The Fires of Spring

Chapter Eight

"Lilith, don't think I've forgotten that it's your birthday," said Christopher at dinner that night. He was smirking at her over a glass of wine.

Lilith paused in lifting her fork to her mouth. "Oh?" she said. "And why does that matter?"

"Because I've bought you something, my darling wife," he said, and his tone mocked her.

"You bought me something last year, and the year before that, Christopher," she replied, taking her time to chew and swallow before she went on, relishing the expression of frustration on Christopher's face as he was forced to wait. "How is this any different?"

"You bought those other things for yourself and said I'd bought them for you, to 'keep our cover' and show them off to other people. This is something I've thought of all by myself. Have a little gratitude, won't you, Lilith?" he said. Leaning back on his chair, he waved to Thomas.

The android nodded and suddenly the lights in the dining room dimmed. Above the table, projected from Thomas's eyes, a hologram appeared.

"Well, do you like it?" asked Christopher when Lilith did not speak.

"Is this a house?" she asked, staring hard at him. He was illuminated only by the bluish light of the hologram, the starlight from outside the huge windows not nearly enough to light his features. He took on an almost eerie, otherworldy look in that light, his fine bone structure highlighted until he looked inhuman.

Now he smiled, and his face became sweet. "It is. A villa on the Côte D'Azur."

Lilith eyed him very carefully. "Why have you bought me a house, Christopher?"

"You know, 'thank you' works very well," he said. "Especially when someone's bought you something as expensive and opulent as a-"

"Why did you do it?" She cut him off. She would often indulge his desires to tease, but now she rose to it to try to get a straight answer out of him.

"Good God, Lilith, why don't you have some gratitude?" he snapped. He nodded to Thomas, and the hologram disappeared as the lights came back up.

"Gratitude? For what?" retorted Lilith. "You seem to forget that I owe you absolutely nothing, Christopher. I'm your employee, not your-"

"Don't you see?" he cried, and now his peevishness was gone. His eyes were alight with eagerness instead of with anger as he leaned forward, insistent and excited. "Don't you see what I've given you, Lilith? This isn't one of your clever schemes to keep our cover, this isn't my house! This house if for you, Lilith, for you, and one other!"

Lilith paused for a moment. For once, she was not quite sure what to say.

"I will never go there, darling. It's for you and whoever you want to take with you," he pressed, and he looked so genuinely besotted with the idea that Lilith wondered if he was actually being honest.

She paused once more. "Christopher," she said.

Even he, even wilful Christopher, paused and was silent at the commanding, threatning tone of her voice, of the power that she conveyed in that one word.

"If you're going to divorce me, and giving me this house to provide for me in some sort of way out of a sense of guilt or obligation, however foolish that might be, please give me some warning so I can-" she began.

Christopher interrupted her, a look of confused relief on his face. "Divorce you, Lilith? Why the hell would I do that?"

"I don't know; I can't say I understand you or your capriciousness. I was only trying to prepare for it," she said. "I'm not like you, Christopher, I'm not wealthy."