Stewart, a perspicacious Scot who foresaw a future in Wyoming for big-game recreation. Angus married into a nondescript family of Alta homesteaders, the Bellums, who originally were goat herders.
But despite the prohibition against a Zanelli-Drake pairing and whether through chemistry or the machinations of the family curse, Chloe was inexplicably overcome by an urge to end her chastity streak and copulate with the younger man who sometimes handled horses for her in Alta. She succumbed to impulse on a spring night in a San Diego parking lot after she and Austin met up quite by chance. Austin was at training school, preparing for war deployment in the Army Air Corps, and Chloe was staying with theatrical friends of her mother. Under the stars, Austin's eager voice seemed to vibrate with the timbre of an angel's. But the organic sounds of sex, as the airman lost his virginity to the older woman, were embarrassing to them both. Neither was looking forward to a second act.
Then Chloe's second cousin, Faith Zanelli, entered the picture. Faith had written to Chloe that she was stationed in San Diego with the Women's Marine Corps. Chloe tracked her down and added her to their company. Arm-in-arm, the three strolled through Balboa Park and drank copious amounts of beer.
The night before going overseas, Austin impulsively proposed marriage to Faith. Impressed by the sky warrior, but more keenly motivated by a desire to impress her brilliant older cousin, Faith accepted. There were conditions: Austin must travel to Saratoga after the war, formally get permission from Tomas Zanelli, and promptly convert to Catholicism.
Two months later, having discovered she was pregnant, Chloe could see no alternative except to end her pregnancy. She sought an abortion from the friend of a friend, whose clumsy work cost her the ability to bear more children.
As Chloe and Marlena take up their respective positions in Cassandra's old bedroom, Chloe, though not religiously inclined, is praying to whatever forces govern the universe that she will not be obliged to share this particular story with Marlena. It is the one secret she has kept from her mother, who always believed her daughter's childlessness was a perverse choice, a rationalist's desire to put an end to siren births.
Cassandra's old bedroom holds more charm than the two larger guest suites down the hall put together. The whimsical touches to the wainscoting and sheer draperies are complemented by a lovely view from the window, which overlooks the dried creek, small pond, horse paddock, and Chloe's vegetable garden, protected with large sheets of plastic from the ravages of winter storms. Annie Witherspoon, Chloe's Native American housekeeper and companion of many years, has engineered the furnishings into a state of fanciful comfort. There is a cozy old horsehair armchair for Chloe to perch on. The radiator hisses merrily, working over-time to heat the frigid air, while in the background is an indistinct plink-plink-plink as the ghost strums the strings of her zither.
Chloe feels like Hamlet, about to stage a play with an explosive hidden agenda. Dressed in a long white nightgown, her amber eyes glittering, the scientist/rationalist looks like the siren that she knows herself to be.
She says to Marlena, “Comfy, dear?”
Marlena's stocking feet dangle across the open end of the one-armed divan. As she lays back, her burnished hair fans out in a crinkly, red-gold halo against the pillowed, rounded arm. The divan, which once belonged to Cassandra, was refurbished in 1969. Marlena replaced the dark, skinny legs with four butternut wooden balls and covered the curvy silhouette in a light gray silk fabric lined with thin stripes of lavender and pale peach.
She pulls the fur afghan tightly around her neck and sighs contentedly.
“Perfetto.”
The window curtains shift, the plinking sounds cease, and the long-awaited tale begins.
PART II
THE SIREN'S TALE
Chapter Five
The
But despite the prohibition against a Zanelli-Drake pairing and whether through chemistry or the machinations of the family curse, Chloe was inexplicably overcome by an urge to end her chastity streak and copulate with the younger man who sometimes handled horses for her in Alta. She succumbed to impulse on a spring night in a San Diego parking lot after she and Austin met up quite by chance. Austin was at training school, preparing for war deployment in the Army Air Corps, and Chloe was staying with theatrical friends of her mother. Under the stars, Austin's eager voice seemed to vibrate with the timbre of an angel's. But the organic sounds of sex, as the airman lost his virginity to the older woman, were embarrassing to them both. Neither was looking forward to a second act.
Then Chloe's second cousin, Faith Zanelli, entered the picture. Faith had written to Chloe that she was stationed in San Diego with the Women's Marine Corps. Chloe tracked her down and added her to their company. Arm-in-arm, the three strolled through Balboa Park and drank copious amounts of beer.
The night before going overseas, Austin impulsively proposed marriage to Faith. Impressed by the sky warrior, but more keenly motivated by a desire to impress her brilliant older cousin, Faith accepted. There were conditions: Austin must travel to Saratoga after the war, formally get permission from Tomas Zanelli, and promptly convert to Catholicism.
Two months later, having discovered she was pregnant, Chloe could see no alternative except to end her pregnancy. She sought an abortion from the friend of a friend, whose clumsy work cost her the ability to bear more children.
As Chloe and Marlena take up their respective positions in Cassandra's old bedroom, Chloe, though not religiously inclined, is praying to whatever forces govern the universe that she will not be obliged to share this particular story with Marlena. It is the one secret she has kept from her mother, who always believed her daughter's childlessness was a perverse choice, a rationalist's desire to put an end to siren births.
Cassandra's old bedroom holds more charm than the two larger guest suites down the hall put together. The whimsical touches to the wainscoting and sheer draperies are complemented by a lovely view from the window, which overlooks the dried creek, small pond, horse paddock, and Chloe's vegetable garden, protected with large sheets of plastic from the ravages of winter storms. Annie Witherspoon, Chloe's Native American housekeeper and companion of many years, has engineered the furnishings into a state of fanciful comfort. There is a cozy old horsehair armchair for Chloe to perch on. The radiator hisses merrily, working over-time to heat the frigid air, while in the background is an indistinct plink-plink-plink as the ghost strums the strings of her zither.
Chloe feels like Hamlet, about to stage a play with an explosive hidden agenda. Dressed in a long white nightgown, her amber eyes glittering, the scientist/rationalist looks like the siren that she knows herself to be.
She says to Marlena, “Comfy, dear?”
Marlena's stocking feet dangle across the open end of the one-armed divan. As she lays back, her burnished hair fans out in a crinkly, red-gold halo against the pillowed, rounded arm. The divan, which once belonged to Cassandra, was refurbished in 1969. Marlena replaced the dark, skinny legs with four butternut wooden balls and covered the curvy silhouette in a light gray silk fabric lined with thin stripes of lavender and pale peach.
She pulls the fur afghan tightly around her neck and sighs contentedly.
“Perfetto.”
The window curtains shift, the plinking sounds cease, and the long-awaited tale begins.
PART II
THE SIREN'S TALE
Chapter Five
The
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