| Ch. 15. Marsh Nagl is Blood's "milkman," meaning he has to collect a pint of blood a month from Blood residents and make nightly hauls up to the mansion. His horse-drawn wagon enters the Steiner property but he doesn't realize till too late that the family has turned. Just before they attack, he curses himself as "a fool living in hell and not constantly on the lookout for devils." After the Steiners are done with him, they gorge on his nightly run.
Ch. 16. Coley finds Clint in the church keeping watch over Jared's body. We learn that Sweck Brewster killed Jared, and that Clint became a schoolteacher after leaving Blood. Coley hopes Clint will marry her now that Jared's dead, but Clint says "Your husband isn't dead." He tells Coley to leave the church so the jealous Jared won't see the two of them together when he opens his eyes.
Ch. 17. Duquieu bursts into Sugie's shack and angrily demands that Sugie assume Nagl's duties, since "the delivery was not made tonight." Portia comes out of the shadows and sarcastically asks if Duquieu is a feudal padrone. Duquieu becomes courtly in manner and invites Portia to take a walk with him. He points out his house at the top of the mountain, and says he hopes he'll see more of her. He exits, and Sugie refuses to tell Portia anything since she'll "be leavin' tomorrow." [Among other things, Portia learns from Duquieu that he was born in France, and that his father was Greek. His last name "Lamprou" is obviously a play on lamprey, a bloodsucking eel, and in fact Piserchia never uses the word vampire in the book: the bloodsuckers are all referred to as Lamprous.] As Portia is falling asleep, she thinks she sees a face pressed against the screen door--that of a woman last seen dead in the woods.
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Ch. 16. Coley finds Clint in the church keeping watch over Jared's body. We learn that Sweck Brewster killed Jared, and that Clint became a schoolteacher after leaving Blood. Coley hopes Clint will marry her now that Jared's dead, but Clint says "Your husband isn't dead." He tells Coley to leave the church so the jealous Jared won't see the two of them together when he opens his eyes.
Ch. 17. Duquieu bursts into Sugie's shack and angrily demands that Sugie assume Nagl's duties, since "the delivery was not made tonight." Portia comes out of the shadows and sarcastically asks if Duquieu is a feudal padrone. Duquieu becomes courtly in manner and invites Portia to take a walk with him. He points out his house at the top of the mountain, and says he hopes he'll see more of her. He exits, and Sugie refuses to tell Portia anything since she'll "be leavin' tomorrow." [Among other things, Portia learns from Duquieu that he was born in France, and that his father was Greek. His last name "Lamprou" is obviously a play on lamprey, a bloodsucking eel, and in fact Piserchia never uses the word vampire in the book: the bloodsuckers are all referred to as Lamprous.] As Portia is falling asleep, she thinks she sees a face pressed against the screen door--that of a woman last seen dead in the woods.
- tom moody 4-29-2002 9:26 am