Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice [164]
“ ‘How big a fortune?’
“ ‘It’s in the billions,’ she replied. ‘That’s why it could endow Mayfair Medical, and right now the Heiress is Rowan Mayfair. But Rowan can’t have a child and I’ve already been named to succeed Rowan.’
“ ‘I see. They’re grooming you and guarding you for the day when you have to take over.’
“ ‘Precisely,’ she answered. ‘That’s why they want me to stop acting wild and sleeping with all my cousins. Since we got back from Europe I’ve listened pretty much. I don’t know what it is with me and sex. I just love it. But you get the idea. I have to occupy a position of honor, if that doesn’t sound too egregious. That’s why they wanted me to go to Europe, to be educated and cultured and—.’
“Again her face went dark, and this time the tears came up to stand in her eyes.
“ ‘Mona, tell me,’ I pleaded.
“She shook her head. ‘Something bad happened to me,’ she said. Her voice was breaking.
“I got up and I led her away from the table. I shoved back the bedclothes and the two of us kicked off our shoes and we climbed in against the nest of down pillows. Never had I loved my fancy bed so much as when I was lying under that baldachin over there with her. And you have to picture that we were fully clothed, except for the fact that when I started kissing her I opened her blouse all the way down, feeling her breasts, but she didn’t mind.
“But then we tapered off, principally because I was so tired, and then I brought her back to the subject.
“ ‘Something bad happened?’ I asked her. ‘Can you tell me what it was?’
“For a long time she was silent and then she started to cry again.
“ ‘Mona, if anybody hurt you, I’ll hurt them,’ I said. ‘I mean it. Goblin could even—. Tell me what happened.’
“ ‘I had a child,’ she said in a hoarse whisper.
“I said nothing but I could see that she wanted to go on.
“ ‘I had a child,’ she said, ‘and it wasn’t what anyone would call a normal child. It was . . . it was different. Very precocious, yes, and perhaps what is best called a mutation. I loved it with my whole soul, it was a beautiful child. But . . . it was taken away.’ She paused, then went on. ‘It was taken far away, and I just can’t come back from that. I can’t stop thinking about that.’
“ ‘You mean they made you give up your baby! A family that size with all that money.’ I was appalled.
“ ‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t the family. Let’s just say that the child was taken away, and I don’t know what happened to it. It wasn’t the family’s doing.’
“ ‘The father’s doing?’ I asked.
“ ‘No. I told you this was something terrible. I can’t tell you all of it. I can only say that at any time I might hear about that child.’ She chose her words carefully. ‘That child might be returned to me. Some news might come, good news or bad news. But for now there’s nothing but silence.’
“ ‘Do you know where the child is?’ I asked. ‘Mona, I’ll go get the child! I’ll bring it back.’
“ ‘Quinn, you’re so strong, so confident,’ she said. ‘It’s really totally marvelous just being with you. But no, I don’t know where the child is. I think the child is in England. But I don’t know. And when we were in Europe I was sort of looking for it. There’s no word from the man that took it.’
“ ‘Mona, this is ghastly.’
“ ‘No,’ she said, shaking her head, the teardrops hanging in her lashes, ‘it’s not the way it sounds. The man was a loving man, and the child—the child was exceptional.’ Her voice broke. ‘I didn’t want to give it up, but I had to. It had to go with this loving man, this gentle man that could care for it.’
“I was too perplexed to ask a sensible question.
“ ‘If you have an inkling where this man is, then I’ll go to him.’
“She shook her head. ‘We used to know how to reach him. Rowan and Michael—those are my cousins and foster parents now, they knew the man very well. But now we don’t.’
“ ‘Mona, let me protect you in this, let me go after this man and let me go after the baby.’
“ ‘Quinn, my