Chapter 5
It was on the third night of my watch just before dawn that I saw his thickset figure break through the undergrowth.
As on the previous nights, everything had been dead quiet for a long time, with nothing more than an occasional night noise. It was almost windless and the leaves stirred almost imperceptibly. The woods stretched out on all sides and I had the impression of living in another world, a foreign unknowable world through which tiny night animals burrowed.
I had almost decided to give up for a third time when I heard the strong crackling of twigs and the small commotion of a frightened rabbit as it scurried away from his approach.
Silently, I cocked both barrels of my shotgun, held my breath almost involuntarily, and leaned back out of sight against the tree.
It seemed an age before he appeared.
I was tense. In spite of the chill atmosphere of the dark woods I could feel the perspiration on my forehead. After the strain of my long vigil, my courage had almost seeped away.
Yes, it was he...."like an animal, like a beast...." Anna had said in her rich, wondering voice.
It was my enemy, Inez.
As the thumb of my right hand grazed gently across the cocked hammers, feeling them erect, steel, sharp as flint, it came to me that in a few moments now I would pay off an old score which went back to the day in the copse when his act confirmed my terrible destiny. Was the man even aware of my existence? The man? ... the animal, the beast ... and I the hunter waiting for him with death in my hands. My excitement grew.
He was so near that in that quiet place I could see the whites of his eyes. He was wiping his broad face with his hand. In his left hand he carried a single-bore shotgun.
A sudden sense of power rose up in me.
From my place of concealment I gazed long and hard at my dead man.
Half an hour before dawn. An appropriate time for an execution.
The gun was hard and cool in my hands.
I spoke.
"Stay where you are! Don't move!"
He froze. The whites of his eyes seemed to grow larger as he peered madly in front of him in the direction of my voice. And as his gun moved up protectively across his chest I shot him twice, with great accuracy, between the eyes.
As he fell forward his own gun went off and the lead shot burst redly out and upwards from the barrel, causing nesting birds to shriek and wheel from the trees. I laughed silently as I felt the whip of pellets tear at my shoulder and I could have cried aloud for joy when my hand, touching it, came away bearing blood.
He had wounded me!
I was still laughing nervously and triumphantly as I leaned over his sprawled body to examine the red and bleeding mass that had been his face.
"What on earth is it, Saul?"
"I've killed a poacher, Mr. Lewis. He took a shot at me and wounded me in the shoulder. Can you come at once? I've already sent for the sheriff."
"Good God!"
"Please! Can you come?"
"I'll be over right away!" I hung up.
"Pour me another brandy, Cliff. A big one."
"Yes, Mr. Folsrom."
The sheriff arrived first in an old Chevrolet.
Pretending to be nearly overcome with shock, I told him my story.
I had been unable to sleep. I had taken my gun and strolled about the grounds, thinking I might have a shot at a rabbit. In the woods I had encountered the man. I challenged him. He swung up his gun and took a shot at me. I fired twice....
He surveyed me noncommittally and said he would go and take a look at the body. I told Cliff to go with him.
"The name's Inez," the sheriff said when he returned. He lit a small evil-smelling cigar. " ... although, with what he's got left for a face, it's difficult to tell. Fancy shooting on your part. He was a bad devil. Known him for a long time. Knew he'd come to a sticky end sooner or later."
"God! so that's Inez!" I said, collapsing in a chair.
"Know him, Mr. Folsrom?" I shook my head.
"No. But I hear he married my old governess. That makes me almost a parricide!" The sheriff laughed.
"No need for you to worry, Mr. Folsrom," he said. "He got what was coming to him. You must have given him a scare when you challenged him. That'd be what started him shooting. He was trespassing and it's a clear case of self-defense."
He made a gesture towards the drink cabinet.
"Help yourself, sheriff," I said.
He nodded casually and helped himself to a long shot of rye whiskey.
He looked at me, almost smiling. I feigned nervous exhaustion.
"Of course, there'll be an inquest," he said, "but that'll be a matter of routine. He was well-known around these parts. A sinister bastard. Yeah, Inez ... boy, you sure messed up his face!"
