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“Really, Lestat, you need to have a talk with her. It’s getting out of hand. What sort of biographer makes everything up without the slightest regard to the truth?”
I looked sidewise at Louis, amused by his indignation “Come, Louis. You have read many biographies. God knows you spend enough time with your nose in books. You are aware that there are conflicts between truth and the author’s …vision.”
“I know you mean Phillipa Gregory. Fair enough, but this new book? It’s getting embarrassing. If you come in this house wearing a crown, I shall roast you, I swear it. This is far more than bestowing all those ridiculous pseudonyms on you.”
I chuckled. ‘Clarence Oddbody’ irritated him beyond all reason. “You are glaring, my love” I told him.
“Well, don’t come crying to me when the end result comes out and you become enraged." He pinched the bridge of his nose as though he had a headache. “It’s not like she’s the one that must deal with your temper."
“Ah, but Louis…no one soothes me as you do.”
He frowned mightily. “You have no idea, do you? Every awful review, every snarky cartoon in your beloved Social Media…”
“Meme.” I said. I love to see him so worked up for my sake. I am a horrible person and he deserves far better than me.
“Yes, meme. Whatever it’s called now. Tell me with a straight face that you will not be driven mad after day one. This isn’t like the others. You didn’t send her a manuscript; it’s an actual novel and you know what happens when she does one of those!”
Cohabitation in relative peace for the last several decades has made him touchy about the novels. When he finally appeared in one, he vowed he would rain destruction upon my ghostwriter for maligning him as she had done. I will admit I was less than thrilled with that particular tome. I tried to pass it off as a misunderstanding but Louis would have none of it. He had told me then that she paid no attention to the facts at all any longer and as far as he was concerned, she could just leave him out of the picture altogether.
His paroxysm of irritation had the usual affect…I began to laugh and I could not stop.
“Impossible,” he said, trying not to grin.
FIN