Blackwood Farm - Anne Rice [188]
“ ‘Oh, no doubt combing her long red hair,’ he said with the most exquisite intonation, ‘so that she can throw it over yonder balcony,’ he pointed upwards to the iron railings, ‘and lure you like Rapunzel did her forbidden prince.’
“ ‘Am I forbidden?’ I asked. I tried to resist his beguiling manner but it was difficult.
“ ‘Oh, who knows?’ he said with a world-weary sigh, but his smile was brilliant. ‘Come with me, and call me Oncle Julien, if you will; I’m your Oncle Julien as surely as your Aunt Queen gave her embrace to Mona last night. And, by the way, that was a stunning gift, the cameo. Mona will always treasure it. May I call you Tarquin? I have already, haven’t I? Do I have that much of your trust?’
“ ‘You invited me in, didn’t you?’ I replied. ‘I thank you very much for that.’
“We were walking now on a flagstone path beside the house, and to our right lay a great garden with an octagonal pattern of boxwood around its lawn. There were Grecian marble statues here and there—a Hebe, I think, and a bathing Venus—and beds of exquisite spring flowers and some small citrus trees, and one bearing a single lemon of monstrous size. I paused to look at it.
“ ‘Isn’t it charming?’ he said. ‘The little tree puts all its heart into the one lemon. If it had many, no doubt they’d be of regular size. You might say the Mayfair clan does something very similar. Here, come let’s walk on.’
“ ‘You mean with regard to the Legacy,’ I said. ‘They put everything into one Designée,’ I continued, ‘and she has to be guarded from intrigues with those who aren’t marriageable and I’ve somehow been found wanting?’
“ ‘Mon fils,’ he said, ‘you have been found too young! There’s nothing in you that’s unworthy. It’s only that Mona is fifteen and you are not yet a man. And I must confess a little mystery surrounds you which I will explain.’
“We had gone up a few flagstone steps and were now walking past a huge octagonal swimming pool. Hadn’t Aunt Queen said something about Michael Curry almost drowning in this pool? I was befuddled. Everywhere there was beauty. And it was so very quiet.
“Oncle Julien drew my attention to the fact that the shape of the pool was the same as that of the lawn. And in each of the short pillars of the balustrade that octagon was repeated.
“ ‘Patterns on top of patterns,’ he said. ‘Patterns attract spirits, spirits who are lost can see patterns, that’s why they like old houses, grand houses, houses with big rooms filled with the touch of kindred spirits. I think sometimes that once a host of spirits have inhabited a house it’s easier for other spirits to get in. It’s an amazing thing. But come, let me take you into the rear garden. And we will escape the patterns to sit for a while beneath the trees.’
“It was exactly as he had said. As we passed from the flagstones around the pool through a large open double gateway we found ourselves moving out across a loose lawn to an iron table and chairs beneath a huge oak, where the grass grew sparse and the roots were visible, and other young trees to our right—willow, magnolia, maple—were fighting to make a grove.
“I could see the word ‘Lasher’ carved deep into the bark of the oak tree and there was a strange sweet fragrance in the garden, a perfumelike fragrance—something that I could not associate with flowers. I was shy of asking what the scent was.
“We sat down at the black iron table. It was set with cups and saucers for us and a tall thermal pitcher, which he lifted now to serve.
“ ‘Hot chocolate, mon fils, what do you say to that?’
“ ‘Oh, marvelous,’ I said with a laugh. ‘How absolutely delicious. I never expected it.’ He filled my cup.
“ ‘Ah,’ he said, as he filled his own, ‘you have no idea what a treat it is for me.’
“We sipped, waiting for the temperature to become comfortable, and I saw there were animal crackers on the plate and the old poem by Christopher Morley came to me about this very repast:
Animal crackers, and cocoa to drink,
That is the finest of suppers, I think;
“Quite suddenly, Oncle Julien recited