Chapter 11
After an hour had passed and night had fallen, Dick knew he was
hopelessly lost. His loud shouts of "hello" brought no response. He
knew he would be safe if he could find the road, so he began walking in
a direction that he thought would lead out of the woods. Twice, in the
stillness of the night, the sound of dogs came. Once, he stumbled upon
a herd of pigs and was forced to climb a tree to get away from an
enraged boar. The pig snorted and clawed the ground, and stared up with
baleful red eyes. Twice, its yellow tusks gleaming in the moonlight,
the animal charged the tree. A persistent bastard, it remained there
for almost an hour.
When it finally ambled off, so did Dick!
It was almost eleven before he found the road and began walking.
He had walked almost three miles before a black figure came hurtling out
of the night at him. He leaped aside and shouted, "You idiot. You
almost ran over me." The figure on a bicycle turned around to stare,
then wobbled crazily, and crashed into the ditch.
"Now, you see what you've done," the Irish voice complained.
"You've wrecked me new bike. And me wife will think I did it because of
drink."
Dick, feeling foolish because he had been half-frightened out of
his wits, was immediately contrite. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm lost. You
seared hell out of me -- coming over the top of the hill that way,
without lights. I thought Old Nick had finally caught up with me."
The Irishman rubbed the seat of his pants where he had landed after
the crash. He looked at Dick. "You've a right to be worried about the
Devil on this road. He's been seen many the time by those who were
sober." He shuddered, then bent down to pick up his wheel. "It looks in
fair shape. Perhaps no harm's been done at that. Where are ye bound
this time of night?"
"I'm lost. I went hunting ... got separated from my party. I'm
staying at Castle Fleur."
The Irishman tensed. "Will then, I guess you have no need to fear
the Devil. Good night, sir."
Dick was puzzled by the man's attitude, but he let it pass. "Can
you tell me how to get back?"
The Irishman jerked his head in the direction Dick was headed.
"Three miles up the road and turn to the right." He hesitated, then said
in a more friendly manner, "And good luck to ye. A friend of the
owner's?"
"No ... merely a guest. Why?"
The man took a deep breath and drew himself up; when he exhaled, it
was obvious that he had been drinking. "You look a bright lad. Are you
honeymooning?"
"Yes."
"Then take my advice and leave. Strange things happen in that
wicked place. People complain of strange dreams in which the Devil
takes part. Only this spring a new bride of only four days leaped to
her death from the towers. And none of the local girls will work there.
And more than one young couple has come together and departed separately
... or much earlier than planned." He threw a leg over the bike's seat.
"One thing I know, I'd never leave my bride there ... alone." He rode
quickly off into the darkness.
Dick stared after him. What a lot of nonsense, he thought.
"Strange things", "suicides", and "strange dreams", typical
superstitious clap-trap, from an Irishman who has had too much to drink.
He had taken half a dozen paces before he stopped and said aloud,
"Strange dreams?" He abruptly recalled the dreams about Nora before he
finally found himself in the sack with her. Come to think of it, Sue
had been acting oddly all day ... almost as if she had been worried
about something. He quickened his pace and, by the time he reached the
turn-off, he was actually jogging.
It was midnight when he arrived; the castle was completely dark
except for lights shining from the windows of their suite. "Thank God,"
he breathed, "Sue's up ... and okay."
Rather than awaken the house by going to the front door and ringing
the bell, he decided to go around to the servants entrance and enter
through the storage area. Once inside, the darkness was oppressive. He
fumbled his way through the room, and was relieved to find a door which
lead to the dimly lighted hallway. Quickly he made his way up the
servants back stairs. When he reached the third floor, he turned toward
what he thought was his suite. He was halfway down the corridor, in
front of a statue of a knight in armour, when he suddenly discovered he
was in the wrong wing. There, in front of him, was the room he had come
from last night ... when he had mysteriously awakened next to Nora. He
spun around, and as he did so, his jacket sleeve caught on the handle of
the knight's sword. There was a whispering noise and a door silently
opened in the blank wall.
Dick stepped back in surprise and momentary fright, tensed and
waiting for someone to come through. When no one appeared, his eyes
narrowed and he reached out to push the sword and scabbard. The door
closed. He pushed up on the sword; the door swung open again.
Peering around to make sure no one was watching, Dick quickly
stepped through the opening. It whispered shut behind him. He spun
rapidly, feeling trapped, but as the door closed, the lights came on
automatically. Alongside the door was a lever. He touched it; the
lights went out, the door opened. He closed the door again and, as the
lights came up, he began an inspection.
At one turning, he saw what appeared to be a pane of clear glass.
