her down. Maybe I should talk to Francis hire another nanny to look after Melinda and spare her workload. He would not have any objections. “謝謝你，斯圖亞特夫人。”凱芮感激地說,匆忙走開了。這兩個孩子一定讓她累壞了。也許我應該和弗朗西斯說一下，再雇一個奶媽來專門照顧梅琳達，以分擔瑪麗的工作。他不會有異議的。
I held Charles in one arm and had Melinda and Eleanor following me, walked to the moonlit terrace in the north wing facing the cliff and the sea.我抱著查爾斯，帶著梅琳達和埃莉諾，走到北廂房麵朝大海和礁石的露台上。
It was so quiet up here. The cool summer night’s breeze swirled through the terrace with clear, spicy scent of hyacinth in the southern valley, the aroma of pine needles down from the trench, and the salty smell of the seawater. For a while, we could hear nothing but the rhymed swoosh as the tides swirled up and down the rocks on the cliff, and Charles calmed down gradually in my cuddle.這上麵可真安靜啊。夏日涼爽的晚風吹過露台，帶著南麵山穀裏風信子辛辣的花香，低地裏河穀那邊鬆針的清香以及海灣裏鹹鹹海水的味道。有好一會兒，除了潮水湧上懸崖上的礁石，又退下去的有節奏地嘩嘩聲，我們聽不到其他的任何聲音。查爾斯在我懷裏漸漸安靜了下來。
I spoke to my children as the lights from the stars and the tall tower on the other side of the bay shimmered in the dark, misty tributary.星光和海灣另一側的燈塔的光芒灑落在霧氣彌漫的黑暗支流上時，我輕輕地和我的孩子們說著話。
“When you close you eyes and try to sleep in your cozy tiny beds, imagine the gentle waves and the twinkling light of the stars. The sea is infinite, massive, tolerant and silent, just like the mysterious origin of your lives. The sea is your cradle, and the Milky Way is your roof…” My voice faded as my mind drifted somewhere far into my own childhood. Something dark and yet tempting, unspeakable and yet revealed everything, had lured me into that abundant darkness deep in the moors of my memory, again and again, over and over, until I tumbled and bled, and I was still driven by that impenetrable, twisted devil inside me who craved, begged, and howled for a scarlet, burning wild rose I once possessed. “當你躺在舒適的小床裏，閉上眼睛想要入眠之時，想象一下溫柔的海浪和閃爍的星光。大海一望無垠，有容乃大，靜默無聲，就好像是你們生命的神秘之源。大海就是你們的搖籃，銀河就是你們的屋簷……”隨著我的思緒飄往了我自己的童年深處，我的聲音漸漸低了下去，消失了。在我的記憶裏，有一種存在，黑暗而又充滿誘惑，緘默卻又道出了一切，反反複複，一次又一次地把我誘引到了記憶荒原的茫茫黑暗中去。直到我在黑暗中跌倒流血，我心裏的那個不可理喻、扭曲的魔鬼依舊固執地驅使著我，渴望著，乞求著，哀嚎著要一朵我曾經擁有過的猩紅色的火熱的野玫瑰。