BLACKWOOD FARM CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Well guys, I'm back. A friend of mine told me they really wanted to know what happened next, and since I've since read ahead to Chapter 23, I decided to get my butt in gear and oblige. Hopefully I'll have the energy and drive to summarize the successive chapters too!
BLACKWOOD FARM, CHAPTER 17
"For the next week, I was under lock and key, or armed escort" and "warning everyone about the dangers of the island."
Who is everyone? He lives out away from everybody except the staff (I guess that's who he means?) and there's no mention of any buddies he talks to on the phone or the Internet (would Internet pals/IMing be a big thing in 2002?)
"Our investigations proceeded rapidly, and I know that I focused on them to escape the pure horror of Pop's death"
We've seen absolutely zero grieving from Quinn about Pops, actually, but when I remember that this is a story that Quinn is recounting to Lestat, I guess I can see how it makes sense he wouldn't tell him all the details of his mourning...I wish he'd left out more details in general, really. If Anne Rice wants to put so much in, I don't think the "telling a story" format is really the best (and besides, it's just repeating the "Interview" format) I think this would be better done as a memoir Quinn wrote.
Quinn wonders if Pops cut Patsy out of the will, and decides to give her half if he did. That's real solid of you Quinn, especially considering he doesn't like Patsy. I appreciate that. As for what Patsy is up to, he says she's "still out roaming the South, playing beer joints and small clubs, and Aunt Queen was desperately chasing after her by phone, trying to get her to come back so we could all face what Pops had done, whatever that was."
What Pops had done? What? Did I miss something last chapter? What? There was nothing last chapter about that! Shit, were my suspicions about him and boys right? I admit that I skimmed ahead and we find that he also has an illegitimate child out there, so that could be it.
Mayfair Medical analyzed the letter that the mysterious stranger left for Quinn. Why a medical lab is doing these tests, I don't know, but they find it was written on a rare brand of paper from Europe not available in the US, with India ink and a quill pen pressed down which allegedly shows they were sure of themselves, and without any indication of "pathology" or gender.
They've passed it on to a "true graphologist" to see if more can be found out.
Mayfair Medical has also matched the DNA from the residue at the Hermitage to the DNA in Rebecca's hairbrush. Quinn says Aunt Queen is sure that Manfred killed Rebecca, though oddly Quinn doesn't say what he thinks on the matter.
Quinn has taken all the cameos he found in the trunk and on the island has cleaned them and put them in a china display cabinet with a card saying that "they were gifts from Manfred Blackwood to a woman with whom he'd been passionately in love." That...doesn't seem like what the card should say. Quinn says he feels he's done right by Rebecca by this, but I don't think so at all. He's making the impression that something very different went down.
On the other hand, I'm equally bothered that he and Aunt Queen decide that "we would include in the tour information that the Old Man, Manfred, had murdered a young woman with whom he was romantically involved"
Like, I don't know, I don't want them to hide it or put out misleading info, but at the same time putting it in the tour immediately seems tacky? On the other hand, this is pretty hypocritical because I go on ghost tours myself, and I've never had a problem with them recounting old murder stories to me. I guess it's because, even though she technically did die long ago, the fact we've met her and interacted with her makes it feel more like she's just died, like she's a real person and not just a name.
Either way though, I notice she's just referred to as "young woman" and Manfred is just described as "in love" with her, not married (which they were, weren't they? pretty sure they were) and that seems disrespectful to me. Like it's worse that he married her than that he murdered her...though that is very Old Southern Family I guess.
He does get her a small gravestone.
There was also DNA from multiple persons in the "evil morass" in addition to Rebecca, but it does not match anyone currently missing. I really like that phrase, "evil morass."
A week after Pops' funeral, Quinn goes back to the island with eight Shed Men, two security guys, Clem, and Jasmine. Quinn has to tell us that she's in skintight jeans. I'd like to remind you again that this isn't his internal narrative, it's a story he's telling to Lestat. So just remember this isn't all shit in his head, it's said aloud.
Quinn has brought a small jewelry casket with which to collect Rebecca's remains with a spade. They also have tools to open the gold-and-granite tomb. Quinn wants to go upstairs to collect her remains alone but there is concern for his safety so Jasmine goes with him, as they both have .38 pistols (I wonder if Quinn knows how to use that; he doesn't strike me as a kid who spent much time at the shooting range) When they get upstairs, Quinn has a vision of a bare-breasted Rebecca hung on the hook on the wall caught under her rib, blood streaming from her mouth so that she cannot speak.
