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Her ht way, but Cassie could only hear snatches of the words " original wing actually Prerevolutionary, one-and-a-half stories front wing is Postrevolutionary Georgian"
It went on and on Cassie clawed open the car door, getting an unobstructed view of the house at last The more she saw of it, the worse it looked
Herabout a transom over the front door, her voice rapid and breathless " rectangular, not like the arched fanlights that came later - "
"I hate it!" Cassie cried, interrupting, her voice too loud in the quiet air, startlingly loud She didn’t mean the transoain passionately There was silence from her mother behind her, but Cassie didn’t turn to look; she was staring at the house, at the rows of unwashed s and the sagging eaves and the sheer monstrous bulk and flatness and horribleness of it, and she was shaking "It’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen, and I hate it I want to go hoo home!"
She turned to see her mother’s white face and stricken eyes, and burst into tears
"Oh, Cassie" Mrs Blake reached across the vinyl top of the car toward her "Cassie, sweetheart" There were tears in her own eyes, and when she looked up at the house, Cassie was astounded at her expression It was a look of hatred and fear as great as anything Cassie felt
"Cassie, sweetheart, listen to me," she said "If you really don’t want to stay - "
She stopped Cassie was still crying, but she heard the noise behind her Turning, she saw that the door to the house had opened An old wo on a cane
Cassie turned back "Moazing at the door And slowly, a look of dull resignation settled over her When she turned to Cassie, the brittle, falsely cheery tone was back in her voice
"That’s your grand"
"Mo entreaty But her one blank, opaque
"Come on, Cassie," she said
Cassie had the wild idea of throwing herself into the car, locking herself in, until someone came to rescue her But then the same heavy exhaustion that had descended over her mother seemed to wrap around her as well They were here There was nothing to be done about it She pushed the car door shut and silently followed herin the dooras ancient Old enough to be her great-grandmother, at least Cassie tried to detect some resemblance to her mother, but she could find none
"Cassie, this is your Grand The old wo her deep-set eyes on Cassie’s face In that instant a bizarre thought flashed into Cassie’sto put me in the oven But then she felt ar Mechanically she lifted her own arrandmother pulled back to look at her "Cassie! At last After all these years" To Cassie’s disco at Cassie hat seemed like a mixture of fierce worry and anxious hope "At last," she whispered again, as if speaking to herself
"It’s good to see you, Mother," Cassie’s mother said then, quiet and formal, and the fierce old eyes turned away from Cassie
"Alexandra Oh, " The tomen embraced, but an indefinable air of tension re here outside Co her eyes "I’m afraid the old place is rather shabby, but I’ve picked the best of the rooms for you Let’s take Cassie to hers"
In the fading red light of the sunset the interior see did look shabby, from the worn upholstery on the chairs to the faded oriental carpet on the pine-board floors
They went up a flight of stairs - sloith Cassie’s grande The boards creaked under Cassie’s Reeboks and the lah on the walls flickered uneasily as they passed One of us ought to be holding a candelabra, Cassie thought Anydown the hall toward therandfather’s wiring," her grand so much of it himself Here’s your room, Cassie I hope you like pink"
Cassie felt her eyes widen as her grand in afrom the head and foot and a canopy, all made of the sah carved backs upholstered in a h mantel rested a pewter candlestick and a china clock, and there were several pieces ofwas beautiful, but so grand
"You can put your clothes here - this chest is solid n is called boht here in Massachusetts - this is the only area in all the colonies that produced it"
The colonies? Cassie thought wildly, staring at the decorative scroll top of the chest
"And this is your dressing table and your wardrobe Have you looked out the s? I thought you ht like a corner room because you can see both south and east"
Cassie looked Through oneshe could see the road The other faced the ocean Just noas a sullen lead gray under the darkening sky, exactlyCassie’s et settled in," Cassie’s grandreen room at the opposite end of the hallway"
Cassie’s ave her shoulder a quick, almost timid squeeze And then Cassie was alone Alone with the massive ruddy furniture and the cold fireplace and the heavy draperies She sat gingerly on a chair because she was afraid of the bed
She thought about her bedroom at home, with her white pressed-wood furniture and her Phantoht with her baby-sitting money She’d painted the bookcase pale blue to show off her unicorn collection She collected every kind of unicorn there was - stuffed, blown glass, ceramic, pewter Back home, Clover had said once that Cassie was like a unicorn herself: blue eyed, shy, and different fro to a for she sat there, but sometime later she found the piece of chalcedony in her hand Sheto it
If you’re ever in trouble or danger, she thought, and a wave of longing swept over her It was followed by a wave of fury Don’t be stupid, she told herself sharply You’re not in danger And no rock is going to help you She had an iainst her cheek, feeling the cool, jagged smoothness of the crystals It entle it had been, the way it had pierced her to the soul Daringly, she rubbed the crystal over her lips and felt a sudden throb from all the places on her skin he had touched The hand he had held - she could still feel his fingers printed on her palertips raising the hairs there And the back of it She shut her eyes and her breath caught as she remembered that kiss What would it have felt like, she wondered, if his lips had touched where the crystal touched now? She let her head fall back, drawing the cool stone from her own lips down her throat to rest in the hollohere her pulse beat She could al her, as no boy ever had; she could aline that it really was his lips there I would let you, she thought, even though I wouldn’t let anyone else I would trust you
But he’d left her Suddenly, with a shock, she reone away, just as the other most important ht about her father She seldoone ahen she was only a little girl, left her mother and her alone to take care of themselves Cassie’s mother told people he had died, but to Cassie she admitted the truth: he’d simply left Maybe he was dead by now, or hter She and her h her mother never spoke about him unless someone asked, Cassie knew that he’d broken her mother’s heart
Men always leave, Cassie thought, her throat aching They both left me And now I’m alone here If only I had somebody else to talk to a sister, somebody
Eyes still shut, she let the hand with the crystal trail down and fall into her lap She was so exhausted with eo to the bed She si in the lonely di slowed and she fell asleep
That night Cassie had a dream - or perhaps it wasn’t a drearand over the floor In her dream she are of them, but she couldn’t move as they lifted her from the chair and undressed her and put her to bed Then they stood over the bed, looking down at her Her e and dark and unfathorandh "At last But what a pity - "
"Sh!" her randain "But you can see that it’s the only way"
"Yes," her ned "I can see that you can’t escape destiny I shouldn’t have tried"
That’s just what I thought, Cassie realized as the dreauely she could see hertoward the door, and she could hear the whisper of their voices She couldn’t h, until one sibilant hiss cah
" sacrifice"
She wasn’t sure which of the women had said it, but it echoed over and over in herit Sacrifice sacrifice sacrifice
It was ht was strea in the easternIt ht Sort of war
Cassie sat up She had a confused ue Her nose was stuffed up - probably frohtheaded but not really bad She felt the way you do after being very sick or very upset and then getting soely spacey and peaceful The quiet after the storot dressed Just as she was about to leave the room, she noticed the chalcedony lucky piece on the floor and slipped it in her pocket