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He's hostile and jealous and threatened by it."
"I swear he loves you."
"He couldn't possibly!" Eileen snapped. "He's good company and.. .he's
loving." Her voice faltered. "But he's cheap. He always asks what it will cost
him."
"His clothes are nice, and he pays his share of the tab without
double-checking it." Beth frowned, remembering.
Eileen hesitated. "Tab? You've seen him?"
"He was with the group last Saturday. I believe he came on the chance he'd
see you there."
"He had a date?" Eileen's voice quavered.
It was Beth's turn to be uncomfortable. "Well, yes... but "
Eileen gasped a hurt, uneven breath and turned blindly to the window. She
gulped audibly.
Beth hurried to add, "The poor woman. He ignored her. I doubt he said five
words to her all evening He sat there, keeping the ashtray neat, looking
godawful I don't think he smiled once. She talked to Joe. and since they'd
both been in a stock-market scramble, they very intense. And Ohio
cried ""Did he take her home?" Eileen interrupted, not caring about stocks.
"I suppose so." Beth shrugged.
"And he said he'd even marry me!" Eileen told her bitterly.
"He asked you to marry him?" Beth straightened, more alert, and shot a
raking glance at Eileen.
"Not really. He said if I swore I'd never work again he would even marry me.
We'd go away somewhere and no one would ever know."
Beth frowned. "Know what?"
"That I'm a cartoonist! He's impossible!" Her tears spilled over, and she
gulped and cried noisily. Beth was silent and just patted her shoulder, then
whistled at Wooser while Eileen released the tears she hadn't known she'd
been storing inside. Then Beth went into the kitchen and got a glass of
orange juice for each of them.
She spoke of other things because further talk of Talbot was unsuccessful.
"I talked to Mother," Eileen offered.
"You called your mother?"
"I think I'll go home for a while."
"Why?"
"With Thanksgiving looming, I just feel the need to go home
and reevaluate my life."
"Reevaluate?" Beth inquired, becoming very alert. "What do you mean?"
"I may go to the West Coast." Eileen couldn't meet Beth's gaze.
"How could you leave the group?" Beth protested. "You're the only one who
can think of something new for Ohio's ego."
"He's been doing very well since the review," Eileen reminded her. "He's
sold several paintings."
Beth grinned in amusement. "Doesn't it make you curious to know who
bought them? Could it be Joe in disguise? Could he have arranged the
review? He has enough fingers in enough pies he probably owns that
newspaper."
"I hadn't thought of that. But Ohio is so stroked." Eileen smiled tremulously,
and Beth frowned. Abruptly she looked at her watch, gulped down the rest
of her orange juice and said she had to meet Mel. She gave Eileen's cheek a
peck and left.
Alone, Eileen languished. He'd been with another woman. Had he kissed
her? Had he exposed his eyelashes to her? Had he asked her to quit her job?
Eileen groaned aloud. Farand sat on the coffee table with his tail swept
around him like a train and watched her with tense interest. Eileen hardly
saw the cat. Her thoughts were concentrated on Talbot.
Had he taken the woman home for the weekend and made love to her in the
hot tub? He'd probably made love to every other woman in New York State
in that whirlpool bath and told every one of them it was the first time.
It was another godawful day, but she dragged herself out of bed and went to
hotel lobbies and drew in her sketchbook only to find they were all
pictures of Talbot. How depressing. Thank goodness she was going home.
Her family would absorb her and ignore her lovingly and heal her. She
would survive. There would be deep ghastly scars, but they would be
invisible and no one would know she'd survived potentially mortal wounds.
She drew herself as the great Greek sculpture of the arrow-pierced lioness,
screaming defiance, dragging her paralyzed hindquarters.
It was six o'clock before Eileen dragged her hindquarters home and up the
stairs. On the fourth floor she found a lurking duchess who greeted her with
dancing eyes. She allowed Eileen to go on up to the fifth floor, but she
trailed behind, lagging back. And she was silent. That was unusual for the
duchess, and Eileen turned a couple of times to cast a puzzled glance back at
her, but the duchess only smiled.
The reason for the duchess's avid interest rose in one fluid motion from his
vigil next to her door and came forward. Eileen said, "Talbot..." in a kind of
cautious wonder.
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