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"Is that true?"

"It was true," Ann said, flashing Tara a little srity of the underground structure I don’t really knohat the situation is right now There were a ferite-ups in the paper when they began, but now, there lanced at Tara and shrugged as she drove "Okay, I think they have opened the dig to tourists I’city--Paris offers the visitor so et much attention Some professor involved is certain that he’s on to a enerate ues And most people come to Paris to see the art and beauty Those with a morbid twist to their minds can cran into the catacombs and see thousands of bones"

"Perhaps Grandpapa is all excited rew up here, lived a lot of his life here Maybe he feels that there is a fa"

"I asked hi round that was deconsecrated But then, hey, you’re not exactly a seasoned Parisian, but you have been to what’s world famous and historical here If you want to trauest"

"But you said you were afraid that it would feed into his fantasies" Ann shrugged "Well, I’ to catch up ork And trying to keep the old place going with little help I don’t mean you, your folks, your brother, orbathroo the roof on, and the ivy down We’ve only got Katia running the house and Roland keeping up the grounds Debbie, his old assistant in the States, has written to say that she wants to come to look after Jacques, but it will take her a while to put her affairs in order So, you see, I really haven’t had any extra tilad that you’re here You said that you were actually all caught up and would do so that you wanted to do--rather than as co the bills--while you were here Maybe you’ll find inspiration in the crypt Maybe they’ll even let you set up an easel I don’t know I love old Jacques with my whole heart Remember ere kids? He wrote popular fiction, but people were always interviewing hireat scholar or literary writer He’s always had such a grip on the world, on hurandfather we’ve known and loved all our lives"

"I love hiave me my love of art, and you’ve certainly learned a lot about writing and publishing from him He means the world to us, and he loves us very much as well"

"Yes, but you are the one with the love of stories and tales and fantasies I ahtforward for him So you talk to him See if you can make sense of it all"

"I’ silent as they drove

They had left the city behind and were driving through beautiful countryside with little clusters of char old houses Minutes later, Tara saw the drive to the chateau before them, and then the home that had been her fantasyland as a child The drive wound haphazardly through trails of flowers--Ann’s babies, as she called theravel drive directly in front of the old stone steps

The front door opened and Roland, as close to her grandfather’s age, ca open the car door before she could do so herself He burst into a war so quickly spoken that she could pick out only one word in every few; it didn’t ed Roland, then insisted she was perfectly able to handle her own bag By then, Katia, a few years younger than Roland, had arrived at the door She wiped her hands on her apron, ran down the steps, and folded Tara into a ht words in French to return her greeting, gave up, and hugged her back It seeet back to work," Ann called to her "I’ inside You’re in your old rooain; she wasn’t about to let either Roland or Katia try to take it frorandpapa is in the library!" Katia said with stern disapproval, shaking her head with such veheray tendrils of hair escaped fronon and whispered around her face

"You mustn’t excite him too much; he can be such an old fool!"

"I’ll tie hiets too frisky," Tara assured her

Ann continued around the gravel drive and headed for the street, returning to the city, and Roland and Katia followed Tara back into the house In the once grand foyer, Tara paused She looked around at the beautiful ork, and the fraying tapestries on the wall The long, claw-footed table in the hall held Ann’s coood to be here

Far across the Atlantic, Jade DeVeau ith a start, and then wondered what had caused her to do so

It was still night or the wee hours of theFor a moment, she lay tensely, eyes narrowed, as she tried to ascertain what danger ht have stirred her survival instincts while she slept And yet

She heard nothing

She opened her eyes farther, twisted silently around

Moonlight strea courtyard of her Charleston ho out at the night

It wasn’t strange that he should be there Jade had changed her own natural sleeping schedule to coincide with his, and he had learned to lie down and rest in the darkness of the night But still, ht she woke, and saw hiht, so as not to disturb her

So the ht ohen really restless, went downstairs to work or watch one of the twenty-four-hour news stations or an old classicdifferent

Jade sat up, reaching for her robe at the foot of the bed, still afraid, though she knew not why, and feeling strangely vulnerable in the naked state in which she slept She knew that he was instantly aware that she had wakened; he could sense her slightest movement