He looked at her, and saw that she was looking at him. He reached his hand out and ran the knuckles against her cheek.
"Jesus!" he said.
She smiled and caught his hand in hers. He had never seen eyes brighter than hers were now.
‘‘Jesus,’’ she said, mocking him.
‘‘I’m trembling,’’ he said.
‘‘Me, too,’’ she said. She reached up and turned the ignition key off, and then pushed the armrest between the seats up out of the way and slid over to him.
He held her tightly against him, his face in her hair, aware of her breasts against his chest. It seemed to be a very long time before he kissed her, first on the hair, and then on the forehead, and only at long last on her mouth. When he kissed her on the mouth, her mouth was open under his, and he found her tongue, which was at the same time gently moving against his. Then she unbuttoned her blouse and slipped it off, and then her bra. And in a few seconds more, she was naked. In a few more seconds, so was Ed Bitter.
Later he drove her back to The Lodge. When they were almost to the road at the front of the house, she said: ‘‘Let me out here, and I’ll walk. Then nobody will know we’ve been off together.’’
He stopped the car and she got out. He watched her as she walked toward the house, staying in the shadows of the trees. When she finally appeared on the veranda, he put the Buick in gear and drove to the barn and parked the car. He turned the engine off and sat there for a couple of minutes, trying to put together what was happening; and then he got out of the car and walked out of the barn toward the river. It was pleasant to sit there at night in the dark and the quiet and watch the river flow by, as it had for—what, a million years, two million?
He sat down on the bank and glanced at the boat. Some damned fool had left a light on in one of the cabins. The master cabin. He forgot whether or not he had plugged in the shore power line when they’d tied up that afternoon. If the shore power line was not connected, the lights would drain the battery.
The Time Out was docked with her bow downstream. The shore power connection was aft, just inside the cockpit. The stairs to the wharf put him on the wharf by the Time Out’s bow. As he walked past the ports of the master cabin, he thought he saw movement inside. The first thing he thought was that a thief had boarded her. He moved as quickly and quietly as he could to the porthole. The curtain had been drawn, but not completely. There was enough of a crack for him to see inside.
He didn’t believe what he saw at first. It was the most shocking thing he had ever seen in his life.
Dick Canidy and Sue-Ellen Chambers were in the master bed, naked as jaybirds, Sue-Ellen on top, straddling Canidy, playing with her breasts as she moved up and down on him. The look on her face was absolutely wanton.
In turmoil—angry and confused—he went back up the stairs onto the lawn, and then up the lawn to the house. There were lights over the veranda, and the foyer lights were on, but the playroom was dark. Everybody else had apparently gone to bed.
He looked at his watch. It was quarter past twelve. Had he been gone that long with Sarah? Time seemed to have simply vanished.
He entere
d the playroom the way he had left it, by the screen door to its rear. There was a light switch by the door, but he remembered another light switch under the bar. Ed went over and turned it on, picked up a bottle of whiskey and a few ice cubes, and made himself a stiff drink. He took a large swallow and put the glass down. Supporting himself with both hands on the bar, he bent his head over between them.
What to do about Sue-Ellen and that goddamned Canidy?
His cousin’s wife was a whore and an unfaithful wife and a sexual degenerate, and his ‘‘friend’’ was faithless. A gentleman would not dishonor . . .
‘‘Is it that much of a problem for you?’’ Sarah Child asked.
‘‘What are you doing here?’’
‘‘I watched out the window,’’ Sarah said. ‘‘Until I saw you come back from the river.’’
‘‘Oh,’’ he said. Sarah was wearing a bathrobe. He sensed from her movement that she wasn’t wearing much under it.
‘‘If you’re worrying about me, don’t,’’ Sarah said. ‘‘You’re not obligated to me.’’
‘‘To tell the truth,’’ he said, ‘‘I was thinking about something else.’’
‘‘China?’’ she asked.
‘‘Yes,’’ he replied. That should close that subject. He thought of what Canidy had told him about lying. Like screwing, it got easier with practice.
‘‘Come on,’’ he said to Sarah. ‘‘Let’s get out of here before we wake everybody up.’’
She smiled and nodded. He turned out the light under the bar and then guided her through the darkened playroom, through the dining room into the foyer, and then up the stairs.
He had no idea where her room was, of course, but he was surprised when she followed him down the west wing corridor. He would have thought that Aunt Jenny would have put the girls in the east wing and the boys in the west wing. He came to his door. Jesus, it would be nice to get her in there!