‘Oooo I don’t know.  It did come from a very exclusive market stall in Kilburn.  There are only five hundred thousand others like it.’

His eyebrows rise, his lips curve.  ‘That rare?’

‘That rare.’

‘I better make my bid good then.’

‘Good idea, Mr. Barrington.  Kill the competition in one fell swoop.’

‘As her agent, what do you suggest I offer?’

‘I believe she is hankering after a pink car.’

His eyes gleam.  ‘Are you sure, Miss Bloom, that I am not better off approaching the market dealer directly.’

‘Of course you can… But it will not have the Lana Bloom scent,’ she says daringly.

His eyes widen and fill with delicious longing.  ‘You never said a truer word, Miss Bloom.’

His long fingers very deliberately pop the button and pull down the zip.  The sound is exciting in the silence.  She can hear her own breathing.  He slides the shorts off.  ‘Ah, these legs… So long… So silky…  I swear I never met a girl with skin such as yours.’  The shorts slip over her ankles and end up clutched in his big hands.  He crushes them, brings them to his nose and inhales deeply.

‘The Lana Bloom scent.  I’ll miss it,’ he whispers, almost to himself.

And suddenly she tenses.  All this will end soon.  This apartment, this bed, these clothes, this delicious banter, this man…will disappear into nothing.  She will be left only with memories.  She clutches his forearms and pulls his mouth down to hers and kisses him desperately, opening her mouth, begging him to be inside her.  He has already left his mark on her.  She must leave her mark on him.  She lies naked but for her necklace, and realizes she doesn’t know how to.

When the desert wind blew it covered everything in sand.

 

Twenty six

‘Remember when you said you wanted to be part of my world?  Do you still want to?’

‘Yes.’

‘It is very ugly.’

‘I don’t care.  I want to know.’

For a moment, he hesitates, there is doubt there, and then an indescribable expression flashes in his eyes.  ‘All right.  Let’s go.’  He leads her to a BMW parked in the street.  She looks at him questioningly.

‘Hired,’ he says briefly.

‘Where are we going?’

‘Somewhere in the New Forest.’

They drive in silence, the atmosphere in the car taut and foreign, and stop outside what seems to be a lodge of some kind.  Lana looks at her watch.  10.00pm.  The building is small and unremarkable.  There are other cars parked in the car park, but something feels different.

‘They are all hired, aren’t they?’

‘Yes,’ he says shortly.  ‘Come.’

While she looks around her, he gets out of the car, opens the boot and takes out two boxes. They go into the low building and enter a large empty room with many doors.  All the doors are open except one.  Lana shivers.  Something about the place doesn’t feel right.  They enter one of the rooms and Blake closes the door behind them.  There is nothing in that room except a table and a mirror.  Blake puts the two boxes on the table.

‘You wanted to come into my world.  Here’s your chance.  Are you sure?’

He looks different.  His eyes are cold.  He is hoping she will say no.  But she wants to enter his world.  So badly, she throws caution to the winds.  She licks her lips, swallows, and then nods.

He holds out the box tied with a red ribbon.

She takes the box from him.  It is not heavy.  ‘What’s in it?’

‘Open it and see.’

He watches her untie the ribbon and lift the lid.  She pushes aside the tissue and finds a mask.  White and pretty.  She raises her eyes to him.  ‘Do I put it on?’

‘Not yet.’

She puts the mask aside and takes out the bulky red garment inside.  It is a cloak with a hood.  She looks at him.  Her expression begs, ‘What?  What is this all about?’

He ignores her unspoken query.  ‘Wear it.’

She slips into it and he steps forward and does the button at her throat.  The coat is thick and voluminous.  It covers her entirely.  Then he pulls the hood up and puts the mask on her face.  He stands her in front of the mirror.  ‘Remember,’ he warns.  ‘Do not take this mask off after we leave this room.  No matter what happens the mask and the robes do not come off.  Do you understand?’

She nods in the mirror.

He opens his box and dresses himself in the black robes that are inside.  His mask is gold with a beaked nose.  Unlike hers his seems sinister and forbidding.

‘Ready?’

‘Yes.’

He puts his hand in the small of her back and guides her out of the room.  They cross the large empty space and go through another door.  It turns out to be the back door of the lodge.  A man sitting on a horse-drawn coach is waiting.  He does not turn to look at them but stares straight ahead.  The bizarre and forbidding alchemy of the moment causes Lana to blankly note the white socks on the horse.  They climb in and the coachman immediately sets the horse to a trot.  They follow a path that snakes through woods until they suddenly come upon a grand mansion perched on high ground.

Lana breath is swept away by it.  Made of cut gray stone, it is like something found in a windswept ghost story.  Awestruck, she stares at the roaring gargoyles and the many soaring gothic spires that pierce the purple sky.  Hundreds of windows stare out like glassy dead eyes.  Lana thinks one of the windows might have blinked, a flash of yellow iris, before it snapped shut.  Someone was watching their arrival.

The coach comes to a stop on the entrance stairs and they climb out.  She feels Blake’s hand on her waist as he helps her out.

‘Remember, the mask does not come off, even in the ladies.’

‘OK.’

‘And don’t tell anyone your name.’

‘OK.’

‘Don’t speak unless spoken to.’

‘Right.’

‘I’m serious, Lana.’

She looks up at his masked face.  ‘You’re making me nervous, Blake.’

‘It’s important.’

‘Then don’t leave my side.’

‘I’ve no intention of doing that.’

They go up the shallow stone steps.  When they reach the top, Lana turns to look down upon the magnificent garden maze.  In the purplish light it is very beautiful.  At the entrance, a totally expressionless, bone-thin man, dressed in black coat-tails, nods at Blake and slowly waves his hand towards the interior of the house.

There are more ushers and silent staff dressed in black who nod at them and wave them deeper into the interior.  The funereal garments and the silence begin to seep into Lana.  She recognizes them to be poisonous.

Finally, two men open a pair of double doors and they enter a large hall full of masked, robed people.  There is a stage at one end with a throne on it.  The room reminds her of an old-fashioned theater with balconies, where people are standing and talking in whispers.  There are also many doors that lead away from the hall.  A strange throbbing music is playing into that odd air of expectancy and waiting.

Lana looks up at Blake.  ‘This reminds me of Eyes Wide Shut.’

‘Yes, Stanley Kubrick’s movies are filled with hidden messages.’

A waiter brings a tray.  Blake shakes his head.  When Lana tries to reach for a glass, she feels the subtle pressure that he exerts on her hand.  She shakes her head.  It is at this point that Lana realizes that there are other women besides her who are wearing the exact same mask as her.

‘Hello,’ a man’s voice addresses them from behind.

They turn.  A stocky man in an odd grey and silver mask is standing about a foot away from them.  ‘You brought…someone,’ he says, his eyes glittering blackly through the eyeholes of his mask.  Lana feels Blake tense.

‘Yes.’

‘Will you be going into the main room?’ the man asks.

‘Of course,’ Blake says smoothly, but Lana feels the tremor that goes through his body.