That Camden Summer by Lavyrle Spencer Read Free Book Online Page B

pockets for a cigar.
    Farley rose. "About the house or about her?" Elfred trimmed the cigar with his teeth. His burst of laughter sent the brown nubbin flying toward a mopboard.
    "Take your pick," he said, striking a match with a thumbnail and puffing to light the stogie.
    At that moment Roberta had climbed halfway up the stairs and was being followed by her girls. She swung around and shushed them with a finger to her lips and motioned them to stay where they were. Keeping to the edge of the steps where they wouldn't creak, she tiptoed to the top and flattened herself against the wall,
    straining to hear what she could.
    Farley said in a lowered voice, "She doesn't care much what she says, does she?"
    "Or how she looks," Elfred added. "Or how her children look."
    "She's got plenty of what a man likes to get his hands on though, and that's all that matters, eh, Gabe?"
    Farley chuckled. "Well, I did get over here pretty fast, didn't I? But, hell, I never met a divorced woman before. I was curious."
    "So was I. So I . . . " Elfred harrumphed. The smell of his cigar smoke drifted out past Roberta.
    "So you what, Elfred?"
    "Well, you know This slyly. "I tested her a little bit. "
    "Tested her? Why, Elfred This with teasing approval. "And you a married man." "It was just in fun."
    "What'd she do?" Farley was nearly whispering. Though she heard no answer from Elfred, she imagined an off-kilter grin implying whatever a randy mind wanted to imagine, before Farley replied in elongated tones, "Elfred, you devil you. 11
    And both men laughed.
    "Yessir . . . " She could tell from his speech that Elfred had the cigar clamped in his teeth. "She's a fiery one, Gabe. Regular little spitfire." He must have removed the cigar from his mouth as he went on in the confidential tone of one worldly stud helping out another. "A word of advice, though. Warm her up a little first. She's
    got a belligerent side."
    "Thought you said you only tested her." "This was over the house."
    "The house?"
    "She blew a cork when she saw the condition it was in and jabbed me in the gut with my own umbrella. Damnable temper on her. Damnable."
    Farley laughed. "My guess is you deserved it. And I'm not talking about the condition of any house. "
    Roberta had heard enough. With her face afire she stomped squarely into the room and confronted the two men. During that moment of arrested motion when everyone present knew exactly what the whispering and snickering had been about, she fixed her glacial eyes on Farley.
    "When can you begin work?"
    Farley hadn't even the grace to blush. "Tomorrow."
    "And, Elfred you shall pay. " Her manner gave second meaning to the statement that nobody could mistake. "And you shall make sure Grace knows about it, so there's no trouble later between her and me."
    "I'll make sure."
    "And you" - she skewered Farley with contempt in her eyes, putting a distasteful subtone in the word - "shall make sure you complete the job and get out of here in the shortest time possible, is that clear?"
    "Yes, ma'am," he said. "Anything you say." She executed an about-face as regally as if
    dressed in hooped taffeta_, and headed for the door. "The drays are here with my belongings. Would you please help the teamsters unload."
    It was far from a request: It was an order issued in the tone of one whose disgust is so complete she can cope with it no other way than to turn her back on the subjects of that disgust.
    When she was gone, Gabe and Elfred exchanged silent messages with their eyebrows, then snickered once again.
    X A
    3
    ER furniture was as ill kempt as she, a lackluster collection of pieces that H
    would serve the purpose of holding people or possessions, but would do nothing, aesthetically, to enhance their lives.
    "Oh, don't worry about the rain," she told the draymen, "just bring it right in here!" "Perhaps you should stay with us tonight, Birdy," Elfred said.
    "Not on your life. What would you do with four of us?"
    Elfred didn't know what they'd do