Still she did not lose her cunning; the blow
increased it. That blow showed Joel to be crazy. She might outwit a crazy man,
where a man merely wicked might master her.
Creech tried to turn her. Lucy resisted. And she was strong. Resistance
infuriated Creech. He cuffed her sharply. This action only made him worse.
Then with hands like steel claws he tore away her blouse.
The shock of his hands on her bare flesh momentarily weakened Lucy, and Creech
dragged at her until she lay seemingly helpless before him.
And Lucy saw that at the sight of her like this something had come between
Joel Creech's mad motives and their execution. Once he had loved her--desired
her. He looked vague. He stroked her shoulder. His strange eyes softened, then
blazed with a different light. Lucy divined that she was lost unless she could
recall his insane fury. She must begin that terrible fight in which now the
best she could hope for was to make him kill her quickly.
Swift and vicious as a cat she fastened her teeth in his arm. She bit deep and
held on.
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