Thongs

The Lost Years

At this point there is a break in the narrative and in the following pages of the notebook there is no further reference to Gertrude Gault. By the time we meet her again, it is December 1921 and the protagonist is called Carmencita de las Lunas.

Under this alias — she is now obviously twenty-five years of age and of striking beauty — she appears to have made a reputation for herself in the tradition of the great courtesans. She was seen often in the fashionable underworlds of both Madrid and Barcelona and always in the company of some rich nobleman or other. There can be no doubt that some of these noblemen belonged to the Order and that some among them were Pain Cardinals within it.

Of the characters whom we met in the first part of the narrative only two, apart from Carmencita herself, are carried over into the latter part: Miguel Maria Hernandez de Cordoba, whose object in making Gertrude wait five years seems to have been a purely selfish one, and Willie, the little Glasgow cobbler who seems to have gone with Gertrude to Spain as her body servant. There is unfortunately no more word of Harry Prentice, who came so near to saving Gertrude from her terrible fate, and in my subsequent inquiries in Glasgow, I found no conclusive evidence in relation to him. There were three possible trails. One led to Indochina, one to Australia, and the other to America. I was not in a position to undertake such an extensive search.

Nor did I ever find Hazel Cooper, although she was well-enough remembered in the Gorbals as Razor King's last mistress.

Of Miguel Maria Hernandez de Cordoba, I think it can be safely said that the man was mad. As far as I can make out — indeed, Carmencita says so herself, although she doesn't appear to hold it against him, but was rather flattered — his sole object in delaying the crucifixion was to wait for his own elevation to the position of Pain. He himself, as Carmencita's somewhat incoherent narrative suggests, wished to drink of her last passion. We can picture the gaunt, bearded face, its lustrous black eyes reflecting the moonlight, thrusting itself voraciously between the soft bleeding thighs of the dying woman, to suck there with his red lips the very slime of her dying. I have no doubt that that is precisely what happened, for the ambiguous Miguel was elected to the Holy Office in December, 1921. Two months later, his position established, he slaked his devilish thirst at the cross.

Of Willie there is little to be said. He seems to have been a loyal ministering angel right up to the last days, a humble shadow moving in the radiant twilight of this woman's mad dreams, always there to aid and abet her, and to dote on her pain-twisted body. There is no evidence that he was present at the crucifixion and I rather think he wasn't. I found no trace of him after the most extensive researches although I was able to locate the cobbler's shop where the two of them had indulged in their terrible lusts. It is no longer a cobbler's shop. The new tenant sells fish and chips.

There is little point in further elaboration. Gertrude's own narrative, although somewhat incoherent in form, is, if read sympathetically, straightforward enough. The years between have been lost. There is no reference to the journey to Spain or to the intervening years up until 1921, none anyway upon which we could hope to build a history. One last point worth mentioning before we present Gertrude's final narrative: pasted in the notebook were a number of cuttings from newspapers of Madrid and Barcelona. They were all in the form of society gossip: "Prince B was seen in the company of an unknown woman last night. It is hinted that she was Carmencita de las Lunas, the almost legendary queen of the underworld. She was heavily veiled…"