The Latern - The House of Gentle Men - A Novel by Kathy Hepinstall

She seized the kerosene lamp and smashed it across his face

She had simply stared at him for a few long moments before she went wild, crazy, kicking--the way she'd always wished she'd acted the first time she'd met him, back in the white sand. She hit Justin, clawed at his eyes and his mouth, seized the kerosene lamp and smashed it across his face so that the room went dark around his moaning. Somehow the window broke. She remembered the pane shattering, but the sounds that might have trickled through the shattered glass were lost to her, since she was screaming "You! You! You!" Justin had covered his face but had not struggled. Mr. Olen had burst in and grabbed her around the waist, and somehow his arms had been soft as a mother's. And she had fled, trailing blueberry pie down the stairs and across the porch.