"I can live with just the television," Nora murmured.

"They could see the flickering from the outside," Carla responded.

"Tell Rick to issue a statement to the press that I will grant them a half hour tomorrow morning at eleven, and I'll answer questions. But this is on the condition that they leave with their trucks now. And Carla, my windows will be dark tonight. You know the den has those heavy short draperies with the lining. I'll draw them as soon as I go downstairs again."

"You're going to access The Channel? Nora, the cable operator might give that information out to make a few bucks if you call. Then they'll know you're home," Carla fretted. "What if someone tries to jump the gun and get an exclusive?"

"I think I can handle it," Nora replied quietly.

"I'll go call Rick," Carla said. "Do you want me to come back?"

Nora shook her head in the negative. "I think we're safer if you don't."

Carla shoved a cell phone at Nora. "Take it. I picked it up at the market. It's one of those ones with the prepaid minutes. You've got one hundred twenty. It's safer just in case someone is listening in on your line. And don't answer your house phone, Nora. I'll call the kids and your mom, and give them the cell's number, okay?"

"You're make this sound like a covert operation," Nora laughed.

"It is," Carla said, grinning. Then she hugged Nora. "God, it's good to have you back, and to know you're safe!"

"Rick still has to reason with Jeff, and Jeff isn't going to be reasonable in jail," Nora reminded her friend. "Now scoot, and leave me to finish cleaning up my house."

Carla departed, and then called Nora once on her cell to tell her she had gotten in touch with Margo, J. J., and Jill, and given them the cell's number. Then she had called Rick, and Rick had issued the statement. The media people and their trucks were now gone from the head of Ansley Court, but the cop and the barricade was still there just to ensure everyone's privacy for the interim. "Need anything else tonight?" Carla asked. "I mean that I could give you."

Nora could imagine her grinning. "Nope. I'm fine," she replied. She had cleaned out the master bathroom, but she wasn't going to use it. She found a fresh tube of toothpaste, a new toothbrush, and her own hairbrush. She put them in the guest bath. Until the master bath was cleaned thoroughly and redecorated, she wasn't going in it. In fact she was going to gut this bathroom and put in all new fixtures.

It was getting dark now. Nora heard the clock in the foyer striking six p.m. She hurried downstairs, carved some chicken off the rotisserie bird Carla had brought, fixed a salad with some of the greens now in the clean fridge, made some iced tea, and sat down to eat. She wasn't interested in the local news. She didn't give a damn who did what to whom overseas. The world was crazy now. All she wanted to do was survive the madness, and she had her escape in The Channel. She picked up her cell and dialed the cable company, ordering The Channel for the evening. The operator seemed neutral, and uninterested in who she was. She had never considered it before, but she now suspected that the operators taking calls for Suburban Cable were located somewhere else. They didn't know her or the scandal now surrounding Ansley Court. She finished her meal, and put her dishes in the dishwasher. She hadn't had to turn on any lights, and in the den the curtains were drawn tightly. Nora went into her laundry room and, taking a few clothespins, returned to the den and clipped the draperies shut where they just might allow a crack of light through.

She plunked herself in Jeff's recliner. It was like new because he had hardly sat in it. The mantel clock struck eight. Nora turned on the television and waited. And then her penthouse living room appeared. Eagerly she put her hand on the screen, and was there. "Kyle!" she called.

He arose sleepily from the couch, the relief on his face evident. "God, Nora, I missed you," he told her, and wrapped his arms about her.

She held her face up to him for a kiss, and almost melted with the desire he instantly engendered in her body and soul. Their lips met, and when they parted once more, Nora said, "You owe me a massage, Mr. Gorgeous." She smiled.

"And afterwards, what would madam's wish be?" he said.

"To spend the entire evening with your talented cock in my pussy, my darling!" Nora told him. "I missed you!"

"What has happened on your side of reality?" he asked her, taking her hand and leading her into the bathroom, where the massage table was set up and waiting.

"So far everything has been just as Mr. Nicholas said. I woke up in a nursing facility. Heidi got beaten up and pressed charges. Jeff is in jail." She undid her robe and climbed naked on the massage table.

"Are you happy, Red?" he asked her softly, pushing her hair aside to kiss the back of her neck. "God, I missed your scent!" he groaned.

"Yes," Nora told him. "I've never been happier, although I wish Heidi hadn't been hurt. Use almond oil, darling."

He poured some of the heavily scented oil into his big hand and began to smooth it down her back. "I don't know how long I can do this," he whispered to her.

"I want the full treatment," she told him.

He laughed softly. "You're fully prepared to torture me, huh?"

"Maybe," she said.

Neither of them heard the elevator doors opening in the living room. The plush carpeting stilled the footsteps crossing over to the bathroom door, and then they heard Mr. Nicholas's low, cultured voice. "Good evening, Kyle, Nora."

She started, and blushed. Kyle's hands grew still on her body.

"No, no, my dear," he said. "Let Kyle finish what he is doing. I do so enjoy the sight of a beautiful female form. We can talk as he massages you. Carry on, Kyle." He came around the table and drew up a padded stool, upon which he sat. "Now, tell me, Nora- everything has gone as I promised you?"

"So far," Nora replied.

