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"Yes’ot too bad He would have sealed his own self up too, except for you Go look after your girl, I said That man, he loves you with his whole heart"

A was in the pool A dark shape slowly rising, parsing the surface of the water to take its place a autuave his head a slow, sorrowful shake "That’s the pity of it Every day I cut the lawn Every day she rise"

He fell quiet for a athered hiain "I know it ain’t fair to you, the things you got to face Wolgast know it, too But this here’s our chance Never come another"

Her doubt beca open inside her She had felt it for days, weeks, o to them Go to them, our sister in blood I have known you, felt you You are the oa to my alpha, the one to watch and keep the "Don’t ask , neither This here’s just about what is" Carter hitched up in his chair, removed a handkerchief froo on and cry if you want to, Miss Amy You owed that at least, I reckon Cried e she had tasted life With Caleb, and the sisters, and Peter, and all the others She had beco, a faone

"They’ll kill us both"

"I reckon they’ll try I known it from the start" He leaned over the table and took her hand "Ain’t right, I know it, but this here is ours to carry Our one chance Ain’t never come another"

There was no way to refuse; fate had found her The light was fading, the leaves were blowing down In the pool, the wo and turning in the eternal current

"Tell me what to do"

Chapter 49

The first real snointer arrived, as it always see on the sofa when she was roused by a tapping sound For soled in her nant and trying to tell Hollis about it The scene of this drea locations (the porch of the house in First Colony where she had grown up; the biodiesel plant, ained, with tattered purple curtains suspended over a stage), and though other characters drifted at the periphery (Jackie, Michael, Karen Molyneau and her daughters), its sense was one of isolation: she and Hollis were alone, and the baby, tapping away inside her-Sara understood this to be a for to be born Each time she tried to explain this to Hollis, the words canant" but "It’s raining," not "I’ Hollis to look at her first with confusion, then ahter "It’s not funny," Sara said Tears of frustration filled her eyes as Hollis laughed in his war-throated way "It’s not funny, it’s not funny, it’s not funny " and on and on, and in this state the dream dissolved, and then she ake

She lay still afrom theShe pushed the blanket aside and crossed the roorounds of the Doht, an island of luh the beausting winds It seeed The particles slowed and fattened, beco a mantle of white In the other two roo in her little bed How Sara longed to go to her, to lift her child into her arms and carry her back to the couch and hold her as she slept To touch her hair, her skin, to feel the warht was an eine was actually possible Aching with longing, Sara watched the falling snoelcoh down in the flatland, she knew, it ers, frozen toes, bodies racked with cold The ht with a shiver The winter So it begins At least I’ll be inside

But when she awoke in the littering light blasted into the roohtshirt, had perched on a chair to draw back the drapes and was pressing her nose to the frostedSara rose quickly from the couch and yanked them shut

"But I want to see!"

From the inner room: "Dani! Where are you? I need you!"

"Just aeyes "I’m sorry, sweetheart You know the rule"

"But she can stay in bed!"

"Dani!"

Sara heaved a sigh Lila’s s were difficult, beset by focusless anxiety and nanified with each day that passed since her last feeding Under the blood’s restorative spell, she becaiddy, though her interest in Kate felt more abstract than personal; she seee, often speaking to her as if she were an infant On these good days, Lila appeared fully persuaded that she was living in some place called Cherry Creek, h she also spoke of soeable-and that Sara was a housekeeper sent by "the service," whatever that was But as the effect of the blood waned, over a period of four or five days, she became abrupt and panicky, as if this elaborate fantasy was increasingly difficult to et her in the bath Then I’ll see if I can take you outside to play Do we have a deal?"

The little girl nodded vigorously

"Now get dressed"

Sara found Lila sitting up in bed, clutching the folds of her thin nightgown over her chest If Sara had to guess her age, she would have said the woman looked about fifty; to, herthin Soe was so precipitous Sara could actually watch it happening Then Guilder would bring the blood, Sara would be banished from the room with Kate, and by the time they returned, Lila would be a lush-haired, smooth-skinned twenty-five-year-old onceover

"Why didn’t you answer me? I orried"

"I’m sorry, I overslept"

"Where’s Eva?"

Sara explained that the girl was getting dressed and excused herself to prepare Lila’s bath Like the wo table, the bath was a place of totemic importance In its deep, lion-clawed cocoon, the woman could soak for hours Sara opened the tap and laid out Lila’s soaps and oils and little jars of cream with two fat, freshly laundered towels Lila liked to bathe by candlelight; Sara took a box of wooden matches from the vanity and lit the candelabra By the time Lila appeared in the doorway, the air was opaque with steaun to sweat Lila closed the door and turned away to reh not as thin as it would beco doard over the days, into her hps and thighs She turned to face Sara again and regarded the tub with a look of caution

"Dani, I’ myself today Could you help erly over the railing and lowered herself into the stea water Once she was im her face Sinking down to her chin, she took a long, happy breath,her hands like paddles to shift the water to and fro across her body She leaned back to wet her hair, then shiainst the side of the tub Freed of gravity, the woman’s brsts floated over her chest in a pantomime of restored youth

"I do love the bath," she murmured

Sara took her place on the stool beside the tub "Hair first?"

"Man As with everything, there was a certain way Lila liked it done First the crown of her head, Sara’s hands vigorouslystrands of hair between her fingers The soap, then a rinse, then the same order of events repeated with the scented oil Sometimes she had Sara do this more than once