Quinn comes to on his back with Clem and Jasmine leaning over him, and Jasmine says she'll "shovel up what I can of this poor girl" from the "dark slop" on the floor while Quinn goes outside and gets sick. He can hear the men arguing about damaging the beautiful gold plates on the tomb. Quinn tells them to do it and drinks a beer while wondering if Rebecca will haunt him forever, if this will be enough. He mentions the heat and the mosquitoes and I know he just got sick but I kinda side-eye how the rich white guy sits there and drinks while his black employees do all the work in this scenario, given the rest of the racial dynamics in this book.
And this is about where I lost momentum and dropped summarizing for awhile. Everything above was written in August. Everything I'm writing past this, I just started today (December 27)
Ok so, they find a coffin in the mausoleum, Quinn makes a smart remark about what did you expect in a grave, Jasmine gets him another beer and he wonders if he's a "mental patient" that she's trying to "narcotize" yeah Quinn, it couldn't be she's being nice because it's a really hot day and you're someone she cares about, you ungrateful shit. The men don't want to open the coffin, and Quinn tells us how he is "wildly stimulated" because "ordinary things meant nothing to me." Yeah, you can't just be excited, it has to be because you are above anything common and ordinary like us normies so only something cool like a coffin can interest you. Jeesus, he is like the epitome of a snotty teenage Goth. Maybe that's why Rice was so popular with that audience?
Seriously I just picked this book back up and he's already irritating me.
She asks him to please be polite to the workmen. He thinks about how lovely she looks with her "cacao skin" and "pale eyes" and tells her to "Make love to me when we get home." Not asks, tells. Seriously, that's his response. "hey don't be rude to these guys just because they work for you" "SLEEP WITH ME" how am I supposed to find this character anything but disgusting?
Oh but it gets better. He doesn't stop there. He says "Be my chocolate candy."
I WANT TO GET OFF THIS RIDE
And no, Jasmine doesn't have any problem with this. But if she did I guess she couldn't express it, since he's her boss. Oh, wait, all the black staff aren't paid because they're all just...independently wealthy somehow...they just work for this white family because they enjoy it. So it's not like her livelihood is at risk or anything. Is THAT just convenient as all hell for exonerating Quinn from any exploitation issues while also still enabling him to have his "chocolate candy" in a subordinate position to him?
Seriously, fuck you Anne Rice. It's not that I mind the portrayal of a gross racist sexist classist rich snobby entitled Southern boss doing this shit, that's an absolutely real thing that happens and it's perfectly believable. It's not even the fact that he's the protagonist that bothers me, that could be interesting too! It's that he's not in any way portrayed as being any of these negative things, either by the narrative or the reactions of other characters. The reader is not supposed to see him in that light. It's true this is first person POV, but I'm familiar enough with Anne Rice's preferred protagonist---rich bisexual beautiful white young males--to know that it's not just like this because of Quinn's own perspective. Rice is herself very racist, sexist, and classist, and there's nothing wrong with this sort of thing to her.
Anyway, the coffin is empty. The men are worried about leaving all this gold out in the open for someone to steal and Quinn makes fun of them for that. Quinn goes back into the Hermitage and is super offended that there's new books on the desk there, considering it a "slap in the face" that the trespasser there has brought in yet more of their things. I get that this is Quinn's land and all, but he did not know it existed until so very recently, and his just being incensed that someone else dare be using the house there for shelter when he isn't doing anything with it himself...it's just such a gross rich guy thing.
So he throws the books all over the place and lights one on fire. He tells us he hates burning books and can barely bear to see a mere dictionary go up in smoke but he HAS to do this. Yes, Quinn, that makes perfect sense, you HAVE to destroy somebody's belongings for being a squatter.
Jasmine tells him he's being crazy and he whispers in her ear "Don't forget your promise to me, Milk Chocolate. It's you and me alone tonight."
She says she never made a promise, he says he's unsure of his masculinity so she has to "sacrifice" herself for him. I realize he's joking but like...honestly, that sounds about right. Although I think it's less an issue of insecurity and more being entitled. Honestly, Quinn comes off as VERY masculine to me, I don't care how pretty or bisexual he is, he's behaving like a territorial animal AND he's acting entitled to the body of a woman, how much more stereotypically macho can you get?
She says he should be more kind to her, and "You think I don't have any feelings just 'cause I rocked the cradle?"
To which he replies, "How kind can I get? You think I take up with just anybody?"