Someone was moving behind the glass. When he got closer, he realized it
must be some sort of trick mirror, for it was obvious that the weeping
and wildly gesticulating nude Lady Margaret had no idea that he was
there. The nude Irish maid was screeching at Lady Margaret. Suddenly,
her temper boiling, the girl picked up a broad leather belt and began
beating the older woman who rolled and pleaded on the floor. "A couple
of lesbians fighting, serves the old bitch right," was his disinterested
comment. He walked on until he came to what seemed to be almost a
theater lounge with several leather chairs placed strategically in front
of another window. There was a tripod standing there also. When Dick
looked down through the glass, he almost passed out from the sudden
shock. He could see Nora, her hair in curlers, reading a book in bed.
Even as he watched, she yawned, closed the book, took a drink of water
from the night glass, and turned off the light.
Oh, my God! he thought in sudden dismay. Was anyone up here last
night when she and I ...?
Suspicion was piling up on suspicion. It was with a pounding heart
and oppressive feeling of apprehension that Dick began moving back
toward the secret passage. He made a wrong turn once, opened a door,
and found himself in a well-equipped modern darkroom. Several rolls of
film hung from a drying line. Quickly he exited, and a moment later was
outside in the wing hallway again. He closed the door, then stood there
for a moment trying to catch his thoughts. What kind of crazy operation
was this anyway? Lesbians. Trick mirrors? Were Morgan and Nora some
kind of perverts who got their kicks out of watching other people make
love? He thought about what Nora had said concerning his demand for
oral sex. Had anyone seen that? "Oh, my God," he repeated, this time
with more than desperation in his voice.
"We've got to get out of this loony bin tonight," he said aloud,
making an immediate decision. He didn't know what he'd tell Sue, but if
necessary he would force her to pack at once.
All the lights were on in their suite when he entered. Sue,
looking pale and distraught, was dressed in her travelling clothes. Her
bags were packed. She turned to him and her composure disintegrated;
she began weeping as soon as she saw him.
"Sue? What's wrong?" he asked, suddenly very frightened and
positive that someone had told her about Nora. He started toward her.
"Dick, don't touch me. Don't come near me. I'm leaving you. I
would have gone earlier, but there was no way of getting to the railway
unless you drove me."
"Sue ..." it was a plea, wrenched out of him. "What are you
talking about?"
"I can't stay with you."
Dick swallowed. So ... she did know about his adulterous behavior
with Nora. He could barely speak because of the sudden tightness in his
throat. "It was something I did?" the question croaked out of him.
Huge tears boiled up in her eyes; she refused to look at him.
Finally she took a deep shuddering breath and answered, "No, my darling.
Nothing you've done."
"Then what?"
She shook her head. Dick, suddenly angry at the uncertainty of the
whole situation, darted across the room and roughly grabbed her
shoulders. "You just can't leave like that. I'm your husband. You're
my wife. I demand to know what's wrong," the last was shouted.
Sue closed her eyes, the tears continued to stream down her face.
Her shoulders slumped. "All right. You're entitled to know exactly
what kind of a person you married. You made a mistake! Go home. Get
an annulment. You thought I was decent. I'll show you. I'll show you
what you married. It is going to hurt you. If you kill me I won't
complain. I deserve it. Your hurt from seeing this will go away in
time, but I'll have to live with it festering inside me for the rest of
my life."
"What in hell are you talking about?"
Shuddering, Sue reached into her purse and pulled out the manila
envelope. She gave it to him.
Dick unfastened the clasp and withdrew the photographs. His eyes
widened in horror and disgust as he looked at the first one. He looked
sick by the time he had rifled through the stack. His mind was
whirling; he didn't believe it. This was all a mad dream ... a dream?
And knowing beyond a doubt that someone somewhere in the castle had
photographs of him too, he mumbled "Oh ... God!"
Sue collapsed, weeping. Between sobs she managed to say, "You see
... why I can't stay married to you?"
There were things to be done. The first thing he wanted to do was
kill Lord Medwell and Tom Morgan. The second? The second ... No, there
was something far more important than revenge. Sue!
He put his hand gently under the chin and lifted her sweet face.
She tried to turn away from him, but he wouldn't let her go. "Darling.
Listen to me," he pleaded. "Did you know you were doing this? I mean
... did you dream you were doing it?"
Sobbing, she merely nodded. "In my dream I was doing it with you
... and it was so ... beautiful and right."
"You couldn't help doing this. You were drugged ... or, more
likely, under hypnotic suggestion or something."
"Dick, those pictures were taken last night. Tonight, though, I
wasn't hypnotized. I did everyone of those things all over again
tonight. They made me. They said they would give me the photographs if
I did it. They said I had to do it or they would show you the pictures.