I winced.
"Here," he said, "let's have a look at that shoulder."
Fortunately, I didn't need to simulate pain as he helped me off with my coat. He cut away my shirt and examined the wound.
"Nothing serious," he said slowly, "but you'd better call a doctor. Some of the shot's gone quite deep. Near shave, I'd say. Might have blown your head off as you did his. You were lucky."
The white flesh of my shoulder was punctured and lacerated in many places, red spots and grey where the pellets had embedded themselves under the skin.
"Yeah, you sure were lucky!" the sheriff said. "Inez was a sharpshooter."
I nodded.
"Lucky you were ready. Lucky he didn't see you first!"
"This might not have happened if he had! He would probably have simply slipped away."
"Yeah, I suppose so...."
"It's a funny feeling, sheriff."
"What's that?"
"To have killed a man."
He gulped his whiskey and knocked the ash off the end of his cigar.
"A fraction of a second you'd have been the stiff, Mr. Folsrom. No. You did right. You plugged him right between the eyes. I'd have done the same in your place."
"Thanks. It's nice to hear you say that. It makes me feel much better."
He laughed. Then he got up and went over to the telephone.
"I'll ring for an ambulance," he said, "and I'll tell them to send a doctor at the same time."
While he was on the telephone the doorbell rang.
"See who's there, Cliff."
"Yes, Mr. Folsrom."
A moment later Mr. Lewis burst into the room.
"Dear me! What on earth's happened?" he said excitedly, and then, catching sight of my wounded shoulder, he cried: "My dear boy! Are you all right?" He hurried across to me on his crutches and gazed in bewilderment at my shoulder.
"I've killed Inez," I said slowly.
"Inez! Good God! Whatever happened?"
The sheriff intervened.
"You'll be Mr. Lewis?" he said.
Lewis nodded, gazing from me to the sheriff.
Concisely, the sheriff explained what had happened. From his lips, the story sounded absolutely watertight. I could have embraced him.
"My poor boy!" Lewis said when he had finished. "What a terrible thing to happen so soon after your arrival!"
I thanked my stars for the wound in my shoulder. Obviously Lewis had swallowed the story without question.
"But think of poor Anna!" I said miserably.
Lewis seated himself on a chair. "Poor girl! poor girl!" he repeated. "That his missus?" the sheriff said without emotion.
"Yes," Lewis said.
The sheriff poured himself another drink. "No great loss," he said. "She's better off without him. Good-looker, isn't she?"
"A very pleasant girl," Lewis said. "I must go and see her now!" I said. Lewis blinked. The sheriff yawned.
"Ambulance'll be here soon," he said, apropos of nothing.
"Do you think you ought to, Saul?"
"I've got to," I said. Lewis nodded.
"You want to break the news to her yourself?"
"Who's more qualified?" I said, putting a sad bitterness into my voice.
"Get your shoulder attended to first. Wait for the ambulance," the sheriff said. "No point in risking infection. I'll drive round there myself with you. Old Cromarty place, isn't it?"
Lewis said yes.
"Do you wish me to come with you, Saul?" he said.
"No, I think I'd rather not, Mr. Lewis. I'll get in touch with you later in the day."
"Very well," he said. "In that case I think I shall go home. Thank God you weren't hurt badly."
"Yeah," the sheriff said, "it was a near shave...."
An hour later, my arm in a sling and most of the pain gone from my shoulder, we drove out of the grounds and by way of the road reached the cottage where Anna lived. The smoke from the chimney told us that Anna was already up.
T was afraid that Anna might give away the fact that I had already visited her since my arrival on the estate and was worried, since my companion was the sheriff himself, about the results of such a disclosure.
I need not have worried. As soon as Anna had opened the door and seen me in the company of the sheriff, she cried: "Saul!"
"Anna!" I said, moving forwards and taking her in my arms. Then, pretending to rub my cheek against hers, I whispered: "This is the first time I've seen you since I arrived."
She told me she understood by a slight pressure on my arm.
