.
She held me close to her and oh! it was good to be alive and to belong
to someone._

_I remember to this day what she wore. Black velvet lounging slacks, a
low-necked amber satin blouse, caught at the "V" by a curiously wrought
antique silver pin. It was round, about four inches in diameter. In its
center was the carved figure of a serpent coiled to strike. Its eyes
were deep amber topazes and its darting tongue was raised and set with a
blood-red ruby._

_"What an unusual pin, Eve," I said "I've never seen it before, have
I?"_

_"No," she replied. "It belongs to the deep, dark, seldom discussed
skeleton in the Orcaczy closet, Tod. You see, my great-great grandmother
was quite a wicked lady, to hear tell. Went in for Witches' masses and
the like. They say she poisoned her husband, a rather elderly and very
childish man, for her lover, whom she subsequently married. Together
they did away with relatives who stood in the way of their accumulating
more money. This pin was the instrument of death."_

_Her slim fingers pressed the ruby tongue and the pin opened, revealing
a space large enough to secrete powder._

_"It's like those employed by the infamous Borgias, as you can see," she
continued, shrugging. "Perhaps it was fate then, that her devoted new
husband tired of her once her fortune was assured him, took a young
mistress for himself, and disposed of the unfortunate wife, using her
own pin to perpetrate her murder. She was excommunicated by her church,
too, which must have made it most unpleasant for her, poor old dear."
The slim shoulders straightened. "But let's not discuss such unpleasant
things, my dear. The important thing now is for you to get well quickly.
I've missed you terribly, you know."_

_It was then I asked her to marry me. I knew I didn't really love her,
but there seemed nothing to prevent our marriage. And she had gotten
under my skin. It was as elemental as that. She said she thought we
should wait until I fully recovered._

_"Don't say any more, darling," she said. "Rest your poor, sore
throat."_

_She bent over me solicitously and I reached up to stroke that smooth
black hair. It had a familiar feel to it that I couldn't quite place. Of
course I had stroked it hundreds of times before, but it wasn't that.
Then she looked straight at me, those large, glowing hazel eyes boring
into mine, and I knew. Knew and disbelieved at the same time. I froze
where I lay, paralyzed by my fear; unable