EPILOGUE

****

Laura sat at her dressing table, brushing her hair, smiling. Steele certainly delighted her senses. She leaned forward and inhaled the scent of the small bouquet in the vase. He’d tried to give her the entire centerpiece of his dining room table, but she’d taken just these few stems. Red and white roses. Passion and Purity. Love and Innocence.

She stretched and yawned, then picked up the book on her dressing table, a book she’d gotten after first seeing those magnificent tapestries at the Raeders. The book was a collection of fables and poems about that mythical animal, the unicorn. She took the book to her bed to read her favorite before going to sleep.

This is the creature there has never been.

They never knew it, and yet, nonetheless,

they loved the way it moved, its suppleness,

its neck, its very gaze, mild and serene.

Not there,

because they loved it,

it behaved as though it were.

They always left some space,

And in that clear, unpeopled space they saved,

it lightly reared its head, with scarce a trace

of not being there.

They fed it, not with corn,

but only with the possibility of being.

And that was able to confer such strength,

its brow put forth a horn.

One horn.

Whitely it stole up to a maid,

 – to be,

within the silver mirror and in her.

                     Ranier Maria Rilke, from Possibility of Being

Laura put the book down on the nightstand and turned off the light. A smile on her face, she wriggled under the covers.

****

Steele dove into bed, burrowed under the covers, and curled up tightly, trying to get warm again after the freezing cold shower. Ah, wasn’t life grand? Tomorrow he really should get one of those potted tomato plants.

He chuckled as he thought of the telegram he’d received earlier that day from Daniel:

CONGRATULATIONS MY BOY! WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THE MONEY? CALL ME. I HAVE A PROPOSITION TO MAKE.

Steele didn’t think he’d show it to Laura.

****

Endes Gut, Alles Gut.

****

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Original content copyrighted by Margaret Daniels 2004

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