He broke the stillness. “It does look bleak, doesn’t it? Not a night to be outside. But later, after dinner, the moon will come up and the whole valley will be lit. We usually go skating by the lake, build a fire there on the bank, and make hot chocolate and hot buttered rum. Do you skate?” he asked.
“Well, I try.”
“Good! I’ll help. All of us Minnesotans are born with either skates or skis on our feet.” He tapped the glass with his fingernails, making a sharp click. “It’s going to be a cold one.” Then he grinned and moved away. “I better deliver Eileen’s luggage. Kathy said you had a long trip and you need to rest.” At the doorway he paused and turned to her. Jennifer had not left the window. “Welcome to the farm, Jennifer. It’s your first visit?”
Jennifer nodded. She was searching frantically for something to say that would keep Simon with her.
“It changed my life, coming here,” he said. He paused. “I owe my life to Kathy.” He looked over at Jennifer and smiled that warm, honest smile. “She’ll save you, too. I know.” And then he closed the bedroom door and disappeared.
Jennifer did not move. She held her breath in an effort to hold on to his presence, to hold the intimacy of their shared moment. Gradually, she returned to the present, heard distant sounds from the huge old building, heard footsteps and muffled sounds, and took a deep breath, all at once exhausted from the long trip and from the week of tensions. She sat down on the edge of the single bed and pulled off her boots. Then, standing again, she slid off her wool skirt, unhooked her bra, and still in sweater and panties, slid under the heavy blankets and surrendered herself to sleep.
Jennifer felt a hand on her shoulder. Not yet fully awake, she reached out and grabbed the intruder’s wrist.
“Jenny, it’s me!” Eileen cried. “Ouch!” She fell against the bed. “Wake up, Jenny. Wake up. You’re okay. Everything is fine.”
Jennifer let go and pulled herself up. “I’m sorry. I was so… “
“I know. I knocked, but you didn’t answer. I’m sorry I had to disturb you.”
“What time is it?” Jennifer asked, rubbing her eyes.
“Around six. You’ve been asleep for two hours.”
“Oh God, I could sleep for a week.” Jennifer fell back on her pillow. “It’s pitch black out!” she said, staring out of the window.
“It’s the country, Jenny. That’s what it’s like.” Eileen moved from her perch on the bed and turned on the desk lamp. “Better?”
“Yes,” Jennifer agreed. She sat up. “I guess I’ll get dressed. After a shower, I’m sure I’ll be okay. Where are the showers, anyway?”
“Down the hall. They’re communal.”
“Oh, great!” Jennifer yawned. “I won’t take a shower at my health club, let alone here.”
Eileen shrugged. “Oh, it’s not that bad. There are private stalls, if you need them, but Kathy believes we’re too culturally bound. This is one way to break down our inhibitions.”
“Taking showers with strangers should do it.”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t mind taking a shower with Simon McCloud.” Eileen smiled.
“Why? What do you mean?”
“Oh, I saw that he took his time to drop off your bags.”
“Eileen, come on.” Jennifer tossed back the blankets and stood. She picked her wool skirt off the back of the chair and stepped into it.
“Well, what were you doing in here?”
“We were watching the sunset,” Jennifer replied curtly.
“He’s incredible, isn’t he?”
“Incredible, how?” Jennifer waited, curious to know what Eileen thought of Simon.
Eileen shrugged. “I don’t know. Incredibly ‘country,’ don’t you think? I find it odd that Kathy, who’s so sophisticated, would be involved with him. Don’t you?”
Jennifer concentrated on unpacking. She pulled a terry-cloth robe from her suitcase.
“Don’t you?” Eileen persisted.
“Getting involved with anyone that gorgeous can’t be considered too odd,” said Jennifer decisively, folding the robe over her arm. She knew she couldn’t lie to Eileen about feeling an attraction. Better just to acknowledge it and forget it. “But I also know that he’s involved with Kathy Dart, just like I’m involved with Tom. I’m not going to jump the poor guy in some dark corner. Or the shower.” Eileen laughed as she walked out, heading for the bathroom.
The showers were empty. Jennifer sighed, thankful for small favors. She remembered how she and Tom had made love in the steamy bathroom back in Brooklyn, and the memory aroused her. To cool down, she turned on the faucet and doused herself with water.
When she came out of the shower room ten minutes later, she was wrapped in towels. She stood in the doorway of the bathroom and glanced down toward the living room to see if the coast was clear.
The door was open at the end of the hall and a shaft of light from the living room filled the entrance. She could hear voices from farther away in the house. There were several people talking and laughing among themselves. Perhaps it was the skaters having a drink before dinner.
Jennifer turned toward her room and saw a figure step into the hallway, coming from the living room. She stopped at once, startled by the sudden sight of the man, and took a deep breath. She wasn’t driving herself crazy, she thought, and started to say hello when she realized it wasn’t another guest.
The man’s size alarmed her. He was immense, larger, it seemed, than the doorway itself, and he was moving slowly toward her, coming at her from the only exit. She backed off, terrified. She was immediately assailed by the odor of sweat and urine.
“Hello,” she said, needing to hear her voice, and peered into the dark hallway, hoping to see his face. But his features were hidden in the rags he used to keep out the cold. Then she realized who it was. This was the man she had killed outside of the museum.
He was not dead. He had come to get her, and now he had her cornered in the hallway. She backed away from him and the lighted living room, but he kept coming toward her. His body filled the narrow hallway, squeezed out the light from the living room, plugged up the exit as if he were a stopper. She was trapped.
“No,” she whispered, clutching a towel to her breast. She tried to scream, but no sound escaped her throat. She waited for the inhuman rage to take over her body and turn her into a beast, but this time there was no transformation. She felt no cold draft of air, no pumping of her muscles. No rage.
Jennifer stumbled against the wall. She reached the end of the hallway, glanced around for a door, but there was just a window, sealed against the cold, and beyond it, the darkness of the rural night. She slid sobbing to the carpet and waited for him to kill her.
“Jennifer, are you all right?” Kathy Dart’s voice broke into her consciousness. She was curled up, shivering in the corner, and barely felt Kathy Dart’s comforting hands stroke her hair. “It’s all right, Jenny,” Kathy whispered. “I am with you. Something frightened you, that’s all. You’re safe.”
“I thought I saw something,” she tried to explain, not looking at Kathy Dart. Jennifer realized then that she had wet herself, and humiliated, she struggled to a sitting position. She felt like a child.
“Yes?” Kathy waited patiently for an explanation. She knelt beside Jennifer on the carpet. “Tell me. You saw someone from your past? Was it Margit?”
Jennifer shook her head. “It was no one I knew. I mean, it looked like a homeless man. Someone I
” She tried to concentrate. “It was weird. I thought it was the man
” Jennifer shook her head, then began to sob. Kathy Dart pulled Jennifer into a gentle embrace.
“I’m going crazy,” Jennifer whispered. “I kill people. I have conversations with dead people in my apartment. I hallucinate. Oh, dear God, help me.”