"I was frozen, helpless. I saw how a crystal formed around me, as Maurice Crandall laughed."
-0-
"You will not make trouble for me." Crandall told me. "I will not kill you because that would make Kisasi mad. But I can torment you and he'll enjoy it. You will remain frozen in his crystal until I decide to release you. In the meantime, I will protect this crystal from the sun, to keep you alive. You can watch what goes on, because it will amuse me to see you trying to fix things and be unable to. See you, Mr. Benchley."
-0-
"He left me there, trapped. I barely could move there. I just panicked, as I remembered being locked in the coffin for so many years… not again, not again… I strained., I tried to reach Heather and Romney, but I could not."
"You made some guttural noises, and we could see you move your fingers." Heather commented "but you did not break your trance, so we did not know what to make of it."
"I saw that in the show. They decided to save time and had my body just disappear, but I did not. The promise that Crandall had made to release me soon had kept me from having two different futures. It was quick then, but not for me. I had to wait, as my body strained and my mind screamed, Oh, how Kisasi must have enjoyed that."
"So, what happened while you were trapped?"
"Anipe Ranifer came back. Or as she called herself then, Ana Ramirez, a supposed Spanish countess. Crandall thought it amusing to let me watch what was going on while unable to intervene."
-0-
"Frederick, I know that scandal is what you fear most." Ana Ramirez said, very reasonably. "I am willing to solve this matter with the minimum amount of fuzz. I just want to see my children until this is done."
Frederick nodded. Yes, scandal must be avoided at all costs. No matter how he wanted to shout at his wife, demand why she had done what she had done, have her ejected violently from the mansion, he knew that to do so would not be… respectable. He had to give way and let her have what she wanted in exchange for her disappearing quietly, and signing divorce papers that would allow him to marry Lady Hamilton.
He was not prepared to see Thomas barge in.
"You!" he shouted at her. "You are dead!"
"I am alive, dear Thomas."
"I saw you burn."
"Didn't I warn you not to experiment with hashish? You hallucinated it."
"I know what I saw."
She shook her head. "Poor Thomas, who wanted to try all those new sensations… The hashish was too strong, I am afraid."