King Cole (14 page)

“The newspapers exaggerate things,” said Read, getting up. “Many, many thanks for your hospitality, Sergeant Biggs.”

There was a joke between them. Biggs smiled, remembering, then his smile widened at the incongruity, as he said:

“Not at all, Private Cole.”

When they were outside and Barney was holding the door open for him, Read said:

“What’s that bulge on your hip, Barney?”

“That’s a forty-five, Governor.”

“Be careful you don’t hurt yourself with it.” Barney got into the driver’s seat muttering to himself.

When they drove up to the gate of the Bradley estate they found it locked. Barney, who had got out as usual to open it, swore loudly and, coming back to the car, viciously tooted the horn. He was nervous and his nervousness always manifested itself as irritability. He wanted to get the Governor inside a house where he knew that he would be safe.

“The Major’s been reading his own newspapers, I see,” said Read.

“You better read them, too,” said Barney, heatedly.

Read ignored this. He understood the big Irishman.

A man came running from the lodge and peered at them through the gate. He was new and was taking no chances. Barney took one step forward and, reaching through the gate, gave the man a shaking.

“Open up here, you damn fool! It’s Governor Cole.”

“Barney!” said Read, sharply.

The big gates swung wide. Barney jumped into the driver’s seat and, still muttering, drove the car swiftly up the long tree-bordered road to the house, which was ablaze with light.

When Read got out, he put his hand on Barney’s arm and said:

“You’re taking this too hard. I’ll have to get Blake to drive me.”

“Now, Governor. I wouldn’t trust you with that little brocky. I’ll settle down. Don’t you worry about

me.”

Read went up the steps, smiling to himself. The door was opened from within. Read saw that the front hall was full of people, getting ready to leave. The Major often had the family’s intimate friends in to “tea” on Sundays. The “tea” usually consisted of a cold buffet supper, served about five o’clock.

The servant took Read’s hat and coat. Read hesitated. The people in the hallway all smiled and nodded, very friendly. But Read felt his usual qualms. If he lived to be a hundred he would never be at ease with these people. Behind their polite smiles was utter indifference. He knew that they considered him an outsider and that they would always do so.

Read stood aside, smiling and nodding, while the Joneses and the Blair Meadowses and half a dozen representatives of the Freytag family filed out into the cold November night. Finally only the Major remained. He shook hands limply with Read. His usually bland pink face was sagging and grayish.

“I’m very glad to see you, Governor,” he said. “Please talk to Eileen. She’s got me half crazy.”

“Why, what’s wrong, Major?”

Read was secretly appalled; the Major looked so old and hopeless and beaten.

“It’s the Italian,” said the Major. “Wouldn’t you think one would be enough?”

Read’s lips tightened. He said nothing. Turning slightly away from the Major, he saw Eileen and Vincent Riquetti coming out of a little room off the hall. They both looked very sober, as if something too important to talk about had happened between them. But Eileen brightened when she saw Read and came forward with her hand outstretched.

“Oh, Read. I’m so glad to see you safe and sound. Is what the papers say true, or is it just election twaddle?”

“Half and half.”

“That’s what he would say, Vince,” said Eileen. “He’s a middle-of-the-way man.”

“Very nice,” said Riquetti, bowing and showing his perfect teeth. “I wish I was more so. I really do. I’m up or down. No stability.”

The Major snorted and turned away. Eileen glanced at him sharply; then, looking at Read, she shrugged slightly.

“And how is Your Excellency?” said Riquetti. “Unharmed, I hope.”

“Oh, yes,” said Read, wanting to kick Riquetti in the seat of his nicely pressed pants.

“We were just talking about you, Read,” Eileen said.

The Major interposed.

“Excuse me. I’m not feeling any too well. I think I’ll go lie down.”

Eileen glanced away from her father, her face cold and unsympathetic. The Major sighed and slowly climbed the gigantic, ornate staircase, his right hand sliding uncertainly along the polished rail.

“Well,” said Riquetti, taking his hat and coat from a servant, “I must go. Delightful afternoon, Eileen. I hope you’ll have me again.” He extended his delicate, manicured hand. “Best of luck, Your Excellency. They tell me you are the Mussolini of Ohio. That’s nice.”

“That’s newspaper bunk,” said Read, intentionally rude. “I’m just a plain politician.”

