What did she want?
She began to pull her clothes off. First her blouse. Her skin prickled with chill. The darkness was thick about her. It loved her.
Horace Ridge.
Her clothes slipped off. She pulled off her shoes and stockings and the floor and the slick matting knew her feet. The darkness knew her.
Her body was white and stiff against the dark. With a sensual agony she knew how ugly she was.
Horace Ridge.
She could not bear his name—his pain.
Through the door she could hear Laurence and her father talking as they passed through the hall.
Take this body away from me. I do not know it. I can no longer bear the company of this unknown thing.
She lay down in the bed and pulled the sheets up.