GAWD WOMAN HE'S BEING SO SUPER NICE TO YOU BY COMMANDING YOU TO SLEEP WITH HIM
Then he tells us how he knows that she "lived like a nun" since her husband died years ago and throws in how her sister Lolly has had three husbands. Because I guess praising the choices one woman makes can't be done without lambasting the choices of another.
He then talks to her about his visions of Rebecca while noting that he's staring at her small waist and buxom breasts as he does, which makes the concerns he's expressing about what if he's crazy seem a lot less sincere to me.
And then he calls her Ms. Cafe au Lait.
You know, I know someone on tumblr who is mixed and really into Anne Rice (while also really aware of the problems and quite analytical of them) and she only ever read the Vampire Chronicles, where POC just...don't exist...and she said that she's actually GLAD that the Vampire Chronicles are not more racially diverse because she said she knew it would be really, really terrible if they were.
She is right, you guys.
She is 110% right.
Quinn gets an erection. They leave the island and go home. Quinn buries the little jewel casket of Rebecca's meager remains in the family cemetery, which is nice, I'm glad he did that first thing.
He goes to see Aunt Queen and tells her to eat something, and I wouldn't have thought this part important to note except she replies that she's drunk two cans of lipids and therefore eaten enough "to feed an entire Hindu village for a day."
Goddammit Aunt Queen.
Anyway, she has gotten a translation of the inscription on the coffin/tomb. It says that here lies Petronia, and that she made cameos for emperors and kings, and a curse on those who disturb her resting place.
Quinn wonders what this could all mean, and asks who translated it. AQ says it was a an English professor named Nash Penfield who is going to change his life like Lynelle did. Quinn asks what if he doesn't like him, and AQ says he'll be arriving here soon and if Quinn doesn't like him they'll find someone else to be his new tutor.
You know what would be great? If this new tutor Nash totally took no shit from Quinn and Quinn had to cope for the first time in his life with someone who doesn't cater to him on everything. We're 286 pages into this mess, it's about time some character development happened!
AQ also says they'e going to take Quinn to Mayfair Medical for some tests, and Quinn assumes she means tests to see if he's sane, if he has lesions on the brain, stuff like that. On the one hand, this seems a very reasonable thing to do and it makes me wonder why they didn't do it earlier. But then on the other, wondering why it didn't happen earlier makes me remember that seeing ghosts is just...something Quinn has always done, and that Aunt Queen believed in and perhaps could do as well, so it makes me wonder why now? I guess it's because of his new paranoia about the mysterious stranger coming into his room...except that they know the stranger is real, they found the letter and sent it to be analyzed and they know Quinn didn't write it.
So I'm not sure Quinn is actually correct in his assumption here and I'm curious to find out if he is or if Rice has considered all this and it's something else instead.
He asks Aunt Queen, and she more or less says yeah.
So.
Hmm. Like I said on the one hand this seems sensible, but it also kinda...doesn't add up for this case and these characters. But they're rich so why the hell not, I guess.
We're also reminded that Mayfair Medical is super famous and known throughout New Orleans. Reminder that the Mayfair family are the focus characters of Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches series, and this is the book in which that crosses over with the Vampire Chronicles, so them being her babies is why their center is the biggest and best and most important and we're told this every time anything to do with the name is mentioned.
Quinn reminds Aunt Queen of what I just pointed out, that they all know Quinn didn't make up the stranger in his room, that they have the letter and they know this is the person out on the Hermitage. If I were him, I would have next pointed out how evidence of murder was found out on the Hermitage too, but instead he tells her about the horrible vision of Rebecca on the hook, which I feel like is not the best selling point for saying he's sane.
AQ says they're still going to Mayfair Medical, and also that Pops will is going to be read tomorrow morning now that Patsy has been found so "brace yourself for a scene."
Quinn gives her a kiss "to glory in her soft gray hair and perfume" and you know, I think Rice really does intend their relationship to be platonic and normal, she just doesn't know how to write physical interactions that aren't described in such sensual language, because that's been the type of dynamic between everyone in her novels since Interview that I remember reading, these very sensual interactions that are often fraught with sexual tension regardless of if they ever get to actual sex. I actually can't remember any relationship from the Vampire Chronicles that wasn't like that; I think it was even like that with little Claudia. My memory is hazy though, so if I'm wrong, do correct me.
Anyway, speaking of actual sex, Quinn then goes and has sex with Jasmine.
On Pop's bed.
I don't really have anything to say about that, guys, I think it really speaks for itself. As does this part:
"Under her breath she cried. I gobbled her wet tears."
