fleshy reasons, so grateful that not the first hurt glimpse was proffered the mistress.
What fine relaxation we had with our bellies filled with beast meat as we sat before the fireplace and gazed at the flames. None of these satisfactions for the witch, however, for she had eaten only vegetable slivers, avoiding their accompanying grease called gravy. And not near the flames retained only by an upward draft and God's grace would she sit, so far removed that none of its heat could be directly felt, so turned away as to see nothing burning in that square cave. What a terrible entity was fire when not contained by a solid metal stove-and what a sinner I had become to be lustful of iron. But neither did the husband gain relaxation, for with all of Lord Andrew's insistence upon the boy's remaining till babies were born and grew to adulthood, Eric was not a man with new lodgings, but a husband who had lost his home.
A demon was amongst us. Though from my corner I saw no flames, Randolph luxuriating before the fireplace provided me with the sight of sparks alighting on his coat, unfelt, and the smell of hide made unnaturally warm, thus emphasizing my belief that the beast, too long in society, had become a sinner.
In this manner our life proceeded. Since Eric retained employment, there he hied the morning after our first night of sleeping in a strange bed not so unusual as to preclude the husband from lustily coupling with my buttocks. Not so supportive of sex was this handsome bed as our own, however; for although sturdy as a whole, one piece was a threat, a particular post so loose that all of Eric's repeated journeys within my tunnel had it totter side to side as though a sinner's testicles, implying that it might topple upon us. And please, Lord God, let it fall upon the male and put him to sleep and me to rest.
In the morning with Eric gone, Elsie became another worker out in the city, she and certain of Lord Andrew's male servants traveling in a hired wagon to return with our personal belongings from the former flat, bringing all but the gigantic bed, for no men animal enough had Grand to carry it. Therefore, Elsie returned in failure, she believed, having brought the family's artifacts, but leaving their greatest treasure. Pooh, I told her. You should have seen the handbuilt chamber pot I had to abandon in the wilds, and you worry about a stack of planks? Consider all the master's heinous, lustful fluids to have floated this bed as though a boat, then rethink your desire for that incarnate, oaken passion. Thereupon, Miss Elsie found such shame in my speaking that doubtless she wished the mistress to have been left behind instead of the "furniture, and how wise was the witch to ease her friend's sorrow.
When the husband returned that evening, he displayed a pleasant countenance instead of brooding on his dread, a natural response considering his homeless state, the failure to provide for his new famdy, and social so on. Taking me aside, Eric told of the latest developments re our illegalities.
"I have arranged with the magistrate's financiers to end my indebtedness to Lady Rathel via my current employment. She would have us ad in prison, but England's laws are more reasonable."
"Should we then subtly mention to Lord Andrew, rich in his money and generous love, that coins spilled upon our persons would be regarded?"
"Do you desire, ma'am, to experience a repeat of that event held between my father and myself on our doorstep?"
No word was spoken of Eric and his mother on the stair's bottom, but the event mentioned was enough to have me answer, "No, and sir, I do not. Nevertheless, the fault here is trebly yours. First, for marrying from lust instead of love; second, for wedding a witch though warned in advance by unique and suffocating proof of her identity; and third, for not accepting the wife's idea of withdrawing to the wilds and being away from Rathel's madness and your parents' incorrect emotions."
"Recently I have applied some thought to your wilderness, missus, and no longer find the notion fit for ridicule."
My only reply was, "Sir . . . ?"
"Mark this day well, Alba, for therein you have failed to reply elaborately to an idea of interest," Eric observed. "But to proceed beyond your graceless, open-mouthed staring: I continue to consider the utter wilderness unappealing; that is, residing beneath bushes. But a type of simple cabin in the vicinity of acceptable foodstuffs . . . perhaps. After all, you and your mother lived for years in this manner and endured. I am not unlike you in certain respects."
"Not is respect to being a witch."
"These persons eat differently than I have since our marriage?"
"Have you spoken with Elsie about me and insects?"
"Missus, you would sicken me when I speak gravely? Do you say I must consume crawling bugs once stepping beyond London's bounds?"
"No, sir, and forgive me for my comedy. In fact, abundant are the foods to eat in the wilds, and well I know the nourishing plant life most sinners would pass by even if starving."
"And if these sinners did not pass by, but stopped to dine, would they expire whereas the witch would not?"
"Perhaps regarding certain forms; but, then, we would have Miss Elsie for experimentation."
