” “I remember.” Her voice sounded far away. He inched his way up, then suddenly moved to her left leg, with a sharp downward motion. She wasn’... expecting that, and twitched. The paddle in his left hand gave her firm buttocks a quick slap. Not hard, just enough, so that over the course of several minutes, her bottom would be tingling. Houlihan took his time moving the feather back and forth up those long, slender legs, once alternating back and forth between the tip and the pointy quill. The. Once in Pinehill, he went to the "Gold Boutique" which was the largest jewellery store in town, and asked to talk to the owner. He already knew him and had already done business with the man the previous year. Being an old miser, his eyes went very wide when Vincent took out two of the smallest diamonds that he had taken from Nika's world. Of course, the old man wanted to know where they came from. Vincent just said that they had been in his family for over two generations and his grandfather. I'm at Daedalus right now, but I can be in your entrance hall in a few seconds. Would that be okay?"I heard Melanie take a deep breath. "Yes. Thank you Eric." Okay. Bye." I hung up and left immediately. I was so excited I forgot to cloak until I was almost in Earth's atmosphere. I de-cloaked while Melanie was still putting down the phone in the living room.She blinked when she saw me, and then tried to smile. "Wow, that was fast! Are you traveling at light speed now?" Yeah, pretty close. What. "He wants his correspondence to look a certain way, and he's showing you how to do that. He wouldn't take the time if he didn't expect to dictate more letters to you."Those words were consolation; Rose's help shopping that night was more consolation. She came to work Tuesday looking more like a New Yorker and less like a hick.Sure enough, Mr. Lucas dictated another letter. She took extra care with it, and shook nervously while she handed it back to him. He glanced at it perfunctorily before.