I think she's meant to be crying with...pleasure, or something, I guess people cry during sex?...but he eats her tears what the shit.
That can't be normal.
BLACKWOOD FARM, CHAPTER 17
"For the next week, I was under lock and key, or armed escort" and "warning everyone about the dangers of the island."
Who is everyone? He lives out away from everybody except the staff (I guess that's who he means?) and there's no mention of any buddies he talks to on the phone or the Internet (would Internet pals/IMing be a big thing in 2002?)
"Our investigations proceeded rapidly, and I know that I focused on them to escape the pure horror of Pop's death"
We've seen absolutely zero grieving from Quinn about Pops, actually, but when I remember that this is a story that Quinn is recounting to Lestat, I guess I can see how it makes sense he wouldn't tell him all the details of his mourning...I wish he'd left out more details in general, really. If Anne Rice wants to put so much in, I don't think the "telling a story" format is really the best (and besides, it's just repeating the "Interview" format) I think this would be better done as a memoir Quinn wrote.
Quinn wonders if Pops cut Patsy out of the will, and decides to give her half if he did. That's real solid of you Quinn, especially considering he doesn't like Patsy. I appreciate that. As for what Patsy is up to, he says she's "still out roaming the South, playing beer joints and small clubs, and Aunt Queen was desperately chasing after her by phone, trying to get her to come back so we could all face what Pops had done, whatever that was."
What Pops had done? What? Did I miss something last chapter? What? There was nothing last chapter about that! Shit, were my suspicions about him and boys right? I admit that I skimmed ahead and we find that he also has an illegitimate child out there, so that could be it.
Mayfair Medical analyzed the letter that the mysterious stranger left for Quinn. Why a medical lab is doing these tests, I don't know, but they find it was written on a rare brand of paper from Europe not available in the US, with India ink and a quill pen pressed down which allegedly shows they were sure of themselves, and without any indication of "pathology" or gender.
They've passed it on to a "true graphologist" to see if more can be found out.
Mayfair Medical has also matched the DNA from the residue at the Hermitage to the DNA in Rebecca's hairbrush. Quinn says Aunt Queen is sure that Manfred killed Rebecca, though oddly Quinn doesn't say what he thinks on the matter.
Quinn has taken all the cameos he found in the trunk and on the island has cleaned them and put them in a china display cabinet with a card saying that "they were gifts from Manfred Blackwood to a woman with whom he'd been passionately in love." That...doesn't seem like what the card should say. Quinn says he feels he's done right by Rebecca by this, but I don't think so at all. He's making the impression that something very different went down.
On the other hand, I'm equally bothered that he and Aunt Queen decide that "we would include in the tour information that the Old Man, Manfred, had murdered a young woman with whom he was romantically involved"
Like, I don't know, I don't want them to hide it or put out misleading info, but at the same time putting it in the tour immediately seems tacky? On the other hand, this is pretty hypocritical because I go on ghost tours myself, and I've never had a problem with them recounting old murder stories to me. I guess it's because, even though she technically did die long ago, the fact we've met her and interacted with her makes it feel more like she's just died, like she's a real person and not just a name.
Either way though, I notice she's just referred to as "young woman" and Manfred is just described as "in love" with her, not married (which they were, weren't they? pretty sure they were) and that seems disrespectful to me. Like it's worse that he married her than that he murdered her...though that is very Old Southern Family I guess.
He does get her a small gravestone.
There was also DNA from multiple persons in the "evil morass" in addition to Rebecca, but it does not match anyone currently missing. I really like that phrase, "evil morass."
A week after Pops' funeral, Quinn goes back to the island with eight Shed Men, two security guys, Clem, and Jasmine. Quinn has to tell us that she's in skintight jeans. I'd like to remind you again that this isn't his internal narrative, it's a story he's telling to Lestat. So just remember this isn't all shit in his head, it's said aloud.
Quinn has brought a small jewelry casket with which to collect Rebecca's remains with a spade. They also have tools to open the gold-and-granite tomb. Quinn wants to go upstairs to collect her remains alone but there is concern for his safety so Jasmine goes with him, as they both have .38 pistols (I wonder if Quinn knows how to use that; he doesn't strike me as a kid who spent much time at the shooting range) When they get upstairs, Quinn has a vision of a bare-breasted Rebecca hung on the hook on the wall caught under her rib, blood streaming from her mouth so that she cannot speak.
