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She remembered the smile, too. "Thank you," he added, and gracefully sat down in the chair she had<br />
drawn out.<br />
She snatched her hand off the back. "I wasn't inviting you," she said helplessly, caught between<br />
indignation and embarrassment. "What were you doing hanging around outside Bonnie's house?"<br />
He smiled. In the candlelight, his black hair shone almost like liquid, too soft and fine for human<br />
hair. His face was very pale, but at the same time utterly compelling. And his eyes caught her own and<br />
held them.<br />
" 'Helen, thy beauty is to me/Like those Nicean barks of yore/That gently, over a perfumed sea…' "<br />
"I think you'd better leave now." She didn't want him to talk anymore. His voice did strange things<br />
to her, made her feel oddly weak, started a melting in her stomach. "You shouldn't be here. Please."<br />
She reached for the candle, meaning to take it and leave him, fighting off the dizziness that threatened<br />
to overcome her.<br />
But before she could grasp it, he did something extraordinary. He caught her reaching hand, not<br />
roughly but gently, and held it in his cool slender fingers. Then he turned her hand over, bent his dark<br />
head, and kissed her palm.<br />
"Don't…" whispered Elena, stunned.<br />
"Come with me," he said, and looked up into her eyes.<br />
"Please don't…" she whispered again, the world swimming around her. He was mad; what was he<br />
talking about? Come with him where? But she felt so dizzy, so faint.<br />
He was standing, supporting her. She leaned against him, felt those cool fingers on the first button of<br />
the shirt at her throat, "Please, no…"<br />
"It's all right. You'll see." He pulled the shirt away from her neck, his other hand behind her head.<br />
"No." Suddenly, strength returned to her, and she jerked away from him, stumbling against the chair.<br />
"I told you to leave, and I meant it. Get out – now!"<br />
For an instant, pure fury surged in his eyes, a dark wave of menace. Then they went calm and cold<br />
and he smiled, a swift, brilliant smile that he turned off again instantly.<br />
"I'll leave," he said. "For the moment."<br />
She shook her head and watched him go out the French doors without speaking. When they had shut<br />
behind him, she stood in the silence, trying to get her breath.<br />
The silence… but it shouldn't be silent. She turned toward the grandfather clock in bewilderment<br />
and saw that it had stopped. But before she could examine it closely, she heard Meredith's and<br />
Bonnie's raised voices.<br />
She hurried out into the hall, feeling the unaccustomed weakness in her legs, pulling her shirt back<br />
up and buttoning it. The back door was open, and she could see two figures outside, stooping over<br />
something on the lawn.<br />
"Bonnie? Meredith? What's wrong?"<br />
Bonnie looked up as Elena reached them. Her eyes were filled with tears. "Oh, Elena, he's dead."<br />
With a chill of horror, Elena stared down at the little bundle at Bonnie's feet. It was the Pekingese,<br />
lying very stiffly on his side, eyes open. "Oh, Bonnie," she said.<br />
"He was old," said Bonnie, "but I never expected him to go this quickly. Just a little while ago, he<br />
was barking."<br />
"I think we'd better go inside," said Meredith, and Elena looked up at her and nodded. Tonight was<br />
not a night to be out in the dark. It was not a night to invite things inside, either. She knew that now,