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p; " 'Don't think about it now, my darling,' she said. 'Now you know it, and you know what the fifth chain was for. Just be with me, my darling. ¡¯

"As I sat up she sat down beside me and I turned to face her, and our lips met. I kissed her clumsily and she put her tongue into my mouth, and I was as aroused as I'd been in the house.

"I was pure male, quite divided from her and quite locked to her, enchanted by the low-cut burgundy dress and the pink nipples that had to be so close, and ah, how precious the cameo on its black ribbon around her naked throat.

"Her breasts were only half covered by the burgundy velvet, and I shoved my hand into her dress awkwardly, and when I felt her nipples I went a little bit mad.

" 'Love you, positively love you,' I said with gritted teeth, and then I pushed the cloth down and I kissed her nipples until she drew me back up.

"I looked into her eyes.

"I wanted her too much to talk, and she allowed it, taking my hand and putting it under her skirts. Real, all real, all savory and frenzied, and finally, her little sex gasping for me, closing on me, and then the moment of fulfillment -- so sudden, so jarring, so total. So gone.

"I found myself staring down at her -- I was actually lying on top of her -- and the flush in her cheeks took my breath away. I muttered some obscenity, some crudity. But I was so purely satisfied, so blissful that I could question nothing in these moments. I kissed her in the same open-mouthed passionate way I had kissed her the very first time.

"I lay back, tired to the point of stupor, and she was the one now looking down at me.

" 'Be my vengeance, Quinn,' she said softly. 'Tell the world my story, yes, but be my vengeance, too. ¡¯

" 'But how, Rebecca? How can I do that when those who hurt you are gone?' I sat up, gently forcing her backwards.

"She looked urgent.

"We sat together. 'Tell me truly, Rebecca, what can I do to make your spirit rest?¡¯

"The horror of the earlier scene came back to me, the grim picture of her hanging on the hook, naked and helpless, and of those two evil ones who had done it to her.

" 'It was Manfred himself, wasn't it?' I asked her. 'What can I do, Rebecca, to send your soul to peace?¡¯

"She said nothing. She only kissed me again.

" 'You know you're gone too, Rebecca,' I said. 'Along with those who did the deed, however awful it was. ' I had to say it. I had to tell her. 'Rebecca, there is no one alive now who can suffer for what is done. ¡¯

" 'No, Quinn, I'm here,' she said sweetly, 'I'm always here, I see you always, I see everything. Be my vengeance, Quinn. Fight for me. ¡¯

"I kissed her again. I covered her breasts with kisses. We lay tangled and I felt the velvet of her burgundy dress. Her hair came loose, tumbled disgracefully in our lovemaking, and then I sighed, and, kissing her cheeks, again I passed into a blackness that was cool and enveloping as if I had drifted bodiless into the sex act itself.

"Sleep. How long? Hours upon hours.

"Then suddenly I was awake. I knew the heat, the sweat.

"And the darkness! Good Lord, the darkness!

"Nighttime on Sugar Devil Island. Nighttime in Sugar Devil Swamp. Oh, of all the idiot mistakes to have made, to have fallen into a drunken sleep here one good hour from home, with all the swamp creatures waking and hungry. What good was a pistol? What good a rifle if a snake drops on you from an overhanging tree? I didn't mind poking at the gators to scare them off, but what about everything else, including the bobcats, that came out to feast after dark?

"I rose up, furious with myself. And I had been so sure that I wouldn't be tricked by her, that I knew her for the evil thing that she was.

"Then it all came crashing back to me, what they'd done to her, and I gasped aloud.

"Vengeance? Oh, it had been enough to make a vengeful spirit of a choirboy, what they'd done. And she had died like that, I knew it. She had died and rotted there, but did she mean her vengeance to be on me?

"I saw the sticky semen on the boards, glittering in the light of the moon, and, looking through the windows, I thanked God for that moon. I needed that moon. Maybe I could get the hell out of here with that moon.

"I made the Sign of the Cross. I felt for the rosary under my shirt. (This one's not blessed but it will have to do. ) And hastily and shamefully I said a Hail Mary, telling the Blessed Virgin in my own words how sorry I was to call on her only when all seemed lost.

"Then I realized to my horror that my pants were still unzipped. I'd said a Hail Mary to the Virgin Mary while officially exposing myself. I put that to rights immediately and said another three prayers before I groped my way to the stairs and down to the first floor.