Quinn comes to on his back with Clem and Jasmine leaning over him, and Jasmine says she'll "shovel up what I can of this poor girl" from the "dark slop" on the floor while Quinn goes outside and gets sick. He can hear the men arguing about damaging the beautiful gold plates on the tomb. Quinn tells them to do it and drinks a beer while wondering if Rebecca will haunt him forever, if this will be enough. He mentions the heat and the mosquitoes and I know he just got sick but I kinda side-eye how the rich white guy sits there and drinks while his black employees do all the work in this scenario, given the rest of the racial dynamics in this book.
And this is about where I lost momentum and dropped summarizing for awhile. Everything above was written in August. Everything I'm writing past this, I just started today (December 27)
Ok so, they find a coffin in the mausoleum, Quinn makes a smart remark about what did you expect in a grave, Jasmine gets him another beer and he wonders if he's a "mental patient" that she's trying to "narcotize" yeah Quinn, it couldn't be she's being nice because it's a really hot day and you're someone she cares about, you ungrateful shit. The men don't want to open the coffin, and Quinn tells us how he is "wildly stimulated" because "ordinary things meant nothing to me." Yeah, you can't just be excited, it has to be because you are above anything common and ordinary like us normies so only something cool like a coffin can interest you. Jeesus, he is like the epitome of a snotty teenage Goth. Maybe that's why Rice was so popular with that audience?
Seriously I just picked this book back up and he's already irritating me.
She asks him to please be polite to the workmen. He thinks about how lovely she looks with her "cacao skin" and "pale eyes" and tells her to "Make love to me when we get home." Not asks, tells. Seriously, that's his response. "hey don't be rude to these guys just because they work for you" "SLEEP WITH ME" how am I supposed to find this character anything but disgusting?
Oh but it gets better. He doesn't stop there. He says "Be my chocolate candy."
I WANT TO GET OFF THIS RIDE
And no, Jasmine doesn't have any problem with this. But if she did I guess she couldn't express it, since he's her boss. Oh, wait, all the black staff aren't paid because they're all just...independently wealthy somehow...they just work for this white family because they enjoy it. So it's not like her livelihood is at risk or anything. Is THAT just convenient as all hell for exonerating Quinn from any exploitation issues while also still enabling him to have his "chocolate candy" in a subordinate position to him?
Seriously, fuck you Anne Rice. It's not that I mind the portrayal of a gross racist sexist classist rich snobby entitled Southern boss doing this shit, that's an absolutely real thing that happens and it's perfectly believable. It's not even the fact that he's the protagonist that bothers me, that could be interesting too! It's that he's not in any way portrayed as being any of these negative things, either by the narrative or the reactions of other characters. The reader is not supposed to see him in that light. It's true this is first person POV, but I'm familiar enough with Anne Rice's preferred protagonist---rich bisexual beautiful white young males--to know that it's not just like this because of Quinn's own perspective. Rice is herself very racist, sexist, and classist, and there's nothing wrong with this sort of thing to her.
Anyway, the coffin is empty. The men are worried about leaving all this gold out in the open for someone to steal and Quinn makes fun of them for that. Quinn goes back into the Hermitage and is super offended that there's new books on the desk there, considering it a "slap in the face" that the trespasser there has brought in yet more of their things. I get that this is Quinn's land and all, but he did not know it existed until so very recently, and his just being incensed that someone else dare be using the house there for shelter when he isn't doing anything with it himself...it's just such a gross rich guy thing.
So he throws the books all over the place and lights one on fire. He tells us he hates burning books and can barely bear to see a mere dictionary go up in smoke but he HAS to do this. Yes, Quinn, that makes perfect sense, you HAVE to destroy somebody's belongings for being a squatter.
Jasmine tells him he's being crazy and he whispers in her ear "Don't forget your promise to me, Milk Chocolate. It's you and me alone tonight."
She says she never made a promise, he says he's unsure of his masculinity so she has to "sacrifice" herself for him. I realize he's joking but like...honestly, that sounds about right. Although I think it's less an issue of insecurity and more being entitled. Honestly, Quinn comes off as VERY masculine to me, I don't care how pretty or bisexual he is, he's behaving like a territorial animal AND he's acting entitled to the body of a woman, how much more stereotypically macho can you get?
She says he should be more kind to her, and "You think I don't have any feelings just 'cause I rocked the cradle?"
To which he replies, "How kind can I get? You think I take up with just anybody?"
GAWD WOMAN HE'S BEING SO SUPER NICE TO YOU BY COMMANDING YOU TO SLEEP WITH HIM
Then he tells us how he knows that she "lived like a nun" since her husband died years ago and throws in how her sister Lolly has had three husbands. Because I guess praising the choices one woman makes can't be done without lambasting the choices of another.
