“And did she keep on putting Rex in there?” Glenda wanted to drum her fingers on the table in her impatience.
“Oh, yes. But the funny thing about Alice Guilfoyle was how she wasn’t satisfied with anything for long. After a while, the maze wasn’t enough. That was when she started to put the blindfold on him.”
Glenda shivered with morbid anticipation. “Blindfold?”
“A silk scarf. A black silk scarf, it was. Said to belong to her husband. I think it was partly that, the fact that it belonged to his dead father, that got to Rex. She did it to keep her power over him, that’s how I see it. It was hard to know why she did the things she did. But I think as long as she knew the maze and he didn’t, she had control. I can see her now ...” He screwed up his eyes; “I can see her taking him across the lawns. It was her shape that I remember. Like a beast, with those massive shoulders. Like a bear’s shoulders. Sort of hulking. Her head was sunk right down into her body.” His lips drew back from his teeth. “And this little kid trotting along beside her. He didn’t have a choice - she’d hold so hard to his hand and practically drag him. And she moved fast. She could move allright. Not like you or me. She sort of swivelled herself along. Hard to describe. I remember one day the wind blew her skirts up and I saw these great bags of fat hanging over her knees, white as lard, the veins like blue roots in the fat. And him trotting to keep up, half running. I used to see a lot of what went on because I’d follow to find out what she was going to do with him. I was afraid. I remember being afraid for him; I thought if I was there, close by, I could save him. I think I had it in my head that - I don’t know - that one day she’d kill him.
When she came out of the maze alone, she was like a creature that’s eaten something. Horrible. I tell you, girl, that woman had evil in her.”
You can read more of my lady's thriller here.
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