“So? I’m a stranger. I don’t know these things.”

“Vince knows two things,” said Eileen, with surprising bitterness. “Polo and women.”

“You flatter me,” said Riquetti, laughing. “But, thanks. Goodnight, Governor. Goodnight, Eileen.” The servant opened the door. Riquetti shivered. ”How do you stand this climate? I’m freezing.” He laughed and went out.

“Drink, Read?” asked Eileen.

“No, thanks.”

“Don’t look so serious. I won’t force it on you. ‘Will you come into my parlor? said the spider’.” They went into a little sitting-room at the far end of the hall, and sat down.

“Eileen,” said Read, “don’t you think you’d better go and see if your father is all right?”

“He’s all right.”

“He looked bad to me. I never saw him like that before.”

“It’s only when he can’t get his own way,” said Eileen, indifferently.

“You surprise me.”

“Do I? Do I seem callous? Read, you don’t know me at all. Anyway, Dad’s been putting on that performance for years.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s used to having his own way. Everybody toadies to him. From morning to night he’s the biggest frog in the pond. When he can’t get his way he has an attack of illness. He does have high blood pressure, of course, but he has had it for twenty years.”

Read shifted uncomfortably, and glanced off across the room. Tonight Eileen’s sleekness annoyed him. Why must she always be so perfectly, so irreproachably, turned out, with every hair in place, her fingernails shining, her face artistically tinted, her lips correctly outlined; like a manikin in the advertisements? She seemed so cool and impassive in her dark sleekness, but there were signs of strain in her face if you looked closely enough. Gregg did not like her; he said that she suffered from the terrible ennui of the rich, that she belonged in Europe, and was no wife for an Ohio Governor.

“Well,” said Read, “you know your father better than I do.”

“I should. I’ve fought him for years and years. He was always disappointed that he never had a son. His brothers have six of them between them. Dad feels that girls don’t amount to much. He’s sort of Chinese that way.”

There was a long pause, then Eileen resumed.

“He’s never forgiven me for marrying Henry. He wanted me to marry Wallace Jones. Imagine me married to that bold businessman! Now he wants me to marry you.”

“Aren’t you going to?”

“I don’t think so.”

Read was irritated. He was no young lover and he and Eileen had had no wild love affair. Still it had been understood for a good many months that they would eventually be married. It was a little too much to have Eileen dismissing the whole thing in such a calm, offhand way.

“This is news.”

“I tried to tell you…” Eileen began; then, to Read’s utter astonishment, she suddenly got up and went out of the room, walking swiftly.

Read didn’t know what to do. He squirmed around on his chair for a moment, then he got up, lit a cigarette, and began to pace the floor.

In about fifteen minutes, Eileen came back. They sat down.

“Excuse me, Read. I was afraid I was going to cry. I’m all right now.”

Read shook his head slowly from side to side.

“I don’t know what to think of you, Eileen. Why won’t you marry me?”

“I’m going to marry Vince.”

“I thought you disliked him.”

“I wouldn’t say that.”

“You’re too complex for me.”

“I’m too complex for my own good. Or maybe not. Maybe I’m just a fool, Read. That’s what Dad thinks.”

Read hesitated, then smiled wryly.

“I don’t know what I can say. I’m sure you don’t want me to try my political eloquence on you. But, for heaven’s sake, why marry that perfumed wop?”

“Ohio speaks.”

Read flushed.

“All right. Put it that way. What’s wrong with Ohio? What’s wrong with the people here?”

“Nothing. It’s me, Read.”

“You?”

“I don’t belong here anymore. Everything is too… too simple. Black and white. Do you see what I mean? I lived too long abroad. Things are so different there.”

“So I see in the papers.”

“Please don’t be sarcastic, Read. I’m serious, really serious. This is the most important decision I’ve ever had to make. When I married Henry I didn’t know anything. I was just a kid. I had no mind to make up. Now it’s different.”

“You seem to like the Riquetti family all right.”

“Vince is just like Henry.”

Eileen got up; she was very pale. Read was startled by the intensity of her expression.

“Read, you belong here. I don’t. We couldn’t make a go of it. I’d just make you terribly unhappy. You’re so simple and good. I’m not like that. I’m like the Riquettis. Can’t you see?” She burst out crying violently.