They were going to send copies to my mother, to everyone in my address
book ..."
"Blackmail."
"Yes," her body shuddered. "But they made me ... they did things
to me that made me ... lose control of myself." She looked up, her eyes
filled with shame. "You should know the truth. They made me beg ...
and I begged. Don't you understand? They called me a slut and a whore
... and I am ... because they did things to me that made me want to ...
I wanted to ... to ..." She closed her eyes, and all the life drained
out of her. "When they gave me the photographs, it was only then that
they told me I would have to do 'other' things for the negatives."
The word "negative" did it for Dick. He suddenly realized what his
mind -- his memory! -- had been trying to tell him for minutes. The
dark room! Of course! The negative would be there. And, if there were
negatives of Sue, there would be others of other people. Enough
negatives to let the police know what was going on. There might even be
negatives of the girl who committed suicide. And, abruptly, Dick knew
he didn't really want to kill Morgan and Lord Medwell; that was too easy
-- much too good -- for them. They enjoyed their little games with
innocent people. Cage them both up in prison -- without sex -- for long
years and it would be, literally, a fate worse than death.
Dick turned to his sobbing wife. "Sue," he snapped, "now listen to
me. No more talk about annulment or leaving me. We ... you and I ...
are getting out of here right now. And we're taking the negatives with
us. If you still want a divorce or annulment after we get away from
this place, I won't stop you. But we are leaving together. Right now.
Understand? Pack my bags. Do it quickly. Take them downstairs and out
the back way to the garage. Be very quiet. Will you do as I say?"
For the first time since he had entered there was a shadow of hope
in her eyes. "But how could you stand to live with me, knowing what I
am?"
"We'll talk about that later. Just do as I say."
Wide-eyed, Sue nodded, slowly at first and then with increasing
hope. When Dick left the room a minute later, she was already opening
his dresser drawer.
He went surely through the walls, hesitating only when he reached
the Morgan's wing. No one stirred. He moved the sword and the door
opened. A second later, he passed the window overlooking Lady
Margaret's room. The maid had tied Lady Margaret to the bedpost. A
long black whip lay on the bedspread and the Irish maid, screaming
obscenities at the tearfully pleading butch dyke, was viciously
sodomizing her with the ten-inch dildoe. The girl apparently had
squeezed the hot-water balls because a thin stream of defecation and
water ran down the inner thighs of both of them.
Dick didn't pause to watch the lewd spectacle; truly, he thought,
this was the "Devil's castle" just as his Irish friend had said.
Once in the darkroom, he gave silent thanks for Morgan's scientific
method of operation. Every print was numbered in a negative book, so it
took only a minute to discover that six prints had been made of Sue.
Those would be the six prints given to her.
There had been, much to his chagrin, five prints made of him.
Where were they? That was the question. Who had them? Then he caught
sight of the small notation, "To N." So Nora had them? The negative
book also showed that there had been a total of seven rolls of film shot
of Sue and him. He looked up on the drying line; there were seven
stripes of film hanging there. He scanned them in the light; yes, they
were the right ones. Two of the rolls were of Nora down on him in
fellatio, of him performing cunnilingus on her, of the two of them
indulging in soixante-neuf, and of wild frenzied fucking between the two
of them. He shoved the negatives in his pockets, then buttoned the
pockets to make sure the film did not fall out.
The negative book was a very interesting document. There were
names and dates and -- in a few places -- even sums of money listed.
Dick decided it would make excellent evidence for the police ... that,
together with the other negatives. There were two filing cases loaded
with them. Many of the pictures obviously went back to the time when
Morgan had operated in London as a gynecologist. No wonder he had been
able to buy the castle!
It took Dick four trips to carry all of the negatives to the car.
When he completed the fourth trip, Sue was sitting in the front seat
waiting for him. "What are all those boxes," she asked.
"Photographic negatives, darling, of poor ignorant unsuspecting
people like you and me." When he said "me", Dick realized he had almost
forgotten the photographs delivered to Nora.
"Be very quiet," he said. "I'll be back in ten minutes or so." He
had made his way halfway across the courtyard when the dogs came at him
barking. A moment later, the lights came on in the courtyard, and
Morgan opened his window on the third floor to shout down, "Who's
there?"
Dick was caught. There was no way he could escape notice. He
stepped boldly out into the light and looked up. "Hi, Tom. It's me. I
got lost ... had a helluva time finding my way back."
Morgan shouted, "Thank God, you're safe. We'll call off the
search. We've been looking everywhere for you. We were frantic with
worry."
"You lying son of a bitch," Dick said under his breath, then
shouted up, "Don't bother to come down. I'll let myself in ... and go
right to bed. Boy, am I ever tired."
