Read Online Facial Justice by L. P. Hartley - Free Book Online Page B

but she could not feel it. The voice said, "We shan't be long now." Not long? Not long? She had forgotten about time; there was nothing, where she was, to count the minutes by. Could they last forever! He seemed to be bending over her, she did not merely feel him as a presence that his voice had conjured up, she could see him; it was as though the gleams and flashes that came from him, sometimes uniting into a general radiance, had given her back her sight. That nodding plume! Of course he wasn't really wearing armor: it was the gold and silver the Inspectors had about them, the badges of their rank, which caught the light and shone reflected in his eyes. All the light there was seemed to come from him. "Why am I so comfortable?" she asked him stupidly. "Because I've seen to that. Now don't be anxious; I've got you where I want you!" "But Where's that?" "Don't ask. It's the way that we Inspectors travel. You oughtn't to be here, really." "Shall I have to pay a fine?" "You're paying it now." Had he kissed her? She thought she felt the touch of his lips on hers, but she wasn't sure: what had happened and was happening and might happen all seemed to run together. Of course she had had an accident.... But it was so strange to be alone with him. Joab excepted, she hadn't been alone with anybody much. Any kind of pairing off was discouraged: even married couples weren't supposed to segregate themselves, unless they had to. "Do I look very awful?" she asked. "I know my face is bleeding." "No, you look sweet." "Shall I have a frightful scar? I gave myself one once, you know, a little one, but I ought not to tell you that. Perhaps this is a punishment." "Well, you won't be a Failed Alpha now, if that's a consolation." Jael's heart turned over. "What shall I be?" "I don't know, but a lot lower in the beauty scale." It was like a sentence passed on her. For a moment Jael felt the pure sense of loss, unalloyed by any more bearable emotion, that only comes in dreams. She almost wished that the encircling ring of pain would close in on her and crush her. Miserably she murmured: "But you won't like me, then." "I shall like you more than ever." "Why?" she asked, trying to overcome disbelief. "Because you'll be more yourself," he told her tenderly. "I liked the little scar, why not the big one? I shall call you scarface." She became aware of an exquisite sensation that surely must be motion, a gliding like the flight of a swallow. Presently she asked, "What has happened to the others?" "The others?" he repeated. "I don't know what has happened to the others. Someone will have been detailed to look after them, I expect." "Were many hurt?" "Oh, quite a few." "Worse than... worse than me?" "Much worse. Some of them are dead." "But how did you--?" "Spot you, were you going to say? Well, I'd been keeping an eye on you." "But why?" "Perhaps just to collect a fine. You slipped up once before, you may remember." Jael did remember. "How kind of you," she said. "Oh, not at all. That's what we're for, among other things." "What other things?" "That would be telling." "But shouldn't you be looking after someone else?" "Yes, all the Jaels are my province." "I thought so," Jael said. "To you I'm only a human unit, am I? Do you really distinguish between us?" "I'm not supposed to, but I can do what I like." "Do what you like?" said Jael aghast. It sounded blasphemous to her. "But doesn't the Dictator--?" "Darling Dictator." "Ah, even you say that. Darling Dictator," repeated Jael devoutly. "But doesn't he mind if you--" "Use my discretion? No, that's what we're for." "I don't feel I ought to--" "Monopolize me? That's for me to say. Now just relax." Luxuriously she stretched her limbs. How could the sky be like a bed? How could it yield to her and yet support her? How could the act of living be so effortless? How above all could the pressure of time have been removed? She had the strangest feeling about Time; she seemed to be lost in it, almost without