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BARRETT STRAIGHTENED A little and s his eyes froize for the intrusion upon you, Mr

Escott" His tone was slightly hostile and devoid of any regret

"Perhaps you will both excuse , it was up to Escott to pick up the ball

"There was no real need to influenceyou information"

"Yes, but then I don&039;t know you The information could have been false or incomplete It saves time and trouble when both sides knohere they stand For all I knew, you ht have been friends of Gaylen, not Maureen"

"What do you know about Gaylen?" I asked

"Enough," he replied, echoing me "How is it that you know her?"

"She was looking for Maureen and found me instead"

"And what happened to her?"

"She&039;s no longer a threat to Maureen"

"That hardly answers nored the sarcastic note "Where&039;s Maureen?"

He studiedto seeto him "I don&039;t know"

He could see I didn&039;t believe hi his hands for emphasis

"When did you last see her, then?" asked Escott

"On the night that Gaylen escaped fro dusk, and I&039;ve not heard from her or of her since then--until you two turned up to trouble my innocent employer with questions"

"How so is she innocent?"

"Miss Francher and I have a co over certain matters: I maintain her privacy and she protects mine" He turned to me "I know you can appreciate how important privacy and discretion are to those of our nature You should be iveaway"

"Tell us about Maureen," I said

"That&039;s a long story"

"I&039;ve got all night and so do you"

"Of course, but I must think on where to start"

"With yourself," suggested Escott

Barrett frowned and shook his head "That would take ht to confess ers"

"The priin with your life and death?"

Soht Barrett&039;s eyes from within "So you do know that &039;s protector?"

Escott didn&039;t reply

Shrugging it off as uniainst the night "Very well, Please be seated and make yourselves comfortable May I offer you some refreshment, Mr Escott?"

"No, thank you"

This time Escott picked a chair off to one side of the couch I resue, ready to ain if necessary I still didn&039;t trust the hted his banker&039;s chair, checked it for da secure about us, he sank into the opposite end of the couch froainst the back and arm to be able to look at us both His loose-boned, infor a little

"Very well," he began, looking up once at the ceiling as though searching it for the right word "I was a lawyer&039;s son and destined to be a lawyer as well, though I had little taste for the work I was sent to England to study It was my first real experience of unsupervised freedorew to love it There I learned to spend my allowance in ways my father would scarce have understood, htful days, and the nights were made even better when I beca charht h, untutored colonial then, for a time I believed that that was how all reiser about such things later on

"Then war caain, that or be left without funds Being a dutiful son, I returned I was so dutiful that it got me killed My father was loyal to the Crown, y&039;see"

"What war are you referring to?"

"The one that sundered our respective countries, Mr Escott The American Revolution, as it is now called" He paused to let that sink in and enjoyed our reaction

"How old were you then?"

His eyes drifted inward, briefly "I was not old then, Mr Escott I was young; very, very, young" He shifted, crossing one leg over the other

"But I was talking about the rebellion My dear father was a Loyalist and not a dan Of course, his attitudeIsland was then protected by British troops We were safe and se-cure from the rebels, so they said, but they couldn&039;t be everywhere at once I was shot down in cold blood by a pi in some trees on my father&039;s land The cowardly, dishonorable, half-witted bastard thought I was General Howe"

After at least 160 years, his disgust was sincere and still fresh

"I&039;ll pass over the dra efforts at coping with the physical change within , I was too embarrassed to come forward and try to explain myself By the tiovernment had won their war and seized Father&039;s property He pulled a few pennies together and took the fah, and had to remain behind I settled down, made a kind of life for myself, and even traveled a bit in later years when the chance presented itself"

"How did you support yourself?" asked Escott

"That, sir," he s, trying to make up for my patchy and interrupted education

Decades later,eventually led me to meet the Dumont sisters at some literary club I was is were in happy correspondence to my own, and nature had its course with us for many contented years"

"What about Gaylen?" I asked

He sighed and shook his head "She knew so It worried Maureen, but there was little she could do about it She chose to do nothing"

"What did you do?"

"Nothing It was Maureen&039;s concern and up to her on how to handle things I e woman There were no doctors then who could be of any help to her She was too clever to be obviously e," he repeated unhelpfully "Normal on the outside, but there was a soft and rotten core of sickness within that never showed itself until you really got to know her She liked to use people, but only in petty ways, mind you She&039;d never put on a oodwill"

"What do you mean?"

"There are sos for, simply because they&039;re nice and kno to say thank you On the surface, Gaylen seemed to be one of theo too far, but she was really using people in her oay As an outsider to their faer experience, I could see how she worked all things around her to her favoroh, but she was ever so nice about it

"Maureen did everything she could for her, but it was never enough

Gaylen enjoyed playing the sweet suffering ot her In later years, Gaylen practically clung to Maureen, &039;as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on,&039; if I may borrow from the bard When Maureen had her accident, it was too much for Gaylen; she completely fell apart"

"The accident that killed her?"

