Chapter
9
Sarah,
in the mean time had been treated to revelations of her own. Etienne
revealed with shame and humiliation that he was in love... with her
brother. In halting verbiage, he explained with fear and intimate
trust, that he was sexually active with a schoolmate, but his true
affections lay in England, where Gary didn't even know he existed.
Her
replies were devastated. She could now comprehend why his earlier
affections had been so cold. She had never promised she would wait
for him, but she had never planned for anyone else. First love is
love at first sight, and Etienne could never know how deeply betrayed
she felt; words were poor relations to the treasures of her affection
for him. Gary's love was mere pelf.
Where
she had hated him for glacial indifference to her ardor, her soul now
mourned his unrequited love, with the emotional repugnance of one who
loved him with physical desire of her own. Rather than deform her
heart with malevolence, she threw herself into her schoolwork, taking
time to match make artfully amongst her friends. Her intellect was
not defective, and by being outside herself, she could see thoughts
and feelings in others with a surreal clarity unknown to others her
age.
Her
purity of spirit, and emotional seclusion, made her irresistible, to
peer and Professor alike. She was a vixen, and if she knew how to
slay a man with a look, she did not know how not to.
