“ ‘Come back with me to Blackwood Manor,’ I said. ‘It’s where I live. We can stay in my room, or I’ll put you in my Pops’ bedroom if you want the proprieties. Pops just died. The room’s all cleaned and ready. He didn’t die in the room. They packaged up his personal things right away. Where’s the phone? I’ll tell them to get it ready. Give me your size of clothes. Jasmine will go to Wal-Mart and get whatever you need to tide you over.’

“ ‘God, you’re as mad as one of us,’ she said with honest amazement. ‘I thought we Mayfairs were the only ones who did things like that.’

“ ‘Just come. Nobody in my house is going to mess with us. My Aunt Queen may have some sage advice. She’s pushing seventy-nine, or so she says; sage advice is to be expected. And I have a new private teacher, Nash, but he’s a perfect gentleman.’

“ ‘So you don’t go to school, either,’ she said. ‘Cool!’

“ ‘No, never have, going to school never worked with Goblin.’

“I flew into action. She watched with continued amazement as I spoke on the phone to Jasmine. Petite everything, white shirts, pants, cotton underwear, a few toiletries, and away we went.

“As soon as I got behind the wheel I realized I had been awake for over thirty-six hours. I began to laugh at the way everything looked, and at the way everything was working.

“ ‘Here, let me drive,’ she said.

“I was glad to give in.

“She took over like a pro and off we sped, catapulting out of the narrow French Quarter streets and on to the interstate.

“I couldn’t take my eyes off her, it was positively sexy the way she drove, that somebody so delectable could drive, and when she shot those green-eyed glances at me I felt weak and overjoyed, and in that mood, that crazy, elated mood, I spoke to Goblin.

“ ‘I love her, old boy, you understand, don’t you?’

“I looked into the backseat and there he was, gazing at me with that cold contemptuous expression he had adopted in the hospital. It took the breath out of me. And then came his dark monotone voice:

“ ‘Yes, and I enjoyed her very much too, Tarquin.’

“ ‘You’re lying, you bastard!’ I said. I wanted to choke him. ‘How dare you say that to me? I would have felt you if you’d been that close! You think you can sneak inside me!’

“ ‘Oh, he was there,’ Mona said as she pushed the car past eighty-five miles an hour. ‘I could feel him.’ ”

CHAPTER 25

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