Obsession (9780061887079) by Gloria Vanderbilt Read Free Book Online Page A

gauze, raw silk, embroidered with magenta crest of crown and bee. Silent, celibate as a Carmelite nun, angrily she strides through house and gardens of Akeru as a green poison runs through her bloodstream distorting her beauty, turning her into a creature screaming up at the sun by day, “How will I live?” At night baying at the moon, dream-traveling, she becomes aneagle capable of controlling thunder, sweeping over valleys and hills, across ocean and mountains, waking at dawn to find her pillow drenched with tears as thoughts of Priscilla become a madness from which she must find surcease or die. She cannot accept that Priscilla has won—a plan starts weaving a web, but it’s tenuous—it needs elaborating.
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    F ROM DANK CAVES I shall summon demons to don their black hoods and at midnight when the fireflower blooms but once a year they shall be dispatched in rockets to capture Priscilla. Her screams crack the mountains as she attempts to escape, but she is blindfolded and stuffed into a box too confined even to accommodate her skinny body, only a small hole punched to let air in to keep heralive. Thus Mrs. Talbot Bingham shall be brought to Akeru.
    Upon arrival, just about done in, she will be let out of the box, the blindfold removed. Welcoming her stands a giant figure of towering beauty, its face hidden by a mask of doves’ wings and marabou feathers. Minions will lead Priscilla through gardens lush with narcissus, the scent intoxicating her into a state bordering on anesthetized. Ensconced she shall be in a cottage surrounded by tall pines under which lily of the valley and ferns, delicate as lace, sprout from patches of moss, moist with dew, where ominous mushrooms grow. She will be drawn into a damp, ferny dark by the beauty surrounding her in an unimagined world, tormented by the mystery as to what? Where? Why is she here?
    Left with only a silent Rowena to attendher, bringing her breakfast of bitter coffee, clotted cream, and lumps of dark sugar, croissants freshly baked and a particular jam, made, she will be told, of honeycomb mixed with black orchids from the giant figure’s hothouse. She will question Rowena as to what is the flavor that makes her deliciously drowsy every time she partakes of the jam and who is the giant person? Rowena remains mum on both queries and after a time Priscilla wearies of questioning. Each morning after she finishes this repast Rowena removes the teacart and returns to the sunken tub of green malachite in the bathroom adjoining the bedroom to attend to her bath. As it fills, Rowena pours oils into the tub from a cruet which stands on a table with unguents and threatening objects Priscilla has not yet been able to identify. Rowena turns the hot-waterfaucet on full-force, so that it crashes down on the oil, releasing steam into the room with tantalizing scent that stirs Priscilla’s memory, but of what? She starts to bathe herself, but with grace and poise Rowena will firmly seize the loofah sponge from her hand and submit her to Rowena’s bathing not only her face but the intimate parts of her body, indicating when she should stand, bend over, before permitted to sink into the scented water. Actually it will be pleasant not to resist; Rowena’s hands are skillful and more than once, between her legs, she will feel a sensation that makes her moan, bringing a nod of satisfaction from Rowena’s usually impassive face. When the cleansing is to Rowena’s standards, she bids her stand with hands above her head, but how unprepared she is, shocked by fistfuls of icicles Rowena hurls ather warm body to stimulate circulation. This is most unpleasant. She is bidden to step from the tub; she will be rewarded by the warmed terry robe Rowena wraps her into as she leads her back to her room where a brew of soothing belladonna herb tea sugared with meadowsweet honey-aphrodisiac awaits her. It will be pleasant to giddily loll back on the bed as Rowena,