"And tonight as Kyle makes love to you, your husband will see it in his dreams. It will be the final straw for him. He has behaved quite badly during his short incarceration, I'm afraid. They have had to restrain him. He had been so unpleasant the judge refused bail. It really doesn't do to annoy these small-town judges. I actually have come to believe that no one has ever said no to Jeff, or refused him, in his entire life. He seems unable to cope. It will not seem odd therefore that they find him dead in the morning. It will seem the natural result of his choler. And then, my dear, you are a free woman."

"Thank you," Nora responded. His feet were very narrow, and he was wearing very well-polished black leather shoes. But then he tipped her face up to his. His fingers were very warm against her chin. Almost hot.

"So now, my dear, we must discuss your repayment of my kindness," Mr. Nicholas said. He averted his gaze from hers momentarily. "Turn her over, Kyle, so Nora and I may speak on this matter. You can finish the massage when I have gone."

Kyle turned her over, but as he did he wrapped her in the sheet that had been covering the table, thus preserving her modesty. Their eyes met in silent understanding. Nora sat up, swinging her legs over the edge of the massage table.

"Ah, excellent," Mr. Nicholas said. "Now, my dear, one must always pay the piper, and you have said yourself that you would meet your obligations to me. Is that not so, Nora?"

"Yes," she answered him. What was he going to ask her? Whatever it was, it was worth it if she could be free of Jeff, and her house and her children were safe.

"I am a man of many and varied interests," Mr. Nicholas began. "The Channel is just one of them. There are other things requiring my attention now, and I find I must choose someone to be the new administrator of this enterprise. I choose you, my dear Nora. You are exactly the person for whom I have been looking."

"You want me to be the administrator of The Channel? I can't!" Nora cried. "I wouldn't have the faintest idea of what to do. I don't even know how all of this is even possible. I've never held down a job in all of my life. I've just learned how to operate a computer. I know nothing of office procedure."

"You don't have to, Nora," he told her calmly. "You will have others to handle the mundane chores of The Channel. But you have what I want in my deputy. You are intelligent, and there is a well of anger deep down inside of you that exists. Your intuitiveness is most promising, my dear Nora."

She was astounded. She was frightened. "I can't," she said.

"Of course you can," he replied. "And you will. You owe me a great debt, my dear, and I have kept my word. Now you must keep yours. Why is it you humans take so greedily of what I offer and then demur about paying the price? Think, Nora! What would your life have been without The Channel? Without Kyle? Do you want to go back to the way it was? Your husband deserting you for another woman? Throwing you out of your house? Making you a penniless wretch. Your children's dreams destroyed. I can make it happen if that is your wish, and you will owe me nothing."

"The Devil and Daniel Webster." Nora was suddenly reminded. But she couldn't think of a way to talk herself out of this predicament. She looked directly at Mr. Nicholas. "Can I continue to traverse between these two worlds?" she asked him.

"Of course," he said. "At least until you are an old woman, and die."

"Then what happens to me?" Nora queried him, but she already knew the answer.

"You will remain here within The Channel," he answered her. "Think about it, my dear Nora. You will be forever young! Forever beautiful! Forever desirable!"

"And I will have Kyle?" Why was it you never knew when you were making a bargain with the devil? Nora wondered sadly to herself.

"Of course," Mr. Nicholas said. "He is yours for as long as you wish him to be. Consider, my dear, you will have the kind of power of which all rulers dream."

"But I don't really understand what it is you want of me, expect of me," Nora said.

"I will teach you everything you need to know, my dear girl," he promised. "Kyle will open an antique shop in Egret Pointe," Mr. Nicholas said.

"Kyle is human?" Nora was surprised.

"All too human, I fear, eh, Kyle?" And Mr. Nicholas laughed darkly. Then he continued. "He is quite the expert in seventeenth-and eighteenth-century English and American antique furniture, glass, and china. He will advertise for an assistant. You will answer the ad, and he will hire you. Although you will not need to work, your doing so will be but part of the metamorphosis you undergo in your friends' and family's eyes. People will admire you for your grit and determination despite all the tragedy that has befallen you. The shop will be quite successful in part to your presence. I do like an investment to pay off."

"I do know something about antiques," Nora said.

He laughed. "Whether you do or not isn't really important," Mr. Nicholas told her. "The office upstairs where you will work most days will be where you will manage The Channel for me. You may want to check into the office at The Channel in the evenings occasionally."

"Will I have Margaret?" Nora said.

"No, no, my dear. Margaret is far too valuable to me. She has been involved for years with my other interests. I shall give you Celia, who works at the desk across from Margaret's. Edna will remain, moving up to Celia's position, and I shall give you another girl as well. You and Celia will be in constant touch during the day."

"Wouldn't Celia be a good administrator for The Channel?" Nora ventured. "After all, she knows all about it, and how it operates. I don't."

"Celia would never aspire to such a position," Mr. Nicholas said. "Besides, she doesn't have your intellect, or depth of duplicity."

"You make it sound as if I am evil," Nora cried.

"All humanity has the ability to be evil, dear Nora," Mr. Nicholas told her. "How many of you can really turn the other cheek? A few, but not the majority. Could you really have stood by and said "So be it' if Jeff had taken your home, left you penniless, and destroyed your children's future? That is part of what being good is, but most people can't do it."

"Does everyone who is lured into The Channel end up damned?" Nora asked him sadly.

"No," he said. "Most people live their foolish fantasies for a time, and then grow bored with it and go away. Very few can be entrapped in this manner. And fewer yet with your potential. Don't look so distressed, my dear Nora. Being bad is far more fun than being good. Look what being good, being dutiful, got you."