[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Elen was inside, alone. "Hallelujah!" she whispered, and clapped her hands softly in
front of the sleeping girl. "I've done nothing but make promises to Jesus for you all since
ABC Amber LIT Converter
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
ABC Amber LIT Converter
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
you left, and I was almost ready to give up chocolate! Did you find her yourself? Or was
it another example of our road manager's general usefulness?" She spied Long's head
through the crack in the door.
"By the by the Grand Inquisitor came back and he took away Teddy. I haven't heard
anything "
Long stepped in after Elizabeth, with the handi capped boy. He shut the door carefully
with his foot and he looked at Elen.
Her flying hands fell limp and her bright dark face went the color of putty. Elen made no
sound.
"Pádraig was shot," Long told her. "He might well have been killed, by all this." He
turned to Elizabeth, who had lain her baby down on the bed. "Gather pillows and blankets
to prop him up, please. He can't breath when laid flat."
Elizabeth, without demur, went from bed to bed and pulled off all the pillows in both
Long's room and the other. It seemed odd to her that Elen Evans did not lift a finger to
help, but she was too concerned to feel resentful. Together she and Long stuffed the little
shape with the bulging head and blank eyes upright. She ventured to pat his hand, but felt
a shock of fright when he grabbed it fiercely and would not let go. She sat down beside
him, willing calmness. Waiting.
Elen was talking to Long behind her. It was hard to hear from down on the floor.
Elizabeth had to wrap herself up in her own arm in order to raise her head to see them.
What she did see astonished her, for the drawling, self-possessed harp-player had both
hands raised like claws, and she was shaking her head violently. "Oh no, not Sandy. Not
Sandy," she was saying. "With her stupid shotgun full of salt! And not Pat!"
"It struck his back and the back of his neck. There was great pain and bleeding, but by
good fortune, his spine and head were not damaged." He might have been discussing the
event with a stranger, for there was no warmth in his words.
Still Elen shook her head. "Sandy did it?"
"Confusion did it," stated Long. "Fear and confusion. She could not endure Jude."
Jude? Elizabeth jerked against the hand that held her.
Elen cried like a bird. "Endure him? No one can endure him, least of all me!" Her voice
broke. "I couldn't stand it the day I gave birth to him, and I swear it's worse now!"
Elizabeth's mouth fell open. "Gave& birth& ?" She glanced repeatedly from the ill-
shaped head of the boy to Elen's face: dark-eyed, smooth, delicate as a baby's. As a
ABC Amber LIT Converter
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
ABC Amber LIT Converter
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
baby's ought to be.
"This is yours? Your son?"
Elen flinched from the word. She hit the lamp on the breakfast table and it fell crashing.
"Mine. And George's, goddamn him. He was born this way." She stared hard at Elizabeth
and added, "His name is Jude."
"Judy, you mean?" Elizabeth rocked back.
"Judy," Long stated. "After the patron of hopeless cases."
Elen took a breath and started again, more calmly. "I didn't call him that; the nurses at
the home did. I didn't call him anything. I ran away." She braced herself against the table
edge and closed her eyes.
Elizabeth gazed from Elen to Long, stupidly. Finally she fixed on the woman. "Why
don't you come here now, Elen. Don't you want to touch him? He's been terribly
unhappy."
Elen turned her head out the window. "Can't touch him. When I do, he screams. Always
has."
Quite abruptly, Jude fell asleep. It was as sudden as quick death, and his hand fell from
Elizabeth's arm. At first she was alarmed, but she made sure of his breathing and stood
up.
Elizabeth was not an inquisitive person, and she was well aware this was not her
business. But she was a mother with one child, and she could not let the issue be. "Let me
get this straight. This is the child that my mother talked about that was stolen from the
orphanage a couple of days ago?" Elen nodded, not meeting Elizabeth's eyes.
"And he's also 'Judy, the one who's had Marty distracted for the last few days?" She
glanced involuntarily to the door to the next room: Marty's room.
It was Long who replied. "I can think of no other explanation, Elizabeth."
But Elizabeth did not look at him. "Did you know it was him, doing that to my
daughter?" Her voice rose as she spoke, angrily.
Elen looked away to the mirror and then down. "I& suspected Sandy had taken her to
see him when she babysat, Friday. Not a clever thing to do. What can a little girl make of
all that? I was afraid she had seen him as a hobgoblin, out to get her. Because he looks
funny. But it was different from that: Marty's such a& such a fine kid. And when she
started wandering off, I felt I felt& well, what do you think I felt!"
ABC Amber LIT Converter
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
ABC Amber LIT Converter
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Elizabeth's square shoulders settled as her anger leaked away. She thought of her fine
daughter, who might not have been so fine. "Why why did you take the boy if you don't
dare touch him? He'd surely have been happier back "
Long's deep voice cut in again. "I don't think it was Elen who stole Judy from his home,
Elizabeth. I think it was George St. Ives."
The Devil to Pay
Long put out his hands, palm upward, together, in a formal, ancient-seeming gesture.
The abnormal fingers made a woven bowl. He said to Elen, "It makes no sense any other
way. You had not even arranged a place to keep him& "
"Only with poor Sandy, who& "
"Is no good at this sort of thing. I know. I have only wondered why you did not take
Judy back to his home as soon as you found that George had him."
"George had him? Had who?" It was Teddy who spoke. He had come in silently and now
stood staring at the entire scene. His biscuit-brown forehead was set in wrinkles.
"George St. Ives stole a kid? This kid?" The tall man lowered himself onto the bed next
to Elizabeth. In form, expression, and hairstyle, they looked like twins. His shoulder
jostled her, but she didn't notice.
Elen sat at the breakfast table, her face lit from beneath by the light of the overturned
lamp. Her snub nose bore a close resemblance to that of the sleeping boy, and there was
also something about the eyebrows. Thoughtlessly, she ran her harper's fingernail
between the lamp base and its protective felt cover. "Yes, and yes." She glanced at them
all from half-closed eyes. "You get to hear it all. All about Judyand about George. It's
quite a tale!"
"Maybe you should wait for Martha and Pádraig," suggested Teddy, who was suddenly
afraid of the story.
"Better I should wait for the police," she answered heavily, and as everyone sat silent in
wonder, Elen picked up the telephone and called the station.
It was a close little motel room, with eight adults and two children in it, for Martha had
shown up with Pádraig Ó Súilleabháin only just after the arrival of a tired-looking
Detective-Sergeant Anderson and his assistant.
During the twenty minutes of waiting, Elen Evans had not moved once from her seat at
the table. No one sat across from her, though Pádraig might well have done so, had he
been able to sit in a chair. Conversation had been confused, and now that the police had
arrived, had died entirely.
ABC Amber LIT Converter
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
ABC Amber LIT Converter
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]