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good doctor that he need not be worried about Sarah's becoming a vampire. With
a little restraint on the part of both parties involved, such an outcome could
be delayed for a long time, and most of my love affairs did not end in that
result.
Gradually our slowly growing network of contacts in the city began, like a
tangle of grapevine, to bear fruit. Within two days we learned that in the
higher social circles where he was known, Kulakov planned to present Rebecca
as his new wife, acquired in England. In recent years he had been known in St.
Petersburg as a widower, his last reported wife having died some years ago.
Insofar as we could discover, it had never been the count's habit, before his
latest trip to England, to mix much in St. Petersburg society, but he was on
fairly intimate terms with a few of the nobility. Though appearing socially
from time to time, he mainly kept to himself, spending most of his time on his
extensive country estates.
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Fred Saberhagen - Sance for a Vampire
Martin Armstrong was still being tormented by his mixed feelings toward the
dead Louisa. His beloved was, or had been, one of the undead. Having some
difficulty in believing that Louisa was now truly departed, Armstrong was also
anticipating a similar outcome for Becky. He brooded sleeplessly upon her
fate, the unbearable fact that from now on, she might be compelled to spend
her days, or many of her daylight hours, sleeping in her tomb. And he had
learned from the party of vampire-hunters the uses of the wooden stake.
Who would her lover be when she had become a vampire? Not
Kulakov any longer vampire and vampire do not bed together.
No, Becky's new lover would have to be a breathing man. And there could be no
future in society any form of human society, as
Martin thought for such a couple.
Sarah Kirkaldy, as Dracula's lover, had, by the time we left for
Russia, been brought to a certain practical understanding of vampirism. By
this time Sarah, though her grief for her brother and her desire for revenge
were genuine enough, was beginning to wonder, perhaps to calculate, how such
powers as had been revealed to her might be turned to a medium's professional
advantage.
Every witness there were not many who reported seeing
Kulakov since his return to St. Petersburg, said that the man gave evidence of
some kind of mental or physical infirmity. We wondered whether this infirmity
had provided him with one strong reason, perhaps really the only reason, to
come back to St.
Petersburg. "Is it possible that he comes here in hopes of getting
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Fred Saberhagen - Sance for a Vampire relief from these symptoms?" I asked.
No one answered.
The beautiful white nights, persisting well into July, made a favorable
impression on the breathing visitors, but somewhat hampered the visiting and
native vampires alike.
Holmes asked Martin Armstrong for confirmation that Rebecca
Altamont did not speak Russian. Then the detective mused that this lack would
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doubtless add to the girl's sense of helplessness and isolation, and make it
harder for her to attempt an escape unaided, even if she were able to
contemplate such a course.
In engaging our hotel rooms, we had particularly asked for a suite equipped
with a telephone. In the first two days of our stay, the instrument seldom
rang; but toward the end of the third day, I
answered a call and heard, to my great astonishment, the voice of a distraught
woman whom I could only gradually, and with some uncertainty, recognize as
Rebecca Altamont.
I will not repeat in detail all that the mesmerized and terrorized woman said,
or elaborate on my futile attempts to interrupt and offer her some hope.
Suffice it to say here that she cursed us, one and all, for interfering with
her happiness, and warned us to go home.
There followed a little shriek as the instrument was evidently pulled roughly
from her grasp, and then a gloating postscript in an unfamiliar male voice
which I soon realized must be that of
Kulakov himself.
"Dr. Watson, I take it? Mr. Holmes is not available at the moment?
Ah, too bad." Kulakov went on to give his own warning, to the
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Fred Saberhagen - Sance for a Vampire effect that until now he had treated
his prisoner kindly, but if
Sherlock Holmes and the other meddlers did not promptly take themselves out of
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