When I didn’t answer, he put the same finger on my mouth and traced it. As he did, I felt a shot of desire rend through me. He took me by the waist and pulled me close. I wanted to be with him then, I did, but we were in the wrong place, the family somewhere in the house around us. I pushed thoughts of them away from me as Earl Fumer pressed up against me. Then I heard the bell, faint at first and then more insistent.
I put my hands on Earl Fumer’s chest and pushed away from him. “I have to go to her.” The bell rang on from Ofelia’s room. “I have to – you’ll excuse me. I’m sorry.” The yearning that I’d felt for him, the heat that had wrapped both my body and his together as I tried to cocoon myself away from the household, lifted as soon as I stood. All the drafts of the house slipped in
