again she stroked the spot upon her palm where he had yesterday touched his lips.
Only now I saw, she was not stroking the flesh so much as rubbing at it. She was not nursing the kiss. She felt his mouth like a burn, like an itch, like a splinter, and was trying to rub the memory of it away.
She didn''t love him at all. She was afraid of him.
I drew in my breath. She opened her eyes and held my gaze.
''What will you do?'' I said, in a whisper.
''What can I do?'' She shivered. ''He wants me. He has asked me. He means to make me his.''
''You might—say no.''
She blinked, as if she could not believe I had said it. I could not believe it, either.
''Say no to him?'' she said slowly. ''Say no?'' Then her look changed. ''And watch him leave, from my window? Or perhaps when he goes I shall be in my uncle''s library, where the windows are all dark; and then I shan''t see him leave at all. And then, and then—oh, Sue, don''t you think I should wonder, over the life I might have had? Do you suppose another man will come visiting, that will want me half as much as he? What choice have I?''
Her gaze, now, was so steady and so bare, I flinched from it. I did not answer for a moment, but turned and gazed down at the wood of the door we stood against, and the rusting chain that held it closed, and the padlock. The padlock is the simplest kind of lock. The worst are the kind that keep their business parts guarded. They are devils to crack. Mr Ibbs taught me that. I closed my eyes and saw his face; and then, Mrs Sucksby''s. Three thousand pounds—.'' I drew in my breath, looked back to Maud, and said,