The Ornaments of Love

Chapter Six

Veronica's memories soon after that encounter were ones of vivid imagery, violently filled with the color and texture of his skin, even the musk of his sex. She could not escape the barrage of thoughts that attacked her every time she smelled a hint of his fragrance, and she seemed to find it again everywhere she turned. What was once a house of sweet flowers now seemed like a brothel filled with the traces of his every labored breath.

She tried in all earnest to do as Marcelina had asked of her without screaming, proceeding to the music room off from the grand salon. Veronica would've consented to anything if only to escape the naked man. She hurried downstairs, turning away the servants she encountered. Thankfully, they took their leave without a great deal of fanfare and she settled on the bench behind the large harpsichord that stood near the corner at the far end of the room.

The music room was immense, a fact not challenged by even the largest of God's creatures. She had fancied as a child that an entire country might fit into one corner and never be aware of a second nation established across the floor. The ceiling was crowned by a gilded golden oval, filled with angels and demons who raged war against each other from one end of Heaven to the other. In spite of the vastness of the painting, one might think it absurd that Heaven could ever be as unnecessarily huge as these frescoes implied. There were certainly never enough Christian families in history to warrant God's need for so much wasted space. Only mortals would think it so huge a place, she thought.

Veronica touched the keys of the harpsichord and heard the sound echo throughout the vast room. The vibration sent her mind to focus on what she could still remember of her aunt's words. But the vague hints of his smell reminded her over and over again of what she had beheld in those moments of sin. What a strange organ he had been endowed with, so lifeless and heavy and thick; she could only imagine what a burden it was to keep. She had seen a male cousin's body when they were both five-years-old and the door to the bathroom had opened for a few moments for the nanny to exit. That fluttering worm had so perplexed her. It just seemed like a mistake, an error in judgment, a useless extra piece of flesh.

She felt a relief at being female just to avoid the trials that such a burdensome appendage must demand. She need only think of the way the balls hung and moved, independently it seemed, within that sack of thinly stretched skin, to feel a revulsion and sympathize with pity for all men. She wondered if this burden was part of men's sentence, their punishment to inherit the more ignoble and vulgar aspects of life, those which they seemed so willingly suited to handle. In any case, it was of little consequence here.

Within seconds, the footman entered, allowing the Marquesa into the music room. She wore a silk, champagne dress that brightened her face and enhanced the brilliant color of her flaxen hair. She met Veronica with her usual wistful smile and moved past the girl to sit at the large burgundy velvet sofa in the sitting area beside the harpsichord.

Marcelina began to speak to Veronica before the girl had decided to follow and sit down. "As I said, my friend, Blanca came to me when they were arguing about her not wanting to partake in love-making."

The girl averted her eyes and blushed again at the very idea of speaking about something so intimate and private. The Marquesa did not allow herself to be interrupted by this response.

"Blanca had decided that she was quite beyond such desires, and she had no intention of having another child. Certainly, not after she'd given him so many sons and finally, the daughter she had always wanted. He was gone at sea for months, often years at a time, but when he would return, Blanca invariably refused his advances. They fought about this, and those fights turned into disagreements about everything else. So, one day, when the pain of their discord was too much for her to bear any longer, Blanca asked me if I would consider taking her husband as my lover."