"Sorry, sheriff, you understand," I said, "Anna was my governess and we haven't seen one another for many years."
The sheriff looked as though he was not the least interested. He was looking across towards the woods and was lighting another of his foul cigars. A moment later he turned.
"Better tell her at once," he said.
"Tell me what?" said Anna, her eyes widening with surprise.
"Anna, you must try to be strong ... Inez is dead...."
Her face went white. "Dead?"
"Mr. Folsrom shot your husband in self defense," the sheriff interposed. And I thought he looked at her closely.
She stared from him to me and with a small cry she fainted. I caught her as she fell and carried her into the cottage. The sheriff-he was called McCabe-followed me in.
I carried her over to the bed and a moment later McCabe joined me with a glass of water.
"Good-looking broad," he said to me as he handed me the glass.
I nodded, and raising Anna on my arm, I forced the glass between her lips.
A moment later her eyes flickered open.
She stared at me.
I looked at McCabe.
He grinned. And then, when her gaze flitted to him, he became serious.
"Phone me later in the morning, Mr. Folsrom," he said, giving me his number. "I'll get along now. Be seeing you."
He nodded to Anna and went out.
Neither of us spoke until we heard the car start and drive away.
"You killed Inez!"
I stroked her hair.
"You murdered him!"
"In cold blood," I said. "I waited for him for three nights. He came this morning just before dawn. I shot him twice between the eyes."
"Oh God!"
I thought she was going to faint again but she took hold of herself. "I told you I loved him!"
"You told me he had the power of the beast over you. I shot the beast."
She was looking at me as a rabbit watches a snake.
Something stirred in me. I knew that I must act now or not at all. Coldly, with calculation, I slapped her across the face.
It was no spurious act and it was geared to the moment only in the sense that I was now ready to act at every moment in accordance with a new attitude. She had loved Inez. I thought about that night after night as I waited to slay him.
She had loved me in a different way.
My act of slapping her across the face had the effect of annihilating the past, of reversing the relation between us. In the future, she would obey.
It was not what I wanted, not what I had intended, not the situation for which I had made a thousand preparations while I was separated from her, but I had come to realize clearly that it was the only effective way, at least for the moment, for she was not ready to be that woman of my imagination, and in reversing things in this way I was at least able to put things in suspension; I should not have lost irrevocably.
Her expression had changed.
The fear was still there but it had undergone a subtle modulation; it was no longer stark panic, and all hatred had gone from her eyes. It was as though she were waiting for me to act again.
Slowly, holding her gaze, I bared myself, and as I did so I felt the sluice of urgent blood move to hardness. I looked down and her gaze followed my own. When our eyes met again, I climbed onto the bed beside her. Kneeling there, slowly, an inch at a time, I brought it towards her face. She stared at it, her whole attention riveted upon it, and then suddenly, when it was no more than six inches from her, she let out a small whimper, enclosed it like a valuable object in both hands, and took it in her mouth. As she did so, her liquid eyes closed, and I felt the sensual doting movement of her little tongue.
She was breathing heavily.
I moved around into a more comfortable position, cradling her head between my thighs, and grasping her back in both hands I fed her against me.
A few moments later, I felt her hands move round and thrust my trousers down about my thighs, and then her hands were on my buttocks, gripping and relaxing, gripping and relaxing, until the white spume rose up in me and spilled over into her greedy mouth.
She moaned and swallowed avidly.
I allowed it to remain there until she had consumed every last drop and then, gently, I removed it from between her lips, buttoned myself, and sat on a chair next to the bed.
I lit a cigarette.
She was gazing at me, her lips slack and wet, a haunted expression in her dark eyes. One of her hands had moved down to her crotch and she gripped it as though it were burning her.
"Take your clothes off," I said.
She responded with a whimper of delight.
A few seconds later she lay naked before me, her heavy white thighs slackly apart, her knees trembling.
I leaned over from my chair and laid my hand at her sex.
Her buttocks tightened and her belly moved upwards hotly against my hand. Once again she had closed her eyes.