"One severe failure and she would be dead, leaving us without further studies."
"One severe failure of our genders and you would be dead, and this family without employ. But another method of wild living is applicable to us, since we are not known as witches. Without need to conceal ourselves, we might reside near enough farms to have available those common eatings that sinners desire." "Being near farms, could I not slip away for a rib on
occasion?"
"You could return with fatty flesh on your breath to find yourself in bed with Miss Elsie."
"At least with her I could procure that normal sort of sex I've known only by accident with you and for a moment."
"But you would have no benefit of her buttocks except for deriding you upon mentioning them in the same sentence as your maleness."
Due to my arse's being unavailable, Eric set upon my mouth with his, willfully pressing his tongue against mine; and in his breath was passion, as well as some fat from breakfast. Rarely did I allow the male within me so, but return his moves I did, holding his head as he held mine, my tongue dancing within his mouth, and so on. The satisfaction I achieved, however, was not of sex, but of my emotions; for as the husband well loved this kissing, I was pleased to satisfy him, though such generosity could not last forever. Not with a witch.
Pulling away from the slobbering sinner, I remarked as would any unenvious lady.
"I think you would find this well worth a lack of dead beast in your diet, for no meat will you find more alive than mine. But let us end this facial sucking, lest master or servant discover us and you suffer a sinner's embarrassment."
"Embarrassment from kissing? Since we are wed, kissing is no great shame if pursued within the bounds of one's home and not in broad and public places."
"True, but I doubt you would have any part of London gain a view of your pants with that current peak, for without looking, I notice lustful fumes rising from a certain lump."
Then Eric looked down, arranging his little limb and clothing so that the former was barely noticeable by sight.
"What a nose you have, missus. Some use might be found for this talent."
"Please, sir, be satisfied with the sex you achieve with the rest of my portions, and leave one part of my body in peace."
Thereafter, we proceeded with our business of appearing pleased with our lives, although impoverished and without home, although pursued by the Satanic Rathel. For the witch, at least, the ongoing task came with less effort because of the future, a superior life suggested by the husband, a life removed and wild. Then I wondered of a more immediate future, when Eric was without debt and again we might settle in a home our own. How likely would that home be in London rather than in God's natural world?
Contemplating a wild life implied but not likely supplied by the husband was my main activity in the following days. Soon my pondering turned to moping, my concerns continuing one evening as I sat with the husband well away from the fire. So established was this dejection that it remained until driven away by visitors, family members so social as to bring hatred to their kin.
Thirty-four
To the door came paired guests well entered by a servant of Lord Andrew, and pleasant was their discourse to this chamberlain until as pleasantly he mentioned that their son was
present.
Ah, the silence of unsettled hearts, the stillness of the racing brain. And the oblivion of innocence. As though the walking dead unable to lift their feet, Mr. and Mrs. Denton dragged themselves to the drawing room, led by the servant who pleasantly called out the visitors' introduction. Dull, dull were these people, as was their son, who forgot how to breathe those moments. Happy Grand, however, was all spritely as he moved to his guests and fully embraced them. How pleasant to be holding zombies, I thought, for the wife was stiff, Edward more of a torso than a son. Here Lord Andrew seemed another dog, for Randolph also knew these folk, running to them while yapping his love. Down to him both visitors stared, thereby avoiding a deeper look into the room, toward the son and his wife. Toward the witch and her man. Was natural Andrew so innocent of society's policies that he could only yap happily to his family when he should be separating its members? No segregation here, for Grand with a hand on either back pressed Hanna and Edward into the drawing room toward those other social folk.
Eric rose as though drawn from the grave, for dead he was to this meeting. Being tutored in etiquette, his wife remained seated, though she was certainly no lady with that smile, a common expression as brazen as a cackle considering that fiends should display only shame.
"Come, come-all of you now!" Andrew called out brightiy as he pressed the moving zombies toward their static son. "I am aware that some differences lie amongst you young folk, but for this evening, let us well rejoice in our common love, and allow any discord to settle." He then had the mother embrace her boy-and how loving these two sacks of meat were, rubbing as though mutually allergic. Then father and son were made to clasp hands, but could they even feel each other with that limp connection? All of this was colder than my holding Marybelle's head to my crotch, for at least one of us had been alive.
