Collected Stories Read Online Free Page B

where the red kneeling cushions were laid out in neat rows; up on to the raised altar, and tied to the stone cross. Her back was pressed against the centre pillar, each wrist was lashed to a crosspiece, and her ankles tied firmly to the base.
    Torches were lit and placed in wall sconces, a mirror of polished bronze was placed before her so that the entire congregation should be able to see the vileness of the Satan-born. They piled faggots at her feet, and the priests began to chant, and the people responded.
    ‘Jehovah, created He man.’
    ‘In His own image,’ the voices behind her shouted.
    ‘With one head.’
    ‘And two arms.’
    ‘Two legs, only two legs.’
    One priest with a particularly sonorous voice carried on in solo.
    ‘And at the bottom of the legs, shall be two feet.’
    ‘Yea, there shall be two feet.’
    ‘And at the end of the two arms shall be two hands.’
    ‘Yea, there shall be two hands.’
    The priest raised his voice to a near scream,
    ‘And what shall there be on the head?’
    ‘There shall be two ears.’
    ‘And how shall the ears be shaped?’
    ‘They will be large, and black, and shall hang down, even to the shoulders.’
    ‘And what shall be on the face?’
    ‘There shall be two eyes, one large, one small, and two noses, and twin tusks will grow forth from the cheeks, and the lips shall be black and spread wide, and the teeth shall never be covered. Thus saith the Almighty Jehovah.’
    ‘And what shall be on the hands?’
    ‘Two fingers, and they shall have talons, even as the feet hath two toes, and a small tail, not more than twelve inches long, shall hang from the spine, even as Jehovah has decreed.’ Caroline was crying now, not because they had lighted the faggots, but because she could see her reflection in the bronze mirror. She was so ugly—it was good that all this ugliness was about to be burnt. She had no lovely brown wrinkled skin; hers was obscenely white and smooth; her head, instead of being nobly domed and ridged, was covered with a grotesque mop of corn-coloured growth, which covered her horrible small ears; she only had one nose, and her eyes were both the same size, but, and this was worst of all, not delicately addled, but blue, surrounded with white, and fringed by the same hideous growth that marred her head. Each hand had four long fingers and a shorter one that stuck out at an angle, and there were five toes to each foot. Her lips were red, not black, and covered her teeth, which should have been irregular, one behind the other; hers were disgustingly white and even.
    ‘And the skin shall be wrinkled, and the face pitted, even as the face of Father Moon, and there shall be no furry growth, either on the head or other parts, for this is an abomination in Jehovah’s sight, as it has been, and will be, for evermore.’
    ‘Cursed be the Satan-Born,’ the priest chanted.
    ‘May they be cursed for ever.’
    Caroline heard Jehovah laugh as the flames licked upwards, and He laughed with a million voices, over a million years, and before merciful oblivion came, she laughed too. In that last revealing moment she understood.

Crowning Glory
    (1971)

    The woman, who was both rich and middle-aged, walked slowly through St James's Park, looking from right to left with that bored, haggard expression Gore knew so well. The formidable attendant followed her mistress some ten paces behind, carrying a small paper bag from which she dispensed largesse in the way of breadcrumbs to various greedy ducks.
    Walking round the duck pond from the opposite direction, Gore approached his victim, being careful not to look at her, but paying smiling attention to the ducks, fully aware that he looked handsome, very young, and, to rich, middle-aged ladies, extremely appealing. His timing was perfect. Eight feet separated him from the woman, when he stumbled, placed a white shapely hand to that part of his anatomy where his heart might well reside, then sank slowly but gracefully to