"Good show. See you tomorrow."
"Make it late, will you. Don't have anyone wake us up early. I
want to sleep in. I've walked five hundred miles tonight, it seems."
"Right-o." The courtyard went out. Dick looked back toward the
car; Sue's face was only a white blur in the dimness. He held up his
finger to his mouth in a charade of silence.
The racket probably had awakened Nora, he thought; if so, we'll
just have to bluff it. When he reached the third floor landing, he
listened carefully and then slowly tip-toed toward Nora's room. Quietly
he pushed the door open; the room was dark, and it smelled of Nora's
perfume. He could hear her rhythmic breathing; she was asleep.
It took him almost ten agonizing minutes before he found the packet
of photographs in a drawer beneath her undergarments. Quickly he
counted the pictures; they were all there. With the treasure safely
inside his coat pocket, he relaxed enough to lose some of his caution.
That was when he knocked over the table lamp.
"Who's there?" Nora sat bolt upright in bed.
"Shhhh," Dick whispered. "It's me."
"Dick?" she hissed. "What are you doing here?"
"Why do you think? I can't go to sleep without you. I keep
remembering how you felt ... how you taste. "
He heard her breath expel in animal eagerness. "Have you been to
your room yet?" she asked, almost breathlessly.
"Yes. Sue's asleep. She won't miss me. She won't miss this long
hard thing I've got for you."
Nora groaned deep in her throat; obviously her body was rapidly
coming to life. "You're sure you want me?" she asked.
"I want you so badly that I'm going to get down on my hands and
knees in front of you and I'm going to ... going to ..."
"Yes ... Yes! Don't talk about it. Do it. Do it. Do it!" He
could hear her panting; the heat had come on her that quickly. She
threw the blanket and sheet from her and began struggling out of her
gown.
Dick tried to sound equally excited; he made short gasps of what he
hoped would pass as impatience. Then he said, "Oh, damn!"
.'What is it? What is it?"
"Nora, I have to go back to the room for a second. I felt the
water running. I'll be right back."
"God-damnit, hurry then!" In the dim glow of her illuminated clock
he could see her fumbling with her curlers.
"I will ... meanwhile you just think about what it's going to feel
like when I start biting, when I slip this thing into you." He saw her
legs clench together in passionate impatience, and then he quickly left
the room.
He reached the top of the stairs and turned back to look in the
direction of Nora's bedroom. He grinned. He tossed her a kiss. "Just
keep thinking about it, baby. Think about it ... all night ... long."
The dogs met him at the front door, but they remained silent this
time, wagging their tails and frolicking alongside him. They continued
to play with him while he pushed the car down the road, and through the
front gates, and across the little stone bridge. Then they were rolling
free down a small incline. When he reached the turn in the road hiding
them from the castle, Dick put the car in gear and started the engine.
They drove up ... up ... up the hill, then swung around a curve.
For a moment, the moon glittered and skipped on the lake, while the
castle looked as though it were some ghostly apparition from the past
... then it disappeared from sight.
Sue fought it, but began weeping again.
Dick patted her knee. He had never felt more sure of himself in
his life. What he planned to do might be a horrible mistake; but he
knew it was their only chance. He reached into his inside pocket and
pulled out a manila envelope. "Here. These probably won't make you
feel any better, but they may change your mind about a lot of things."
He heard her gasp as she saw the first picture, then additional
intakes of breath as she came across each new scene. She turned to him,
her eyes full of questions ... and uncertainty. "Dick? You look as if
... like you were ..."
"Enjoying it?"
"Yes."
"I was."
"But how could you?"
"Simple. I thought I was giving pleasure to you ... just as you
thought you were giving pleasure to me."
Sue was silent as she put the pictures back in the envelope. She
remained silent, pensive, as they drove down the hill toward the lights
of a small village. She said nothing when Dick stopped in front of the
police station and roused the area Chief Constable out of a sound sleep.
Vaguely, through churning emotions, she heard Dick say once to the Chief
Constable, "I think you'll find the reason for a girl's suicide at
Castle Fleur six months ago ... plus I'm sure the London Police and
Scotland Yard will be very interested in the older photographs together
with the sums of money indicated."
She sat there dazed, as Dick engaged the clutch and drove off. In
the East, the sky was lightening as a new day approached.
They stopped twice: once to barn their photographs and the rolls of
film shot of them. The ashes were thrown into the cleansing waters of a
lake and disappeared from sight.
The second stop was equally memorable ... for Sue was to discover
that dreams and things that happen under duress can never be equated
with the real thing. And when the boy and the girl had finally rolled
away from each other, they discovered the dawn had come and a new day
was there ... full of promise and untold, coming delight.
The End
