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Variations Of Figures Upon The Wall

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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The maid slowly buttoned the dress, her hands inching along Rowena’s back. Rowena looked out the sole window in the room – a great sheet of unbroken, tinted Venetian glass – and across the desolate, green fields.

‘What was the Lady Ligeia like?’ Rowena asked.

The maid’s fingers stilled against Rowena’s back.’

‘She was a harsh mistress,’ the girl said.

‘How so?’

But the girl did not reply.