“ ‘Had I come between you, Quinn, he would have crushed you. He was too ready for me, Quinn. He wasn’t afraid.’

“I turned, still trembling so badly that I could scarcely stand upright, and I saw the inevitable lights in Aunt Queen’s window. It was the lurid flare of the television.

“I embraced Goblin and then told him we must go to Aunt Queen. I was crazed with excitement.

“I rushed into the kitchen, across the back hall, and banged on her door. I found her in her chaise lounge as usual with her champagne, and some champagne sherbert, concluding the marathon drinking bout that had begun at dinner. Jasmine was fast asleep under the covers. The Scarlet Empress with Marlene Dietrich was on TV.

“ ‘Listen to me,’ I said, pulling up a chair. ‘I know I’m fast losing my reputation with you as a sane person.’

“I pulled out my cotton handkerchief and mopped the sweat from my face.

“ ‘That’s quite all right,’ she rejoined. ‘You have a powerful reputation as my great-nephew.’

“ ‘The stranger attacked again. It was just outside. He got me in a choke hold.’

“ ‘Good Lord, Jasmine—.’

“ ‘No, wait, don’t call anyone. He’s gone, but before he left he told me just what he wanted. He made a list of demands, all having to do with the refurbishing of the Hermitage, and he proposed that after the renovation we share the place—that he would use it by night and I would use it by day. And if I didn’t agree to his plan he’d kill me.’

“She was aghast. She said nothing. Her small blue eyes gazed fixedly into mine.

“ ‘But Aunt Queen, this is the strange part—not that he crept onto our land, not that he made the floodlights go off on the west side of the property, not that he got me in a choke hold—all that’s normal stuff more or less. It’s what he wants done to the building!’

“ ‘What do you mean?’

“ ‘The refurbishing. It’s all precisely what I want! It’s as though he read it in my mind. He did read my mind. The electricity, the new marble floors, the glassed-in windows, the new bronze stairs inside. He asked for nothing that I hadn’t already thought of. I’d even mentioned it to you, mentioned it to the men, that they should remember the route to the place because I wanted to put in electricity. He read my mind, I tell you. He played with me on it. The creature’s not human. He’s some sort of spirit or ghost like Goblin. Only he’s a different species, Aunt Queen, and I have to go to Mona, because Mona will know and so will Stirling Oliver.’

“ ‘Quinn, stop, be still!’ she said. ‘You’re raving! You’re in a tirade. Jasmine, wake up.’