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As shearound her as if it were caught in a strange wind tunnel within the hotel rooest uncertainty It was Yvette, yesYvette, yet she was different At ti else, and he would think, that isn’t really her face It isn’t really Yvette’s face, and yet

Paul, I need you

Where are you?

Silly boy, come closer, closer I need you, open your arms to me, Paul, help me, Paul, save me, Paul, let me love you, ask ive me, Paul, can you welcome me to you ?

He wasn’t sure if there was a sudden burst of wind at the s, or if he had left theust of wind

Perhaps not

I’m cold, Paul, so cold

So, yes, my love, come, and I arm you

Greet me here, I can come no farther Come, Paul, please, I need your arms around , he thought, and it was a divine dream He saw some ethereal part of hi dusk, that shi fabric still all around her

Come, Paul

The breeze swept away the slender threads of material Yvette, his Yvette, yes, she was there, she had come to him, because she had been lost and afraid and lonely, and now she kneas to be found in his ar forward Because he had that strange feeling again Yvette, and not Yvette A flash of so The face, in certain fractured sections of time, seemed to be that of someone

She was real Flesh and blood and real He could see the pulse beating at her throat He could even see the moisture as she wet her lips She was cold, she did need him, her breasts were swollen, the nipples hard He started to reach for her

He blinked, wondering how she could be so very real in a drea where he was, and feel the floor beneath his feet, when he was sleeping on the couch Of course, it was a drearound But she was here And real, real, real

He stretched out his hand

He touched her flesh

He trembled because he could feel her He could pull her to hiainst her, smell her, taste her, drown in the woman he loved, such an expert, so h he resented it at times, she was such a lover that he felt time and time, he could die in her arms

Yvette, oh, Lord, Yvette

Paul

The draperies began to blow in the breeze, surrounding her, wrapping around theh the line of the balcony doors His hands caan to pull her to him

"Paul!"

It was the wo

He turned, a sudden anger filling hi hi His dreaet back! Quickly!" she commanded

"Too late!" Yvette called to her

He turned back to Yvette Yes, of course, this interloper didn’t htly to Yvette

"Come in, come in, coh

And then he saw her face Really saw her face

And he began to screaht here, in this area," Jacques explained to Lucian They were poring over the map of the area that lay on the desk Jacques had X’s marked in various places "It’s so hard to re lay it was an occupation, of course, and so much of the city survived, yet here, in the countryside, so many places were abandoned after the warleft to rot and ruin And so many men didn’t come back Families left, never to return The chateau survived, of course, and here is the Dupre house, which still stands as it was there is a new development here, but as you moved into the country farther and farther here to the outskirtsthere was so, and much was lost, and to this day, the ruins remain And many of the places were hundreds of years old If only I had followed more closely at the endbut you see, I was ill then By the time it was all over, really over, I was in such a fevered state that I wound up in the hospital, I was in a coma, I met my wife and I moved to America There were years when I couldn’t come back, and with the illness, there were soinelse that occurred, had been a nightmare So now "

Lucian laid a hand on his shoulder "You’ve re when it has mattered," he told Jacques