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ful cry of the gulls that followed each surge of the unrelenting tide. |
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Each step he took became more tentative. The mock bravado, so evident when he had boarded the Air Canada flight at Kennedy, was gone now, giving way to agonizing uncertainty. The prospect of confronting the Caron woman left him with a sense of maddening foreboding. He took a deep breath and began to climb the steps to the sprawling porch. |
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Unlike his previous sojourn to the isolated place, this day was without storm. It had dawned gray and stayed gray, threatening but failing to live up to that threat. Now it was late afternoon. |
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Just as he had 13 months ago, he knocked. Unlike that time, he knew what to expect. |
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The door opened and she stood there, just as lovely, exciting, provocative, and beautiful as any woman he had ever seen. Her smile radiated. Her eyes invited. She was seduction personified. ''Ah, Mr. Frazier," she said dreamily, "I have been expecting you." |
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Charlie again stepped into the Caron woman's world of elusive shadows created by countless shimmering candles. They were the only illumination in the room. This, too, was exactly as he remembered itornate, intoxicating, beguiling. |
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His first fumbling efforts at speaking were aborted by the sudden rush of those recollec- |
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