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Episode Twelve
Yule Pay
Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn
down your house, you can never tell.
Joan Crawford
A vision of red berries dotting the woods around Château Gâteau,
and tall waxen-leaved trees bordering the inner wall of the
courtyard,
rose before Olivia's eyes. "I think I can promise you some holly, Don Juan Carlos,"
she said merrily. "You need to decorate Columba soon for the Christmas season, n'est-ce pas?"
"By Pan, I swear, Olivia - don't talk about X-mas again - you know I can't stand X-stains or their stupid holidays that they stole from Paganism - it's YULE - si??"
The two walked onwards into the woods to gather some holly which
JC needed for his habitual sabbat. Four months had passed since the kidnapping in late July - four months in which Juan Carlos had made himself a regular presence at Château Gâteau, although Olivia had never been invited to his house of ill repute at Les Andelys.
Beside the soon-found holly was an immense amount of
smilax and many nearby oaks were laden with mistletoe; a recent November
windstorm had blown down one old tree and it lay directly across their
path. Olivia turned back and looked at it sadly, but just then Carlos called her attention to the
note of an unfamiliar bird and they left the fallen Titan behind.
Olivia paused when the pair arrived at a grove where several tall holly trees were
clustered. Although Miss O still thought about Duke every day, she had to be realistic - since the summer melodrama, neither Lexi, Duke or even Madeline had bothered to call or to write. Only JC seemed interested in her quest and because he would sit at her feet for hours, listening to her tales of esoteric lore, the Peyton girl had become attached to a man whose motives were not pure.
As Olivia and her dubious companion gathered boughs of green speckled with Nature's rubies, she remarked, "I can see how you must be dying to ask me how one signs up to be a Cybersybil...Madeline made it out to be quite an adventure, hmm?"
"Olivia, I do understand that you will spend your life questing after
truth. And that you thought your Leo friend could help. And that you hate
the stupidity that is allowed to run rampant in the world. I mean, you have
Jupiter, which rules Sagittarius, rising in that spiritual Sign! Plus
you have a fabulous Sag Moon, too! Yet, for this incarnation, in this body
shell...I am in the Sign of Service...and my Aquarian Moon reminds me that
this means service to all of humanity. My North Node in Taurus in the
eleventh House suggests that I must keep building friendships with what talents I
do possess..."
Olivia rubbed her brow, still not accustomed fully to the Jackal's constant use of astro-analysis.
"My dear Juan Carlos," she managed, "I was not asking
you to become a Cybersybil, don't worry. It's just that...well, I like you
for you...for the person who helps people as you helped me that day in the dungeon, yet who yearns for something more...more
meaningful," Olivia continued, careful not
to appear too needy.
The Jackal smiled triumphantly and
intoned, "I am sure that anyone, given the chance, would love to be a Cybersybil,
Olivia. If it means always questing for the Truth, well, yes, I am all about
that...yet not at every expense...Virgo brings a discriminating eye to
that which it focuses its energies upon."
"Oh," Miss Olivia joked, "I guess you have your Sagittarius in the
twelfth House?"
"Touché," JC chuckled, then gave the woman a kiss on her cheek.
Our deluded Cybersybil was titillated, and while she could not forget Duke's ring or his handsome face, she turned her head and kissed Juan Carlos,
pressing her mouth on thin lips. The Jackal slowly moved away in a flash, turned
quickly on booted heel and began to continue to harvest the holly.
"Before long Don Juan Carlos, the woods at Gâteau will be full of violets instead
of holly and I hope we may gather those flowers together come the spring."
"Oh sure, Olivia...I love violets. And your name contains the phrase: violet
lover...by the way, just call me JC from now on, K?"
  
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