Page 45 of The Library of Borrowed Hearts

You are happy, Eleanor, you have finally been given a part of your measure of happiness.

I hate to say it, C, but I’m starting to feel like we might be cursing ourselves with this book.

How do you figure?

Because I’m happy. Because I’ve finally been given my measure of happiness. And considering how this book ends, I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

Hmm. Interesting. Did you spend an all but sleepless night last night?

You know I did. You were there.

Shhh. I’m trying to be philosophical. Did you tell lies and make a fool of yourself?

I’m not sure about the lying, but the second part is true. I started reading that Psycho book you told me about, and I’ve never been so scared in my whole life. Why do you like thedark stuff so much?

I can’t help it. It matches my true nature. But you’re getting off course: What about the air? Do you find it tastes like wine?

No, but your lips do. Does that count?

“I thought you said this wasn’t naughty!” I squealed. The idea of Jasper reading a book he didn’t like for the sake of a woman—and of Jasper telling someone her lips tasted like wine—was almost too much for me. “Did Jasper and Catherine really spend the night together? Before they were married? In1960?”

Giving a sad shake of her head, Lonnie clucked her tongue. “Lord save me from the youth of the world. Every generation thinks they invented sex and everything that goes along with it. If that’s the case, missy, then how did you and Pepper come into being? Or those many siblings of yours? Immaculate conception? The Great Spirit?”

Although I did my bestnotto imagine the various ways in which my siblings and I had been conceived, I couldn’t stop a sudden image of my mom’s face from flashing through my mind. It was never very far away since every line of Trixie’s beauty had come from that woman. The flawless skin and gorgeous smile, a body that seemed to mold itself to current trends without the least bit of effort.

A stunner, I’d heard my mom called more than once.A hot piece of ass, also (unfortunately) more than once.An absolute wastehad been another common refrain from my childhood,a beauty like that on a woman without the common sense God gave a cow.

I sometimes caught a glimpse of that face in the mirror, though it was more like a trick of light than any of my actual features. I could see her lingering under the surface, but only briefly, and usually when I wastoo distracted to remember to put up my guard.

“I don’t know all the details of what happened between Catherine and Jasper, so it’s no use asking me,” Lonnie said, forestalling me from making the attempt. “I remember their love affair as being very fast, very hot, and very catastrophic. The best ones usually are.”

This compelled Pepper to put up a protest. “Grandma! You were married to Dada for fifty years before he passed. How can you say that?”

She tsked and waved her granddaughter off. “Your grandfather was a good, solid man, but he never wooed me in the margins of a book. I think the most he ever wrote was a note reminding me not to forget to pick up a bag of potatoes on my way home from work.”

Since I’d watched Pepper’s grandparents live and laugh and love together, I knew this for the lie it was. I also knew that since his death a little over five years ago, she refused to poke too hard at the wound his loss had left behind. So when she gestured for me to turn the pages, I obeyed. It didn’t take long before I found another section with the writing.

“These others need your protection so much more than I,” she said. “I will do what I can, of course. But they are so very, very vulnerable, with their hard hearts and their unseeing eyes.”

It’s strange, isn’t it? To think that a hard heart could make you more vulnerable instead of less?

Not really. It’s the whole point of the book. The house kills those who don’t love it. The entire conflict is their inability to accept the house as it is, so it takes revenge.

Is this the part where you compare me to the house again? If you don’t love me, I’ll kill you?

You’ll kill me either way, C. I think we both know that.

A sigh escaped me before I could help it.

“Oh dear,” Lonnie murmured. “I recognize that sound.”

“I know,” Pepper said, grinning. “She’s got it bad. If Jasper were a hundred years younger, she’d probably steal him for herself.”

Lonnie pointed a gnarled finger at her. “Watch yourself, child. We aren’tthatold.”

I pointed a finger of my own. “And I don’thaveanything—good or bad. I’m just interested, that’s all. The Jasper Holmes I know is exactly like this passage here: a man with a hard heart and unseeing eyes. But Catherine saw the vulnerability. She knew exactly how to handle him.”

“You’re not wrong about that,” Lonnie allowed, her lips pursed with sudden thoughtfulness. “I’ve never seen anyone handle a man the way Catherine did Jasper. She took one look at him, decided she wanted him, and then didn’t stop until she had him on his knees. You two could learn a thing or two from her.”