Gently, I stroked her belly as I would have stroked a cat. She uttered a moan of pleasure. I slipped one finger into her and massaged her clitoris with my thumb. The sweat had gathered on her thighs like hoarfrost. I threw away my cigarette and reached for her left breast. I took the budding nipple between thumb and forefinger and squeezed, gently at first and then with increased pressure. Her white belly swung upwards in a strong arc against my other hand bearing the glistening black hairs which downed the juncture of her thighs. Softly, I slipped a second finger into her.
She let out a small gasp of pleasure. Her whole torso seemed to radiate pleasure, a strange well-being born perhaps of the slow consciousness of being an instrument. I played with her then, the fingers of one hand running riotously about her body while the fingers of the other coaxed at her wet crevice until four of them were embedded up to the hilt.
She was delirious and the strange intensity of her desire imparted itself to me, causing me to harden for the second time. But I restrained myself. I turned her over, puncturing her again with four fingers, only this time, as I came from the rear, I moved suddenly and brutally into her anus with my thumb. Her moan exploded in a whinneying sound. Before it had ended, I brought my free hand, the palm flat and rigid, down with full force across her buttocks. She bucked madly and soundlessly, the sweat appearing in small pinheads on her back. I struck again, my mind suddenly overtaken by the scene of years ago when Uncle Harris had thrashed her with the riding whip. A new respect for him crept over me. I saw her again with the garterbelt and the silk stockings, all the exciting tackle of her humiliation.
Quickly, I deserted her and walked across to the chest of drawers. In the top one I found what I was looking for, a black garterbelt and dark nylon stockings. I carried them back across to her and threw them on the bed beside her.
She was quivering with lust.
Obediently, she slipped into the stockings and slung the garterbelt around her creamy belly. From under the bed I took a pair of high-heeled shoes and laid them beside her. She put them on and lay down again on her back.
Slowly I leaned over her and smelled the heat of her body, and then, without further delay, I stripped naked and threw myself on top of her, my member sliding into her like a launched hull into a lake. My belly prised down on hers feeling the sleek line of the garterbelt and my thighs brushed against hers to feel the smoothness of the flesh under the almost transparent nylon stockings. Still sunk deep in her, I closed her thighs within mine, imprisoning them, forbidding them movement, and then the nylon was against the soft inner surfaces of my thighs, titivating, informing me of her humiliating surrender. With my hands on her rump, I flicked the elastics of her garterbelt against her smooth skin, rubbing at the same time with my front against these dainties which she had put on for my delight. My naked feet slipped into the insteps of her high-heeled shoes, and I had her thighs open against mine, incredibly soft, prising them down with my own, my muscles bulging, her shins clamped down under mine, the full roundness of her calves against the bed, and her feet levered outwards by the pressure of my feet within the insteps of her shoes. Her whole torso was thus laced to mine and her hot dripping sex was nailed and split like a soft wound from which fluid flowed.
It was almost without movement then-the blood surging blindly within us-that we were carried together into delirium. A simple but urgent flexing of the buttocks, a hardening and softening of the muscles of the lower abdomen, and thus we rocked, one body welded to the other in lust, into oblivion.
She was streaming sweat when I rose from her, her whole body emitting the stench of woman, her muscles grown flaccid with exhaustion, and her consciousness dying into itself, into being.
I came away from her wet. Her sweat and my own mingled on my belly and flanks, and the sunrise new and warm streamed in the cottage window giving my feet a yellow luminescence.
Still naked, I moved over to the window and looked out. In the near distance the woods within which a few hours earlier I had destroyed this woman's husband were visible. I turned and gazed at her naked body spread out in lassitude on the bed. In that bed, a few moments before, I had destroyed him again. "Anna...."
I had to repeat her name for a second time before her head fell round to look at me.
A strange and beautiful smile played on her full lips. Her right hand lay on her right breast, tenderly, the arm crooked at the elbow.
"Inez is dead," I said.
The smile did not leave her lips.
I walked over and stroked the loose hair back from her temple.
"You'll come to my home immediately after the inquest," I said.
Her soft black eyes flickered.
Her hand moved up and held mine where it was.