My Clockwork Muse by D.R. Erickson Read Free Book Online Page A

had decided against
Edgar.
    "Very good. Tea it is, then."
    I was already moving towards the kitchen with
the intention of making a fresh pot. I opened a cupboard and out
sprang Pluto. He lunged at me with a deafening scream. I ducked
under his claws, determined not to sustain any further wounds.
    "Damn that cat!" I cried, forgetting I had
company. "I should have gouged out both his eyes!"
    Gessler danced out of Pluto's path. The cat
dashed straight for the door, which I had left open a crack, and
darted away through it. I was beginning to think the creature
mad.
    How he had secreted himself in my kitchen
when I had just seen him in the graveyard was another matter. But I
was too furious to give it much thought. At that moment, I would
indeed have made good my threat — New Roman" \s 12and I wouldn't have needed an episode of
delirium to carry it out, either.
    Gessler had rushed to the door and looked out
after him. When he saw that the cat was gone, he closed it and came
back. I lifted myself from the floor, and found that I was
clutching a teaspoon as if it were the penknife I had used to pluck
his former eye from its socket. The way I felt now, I would have
instead plunged it into his heart given the chance.
    Gessler grasped my elbow and helped me to my
feet.
    "My dear fellow! Are you all right?" He
frowned at the marks on my cheek. "Oh, it looks like his claws may
have found you!"
    "That is from yesterday," I said, brushing
his fingers away. "That cat has it in for me."
    "I see... Ah, what have we here?" He tugged
at my collar, finding my other fresh wound. "A puncture..."
    "Again, as I said... Inspector, please!" I
swatted his hand away. Was I his patient and he my doctor that he
should handle me so freely?
    Now that he had found it, though, my
curiosity piqued. I passed my fingers over the puncture, feeling
the slight swelling of flesh around it. I determined to have a look
at it in a mirror when I had the chance. In the meantime, perhaps
Gessler had an opinion. "What do you make of it?" I asked after I
had set about fixing our tea.
    "Your puncture wound?"
    "Yes, I haven't had the opportunity of
examining it yet. I first noticed it some months ago. I would have
thought that it might have healed by now. Perhaps Pluto has
aggravated it. "
    "Of course. May I?" He tilted a finger
towards my collar. I relented. "Ah, yes! A puncture, as I say. A
little red, a little swollen. You might want to have a doctor take
a look. For fear of infection." He let my collar fall back into
place. "Was that your cat?"
    "Yes ... er, no. I mean to say, it is
Virginia's cat. Was Virginia's cat."
    "Your wife?"
    I nodded.
    "A tragedy," Gessler said. "My deepest
sympathies."
    "I don't have the heart to get rid of the
damned thing, though I detest the creature."
    "A feisty feline, this cat of yours."
    "Hers," I said. "And feisty is not the half
of it, sir. You saw what he did!"
    "I saw," said Gessler. "What's this about his
eyes?"
    "He is a one-eyed cat."
    "Ah, thank you, Mr. Poe," Gessler said when I
handed him a steaming cup. He took a dainty sip, not wanting to
burn his lip. Most of his tea got sucked up into his mustache. When
he brought the cup down again, he said in an amiable tone, "I had a
three-legged dog once. A horse kicked him. Snapped his leg right in
two. I performed the operation myself." He raised the cup and
sipped. "How does your cat come to have but one eye?"
    I sighed. "I'd like to say a horse kicked
him, Inspector. Come to think of it, I might yet." I suddenly found
myself toying with the idea of telling this lie. Repeated over and
over again, perhaps I could someday make myself believe it.
Gessler, I supposed by the look in his eye, would be harder to
convince.
    "Your cat is, of course, your own affair,"
the inspector laughed. "Though he seems not to love you
overmuch."
    "Oh, if you must know, it was me ," I
blurted out all at once. I had never admitted my atrocity. It felt
good to have it out. In any case, once it started, I