Read didn’t know what to do. He sat stammering, then he got up clumsily and tried to comfort her.

She cried a moment, then she said:

“Oh, damn. My mascara’s running. I’m a mess. Please don’t go, Read. I’ll be right back.”

She went out. Read got up and began to pace the floor again. Presently, the Major put his head in at the door. His face was red and apologetic.

“Governor,” he said, “can’t you persuade her to stay? She’s all I’ve got. Why must she marry that fool Riquetti? Don’t you think one experience would be enough?”

“It’s something we can’t understand, Major.”

“It will kill me. I’m an old man.”

“It’s her own life. She’s got to live it according to her own ideas.”

“That slick fool is after her money. I told her so. She says she knows it.”

Read and the Major stood shaking their heads. For the first time, Read felt a certain kinship with this rich old man. They were both uncomplicated males. The Riquettis of this world understood things that were hidden from them.

The Major cleared his throat nervously when he heard his daughter’s steps on the stairs.

“Maybe she’ll change her mind.”

“Maybe,” said Read.

Eileen put her hand on the Major’s shoulder as she came through the doorway.

“Feel better, Dad?”

“A little. Well, I’m going in the den. Yard Meadows is coming over after a while for a game of chess. Ever play chess, Governor?”

“I’ve tried.”

When the Major had gone, Read and Eileen sat down on a divan, holding hands.

“Sorry I’m so emotional tonight, Read. You must think I’m a hysterical fool. I think I am. Want to

hear a funny story?”

“It would be a relief.”

“Well, once upon a time… No, I won’t make a joke of it. Read, remember how Vince was looking at Jean?”

“I didn’t notice.”

“You wouldn’t. Well, I could see that Vince had made up his mind that Jean would be quite easy for a man of his talents. Don’t be offended, Read. I don’t say he was right. I know Vince. I know how his mind works. I know the look in his eye. So I said to myself: ‘Mr. Vincent Riquetti, I’m going to give you a battle.’ Read, I like Jean. She’s a nice fresh girl. I didn’t want her getting silly over Vince; he’s no earthly good. So at the hockey game, I turned on the heat. Poor Vince! He didn’t know what to do. You see, I’d been snubbing him ever since he came here. Well, in ten minutes he was running around after me like a little poodle. When I was married to his brother his style was cramped a little as he was deathly afraid of Henry. Oh, it was pathetic. I know Jean was furious. But I couldn’t help that.”

“Why,” said Read, brightening, “then you…”

“Wait a minute. Before I knew it, I wasn’t joking any longer. I was serious. And here I am.”

Read stared at her for a long time.

“I see.”

“Know anything about the unconscious, Read?”

“No. Can’t say that I do.”

“Well, I think my unconscious slipped up on me. That was just a subterfuge, my saving Jean. You know I’m no heroine. Although I didn’t realize it at the time. Do you see?”

Read was bewildered.

“I don’t understand you at all, Eileen.”

“You’re better off.”

It was after eleven when Read started home and he was very tired. He and Eileen had argued futilely for two hours. Read felt more than a little hurt and sat staring gloomily at Barney’s back. Suddenly, he sat bolt upright. Kitten! One o’clock! He’d almost forgotten.

“I want to go home now, Barney,” he said. “But I’ll want the car again at quarter to one.”

Barney nodded but said nothing.

Barney grumblingly obeyed orders and stopped just beyond the corner of Front and West Broad streets. Read glanced at his watch. Five after one. Would she be on time? Would she come at all? Something might have come up that would keep her from… Read glanced at his watch again. Six after one. Then he noticed that his heart was beating unevenly.

“This won’t do at all,” he told himself; and settling back comfortably, he took out a cigar and lit it.

Barney turned, glanced back at Read; then after clearing his throat nervously and scratching his head, he said:

“Governor, it’s none of my business. I get my pay and I’m satisfied and I sure get a kick out of being your chauffeur. But, Governor, if I was you, I’d be mighty careful who I was meeting.” There was a pause. Read said nothing. “That is, supposing you are meeting anybody.”

“I appreciate your feelings, Barney,” said Read. “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

Barney sighed and turned back. Finally he said:

“Excuse me. Can I smoke?”

“Go ahead.”