He then talks to her about his visions of Rebecca while noting that he's staring at her small waist and buxom breasts as he does, which makes the concerns he's expressing about what if he's crazy seem a lot less sincere to me.
And then he calls her Ms. Cafe au Lait.
You know, I know someone on tumblr who is mixed and really into Anne Rice (while also really aware of the problems and quite analytical of them) and she only ever read the Vampire Chronicles, where POC just...don't exist...and she said that she's actually GLAD that the Vampire Chronicles are not more racially diverse because she said she knew it would be really, really terrible if they were.
She is right, you guys.
She is 110% right.
Quinn gets an erection. They leave the island and go home. Quinn buries the little jewel casket of Rebecca's meager remains in the family cemetery, which is nice, I'm glad he did that first thing.
He goes to see Aunt Queen and tells her to eat something, and I wouldn't have thought this part important to note except she replies that she's drunk two cans of lipids and therefore eaten enough "to feed an entire Hindu village for a day."
Goddammit Aunt Queen.
Anyway, she has gotten a translation of the inscription on the coffin/tomb. It says that here lies Petronia, and that she made cameos for emperors and kings, and a curse on those who disturb her resting place.
Quinn wonders what this could all mean, and asks who translated it. AQ says it was a an English professor named Nash Penfield who is going to change his life like Lynelle did. Quinn asks what if he doesn't like him, and AQ says he'll be arriving here soon and if Quinn doesn't like him they'll find someone else to be his new tutor.
You know what would be great? If this new tutor Nash totally took no shit from Quinn and Quinn had to cope for the first time in his life with someone who doesn't cater to him on everything. We're 286 pages into this mess, it's about time some character development happened!
AQ also says they'e going to take Quinn to Mayfair Medical for some tests, and Quinn assumes she means tests to see if he's sane, if he has lesions on the brain, stuff like that. On the one hand, this seems a very reasonable thing to do and it makes me wonder why they didn't do it earlier. But then on the other, wondering why it didn't happen earlier makes me remember that seeing ghosts is just...something Quinn has always done, and that Aunt Queen believed in and perhaps could do as well, so it makes me wonder why now? I guess it's because of his new paranoia about the mysterious stranger coming into his room...except that they know the stranger is real, they found the letter and sent it to be analyzed and they know Quinn didn't write it.
So I'm not sure Quinn is actually correct in his assumption here and I'm curious to find out if he is or if Rice has considered all this and it's something else instead.
He asks Aunt Queen, and she more or less says yeah.
So.
Hmm. Like I said on the one hand this seems sensible, but it also kinda...doesn't add up for this case and these characters. But they're rich so why the hell not, I guess.
We're also reminded that Mayfair Medical is super famous and known throughout New Orleans. Reminder that the Mayfair family are the focus characters of Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches series, and this is the book in which that crosses over with the Vampire Chronicles, so them being her babies is why their center is the biggest and best and most important and we're told this every time anything to do with the name is mentioned.
Quinn reminds Aunt Queen of what I just pointed out, that they all know Quinn didn't make up the stranger in his room, that they have the letter and they know this is the person out on the Hermitage. If I were him, I would have next pointed out how evidence of murder was found out on the Hermitage too, but instead he tells her about the horrible vision of Rebecca on the hook, which I feel like is not the best selling point for saying he's sane.
AQ says they're still going to Mayfair Medical, and also that Pops will is going to be read tomorrow morning now that Patsy has been found so "brace yourself for a scene."
Quinn gives her a kiss "to glory in her soft gray hair and perfume" and you know, I think Rice really does intend their relationship to be platonic and normal, she just doesn't know how to write physical interactions that aren't described in such sensual language, because that's been the type of dynamic between everyone in her novels since Interview that I remember reading, these very sensual interactions that are often fraught with sexual tension regardless of if they ever get to actual sex. I actually can't remember any relationship from the Vampire Chronicles that wasn't like that; I think it was even like that with little Claudia. My memory is hazy though, so if I'm wrong, do correct me.
Anyway, speaking of actual sex, Quinn then goes and has sex with Jasmine.
On Pop's bed.
I don't really have anything to say about that, guys, I think it really speaks for itself. As does this part:
"Under her breath she cried. I gobbled her wet tears."
I think she's meant to be crying with...pleasure, or something, I guess people cry during sex?...but he eats her tears what the shit.
That can't be normal.