Greenwich by Howard Fast Read Free Book Online

“he’s not going to give you anything for the library. He doesn’t know what a library is. He doesn’t know what a book is.”
    â€œWhy must you always be so damn judgmental? You really don’t know the man. You’ve only met him a couple of times.”
    â€œHe’s rich, he’s pretentious, he’s ignorant, and he beat the shit out of his last wife.”
    â€œHow do you know that?”
    â€œSeth Ferguson told me about it.”
    â€œHe shouldn’t have.”
    â€œWhy not? Seth’s a doctor, not a priest.”
    â€œHe treats Sally well.”
    â€œYes, he gets a medal for that.”
    â€œHerb,” she said firmly, “be nice tonight. I’m asking you to do that for me. Sally is so excited that you agreed to come, and it’s going to be interesting. Harold and Ruth Sellig will be there and Monsignor Donovan and Pat Brody—you know her—”
    â€œCome off it! You mean Castle’s invited a Catholic priest and a nun to dinner at his house! Come on! Why?”
    â€œSally invited them. I mean she just brought it up, telling Richard that she happened to run into them, never expecting any positive response from him, and then to her amazement, he said, Sure, invite them to dinner.”
    â€œThat is really amazing,” Herb agreed. “I’ve heard that Donovan is a brilliant and thoughtful man. All right, you win. I’ll be properly behaved and controlled.”
    â€œAnd one more enticing bit. Abel Hunt is cooking the dinner.”
    â€œWho is Abel Hunt?”
    â€œYou don’t know? Of course, you wouldn’t know. You abhor the clubs, but I teach at the Central Middle School and I hear things. He’s the chef at the Hill Crest Club, and on his night off he’ll do dinner for one or another local tycoon. He’s cooking for the Castles tonight, and you just might enjoy it.”
    W hen Ruth Sellig called Sally Castle, earlier that day, and told her that her father faced a serious operation that same day, Sally was both bewildered and upset. Since all of Sally’s attitudes toward a father were theoretical, gleaned for the most párt from TV and films, she felt she had to respect Ruth’s last-minute cancellation. On the other hand, she knew that Richard would be irritated by an uneven number of dinner guests, and when Richard was irritated, he became mean and directed his venom at Sally. The cause of the venom could be large, small, or nothing at all. Sally rummaged through her acquaintances for a possible replacement, someone who was alone and free this evening and would not let pride stand in the way of such a last-minute invitation. She did not know too many people who might stand in for Ruth Sellig; as a matter of fact, there was only one she could think of, Muffy Platt, whose husband worked for the Swiss Union Bank and was abroad in Switzerland most of the time.
    And Richard liked Muffy. Once, at the club, Sally had stumbled on Richard and Muffy in an embrace, with Richard’s hand up her short skirt, fondling her ass, but neither of them noticed Sally and she was able to slip away unseen, greatly relieved that she did not have to deal with their awareness of her knowledge. It was not that Sally was indifferent to this sort of thing on Richard’s part; she simply knew no way of responding to it, and therefore she ignored it.
    Nor did it change her attitude toward Muffy, even though it bewildered her. Her two previous Hollywood marriages were short-lived and cruel. She married because she so desperately needed to be loved and protected, and she had used her beauty almost without ever realizing that she was using it. Once she had spoken to Ruth Sellig about the incident with Muffy, asking Ruth, “Can I continue to be her friend?” a question to which Ruth had no answer.
    â€œHow can anyone live like that?” Ruth had asked her husband.
    And to that, Harold had no answer.
    P eople who