Unsocial was Lord Andrew to have the lady greeted last, but she was so far removed, though truly central. No more than the slightest nod and bow I received from Hanna and Edward. I, at least, had the courtesy to call to them each a good evening; and here the salutations ended. As soon as the latest Dentons faced me, Randolph ran to his new mistress as though to ask whether he were yet part of her family, in that the previous seemed to have abandoned him. Though his coat remained hot from the fire, his spirit was warm from his love, and this I acknowledged, rubbing Randolph's neck and looking to him with a smile and with thanks for his genuineness, as Lord Andrew had the zombies seated.
Performing all the speech in this cemetery, Lord Andrew called for tea, then asked his son of business, how well the great cathedral was progressing, and how unfortunate that the grandson was no longer with him, continuing in his father's profession no more than the last had with his, but again setting out on his own. But, come, come, here was too much difference, since Eric was but an assistant to an accountant, and when would he return to his father's firm where he belonged?
"Please, Father," Edward urged in reply. "You must know better than to ask of such subjects. Ask for the tea again instead."
"Ah, but I need not request the tea twice, in that so well I called the first instance that its delivery be assured. Perhaps I should ask better of famdy business, in that my initial mention did not receive comprehensive response."
"And exactly appropriate, Father," Edward returned, "in that the previous famdy business of rearing a son turned out to be a task poorly accepted by the youth."
"Drink your tea, Father," Eric remarked as the servant entered, "and rest your weary brain."
The chamberlain and his refreshments should have been a pause in the conversation, but such was the stress of the Den-tons that their nerves never faltered, Hanna responding as a cup came toward her.
"Very well, Eric, then aid your father in his exhausted intellection by returning home where you belong-with your famdy."
"And poor my rearing would be if I were to forsake my current and truest famdy now that I've achieved a servant plus the pet to care for-oh, yes, and the single wife."
"End your jesting, son, and we can end your true difficulty," Edward added. "In this England are acceptable means for allowing you to return home gracefully. If you would leave this woman through a legal and understandable annulment, your difficulties would be ended."
"And therefore abandon the person I have selected above ad others to live with forever?" Eric returned, his humor ended as requested. "You forget that I was born to you and your wife without being given the choice. But I would leave you and have done so rather than desert the greatest receptor of my love."
"Eric! Would you destroy your mother's soul by alleging to love this person more than she who gave you birth?" Hanna cried. "Would you lie to me and Jesus by saying that this woman could love you more than I?"
"Would you measure these respective loves as though accounts at a bank?" tense Eric returned. "The measure I make is not numerical, but emotional; for if Alba has never loved me more than you, she has never been so thoughtless as to engender my torment and call it love."
Quickly I rose from my chair to glimpse down to the tea at my side, then toward the congregation, the audience this witch had drawn.
"No lemon?" I inquired.
"In the weeks of this new life of yours," Edward said as though I had spoken no more than a painting on the wall, "she has worsened your ridiculous mind, for you believe that living with her is not dangerous."
"To be ridiculous, I must have been encamped in your surrounds," Eric answered, "since you have become the total fool." And Hanna gasped enough to choke. "How long must I live with this woman to prove that she brings no danger? The only damage in this marriage is from your foolish thinking and incorrect fears that each day my wife proves false."
"Evil does not always attack in a strike," Hanna averred, "but can increase in force as though a slow poison. Witness how that person more and more ruins our family."
"The poison consumed in this family is fear and by yourselves," Eric admonished. "So fully are you addicted to this sinister liquor that you foment its increase, for the poison is a hatred that fills you and which you find nourishing. And yet you continue your unhealthy beliefs, as though a religion wherein Lord God is not worshiped, but some devil."
"You sleep with a devil and call me a fool!" his father shouted.
"I sleep with an angel, previous sir, and since you've no experience beside my wife, I demand that you never again refer to her maliciously, for thereafter you will no longer be called Father by me."
"And you've not been my son since marrying your own death!" Edward shouted, his face a bluster.
So great was Edward's intensity in this conversation that his body shuddered with every word, his limbs forming inspecific gestures that signified distress. Sitting beside her husband, Hanna found herself but one gesticulation removed; for with Edward's quaking, she received blows on her shoulders sufficient to upset her carriage. But she moved no farther from him, for beyond she would be alone. Before the noisy pair could further devastate each other, the men were approached by three persons: Lord Andrew, who so much desired to smile; the young witch, who was taking her husband and cheerfully quitting this house; and the chamberlain, who gave notice that Lady Amanda Rathel had arrived.
