The Hinky Bearskin Rug Read Online Free PDF

me
through grief and panic and feeling abandoned. And he kept the farm title tied
up in court while I sold the last crops and reduced the herd to a manageable
size. And he nursed me—”
    Her throat
closed suddenly. She paused.
    “Nursed me
through selling the farm.” She took a deep breath. “Liddy made me see that I
had to let it go. He helped me realize that I didn’t want to be a dairy farmer.
I was just holding onto it so I wouldn’t feel so lost. He got the best price, a
crazy big price, and he kept the law off me until I was legally of age to sign
things. And he made me go to college.” She looked at Randy, begging him to
understand. “He made me go. He wanted
the best for me.”
    “For a price.
He was seventy. He despoiled a schoolgirl,” Randy said in a critical tone.
    “You’re over
two hundred and you’ve slept with more than a hundred women,” she said,
relaxing. “You’ve never said if any of them were jail bait.”
    “May I ask
something?” She nodded, and he said, “How long were you faithful to him?”
    “How do you
know I was faithful to him?” She frowned, remembering. “He died while I was in
college. It was in my first year, in spring. He hadn’t even told me he was
sick.” She said in a harder voice, “Everybody who loves me dies.”
    “That’s my
line,” Randy said, and she did a double take. His big black eyes glittered. “So
Liddy died, and you drowned your sorrows in a rakish career.”
    “Who the hell
are you, my shrink?”
    “What is a
shrink?”
    “A
head-shrinker. A psychiatrist. I have no idea if they had shrinks in 1811, so I
don’t know what you would call it.”
    “A confessor.”
He laughed, and bowed his head. “I will not tease you to confess to me.”
    She smiled
weakly. “Besides, you have other skills I need you for.”
    Now he looked
serious. “Yes.” He reached for her.
    No sooner was
she in his arms than Jewel began twitching. It was a mental twitch, invisible
to Randy, she was sure, but horribly perceptible to herself. Then the twitch
moved into her legs, then in her arms, then her back. He pulled her close. The
hairs on his thighs tickled hers, and then the twitch swooped into her crotch,
where it stayed and drove her nuts.
    I thought I was getting used to him!
    She groaned
aloud, a deep, sad groan with a lilt of panic at the end, because she knew what
this restless feeling was about.
    I
can’t be tired of him. That is simply not an option here.
    If things were
normal, if he was normal, he would be
gone in the morning and she’d be free, free, free to have her life back. If
things were the way they used to be, she could kick him out tonight, no
comment, no questions asked or answered. He might call her for a few days, but
she could choke him off, no problem. If he was a normal guy.
    He’s
two hundred years old. He can see right through me.
    Very tenderly,
he touched her face with one hand.
    He’s
trying to get closer and I’m terrified.
    “I want it
hinky tonight,” she blurted.
    His hand
stilled. In the dim bedroom, she thought his eyes got bigger and blacker.
    Oh,
right. He’s a lord, too.
    She tugged at
his shoulders. “Come o-o-on. Take me to demonspace. You know I love it.” When
he didn’t move, she added, “Pretty please?”
    Now I’m catering to his ego. What’s
next? Playing dumb while he talks about da Bears?
    But Randy
relaxed. He drew his hand over the crown of her head, down over her face, his
fingertips brushing her eyelids. “Sleep, Jewel.”
    And bang, she
was asleep.
    o0o
    Snow, she thought, trudging up the front steps of the Field
Museum over dirty old crusts of snow. I’m
sick of snow. It was bone cold. A breeze off the lake carried icy razors in
it, blowing six hundred miles down the lake from Canada.
    Hope the museum’s open. She was freezing out here. She got to
the enormous brass doors and peered through the glass. The museum was dark.
    Turning, she
saw the long front steps were empty, the exit for