Hannibal Rising (Hannibal Lecter Book 4) by Thomas Harris

Author:Thomas Harris [Harris, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9780440339250
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2009-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

34

“YOU HAVE TIME for tea,” Lady Murasaki said.

She took him at once to the terrace, clearly preferring to be outdoors with him. He did not know how he felt about that. He had changed and she had not. A puff of breeze and the oil lamp flame stretched high. When she poured green tea he could see the pulse in her wrist, and the faint fragrance from her sleeve entered him like a thought of his own.

“A letter from Chiyoh,” she said. “She has ended her engagement. Diplomacy no longer suits her.”

“Is she happy?”

“I think so. It was a good match in the old way of thinking. How can I disapprove—she writes that she is doing what I did—following her heart.”

“Following it where?”

“A young man at Kyoto University the School of Engineering.”

“I would like to see her happy.”

“I would like to see you happy. Are you sleeping, Hannibal?”

“When there’s time. I take a nap on a gurney when I can’t sleep in my room.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Do I dream? Yes. Do you not revisit Hiroshima in your dreams?”

“I don’t invite my dreams.”

“I need to remember, any way I can.”

At the door she gave him a bento box with a snack for overnight and packets of chamomile tea. “For sleep,” she said.

He kissed Lady Murasaki’s hand, not the little nod of French politesse, but kissed the back of her hand so that he could taste it.

He repeated the haiku he had written to her so long ago, on the night of the butcher.

“Night heron revealed

By the rising harvest moon—

Which is lovelier?”

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