intensity. He looked as though he ached to leap from the chair and tear her head from her body, so he could cradle it in his hands and stroke a long smooth line from forehead, to cheek, to jaw, to the gushing bloody stump. ******* Laudanum is a funny drug. It loosens the tongue, but bones become leaden pipes sewn into the lining of the skin. I left Berenice to dress for dinner and found my way back to the library where I had left him, slumped, and fainting against the leather armrest. I propped him up and straddled him. Smiling coquettishly, I leant down and whispered in his ear, “Why do you stare so at Berenice?” His eyebrows furrowed. “She is to be my wife,” he said, voice slurring. “She does not belong to you yet. It is impure to stare with such desire.”
His pupils shrank in fear as he blurted, “I only wanted her teeth!” Her teeth? Her teeth! I slid my hand into my sash and pulled out the pearl hatpin. “Well,” I crooned, tracing the skin beneath his lower lashes. “Her teeth may concern you a great deal, but I am interested in something of yours.” ******* Berenice was in the retiring room. She sat by the piano forte but turned to greet me with a kiss. “Where is Egaeus, my love?” I smoothed her feathery curls as I smiled into the skin of her neck. “He’s resting his eyes.”
His face was growing slack again, the drug deadening his thoughts. Fury coursed through me like venom and I gripped his throat. “Why?” 66
Re/fresh your Con/test with this Trans/mission from Wonder/land: Name/less.
