To her right she watched an old woman walking down the aisle. She stopped and moved into a pew several rows ahead of Eve then sank to her knees in prayer. Watching her, it occurred to Eve that though she never went to church anymore, she spent as much time on her knees as any communicant. She had her own place of worship, the church of St. Roger, a pagan cult whose parent branch had been founded by one Dr. Julius C. Frederickson, Professor of Classics, and whose peculiar practices included the holding of women in bondage. Was Claude also a member of this cult? And did that have something to do with the strong interest he had shown in her, going back at least to that day in the restaurant? She had wondered then at his unusual interest in the details of her life, which she attributed to the