"Yes She told you about the fire wagon? I&039; about itsuffered a violent death myself, I could understand

"For me it was a miracle I hadn&039;t lost her to death She&039;d coain I helped her through her first nights, easing things when I could, but after a tio back, to coht"

His expression had turned inward again; he was half-sad, half-angry "It was a mistake and a very bad one, but she couldn&039;t see it at first She talked --pleaded, really--it was that iht for a time, but when the happy shock of the reunion wore off and the implications sank in, Gaylen started to work on us both She was slow and subtle about it, but she wanted to be like us She said there was every chance of the change working in her since they were sisters"

"She couldn&039;t talk either of you into it, though"

"It wasn&039;t for want of trying, and finally she tried too hard That was her mistake; that&039;s when Maureen realized how sick her sister was in her ly, very fast after that scene, and she had to put Gaylen away in Kingsburg, which all but broke Maureen&039;s heart

Gaylen was the cause of the rift between us; thereafter Maureen and I went on separate paths"

"But you kept in touch?"

"Out of mutual self-interest and because of e&039;d becolance rested on me a moment and I couldn&039;t read his expression

"What self-interest?"

"Gaylen was full of mischief and I had little confidence in the security of that so-called asyluh heaven, but they kne to keep a door locked We each had to knohere the other lived in case so happened--which it did when she escaped"

"Who paid for the asyluh from their parents to live in quiet comfort for the rest of their lives When Maureen understood how things ht be for her future with ave over her share of the estate to a nonexistent cousin If the cousin did not appear within a year of her deh to establish another identity in those days, andto be quite handy for once Maureen prepared for her change--if it happened, and so it did"

"It surprised you?"

"I was truthful with her I told her there was no guarantee she would rise again; it was only a chance and we took it"

Escott stirred in his chair "And the others?"

"What do you mean, sir?"

"Since your decease you must have been involved omen other than Maureen"

Barrett was aed, but not into a damned monk"

"Did any of them return after they died?"

He didn&039;t answer, but Escott continued to wait for one "No, none of theer "Not one of them D&039;ye want to kno ether?"

Escott ignored the question "What about the lady you knew in England? What was her story?"

"I was her lover, not her bloody biographer"

Escott was patient, which irritated Barrett

"Her naifts as we lads could afford to give her, but mind you, she was no whore--don&039;t ever think that She was a lovely girl, truly lovely and lovable Not all the students were poor, and I was doubly blessed with a bit of paternal lucre and good looks, both of which she took to like butter to warm bread"

"Did she not warn you of the possible consequences of her relationship with you?"

"No, she did not It was her way; she liked &039;e and fairly innocent, and was pleased to keep &039;em so I&039;ve also come to think that she honestly did not know there would even be consequences"

"Your resurrection must have been quite traurew hard at the memory "It was, and I&039;d rather not speak of it"

"Then we shall return to the near-present: tell us about the night Maureen cah to tell I&039;d obtained a position here some months earlier as Miss Francher&039;s secretary As you&039;re already aware by now, she knows all about ood at my job"

"And it&039;s safe here," I added

He considered the remark "Yes, as safe as one can be from life We had our share of ill fortune that year Miss Francher&039;sand I had h the worst of it and protecting her privacy If not for young Laura it would have been impossible She was only fourteen then, but a splendid child; the experience thened her even as it see us on her spring holiday that week and then stayed on I arranged for a private tutor so she could finish out the year at home with us"

"What about Laura&039;s fao Miss Francher&039;s uardian When she died, Miss Francher assuood girl Things were just starting to settle down at the close of su for me She was in quite a state about Gaylen and hardly able to think straight I&039;d said that things had gotten very ugly between theht do to her She wanted help and advice, and I offered what little I could"

"Which was?"

"I said she should set the police to watching her flat and to keep herself out of sight until they caught the old girl again It see to do, but she was that panicked"

"Did Miss Francher know of this?"

"I saw no need to trouble her with my personal proble by for a visit and she was content with that"

It sounded as though E for one who deht have influenced her into her content did Maureen stay?"

"She didn&039;t I invited her to re as she liked until they found Gaylen, and she accepted With a place this big, there are any number of rooms she&039;d be safe and comfortable in, especially my ohich is well locked and fireproofed The servants have standing orders never to go inside and they are paid enough not to be overly curious"

"Convenient" Again, I figured he&039;d have insured hiestions on the side

"Indeed Maureen turned down the offer and picked another room I saw that she was settled, did soht and to see if she needed anything She did not, so I went to bed"

"You saw her?"