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Today, though--Mateo needed to learnto him, and there was nobody else who could possibly know
He walked up the Hill If she didn’t hear the , wouldn’t have tihborhood eirdly hushed, as if the residents kept noise out along with the poor people Jaguars and Mercedes gleaes cut into weird shapes Who paid soured that even in a world where he had infinite money, he wouldn’t see the point
On the step, in front of the enor the brass knocker heavily, twice, three ti, the door opened and the butler stood there, blinking "Young Mr Perez," he said, his voice creaky "To what do e the pleasure?"
"Just wanted to drop by and see Grand to be told whether or not he could The butler hesitated, but no doubt he didn’t want to offend the so-called Cabot heir
"She is in the music room," the butler said "Follow ured as he walked behind hi to actually do; he was less a butler andstiff all day until Grandma finally died, when he’d be the one to phone the undertaker Probably he was hoping to inherit son Cabot House over to the guy when the time came That way, he’d never have to live here himself
The music roos stretched up twenty feet, hung with chandeliers gone cloudy, layered with dust The heavy black ork scrolled and curled along every wall and colurand piano was even dustier than the chandeliers, and a few brass otten Notiarden, was Grandrandson, Mrs Cabot," the butler said Without turning her head, she glared in their direction, and the rooht away the butler backed out, leaving Mateo to face her alone Maybe Mateo wouldn’t give him the house after all
"Mateo" Her voice was hoarse with disuse "To what do I owe this visit? It can’t be your birthday again already I don’t have a savings bond for you"
"That’s not till January," Mateo said She usually inspected him once a year, on his birthday, and they left it at that "I, um--I wanted to talk"
"Toreasons Though she didn’t turn her head, showing him only her perfect white cameo profile, she smiled coolly "That would be a first Don’t tell h to build up a college fund for you"
Mateo balled his fists in the pockets of his letter jacket Later He could let his te it--Captive’s Sound never had anything like the kind of summer business it should have had--but theywith the books since last year
"Then why are you here? The pleasure of my company?" The acid in her voice made it clear she knew precisely how unpleasant she was, and liked it
This was harder to get out than Mateo had expected He sed hard, shifted his weight froain "I--I wanted to talk to you about--about the curse"
Grandht in her chair "Has it come upon you, then?"
"No!" Mateo lied She’d throw hi else "No way I don’t even believe in it You know I don’t"
Until he’d seen Nadia that storht, he hadn’t
"Then why talk about it? If it’s just a story, like you pretend"
"Because I want to understand Because every kid in school acts like I’ve got AIDS or soe treated hie’s case, that was only because he’d roith all the stories about the erous Cabots
"The children have heard the stories from their parents Who heard thehed et older, decide the stories are only folklore Tales to scare the foolish Then the next Cabot goes insane, and they see the truth for theenerated so abruptly, and drowned herself in the sea Just as they sahen your grandfather did this tohim her full face, not only the profile While the left side of her face ree, ht side was a ruin Deep red slashes ran through her skin like fault lines; crinkles of scar tissue surrounded gouges in flesh that had never healed Her blind right eye showedred spot of blood that never, ever went away
"You look pale" Grandma smiled It was a terrible smile "I should think you’d be used to it by now But I’m still not used to it myself, so how can I blame you?"