By The Sea, Book Two: Amanda by Antoinette Stockenberg Read Free Book Online

of the
health code, not for the serving of alcohol. There was no alcohol,
and as a result there was no raucous laughter, no scandalized
squealing. Mostly there was just low, urgent, distressingly sincere
talk. Many of the men were bearded; the women, dressed in loosely
layered garments which favored black, would have been labeled
Bohemians half a century earlier. Two smartly dressed couples,
undoubtedly taking a tour of the underside of Manhattan, stood out
nearly as much as Geoff and Amanda. The red checkered tablecloths
were dirty, but in the dim light no one noticed or seemed to
care.
    "You don't like it," Amanda challenged.
    "My dear young lady, why wouldn't I? Paprika
is the salt of the earth."
    "I don't mean the goulash; I mean the type
of crowd."
    "What type is that?" he asked innocently,
shoveling reluctantly into his stew.
    "Socialists. Reformers. People with a sense
of fairness; people who want to make sure that everyone gets half a
loaf, instead of sitting idly by while some gorge themselves and
others starve. There is more genuine nobility in this room than in
all the speakeasies on Fifty-Second Street combined," she said with
heat.
    He looked into her gypsy eyes, and then
around the room. "I think I see a fraud or two," he couldn't help
observing.
    Her dark eyes flashed triumphantly. "There!
I knew it! I knew you had a simple-minded attitude about us. You
think a revolutionary should look like a revolutionary, and
be unkempt and smelly. It would be stretching vour imagination to
breaking point to think that a well-dressed person could care,
really care."
    "It would be stretching my imagination to
picture you giving away your elegant Speedster to that bunch of
urchins crowded around it right now," he snapped. Hell and
damnation; he'd let her get to him after all. This round was hers.
Shit.
    Her face looked as if she'd landed a lucky
punch: surprised, impressed, hesitant about her next move. "So
there is a pulse under that British decorum," she said at
last. "I wondered."
    "I can be quite obnoxious if you'd prefer,"
said Geoff. "But I see no—"
    A hand came down on his shoulder. Geoff
turned in his chair to see a dark-skinned East European with a
thick black beard trimmed close staring down at him. "We have met
before, have we not?" asked the visitor.
    "I think not, answered Geoff politely.
    "Lajos, this is Geoffrey," said Amanda,
waving a cigarette between them, keeping it informal.
    Geoff began to rise for the introduction,
but the European waved him back down. He turned to Amanda. "We have
missed you at our last gathering, Miss Fain. I hope you seem
well."
    "Fine, Lajos. I was working on a piece, but
it's finished now. I'll be at the next meeting."
    "It will be our honor." He turned to Geoff.
"I have not intend to interfere. Please go on." With a stiff bow to
Amanda, he left them to the remnants of their meal.
    "Nice chap," said Geoff. "Has a real way
with words."
    "A cheap shot. I'm surprised," said Amanda,
putting out her cigarette in a battered tin dish.
    Embarrassed, he accepted the rebuke. "You're
right, of course. Perhaps we ought to call it a night before I
become a total savage." He gave her an ironical, weary smile.
    "Oh, forget it," she said angrily.
    But back in the car she seemed willing to do
anything but. "I can't believe how true to stereotype you are.
You've just spent a whole evening looking down your nose over a
stiff upper lip at a cross-section of America. You're so typically class-oriented."
    "You have no idea how typical my
orientations are," he said tiredly. She was so relentless. He
stared ahead, wondering how much longer it was to the Plaza.
    "Sir Tom gave me a bum steer," she
complained. "He said you were a very ordinary guy."
    "I wish I could oblige." After a minute he
added, "I'm surprised you trust the opinion of a knight of the
realm."
    "Knight of the realm! Who can take seriously
someone who calls himself 'Sir Tommy Tea'?"
    "You take everything else seriously," he
reminded